She made a PowerPoint presentation to convince her parents to move to Hollywood: now she’s nominated for an Oscar

Emma Stone is one of the best performers of her generation. In March 2024, thanks to her role as Bella Baxter in Poor Things, the American actress joined the select group of performers who have won the golden statuette twice.

With two Golden Globes, two BAFTAs, and several other awards, she is firmly established at thirty-seven and has become one of the most recognizable faces in the industry. However, as she often explains in interviews, her beginnings were not easy. At one point she even created a PowerPoint titled “Project Hollywood” presentation to persuade her parents to let her move to Hollywood.

“I made a PowerPoint presentation for my parents,” she said in an interview on The Graham Norton Show. The actress explained that she was fourteen at the time, close to turning fifteen, and living in Phoenix, about a six-hour drive from Los Angeles. “I realized I couldn’t just come home in my freshman year of high school… walk in and go ‘I’m moving. I’m 14 and here I go,’” she joked. She also added that she used Madonna’s song “Hollywood” in the presentation to make it more convincing.

That PowerPoint is no longer just a funny story she likes to tell. It has become something like a prologue to how the industry works. At the 98th Academy Awards, Stone arrives nominated for Best Actress for Bugonia.

She is also listed as one of the film’s producers in the top category, placing her in the spotlight twice and turning that teenage anecdote into a fitting metaphor for the many paths that lead to fame and success.

A difficult childhood

Despite the humorous PowerPoint story that she happily repeats whenever she gets the chance, her childhood was not easy. From an early age she struggled with anxiety, frequent panic attacks, and intense shyness. At seven years old she even went to therapy. Over time, she discovered that acting helped her cope with those challenges and interact with others.

“I think my parents saw that acting was the thing that made me fulfilled and happy,” she said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Now firmly established as one of the industry’s top performers, she is aiming high at the ceremony held in Los Angeles on the night of March 15, where she will compete for what could become her third Oscar for Best Actress.

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