It wasn’t exactly the toughest work decision we’ve ever faced: “would you like to interview Emma Stone about The Amazing Spider-Man 2?” On a beautiful Sydney day we sat down with the actress, who reprises her role as Gwen Stacy in director Marc Webb’s Spidey sequel, and had a good yarn about the character and what it’s been like working on such a mega-production. Oh, and growing a beard.
How’s everything going here?
Pretty good! It’s almost lunch time, Australia’s beautiful. It’s a good day.
Yeah. I’m looking forward to putting some food in my face.
[Laughs] It’s going to be good to put food in your face.
I saw some of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ this morning, and it seems like there a bit more meat on the bone this time round.
Yeah there’s more happening. It’s exciting. I think we got the base storyline told, and now we get to explore all different avenues.
There’s more going on with your part, which is sort of true of the first one, where you’re not just the imperilled chick. Was that part of the appeal to you?
That was part of the appeal, but also Gwen’s arc is sort of the ultimate imperilled chick… It’s a combination of factors. She has her own path and she wants to save people in her own way and she’s studying medicine and she’s incredibly intelligent obviously, but she also has this whole other side to the romance and how far she’ll go. She’s a really cool and really tragic character.
I really like the romantic part of the story where both the characters are at this crossroads between being kids and being grown ups and it’s not something you see on screen very much. Particularly when there are so many useless dudes and man-children permeating films. It’s interesting to see these people in their late teens dealing with some heavy shit.
Completely! They’re turning into adults. They’re dealing with some real life issues, and that’s what’s great about Peter Parker too as a superhero is he’s the only superhero we’ve ever seen that’s a teenager and not already grown up.
Andrew has said that Spider-Man’s been a hero of his for such a long time. I don’t imagine that Gwen Stacy’s on the list of ‘yeah when I grow up I want to be the hero of that movie’.
[Laughs] Gwen Stacy? No, I did not know Gwen’s story, I only ever knew about Mary-Jane because of the first movies and I didn’t read the comics growing up. I learned about Gwen’s story when I was going to audition for the movie in the first place, a couple of years ago. But then I really wanted to play Gwen! I love that story.
Obviously you’re a really well known actress for a bunch of other stuff, but did things change after Spider-Man? It’s probably the broadest reach of anything you’ve done…
I think so yeah, because of the symbol of Spider-Man is such a big deal. It’s more of a global phenomenon than anything I’ve ever been part of before.
So has that made any difference to your life, do you people recognise you from that film rather than other stuff you’ve done?
Yeah, probably more for Spider-Man than most things but I don’t know how much of a difference it’s made but then again I don’t go out much. I stay home. I’m pretty boring.
Awesome, we’ll keep that bit in.
Love it!
It must be quite weird being on such a huge production like this, where so much of it is completed in post. What are the biggest challenges to slotting into something of this scale, as an actress?
The actual scale itself is really different. The stages are enormous, the crew is enormous, the people sitting behind video village are enormous… There’s so much happening that to come back down to earth and really play the truth of a scene in a giant warehouse on a green screen is the biggest challenge probably.
What’s the most fun bit?
The harnesses and the wires and feeling like Peter Pan flying through the sky. That’s not something you would do on any other mother.
That’s a good day at work.
It’s pretty cool. It sort of hurts but it’s pretty fun.
What have you got coming up over the rest of the year?
A few things coming out this year, I’m not exactly sure when everything comes out.
Has it been one of those periods where you’ve just been making a bunch of films?
I worked a lot last year and I’ve had a couple months off now and going into the press-verse… the only thing that’s in front of me is like, we’re going to Beijing, then we’re going to Singapore and then we’re going to Tokyo.
You’re doing the whole planet pretty much.
The whole planet! Yeah we’re just nailing the planet.
How long do you bail from home to do a trip like this?
We’ll be gone for a total of almost two months.
Just talking about your movie.
It’s a lot. It’s the first day so… Get ready!
Are there any rehearsed things that you need to get out of your system about your character?
[Sarcastically] She’s strong. She’s independent. But she’s vulnerable too. And there’s a really exciting story there to see and be told.
The EPK is gonna be great to watch.
That’s what it’s like.
When did you finish shooting the film? With as much work as they have to do in post-production to get it across the line, it was probably ages ago now.
Yep, it was January through June of last year. So, six months.
Is the plan to get the third one up and going as soon as possible?
Soon. Yeah, very soon. I think the release date is already set for the third one so… These movies have a whole system of their own. Major legs.
So for you, working out what you’re gonna do this year, you’re working around some of these huge things that are fixed in your calendar?
Yeah, you work around six month periods.
One for you one for me?
Exactly! Definitely, that’s my thinking, man.
Cool. Take six months off and grow a beard.
Yeah that’s right, I’m gonna grow a beard. I’m really into it. Pretty excited.
Yay.
Yay.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opens April 24, watch the trailer below or click for more info
