Emma Stone reveals why she’s refusing to joke about Taylor Swift

Emma Stone regrets joking about her friend, Taylor Swift.

In a recent interview with Variety, the Poor Things actress was asked about when she had called the Grammy winner an “a**hole” at the Golden Globes.

At the awards show, when Stone stood up to receive the award for best film actress in a comedy or musical for Poor Things, Swift was seen louding cheering and applauding her friend.

“What an a**hole,” Stone joked with reporters backstage. “I’ve known her for almost 20 years. I was very happy she was there and she was also nominated tonight, which was wonderful. And yes, what an a**hole.”

However, she was quickly faced with backlash from “Swifties” also known as the singer’s fanbase for her comments and vowed not to joke about her a second time.

“I definitely won’t make a joke like that again… because I saw headlines that really pulled it out of context,” Stone told Variety. She later pointed to herself, adding, “What a dope.”

Swift and Stone have been friends for years, being seen together on multiple occasions. Some fans took the friendship far enough to believe that her song “When Emma Falls in Love” is an ode to her longtime friend.

The curiously titled song is one of six never-before-heard tracks on the 34-year-old singer’s re-recorded album, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).

Since the album was unveiled back in July 2023, Swift’s fandom – known as “Swifties” – have wasted no time excitedly sharing theories about why they believe the 18th track is about the La La Land Oscar winner.

The song’s first verse includes the lines: “When Emma falls in love, she calls up her mom, jokes about the ways that this one could go wrong/ She waits and takes her time, ’cause little Miss Sunshine always thinks it’s gonna rain.”

Specifically honing in on the lyrics “little Miss Sunshine”, fans are positive that this is a direct nod to a scene in Stone’s star-making 2010 teen comedy Easy A, in which her character sings along to Natasha Bedingfield’s 2007 single “Pocketful of Sunshine”.

“Until Taylor says otherwise I believe Taylor wrote this for Emma Stone,” one person tweeted, alongside a gif of the famous scene.

And if that isn’t convincing enough, others have unearthed an old interview clip of Stone’s ex-boyfriend, her TheAmazing Spider-Man co-star Andrew Garfield, in which he describes her as “a shot of espresso, like being bathed in sunlight”.

Another fan tweeted that a line in the track’s chorus – “She’s the kind of book that you can’t put down” – echoed something else Garfield has said in an interview: “I’ll write a book one day about how I feel about every aspect of Emily Stone.” (Emily is Stone’s actual first name.)

In a more far-fetched theory, Entertainment Weekly took into account the timeframe of the original release of Speak Now, citing that 2010 was right around the peak of Stone and Swift’s friendship, which is believed to have been between 2008 and 2010.

Swift and the Cruella star are suspected to have first met in 2008 at the Young Hollywood Awards. The pair have since been photographed together in attendance at numerous public events, including the Easy A premiere in 2010.

They were also spotted hanging out in New York numerous times, even though Stone is predominantly based in Los Angeles. This, the outlet believes, influenced the song’s bridge: “She’s so New York when she’s in LA”.