Emma Stone Weighs In On Ryan Gosling’s ‘Barbie’ Performance, Says Her Broken Dress Has Been Repaired – Oscars Backstage

If you were concerned for Emma Stone and her broken dress following her appearance onstage at tonight’s Oscars to accept the prize for Best Actress, fear not.

“They sewed me back in,” shared the star of Poor Things, Searchlight’s adaptation of the novel by Alasdair Gray. “Right when I came back[stage], they sewed me back in, which was wonderful.”

Stone highlighted the issue with her dress while on stage, sharing that she believed she’d broken it while singing and dancing along to the performance of Barbie tune “I’m Just Ken” by her Oscar-nominated La La Land co-star, Ryan Gosling. Backstage, she affirmed this belief was genuine, adding, “I was so amazed by Ryan and what he was doing, and that number just blew my mind. I was right there, and I just was going for it, and things happen.”

Additionally, Stone spoke to the meaning her Poor Things character, Bella Baxter, has for her, compared to all those she’s played before. “I think the chance to play a person starting from scratch, but in a total metaphorical, can’t-really-happen-in-real-life way, who’s gaining language and skills at a rapid pace every day and getting to chart that course and realize that she was just full of joy and curiosity and true love of not just the good but the challenging in life, and was fascinated by all of it, that was an amazing lesson to take with me and to try to get to live in the shoes of every day,” the actress said. “So I really miss playing her ever since we wrapped filming, which was a long time ago, like two and a half years ago. I miss Bella, and I’m really grateful that we got to celebrate the film tonight, and over these past few months.”

Reuniting Stone with Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and screenwriter Tony McNamara following their collaboration on period dark comedy The Favourite, which scored 10 Oscar nominations in 2018, Poor Things watches as Stone’s young Victorian woman Bella is brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Under Baxter’s protection, this woman with the mind of a child is eager to learn. But as Bella grows hungry for the worldliness she is lacking — and for sex, specifically — she runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, she grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.

While Stone and Killers of the Flower Moon’s Lily Gladstone had long been eyed as the frontrunners for Best Actress, other contenders tonight included Annette Bening (Nyad), Sandra Hüller, (Anatomy of a Fall), and Carey Mulligan (Maestro).

Poor Things won a total of four Oscars, also prevailing in the categories of Best Production Design, Costume Design, and Makeup and Hairstyling. The film scored the second-most Oscars of any this year, on the heels of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, also registering in the categories of Best Picture, Directing, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor, Cinematography, Editing, and Original Score.

Up next for Lanthimos and Stone is Kinds of Kindness, an as-yet-undated anthology film also to be distributed by Searchlight, which also stars Jesse Plemons, Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie and Hunter Schafer. No release date for that title has been set.

View video of Stone’s time backstage at the Oscars above.