Did you catch the Taylor Swift lyric during Emma Stone's acceptance speech at the Oscars 2024? If you didn't, allow us to break it all down for you.
In case you missed it, Emma Stone became a two-time Oscar winner last night after she took home the Best Actress in a Leading Role award for her portrayal of Bella Baxter in Yorgos Lanthimos's Poor Things. She had previously won the same award in 2017 for her work on Damien Chazelle's musical movie La La Land.
At the 2024 Oscars, Stone was nominated alongside Nyad's Annette Bening, Anatomy of a Fall's Sandra Hüller, Maestro's Carey Mulligan, and Killers of the Flower Moon's Lily Gladstone, who appeared to be the favorite before Stone's win was announced.
While accepting the Best Actress award, one of the so-called "Big Five" prizes during Oscar night, Stone made sure to shout out her fellow nominees, as well as the cast and crew Poor Things, before switching on Swiftie mode to pay tribute to her family.
During an addendum to her speech, Stone shouted out her family, including Dave McCary, her husband of four years, and their three-year-old daughter Louise, by seemingly quoting a lyric from one of Taylor Swift's songs.
"I know I have to wrap up, but I really just want to thank my family – my mom, my brother Spencer, my dad, my husband Dave; I love you so much," Stone said to wrap up her Oscar-winning speech, saving the best for last. “And, most importantly, [I want to thank] my daughter, who's going to be three in three days and has turned our lives technicolor. I love you bigger than the whole sky, my girl.”
As Swifties immediately clocked online, Stone seems to be referencing Taylor Swift's song, "Bigger Than the Whole Sky," which was released in 2022 as part of Midnights (3am Edition).
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Now, Stone could have just picked the words randomly, but the connection doesn't seem too farfetched given Swift and Stone's well-documented friendship. In 2023, fans even speculated that the singer's vault track "When Emma Falls in Love," off Speak Now (Taylor's Version), could be inspired by the Award-winning actress.
That said, Stone and Swift seem to be giving the phrase slightly different nuances. While Stone's usage of "bigger than the whole sky" is meant to be a loving, celebratory exclamation for her daughter, Swift uses it in a more somber way, grieving the loss of a relationship or person. (Many believe Swift used the song to pay tribute to a fan who died while attending one of her Eras Tour concerts in Brazil late last year.)
Stone seems to have flipped the meaning of the phrase on its head to dedicate her win to her daughter, and for that, we can't be mad. Stone and McCary welcomed Louise in 2021 and have kept her mostly out of the limelight since, except for this unexpected public shout-out broadcast to millions of homes across the world.
Swiftie-inspired speech aside, the Oscars 2024 night was indeed a big night for Emma Stone. The actor started the night gracing the red carpet wearing a custom Louis Vuitton made in a light-blue hue in honor of Bella Baxter (that snapped halfway through the ceremony after jamming too hard to her former costar Ryan Gosling's "I'm Just Ken" performance) and ended it at the Vanity Fair Oscars party, where she posed with her Oscar statuette after changing into another dress by the French luxury fashion house.
