Emma Stone (35) would like to be addressed by her real name in the future – Emily. The actress revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that she prefers her birth name to her stage name.
“I would like to be Emily,” she said. The 35-year-old explained that she originally chose the name “Emma Stone” because another artist from the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA had already adopted the name Emily Stone. “Then a few years ago I freaked out. For some reason I said to myself, ‘I can’t do this anymore. Just call me Emily,'” she continued in the interview.
Stone also said that people she knows and works with call her by her real first name. The return to her actual name was well received on social media. One fan wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “Good for Emily Stone for asking her fans to call her by her real name! Sad that her job requires a unique name.” Another user wrote: “I’ll call you Emily from now on.”
According to US media reports, SAG-AFTRA rules stipulate that no member may use the same professional name as an already enrolled member. This has led many artists to adopt other names when their birth names were already taken. For example, a young actor named Michael Douglas couldn’t use his real name when he joined in the 1970s because the “Wall Street” star already had that name. So he adopted a new stage name: Michael Keaton.
Other stars also had to get a stage name: Diane Hall became Diane Keaton and Elizabeth Mitchell became the actress Elizabeth Banks.