Emma Stone had to learn a lot about conspiracy theories for her role in Ari Aster’s COVID-era Western “Eddington” — so much so that it started working its way into her social media algorithms.
Stone plays Louise, the wife of Joaquin Phoenix’s sheriff, who falls down a conspiracy rabbit hole when she meets Austin Butler’s seductive guru. Asked at the Cannes Film Festival press conference for “Eddington” about how she prepared for the role, Stone reflected on how her own algorithm changed during filming.
“The only additional thing that scared me a little bit in the algorithm system was looking into some of the things that are in this film that haven’t been in my algorithm, unfortunately added them to my algorithm,” she said. “Because once you start Googling it, you start seeing more and more things. So it’s a real rabbit hole, very quickly. Unfortunately, I’m still getting fed some crazy shit.”
“Eddington,” which debuted at Cannes last night to a five-minute standing ovation, also stars Pedro Pascal and Austin Butler. The A24 film — which doesn’t shy away from skewering the MAGA movement — is set at the height of the COVID pandemic in May 2020 and follows “a standoff between a small-town sheriff (Phoenix) and mayor (Pascal)” that “sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.”
In a more humorous memory from COVID-19 lockdown, Pascal said “the only thing he could watch” to “protect” himself from the algorithm was the filmography of “Twin Peaks” actress Lara Flynn Boyle.
“There were several seasons of David E. Kelley’s ‘The Precious,’ and it was all on Hulu and I watched that,” he said, eliciting a laugh from the room. “That and reality shows about airports, like old A&E, people just losing their shit at the airport or trying to move their house in boxes but using Southwest Airlines instead of a shipping company and stuff like that. I was educating myself.”
“Eddington” premieres in theaters on July 18.