Two Oscars, new nominations in 2026 and a career built on transformation. Emma Stone continues to reinvent herself between auteur cinema, discipline and personal freedom
There are actresses who become icons at a specific moment in their career and then remain linked to that image forever. Emma Stone belongs to a different category: that of performers who continually transform, crossing genres, registers and cinematographic identities with a naturalness that over the years has ended up becoming her stylistic signature.
In Hollywood her name is now synonymous with a rare combination of lightness, intelligence and emotional control, a quality that has allowed her to build a surprisingly coherent filmography while often changing direction. From brilliant comedy to the visionary universes of auteur cinema, Stone has developed a trajectory that always seems to move on the border between irony and vulnerability.
2026 sees her once again at the center of awards season with Bugoniathe new film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, thanks to which he obtained two nominations for the Academy Awardsas best leading actress and as producer of best film. A milestone that comes after a career already full of awards, including the Oscar for La La Land in 2017 and that for Poor Things in 2024, confirming a now stable presence among the most influential performers of her generation.
The actress who isn’t afraid to change
In Lanthimos’ film Stone plays Michelle, a powerful CEO involved in a grotesque and surreal kidnapping, a character who continually oscillates between psychological tension and irony, perfectly embodying the type of complex interpretation that has defined her artistic evolution in recent years.
If the beginning of her career was marked above all by light roles and spontaneous comedy – just think of Easy A or the romantic comedies that made her popular in the early 2010s – the subsequent path was characterized by a progressive search for more stratified roles. The meeting with directors like Lanthimos accelerated this transformation, taking it towards much more daring and experimental narrative territories.
The transition from brilliant actress to performer capable of moving with ease between mainstream cinema and auteur cinema did not happen suddenly, but through a slow construction of artistic credibility, in which Stone demonstrated a rare quality in the contemporary Hollywood panorama: the willingness to reinvent oneself without losing one’s identity.
The body as a work tool
This capacity for transformation also affects the way in which the actress approaches the preparation of her roles. On the occasion of Battle of the Sexes of 2017, where she played tennis legend Billie Jean King, Stone radically changed her physical preparation, increasing her muscle mass by around seven kilograms to make the champion’s physicality credible.
The path, supervised by trainer Jason Walsh, included an intense training program with heavy weights accompanied by cardio sessions and a targeted food plan that brought the daily caloric intake to around 2,500–3,000 calories. A significant change for an actress who, in daily life, has always declared that she does not follow extremely rigid diets.
His philosophy, rather, seems to be based on a principle of balance. Stone has said several times that he does not count calories and prefers a simple diet, consisting of Greek yogurt, fruit, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and lean proteins. An almost ritual combination appears among the favorite snacks: apples with peanut buttera habit he has often mentioned in interviews dedicated to his lifestyle.
Wellbeing as balance, not as discipline
The actress’s relationship with personal well-being appears far from the rigidity typical of many Hollywood stars. Alongside healthier habits, Stone has never hidden the fact that he occasionally indulges in some gastronomic pleasures – pizza, hamburgers or french fries – within an approach that favors psychophysical harmony rather than adherence to rigid aesthetic models.
Curious details also appear among the small daily rituals that he has recounted over the years. In an interview he explained, for example, that he uses coconut or olive oil as a natural exfoliant for the facejoking that the result makes her “smell like focaccia.”
Furthermore, on the well-being front, Stone said he is hiring Ashwagandhaan adaptogenic plant also known as Indian ginseng, used to reduce stress and anxiety by helping to lower cortisol levels. Alongside this supplement, his daily routine includes simple drinks such as water and lemon or spinach-based protein smoothies.
Moving for the mind, even before the body
The actress’s approach to physical activity reflects the same philosophy of balance. Once the periods of intensive training required by some roles are over, Stone prefers forms of movement that he defines as “more pleasant”, such as rock climbing, pilates or jogging.
Among the habits she is most fond of also include long walks, especially during trips related to film work. “They are a wonderful way to stimulate endorphins,” he said. «I just can’t help it. They help not only the body but also the mind.”
A statement that tells a lot about the way Stone seems to conceive of his career: not as a rigidly controlled discipline, but as a constant balance between creative work, physical transformation and personal care.
A career built on intelligence
More than fifteen years after her debut in mainstream cinema, Emma Stone appears today as one of the few Hollywood actresses capable of moving with ease between commercial success and artistic credibility. A position that is not only born from interpretive talent, but also from an extremely conscious management of one’s professional choices.
The fact that with Bugonia is a candidate not only as an actress but also as a producer represents perhaps the most evident sign of this evolution. Stone is no longer just a face in Hollywood: she has become a creative figure capable of influencing the projects in which she participates.
In a rapidly changing industry where women’s careers are often shorter than men’s, its trajectory seems to suggest a different strategy. Don’t chase the image of an immutable star, but build an artistic identity capable of evolving together with time.
And it is probably precisely this ability to change – without ever losing that combination of irony and depth that made her famous – that explains why Emma Stone continues to remain one of the most interesting presences in contemporary cinema.
