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Emma Stone Begins Her Transformation To Cruella De Vil

By Victoria Miller
Published on: 21:38 PST, Apr 27, 2016

Emma Stone has gone to the dark side. The 27-year-old Academy Award-nominated actress is changing her look for her starring role as Cruella de Vil in Disney’s upcoming live-action movie, Cruella. After months of talks, Stone’s participation in the Disney film is a done deal, according to AZ Central. But fans looking to see Emma Stone’s take on the wicked character will have to wait a while, as Cruella could hit theaters as late as 2019.

Still, there’s no time like the present for Stone to get into character, and she has definitely already started that process. People posted a picture of Emma rocking a dark brunette hair color over the weekend. Stone is a natural blonde who dabbles in red tones, so the darker hair is a dramatic departure for her. All she needs now is a white stripe and an evil attitude.

In case you need a refresher on Cruella De Vil, the character is the villain who becomes obsessed with capturing all of those adorable Dalmatian puppies in the 1961 movie 101 Dalmatians, the animated classic based on Dodie Smith’s 1956 book of the same name. Unfortunately, Cruella isn’t an animal lover and instead wants the pups so she can have their hides for her fur coat business.

Emma Stone will have some big shoes to fill in the role of the movie villain. A 1996 John Hughes-produced version of the story starred Glenn Close in the role, and the actress reprised the role for a sequel, 102 Dalmatians, in 2000. So, when prepping for the role, Emma Stone may want to take advice from her predecessor. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Glenn said she dug into Cruella’s back-story before she took on the part.

“When I was first contemplating Cruella, I started thinking, `What’s her back story? What was her family like?'” Close said. “Then I read (Dodie Smith’s children’s novel ) and in the book she’s the devil, pure and simple. She eats black food and all her food tastes of pepper. That’s why she likes fur — she likes to be hot. So, I realized I shouldn’t put too much into it. It’s not complicated. It’s this bad person who wants fur.”

And Emma Stone will have several other Cruellas to draw inspiration from as well. More recently, Victoria Smurfit channeled Cruella in the ABC fantasy drama Once Upon a Time, and Wendy Raquel Robinson played the classic character in the Disney TV movie Descendants.

Fans can’t wait to see this new side of Emma Stone in the upcoming movie, especially since she passed on the all-female Ghostbusters reboot last year. Emma told the Wall Street Journal that, while she liked the script for the new version of the ’80s comedy, the timing just wasn’t right.

“The script was really funny,” Stone said. “It just didn’t feel like the right time for me. A franchise is a big commitment—it’s a whole thing. I think maybe I need a minute before I dive back into that water.”

But in the same interview, Emma said she would welcome the chance to play a villain, and it sounds like she found the mother of all villains to play now.

Emma Stone’s Cruella is just one of several Disney classics that will be remade on the big screen. According to the Hollywood Reporter, within a two-year time period – from July 2017 to December 2019—Disney will release Tim Burton’s Dumbo, a Tinker Bell film with Reese Witherspoon, and a sequel to Mary Poppins that will star Emily Blunt.

Emma Stone’s most recent film is Aloha. Emma is also slated to star in Damien Chazelle’s La La Land alongside Ryan Gosling later this year.

Take a look at the video below for more on Emma Stone and her new role as one of Disney’s biggest villains.

[Photo by Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images]

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