Stone has two Oscar nominations for Poor Things: One for best actress and one for best picture, as a producer. She spoke with Terry Gross about working with an intimacy coordinator, why she sees her anxiety as a superpower, and how Superbad changed her life. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
On the TEd Radio hour, linguist Ann Curzan says she gets a lot of complaints about people using the pronoun they to refer to one person.
I sometimes get into arguments with people where they will say to me, but it can't be singular.
And I will say, but it is.
The history behind words causing a lot of debate.
That's on the Ted radio hour from NPR.
This is FRESH AIR.
I'm Tyria Gross.
My guest, Emma Stone is nominated for an Oscar for her starring role in Poor Things.
She won an Oscar for her performance in the movie musical La La Land, starring opposite Ryan Gosling, and was nominated for oscars for her performances in Birdman and the Favorite.
She co stars in the new streaming series the Curse.
Shes been acting since she was eleven and was so determined to make acting a central part of her life, she convinced her parents to let her be homeschooled so she could devote more time to acting, and then convinced him at the age of 15 to go to LA so she could go to, to auditions.
Although she did not have a conventional high school experience, she first became known for two movies about high school kids, Superbad and Easy A.
In addition to her nomination for Poor things, the film is also nominated for best picture, which means she is nominated for a second oscar because she is a producer of the film.
She plays Bella, a woman who has died by suicide jumping off a bridge.
Shes brought back to life by a weird surgeon, played by Willem Dafoe.
Defoe's experiment is reanimating Bella and giving her the brain of an infant.
She's trained and taught over time by the surgeon's assistant, but she never quite grasps the rules of society.
When she discovers her genitals and pleasures herself, she demonstrates this discovery to her trainer.
And when her brain develops into a young adult brain, she leaves the surgeon and her mentor to go on an adventure while traveling with a man who has become obsessed with her, played by Mark Ruffalo.
He claims to be a prosperous sophisticate who cant be tied down.