Emma Stone on Fil-Am costar, Ryan Gosling’s abs and her ‘crazy’ year

STONE. Remarkable journey. RUBEN V. NEPALES

LOS ANGELES—“Liza Lapira is one of the funniest actresses around,” Emma Stone recently told us about her Filipino-American costar in the new romantic-comedy, “Crazy, Stupid Love.”

Liza, a New York native whose credits include plays and TV shows, portrays Liz, the best friend of Emma’s Hannah. “Liza should be in many movies, because she’s brilliant,” Emma added. “So much of what she did was improv. She’s genuinely hilarious.”

Another pleasant surprise in the movie that also stars Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore and Marisa Tomei is a cameo appearance by another Fil-Am actor, Reggie Lee.

Asked about her own BFFs, Emma replied in her husky voice, “I live in New York, and I have three best friends, who all live in Los Angeles. I miss them every day. It sounds like ‘Sex and the City,’ isn’t it? Four girls just living life, giving each other advice. But, it’s not like ‘Sex and the City,’ I assure you. My friends are really wonderful. We’re very different. I’m very lucky, because I get three different perspectives.”

Ebb and flow

“It’s been a crazy year, that’s for sure,” the actress described her smoking-hot career. Among the high-profile films you’ll see her in are “The Help,” which we’ve seen (it boasts of several outstanding performances) and “The Amazing Spider-Man” (she plays Gwen Stacy to Andrew Garfield’s title character). “I’m trying to keep it very light, because I know that things come and go. But, I feel incredibly grateful!”

“I had my screen test for ‘Spider-Man’ the day ‘Easy A’ came out in September last year,” she said about the serendipitous turn in her career. “I had shot ‘Crazy, Stupid Love’ and ‘The Help’ by then. It’s exciting to have the opportunity to read a script and say, ‘I’d like to meet the director,’ and that director is actually willing to sit down with you.”

She considers being at the Golden Globe Awards last January as one of the highlights of her milestone-filled year. “It was so much fun. My mom, Krista, was my date.”

Laughing, Emma recalled, “My mom never drinks, but she was drinking out of that big champagne bottle at the table. We were next to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. We were at table No. 1! It was wild and mind-blowing! I left high school and never went to a prom. I felt like how a girl must feel when that happens. And, to be there with my mom, whom I love more than anyone else on the planet…”

STONE (right), with Fil-Am costar, Liza Lapira.

Having seen Ryan Gosling shirtless in a scene in “Crazy,” Emma cited the actor as having the perfect body. “That was one of the most fun scenes I’ve ever shot,” Emma said. “We filmed that entire thing for three days—the ‘Dirty Dancing,’ bedroom and abs sequences. We had more fun as time went on. I was very impressed with Ryan’s work ethic. My line that he looks like he’s ‘Photoshopped’ was really in the script. To have that kind of description about his character puts a monumental amount of pressure on him, and he really lived up to the challenge.”

Talk about that scene led to a question about how Emma’s parents taught her about sex, love and relationships. “My dad (Spencer Stone) and I never talked about it,” she began. “When I was 9, my mom gave me a copy of ‘What’s Happening to My Body Book for Girls.’ I was an avid reader, and she told me to read the book and ask any questions that I may have afterward.” Breaking into a throaty laugh, Emma dished, “She didn’t anticipate six hours of very personal questions, so she had to shut me down after a while.”

“The thing about my parents’ approach to parenting was that they always began with the reins out,” she volunteered. “When I had my first boyfriend as a teenager, they explained to me that if I did anything to lose their trust, they would pull the reins in. So, I was very responsible, because I wanted the reins out instead of losing that. My relationship with them was very honest. I always told my mom what was going on in my life, because they also had a rule that if I told the truth, I would never get in trouble. If I lied, the trouble would be far greater than I could ever imagine, so it was worth it to tell the truth.”

Another surprise actor in the film about a dad (Carell) coping with a marital crisis and his relationship with his kids is singer Josh Groban. “I came to the table-read for the movie, and Josh was in the room,” Emma recalled. “I was like, ‘Why is Josh Groban here?’ He said, ‘Hey, Emma, I’m Josh Groban. I’m playing Richard.’ I said, ‘Are you kidding?’ Then, we sat down, and he started reading. He made everyone at the table laugh, because he was perfect as Richard!”

Favorite song

We were curious about the tattoo on the back of her left wrist. “The tattoo is two blackbird feet,” she explained. “It’s the only one I have, or will ever have. I got it on Oct. 15 last year, which was the second year anniversary of my mother being diagnosed with breast cancer. Woody Harrelson introduced me to Paul McCartney in 2009. My mother’s favorite song is ‘Blackbird’ by the Beatles. I wrote Paul asking if he would draw some blackbird feet and told him the story. He’s an incredibly kind man, and he sent me three different drawings of blackbird feet and a letter.

“On the anniversary, I got my tattoo on my left wrist. She got hers on her right hand. At Thanksgiving, my dad got one on his left wrist. And, my brother got one on his right, so my whole family now has these blackbird wings.” She capped her interesting story with a laugh and a quip, “We’re learning to fly!”

It has been a remarkable journey for Emma, who moved with her mom to LA when she was 15 to pursue acting. She experienced three years of rejection before finally landing a role in “Superbad.” “There was a fair amount of rejections,” she recalled. “I had like bi-yearly meltdowns. Every time I started sobbing, my mom would immediately say, ‘Do you want to go home? Let’s go home.’ But, I never wanted to go home. I’m grateful that those years happened, because if I made it at 15, I don’t know what I would have done. In experiencing rejection, there were a lot of positive experiences in retrospect.”

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