Emma Stone will seek to have the actors union recognize her by her real name: Emily

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Born Emily Jean Stone in 1988, the actress said in 2017 that she was forced to choose a different name as a teenager. “My real name is Emily Stone, but when I started acting that name was already taken by another actress and I had to invent another one.” (The SAG-AFTRA actors union requires each member to have a unique working name.)

“For a 16-year-old girl, choosing a new name is an interesting prospect.”

But ‘Emma’ was not her first choice. If we take a look at Stone’s IMDB page, we can see that in his first credits for performances in series like Medium he appeared under the name ‘Riley Stone’.

That lasted about six months, as he told in an interview for W. “I did a small intervention in Malcolm in the Middle, one day they started calling me ‘Riley! Riley!’ and I had no idea who they were calling. So I changed it to ‘Emma,’ because she looks more like Emily.”

That said, at the time he had the option of Emily J. Stone, but he did not accept it, claiming that he believed he would not be able to handle the ‘J’. Another possible factor in her decision was her fondness for the Spice Girls, particularly Emma ‘Baby Spice’ Bunton.

In an interview with Jimmy Fallon in 2018, Stone said that “When I was little I was super blonde… and I wanted to be called Emma after Baby Spice”.

It’s unclear whether in the years since that interview she’s been losing interest in the Spice Girls or betting more on her “J” era, but her desire to reclaim the name ‘Emily’ seems to be growing.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in a conversation published this week, her interview partner and The Curse series co-star Nathan Fiedler called her ‘Emily’ again.

“I’d like to say something,” Fielder says as the interview begins. “Her name is Emily, but professionally she goes by Emma. That’s why when there are people who don’t know her, I end up saying Emma. But from now on I’m going to call her Emily.”

“It hit me suddenly a couple of years ago,” Stone replied. “For some reason, I thought, ‘I can’t take it anymore. Call me Emily.'”

That feeling of fear has been disappearing, Stone said, to the point that she has adopted an attitude: “You can call me Emma. You can call me as you like”.

In any case, he continues to long for his birth name. If a fan addresses her as ‘Emily,’ “That would be really nice,” Stone said. “I would like to be called Emily.”