The chemistry between Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in Crazy, Stupid, Love was visible before either actor stepped onto the movie’s set.
Marking the romantic comedy’s 15th anniversary, directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa recalled how Stone distinguished herself from the other actresses considered for Hannah Weaver by remaining completely comfortable around Gosling.
When he stumbled over a line during their audition, the 21-year-old Stone immediately teased him instead of allowing the mistake to disrupt her performance.
The Directors Had Trouble Getting Stone Into the Audition Room
Ficarra said arranging Stone’s initial audition was unexpectedly difficult because she was living in New York at the time. “I don’t know if she was busy or whatever,” he told People. “But we finally got her to read, and she was fantastic.”
The filmmakers then invited Stone to read opposite Gosling as part of a full day of chemistry auditions. Several other actresses performed well on their own, but Ficarra noticed that some became visibly less relaxed once Gosling entered the room.
He stressed that Gosling was not deliberately attempting to intimidate anyone. “He wasn’t trying to do anything,” Ficarra said. “He was just being himself.”
Gosling was coming off acclaimed dramatic performances including Blue Valentine, but Stone refused to treat him as someone whose presence should alter her approach.
One Sarcastic Line Ended the Casting Search
Stone entered near the end of the audition day and quickly changed the atmosphere. When Gosling flubbed a line while reading with her from off camera, she responded without hesitation.
“Oh, you’re killing this,” Stone told him sarcastically. “You’re doing great.” Ficarra said her willingness to tease Gosling immediately separated her from the other contenders. “She just flipped him the s— right then and there,” he recalled. “We were all just like, ‘Okay, that’s it. That’s the person.’”
The directors were impressed not only by Stone’s confidence but also by the precision she brought to small moments during the audition. “We wanted to work with her desperately,” Ficarra said. “Even in the small stuff she was doing, she’s so brilliant.”
Stone was cast as Hannah, the eldest daughter of Cal and Emily Weaver, played by Steve Carell and Julianne Moore. Her character initially rejects the polished pickup routine of Gosling’s Jacob Palmer before returning to him after a disappointing night with her boyfriend.
The Bedroom Scene Drew From Their Real Rapport
Hannah arrives at Jacob’s home intending to spend the night with him, but the encounter turns into an extended conversation involving memory-foam pillows, childhood photographs, the Home Shopping Network and increasingly personal admissions.
Ficarra and Requa allowed the cameras to run for hours while Stone and Gosling improvised. “We were just trying to get them to be Ryan and Emma and not their characters and just relax a little bit,” Requa said.
Some of the exchanges came from things the actors had done while waiting around the set. Stone had performed impressions for the crew, while the pair had watched online videos and discussed unrelated subjects between scenes. The directors occasionally prompted them to recreate those off-camera moments rather than remain rigidly inside the screenplay.
“Do that thing you were doing when we were standing over in video village the other day,” Requa remembered telling them. The unusual approach confused some members of the cast and crew, but editor Lee Haxall shaped the hours of material into the conversation montage seen in the finished film.
Requa said the first edited version was already remarkably close to what ultimately appeared onscreen. “We didn’t really have to change it,” he said.
The Audition Began a Three-Film Partnership
Crazy, Stupid, Love, released on July 29, 2011, became the first of three movies featuring Stone and Gosling. They reunited for the 2013 crime drama Gangster Squad and again for Damien Chazelle’s 2016 musical La La Land. La La Land earned Stone her first Academy Award for Best Actress and brought Gosling his second nomination for Best Actor.
Requa said the directors remain proud of helping bring the two performers together but resisted taking credit for recognizing talent that was already obvious. “People oftentimes say, ‘You’re good at finding actors,’” he said. “We always like to say, it’s like saying the sun is bright. They were just amazing. It was easy.”