Emma Stone Reacts to Reporter using her Legal Name at Cannes Festival

Emma Stone had a sweet reunion with a reporter who said she changed his life. 

The 36-year-old actress was discussing her new project, Eddington, which was well-received with a seven-minute standing ovation upon its premiere on Friday. During the promotion, a journalist brought up their past interaction to the actress.

The film critic from Kazakhstan began by expressing his gratitude to the actress.

‘I’d like to thank you for quite literally changing my life. Just a year ago, we were at the very same press room, where I addressed you by your real name, Emily,’ he said.

Stone was born Emily Jean Stone, but changed her professional name to Emma, after discovering their was another actress named Emily Stone. 

‘Yes, very good to see you,’ Stone said as she recalled the interaction. 

‘The video of this, and your kind and warm response, it went viral in Western media and obviously in my country, Kazakhstan, and it has skyrocketed my career and it has changed my personal life — literally for saying one word,’ he explained about his new circumstances.

‘That was incredibly sweet, and I’m so happy that a name could do that,’ the Oscar winner said before answering a question about the dark comedy co-starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Austin Butler, Michael Ward and Luke Grimes. 

It was in 2024 when Stone was promoting her film Kinds of Kindness, that the reporter first called her Emily. ‘That’s my name!’ she told director Yorgos Lanthimos at the time. 

Stone wasn’t the only one who shared a personal memory at the news conference.

A reporter asked if any of the cast were concerned about being targeted by the Trump administration because of the ‘brave movies that you make?’

After a few moments of silence Pedro Pascal, 50, shared his experience. 

‘I think fear is the way that they win, for one, so keep telling telling the stories and keep expressing yourself and keep fighting be who you are,’ he said.

‘F**k the people who try to make you scared, you know, and fight back, and this is a perfect way to do so in telling stories. Don’t let them win,’ he admonished, ‘Don’t let them win.’

Earlier in the press conference he shared, ‘I want people to be safe and to be protected, and I want very much to live on the right side of history.’

‘I’m an immigrant. My parents are refugees from Chile. I myself was a refugee,’ he asserted.

‘We fled a dictatorship, and I was privileged enough to grow up in the U.S. after asylum in Denmark,’ the Mandalorian star explained of his escape from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who ruled Chile with an iron hand from 1973-1990. 

The action hero said, ‘And if it weren’t for that, I don’t know what would’ve happened to us. So I stand by those protections, always.’