Emma Stone and Emma Thompson Share Their Experiences While Filming Disney’s Cruella. As reviews will begin to appear you’ll notice Cruella will be deemed one of the darkest Disney movies to date. Though you’ll have to wait for our review, we do want to share our experience with the film’s stars, Emma Stone and Emma Thompson. During the Cruella press junket, we got to sit down with the cast and crew to discuss their time on set and their favorite memories from filming.
During the event, Emma Stone was asked if she was surprised Disney let Cruella have such a dark origin story. Emma shared, “I was. I mean, they really let, I think, Craig and Tony kind of write and make what they wanted to make. And, um, I don’t know, I think it’s definitely dark for a Disney movie. Maybe not for, like, a really intense kind of R-rated film. It was darker than I’ve seen a Disney movie for a good long time.“
As featured in the trailers and sneak peeks, Cruella isn’t the only villain in her own story… Her mentor and adversary The Baroness is a fashionable force to be reckoned with, but how did Emma Thompson feel about playing a truly vial villain? Disney fans know Emma Thompson best for her roles as Queen Elinor in Brave, P.L. Travers in Saving Mr. Banks, Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast (2017), and Captain Amelia in Treasure Planet.
Related: Disney’s ‘Cruella’ is Now Available for Pre-Order on Disney+ Premier Access
“I had such fun doing her, because I think I’ve been asking for quite a number of years if I could be a villain, a proper villain. And I spent decades playing what my mother used to call, “Good women in frocks.” And now I got to play a really evil woman in frocks. But oh, boy, the frocks. I mean, they wore me, actually, really is what happened. Uh, I had just the best, best time. Um, and-and every time Em and I would come on set, we’d just look at each other and walk around each other like we were-like we were sculptures or works of art or something, which we were. I mean, it was in a way, everyone created The Baroness, and then I sort of stepped in and just said the
words.“
Related: Florence + The Machine’s “Call Me Cruella” Song Revealed
One of the key themes throughout the film is ~*fashion*~. Both Emma’s shared different aspects of their costumes, with Thompson poking fun at the fact that she had to wear intricate corsets and undergarments to create her “shapely” silhouette. Luckily, she pointed out the Emma Stone rarely had to adjust anything for her iconic looks in the film. Stone shared her personal favorite outfit in the film included a dress with a 40-foot train!
“My very, very favorite outfit that was absolutely ludicrous was the dress that I wear on the garbage truck because there was a 40-foot train. And that wasn’t attached to the dress, because obviously, I wouldn’t be able to move anywhere, so they added that onto the dress at the last minute when I get onto the garbage truck to shoot that part. And it was just phenomenal. I mean, nothing you would ever be able to even remotely wear in real life. So it was such a moment, but to be honest, there was also that insane skirt when I cover the car.“
Thompson interjected, “I loved that!” Stone continued, “And that was epic too. Trying to walk up onto a car and then cover an entire car with a swish of the skirt was just fantastic. It was just-that really is the moment where you’re like, I am in a movie right now.“
We talked about the fashion in the film, but what about The Dalmatians? Turns out pups who starred in the film won over the cast and crew and were so sweet the “bad” behavior needed to be virtually edited into the film. Both Emma’s shared their adoration for the dogs on set.
Emma Stone shared, “The dogs are [CGI’d] there’s quite a bit of the-the dog CGI, but those [acting] dogs were always on set. There were a lot of-as many scenes as we could possibly have those dogs be comfortable, they were in, which was amazing.” Thompson added, [The dogs] were great and they were very sweet. So there’s the-they have CGI’d them to be a bit-a bit nasty. They were such sweet dogs. They were so nice, and they worked so hard.“
Stone elaborated, “And they had little crosses, and they-we sent back to their marks like little-little canine actors and they would just go back and stand on their marks and wait, and then get a little treat. Estella’s dog, Buddy, whose real name is Bobby, was-I-I genuinely think he was the cutest and sweetest dog I had ever known in my life, and I’ve got a lot of dogs. So that’s saying something.“
Related: Check Out the Photos from the ‘Cruella’ World Premiere
Academy Award® winner Emma Stone (“La La Land”) stars in Disney’s “Cruella,” an all-new live-action feature film about the rebellious early days of one of cinemas most notorious – and notoriously fashionable – villains, the legendary Cruella de Vil. “Cruella,” which is set in 1970s London amidst the punk rock revolution, follows a young grifter named Estella, a clever and creative girl determined to make a name for herself with her designs. She befriends a pair of young thieves who appreciate her appetite for mischief, and together they are able to build a life for themselves on the London streets. One day, Estella’s flair for fashion catches the eye of the Baroness von Hellman, a fashion legend who is devastatingly chic and terrifyingly haute, played by two-time Oscar® winner Emma Thompson (“Howards End,” “Sense and Sensibility”). But their relationship sets in motion a course of events and revelations that will cause Estella to embrace her wicked side and become the raucous, fashionable and revenge-bent Cruella.
Related: New Cruella Makeup at Disney Springs
“Cruella” stars Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, Emily Beecham, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, and Mark Strong. The film is directed by Craig Gillespie, with screenplay by Dana Fox and Tony McNamara, story by Aline Brosh McKenna and Kelly Marcel & Steve Zissis, based upon the novel “The One Hundred and One Dalmatians” by Dodie Smith. “Cruella” is produced by Andrew Gunn, Marc Platt, and Kristin Burr, p.g.a., with Emma Stone, Michelle Wright, Jared LeBoff, and Glenn Close serving as executive producers.
*Cruella is PG-13 for some violence and thematic elements.
Cruella will premiere in theaters and via Disney+ Premier Access on May 28, 2021. For ticketing and more information CLICK HERE
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*Responses in this post may be edited for length and/or clarity
Featured Photo Credit – Source: Disney
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