Emma Stone: I'm an enormous 'Spider-Man' fan

Emma Stone poses for a portrait at Comic Con in San Diego, Calif. on Friday, July 22, 2011.

Emma Stone poses for a portrait at Comic Con in San Diego, Calif. on Friday, July 22, 2011.

 - Emma Stone has gone from layperson to expert on the two publishing sensations she's helping to bring to Hollywood this summer and next.

Stone had not read Kathryn Stockett's "The Help" before auditioning for the lead role in the drama about a white woman who rocks the Deep South establishment by chronicling the hard lives of black maids in the early 1960s.

And before earning the female lead in "The Amazing Spider-Man," Stone knew the Marvel Comics superhero mainly from Sam Raimi's three past big-screen "Spidey" adventures and glimpses of the web-slinger on memorabilia.

"I knew Spidey from Halloween costumes and Band-Aids and erasers and pencils and notebooks," Stone, 22, said in an interview at last week's Comic-Con fan convention, where she and star Andrew Garfield joined the filmmakers to reveal footage of the 2012 summer blockbuster-in-waiting.

"I knew that every little boy at school was obsessed with Spidey. I saw all the Sam Raimi movies, but I had not read the comics until I got involved. And now I'm a ridiculously enormous 'Spider-Man' fan. That's what happens. That character is one of the most incredible characters, I think, ever written, comic-book world or literary world. It's just such an inspirational character. I think that's probably the reason he's the president's favorite superhero."

Stone has been on a steady rise in Hollywood, co-starring in 2007's teen romp "Superbad" and 2009's horror comedy "Zombieland," then charming audiences with her first big-screen lead in last year's "The Scarlet Letter" twist "Easy A."

After supporting roles in back-to-back romantic comedies with last week's "Friends With Benefits" and this week's "Crazy Stupid Love," Stone's profile shoots higher with the Aug. 10 debut of "The Help," co-starring Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard and Octavia Spencer.

Stone recalled being as much a novice on "The Help" as she had been on "Spider-Man." She was about to meet with the filmmakers for the first time and happened to give her mom a call.

"I've got a meeting tonight for 'The Help,'" Stone told her mother. "And she screamed so loud my eardrums burst. She said, 'You've got to read this book! You have to go and read this book right now!' My mother is, like, she fainted, she was so beside herself."

"The Help" is expected to be a summer hit driven by the best-seller's female fans, a rarity in a season dominated by action tales and comedies aimed largely at young males.

As Gwen Stacy, the romantic interest for Garfield's Peter Parker in next July's "Spider-Man" reboot, Stone will be in the thick of a fan-boy frenzy. Yet the fact that Peter's a skinny, bullied kid who leaps to hero status through the bite of a mutant spider makes him an idol for everyone, not just comic-book and action fans, Stone said.

"Batman's great, but this isn't a rich guy building a suit. And Superman's great, but this isn't an untouchable guy like we've never seen before on this planet," Stone said. "This is someone you could go to school with and work with, that all of sudden, one day is able to fight off superhuman villains. It's pretty incredible. I get it now. I really do."

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Bob Hoskins hates Super Mario Bros. film

Hoskins as Mario Bob Hoskins sports a resume that most actors would envy. Best known, perhaps, for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?," he also played key roles in "Brazil," "Mona Lisa" and "The Cotton Club."
He has appeared in nearly 100 films and television shows -- but there's one he'd like to erase from that list: 1993's Super Mario Bros.
The Guardian spoke with the 68-year old actor, peppering him with a series of questions about his career, politics and life moments. And he doesn't hesitate to give his feelings on the role that forced him to slap a comically large mustache on his mug and say lines like "Come and get it, lizard breath!" while maintaining a straight face.


It's hard to blame him. The film, which boasts a humiliating 13 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, took its share of liberties with the famed game series.
Mario and Luigi are plumbers, yes, but they live in Manhattan and are chasing Princess Daisy -- not Peach -- who wears a necklace made from a meteor fragment that can free a race of reptilian, sewer-dwelling creatures. King Koopa, her kidnapper, hides her not in a castle, but rather in the garbage-infested underworld of Dinohattan.
It's even more confusing when you watch it. The film is essentially a nonstop reel of early 1990s special effects, with bits of nonsensical dialogue and Princess Daisy screaming "Luigi!!!" used as filler. 


SPOILER ALERT: In another ridiculous twist, Luigi gets the girl.
Hoskins' dislike of the notorious film runs deep. In 2007, he told Contact Music that working on the movie was a "nightmare" due in large part to the husband-and-wife directing team of Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, "whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent." Ouch.
Hoskins likely isn't the only actor who would prefer to see the movie disappear. Others who carry the stain of this cheese-tastic masterpiece on their resume include John Leguizamo, who played Luigi, and the late Dennis Hopper, who had the unfortunate luck to accept the King Koopa role.
Time Magazine has listed the film as one of the worst video game movies of all time -- but that hasn't stopped it from attracting a cult following. Even worse, it hasn't stopped the film industry from generally following the same formula of Super Mario Bros. when it makes movies based on games: ramping up the special effects budget and hoping no one notices they had a third grader write the script between classes.

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