Jesse Eisenberg honors ‘fairy godmother' Emma Stone in heartfelt acceptance speech
Jesse Eisenberg is grateful for his friendship with Emma Stone.
The 'A Real Pain' writer and star gushed about Stone's support of his career as a writer while he accepted the award for best screenplay at the Film Independent Spirit Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday.
Stone produced 'A Real Pain,' which Eisenberg also directed.
During his speech, Eisenberg said that Stone is the only person who's read and supported the articles he's written for McSweeney's, an independent non-profit publishing company. Eisenberg has had creative writing work published on McSweeney's several times between 2009 and 2019.
Eisenberg and Stone met on the set of 'Zombieland' and have been friends since, he said.
'She was definitely, and still (is) the most famous person I know, and yet also like the most dedicated to encouraging me as a writer,' Eisenberg said. 'I think about her not as my producer, but like a fairy godmother that I am riding the coattails of her goodwill.'
Eisenberg added that he thinks it's important that somebody like Stone, 'who is so unbelievably successful in mainstream movies,' looks produce independent movies, like Eisenberg's, 'with all the goodwill that she's amassed, so rightly and deservedly, over the last several years.'
Stone appeared to be moved when she was shown on screen after Eisenberg's speech, her eyes tearing up. Her husband Dave McCary, who also co-produced 'A Real Pain,' reached his arm around her seemingly to comfort her.
Kieran Culkin, Will Sharpe and Jennifer Grey, among others, star in 'A Real Pain.'
The film earned two Oscar nominations – for best original screenplay and best supporting actor for Culkin. Culkin has picked up awards at the Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Critics Choice Awards and SAG Awards for his performance in the film.
In addition to Eisenberg's best screenplay win at Saturday's Film Independent Spirit Awards, Culkin also scored a win in the best supporting actor category.
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Wilson was largely alone, and he heard impatience and doubt from other Beach Boys, whose music he provided. He felt the pressure in trying to follow up 'Pet Sounds,' and 'Smile' became music's most famous unfinished album. Wilson, a damaged soul to begin with because of an abusive father, never reached the heights again. He descended into a well-chronicled period of darkness. Sly Stone helped assemble a new kind of musical landscape Stone's skills came in creating a musical world that others only dreamed of at the time. The Family Stone was an integrated world — Black and white, men and women — and the music they created was a potent mixture of rock, soul and funk. It made you move, it made you think. For a period of time from 1967 to 1973, their music was inescapable — 'Dance to the Music,' 'Everybody is a Star,' 'Higher,' 'Hot Fun in the Summertime,' 'Sing a s Simple Song,' 'Family Affair,' 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).' Their performance at Woodstock was a milestone. 'His songs weren't just about fighting injustice, they were about transforming the self to transform the world,' musician and documentarian Questlove, who lovingly tended to Stone's legacy, wrote this week. 'He dared to be simple in the most complex ways — using childlike joy, wordless cries and nursery rhyme cadences to express adult truths. His work looked straight at the brightest and darkest parts of life and demanded we do the same.' From his peak, the fall was hard. Years of drug abuse took its toll. Periodic comeback attempts deepened a sense of bewilderment and pity. In a world where many musical icons died young, each endured Music is littered with stories of sudden, untimely and early deaths. Yet until this week, both men lived on, somewhat improbably passing average life expectancies. Wilson, by many measures, achieved some level of peace late in life. He had a happy marriage. He was able to see how his music was revered and appreciated and spent several years performing it again with a younger band that clearly worshiped him. It was a postscript not many knew, said journalist Jason Fine, who befriended Wilson and made the 2021 documentary, 'Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road.' 'That sort of simple message he really wanted to give people through his music going back to the '60s — a sense of warmth, a sense that it's going to be OK in the same way that music lifted him up from his darkness, he'd try to do for other people,' Fine told The Associated Press in an interview then. 'I think now, more than earlier in his career, he accepts that he does that and that's a great comfort to him.' Stone emerged to write an autobiography in 2023. But less is known about his later years, whether he found peace or died without the full knowledge of what his music meant to others. 'Yes, Sly battled addiction,' Questlove wrote. 'Yes, he disappeared from the spotlight. But he lived long enough to outlast many of his disciples, to feel the ripples of his genius return through hip-hop samples, documentaries and his memoir. Still, none of that replaces the raw beauty of his original work.' Did Sly Stone and Brian Wilson live lives of tragedy or triumph? It's hard to say now. One suspects it will become easier with the passage of time, when only the work remains. That sometimes brings clarity. 'Millions of people had their lives changed by their music,' DeCurtis said. 'Not just enjoyed it, but had their lives transformed. That's quite an accomplishment.' ___
