In Hollywood, the vast majority of actors seem to want everyone to think that working on movies is a breeze. On the other hand, it seems like Emma Stone has always been very open about what she has gone through as an actor.
Between admitting that filming her screen kiss with Andrew Garfield was "Icky" and revealing that she got her first asthma attack while filming Easy A, Stone doesn't hold back. Despite those amazing revelations, what Stone says she went through to film one of her most celebrated films is even more mind-blowing.
Emma Stone's Organs Shifted While Making The Favourite
When most people talk about Emma Stone's best movies, The Favourite doesn't come to mind. That said, the fact remains that of all the movies that Stone has starred in, The Favourite is one of the most acclaimed projects.
A period piece that takes place in the 1700s, The Favourite's extremely talented cast brought several real-life historical figures to life, including Queen Anne. In the film, Stone portrayed one of Queen Anne's favorite people, Abigail Masham, Baroness Masham.
Since The Favourite was focused on people who really existed, Stone had to work hard to master her character's accent. On top of that, Stone had to dress like a woman who interacted with a Queen in the 1700s would have looked.
As The Favourite's costume designer Sandy Powell once explained, she put a lot of time and energy into the clothes Stone's character wore. Most notably, Powell wanted Stone's character's outfits to reflect her rise to power.
For film fans, it is fascinating to learn how much thought costume designers like Powell put into the outfits they see on the big screen. That said, since The Favourite is a period piece, Stone wore a corset in almost every outfit her character wore since that was the fashion at the time.
Since it is common knowledge that generations of women wore corsets, that may not seem like a big deal to some observers. However, what a lot of people don't understand is what wearing a tight corset day after day actually does to someone.
During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Stone revealed the toll that wearing corsets for long hours each day took on her. As Stone explained, the corsets made everything that she did during filming more difficult.
First off, Stone was incapable of sitting down at all during the filming process because of the corset. Instead, when Stone needed to take it a little bit easy, she would have to lean on a couch without her butt ever making contact.
Of course, most people would be unhappy if they couldn't sit throughout most of their day for weeks. However, things got a lot worse for Stone than that as wearing an extremely tight corset for her character made her struggle to breathe.
In life, people often exaggerate how difficult things can be for them. However, based on what Stone says she did to be able to breathe while filming The Favourite, she wasn't exaggerating anything.
According to what Stone told The Hollywood Reporter, she spent the first month of filming The Favourite regularly sniffing menthol so she could breathe. As Stone explained, each time she sniffed the menthol briefly felt like she was "in a wide open space" before she would quickly go "back to not breathing".
Fortunately for Stone, something changed dramatically for her after about a month since she could suddenly comfortably breathe again without the menthol. While that must have been a major relief for Stone, it is interesting to think about how she must have felt when she realized why.
As Stone explained during her appearance on The Graham Norton Show, the reason she could breathe is that her internal organs actually shifted in her body.
"After about a month, my organs shifted because they have to. It was only temporary, but it was gross. The bottom half of my stomach, whatever, I'm not a doctor, whatever is in there, went down that way, and I guess just my ribs stayed up."
Was Emma Stone's Organs Shifting Worth It For Her?
Throughout Hollywood history, there are several wild stories about method actors going to extremes for their roles. While that was an accepted fact for decades, many people have reconsidered if actors risking their health simply for a role is worth it in recent years.
The reason that many film fans have questioned the things actors did to their bodies for roles in the past is the serious health repercussions some of those performers suffered. With that in mind, it makes sense to question if what happened to Emma Stone's body while filming The Favourite was worth it.
The first thing to look at while trying to answer that question is what Stone was awarded with thanks to her role in The Favourite.
Since Stone truly was fantastic in The Favourite, she was nominated for several major awards. For example, Stone was in the running for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a SAG, a BAFTA, and many more awards.
While some people may think that award nominations don't matter and there is a strong argument for that, they make a big difference for an actor. In Stone's case, the fact that her performance in The Favourite is so acclaimed makes it much more likely that she will land sought-after roles in the future.
Putting aside the future of Stone's career, another thing to look at is how she feels about starring in The Favourite. While talking to louderthanwar.com in 2019, Stone explained what playing such a strong female character in The Favourite meant to her.
"So it’s a joy, I really love it. My argument for Abigail is that I think she’s a survivor. I can understand a lot of what she’s doing, even though I wouldn’t do it myself. I can understand the depth of trauma that she’s been in and that she needs to get out of."
Of course, it isn't a well-kept secret that stars sometimes praise movies they hate when they are promoting them. As a result, some people may be tempted to write off Stone's comments about The Favourite. That said, Stone went on to work with the director of The Favourite on a 2023 film titled Poor Things, so clearly she enjoyed part of the process.
Finally, there is one more thing to consider when trying to ascertain if starring in The Favourite was worth it for Stone. During her appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Stone said that after filming was through, her organs shifted back to their normal position.
Based on all the public information, there is a very strong argument that what happened to Stone's body while filming The Favourite was worth it for her. That said, it is disturbing to know what beauty expectations have done to women's bodies throughout history and the effects corsets have is just one example of that.
