Crazy, Stupid, Love is one of my favorite romantic comedies, and that wouldn’t be the case without the sparks that fly between Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. The 2011 movie began a fruitful collaboration between the pair that continued in La La Land and even a recent Oscars performance. But how did it begin? I just found out, and it’s an adorable story.
Apparently the directors had already cast Gosling, and they were looking for his match. They were very interested in Stone from the jump. But it was “really difficult” to get an audition from her at the time because she was living in New York. Once she did have the time, here’s how the story goes, per co-director Glenn Ficarra:
So we put her together with Ryan [Gosling]. We did this whole day of actresses reading with Ryan, and a lot of them were really good. But then, once Ryan stepped into the room, they sort of were a little shaken.
Crazy, Stupid, Love just passed its 15th anniversary last week on July 29. In celebration of this, its directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa looked back with People. When many of the other actresses were put with Ryan Gosling during the chemistry test, they’d be intimidated by him. However, Stone was different. As Ficarra continued:
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And then Emma came in and Ryan said a line and he flubbed the line. He was reading with her offscreen, flubbed the line, and Emma just, without missing a beat, was like, ‘Oh, you’re killing this. You’re doing great.’ She just flipped him the shit right then and there, and we were all just like, ‘OK, that’s it. That’s the person.’ And we wanted to work with her desperately. Even in the small stuff she was doing, she’s so brilliant.
Hey, sometimes the best way to flirt is to not be afraid to poke fun at the other. And the directors noticed a beat where Emma Stone naturally did just that. It happened during her audition, and they knew right then and there she was the movie’s Hannah to Gosling’s Jacob. And that’s on top of Gosling, of course, having amazing comedic chemistry with the movie’s lead, Steve Carell’s Cal.
The most memorable Crazy, Stupid, Love scene between Gosling and Stone definitely has to be the scene where Hannah decides to find Jacob and kiss him in the middle of a bar. It happens directly after she has an awkward moment with her boyfriend (played by Josh Groban). They go back to Jacob’s place and proceed to have a particularly romantic date that includes them recreating the lift from Dirty Dancing. The pair are so much fun to watch together and are so believable as a couple on screen.
After starring in Crazy, Stupid, Love together, the duo went on to do two more movies together. They were in the 2013 period action film Gangster Squad. Then, they were in the Oscar-winning film La La Land, for which Stone won her first Best Actress Academy Award. However, their first project together remains one of the best Ryan Gosling movies and Emma Stone films.
You can revisit Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in Crazy, Stupid, Love right now with an HBO Max subscription.