Emma Stone might be a household name for most, but it's actually not the Oscar-winning actor's birth name.
While attending the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in the South of France on May 18, Stone joined her castmates and director Yorgos Lanthimos for a press conference to promote their forthcoming film, Kinds of Kindness. At one point, a reporter referred to Stone as “Emily,” which is her birth name, when asking her a question, according to People. At the sound of her real name, Stone reportedly looked visibly happy and turned to Lanthimos and said, “That's my name!”
In a wide-ranging interview with The Hollywood Reporter alongside The Curse co-star Nathan Fielder last month, Fielder mentioned at one point that he refers to her by her birth name, Emily, and would continue to do so for the remainder of the interview. Stone then explained that she initially went by Emma professionally because there was already an actress with the name Emily Stone in the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). She also said that people she works closely with call her Emily when “I get to know them.”
“Then I freaked out a couple of years ago. For some reason, I was like, ‘I can’t do it anymore. Just call me Emily,'" Stone continued.
The Hollywood Reporter interviewer then asked Stone if she would correct a fan if they ever called her Emily, to which she responded, “No. That would be so nice. I would like to be Emily.”
It's not uncommon for celebrities to have stage names for various reasons; Miley Cyrus's real name is Destiny Hope Cyrus, Gigi Hadid's full first name is Jelena, and Natalie Portman's birth name is Neta-Lee Hershlag, among many other stars who go by different names.
Emma Stone, or Emily, is promoting her fifth movie with director Lanthimos, which comes off of her Oscar win for Best Actress for Lanthimos' Poor Things. This new movie, Kinds of Kindness, is stacked with stars including Joe Alwyn, Margaret Qualley, Hunter Schafer, Willem Dafoe, Jesse Plemons, and Hong Chau — who all joined Stone at the press conference Saturday.
