Emma Stone & Emma Watson: The Confusion Continues

Emma Stone is undeniably one of the leading actors of her generation. She has two Best Actress Oscars under her belt La La Land and Poor Things, seamlessly transitions between populist blockbusters and niche prestige films, and has established rapport with some of the world’s best filmmakers, namely Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favorite, Poor Things). Yet Stone is still often mistaken for another notable star.

Stone’s exciting new film (with no confirmed new projects on the horizon) is Bugoniamarking another collaboration with Lanthimos as director. The dark comedy follows a pharmaceutical company CEO (Stone) who is kidnapped by a pair of conspiracy theorists (Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis) who believes that she is an alien. Bugonia debuted with a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score, setting it up as a critical hit.

With Bugonia‘s wide release just a couple of weeks out, Stone and Plemons appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast on October 20, interviewed by Josh Horowitz. Here, Stone commented:I will get called Emma Watson all the time. All the time.” Horowitz then quipped: “You were great in Harry Potter.“

While this came up during a general discussion about interacting with fans, later during the podcast, Horowitz specifically asked the two stars the last actor they were mistaken for, allowing Stone to emphasize: “It’s always Emma Watson.” Best known for playing Hermione Granger across the eight Harry Potter films, Watson and Stone’s primary commonalities are their first names and being close to the same age.

However, Stone and Watson also have an interesting history of being up for the same roles. Watson was meant to take on the lead role La La Landbut left the project because of scheduling conflicts with the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast. Stone was also first cast as Meg in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women remake, but dropped out, allowing the role to go to Watson.

Furthermore, Stone’s co-star Ryan Gosling reportedly passed on Beauty and the Beast in order to make La La Land. These movies all led to major successes for their stars: La La Land earned a Best Picture nomination and enabled Stone to win her first Oscar, while Beauty and the Beast grossed over $1 billion worldwide. Watson then got to appear in a Best Picture nominee with Little Women.

This was while Stone was cementing herself as a regular awards season contender with additional critically acclaimed pictures. She may again be a Best Lead Actress nominee in 2026 for Bugonia. Meanwhile, Emma Watson has since gone on an acting hiatus; although she has not officially retired, 2018’s Little Women was her last movie.

Emma Stone and Emma Watson are seemingly mostly confused with each other because of their first names, although they have established themselves as distinct stars. Yet even Watson focuses on other things and Stone debuts Bugonia in theaters on October 31, the latter may eventually eclipse the former in the public consciousness.