Hollywood Stole Emma Stone’s Real Name & She Wants It Back

The worst thing that can happen to an aspiring actor is having the same name as another star. There can't be two Ryan Reynolds or two Jon Hamms; there's only one Julia Roberts and one Natalie Portman. It's just an unofficial rule of Hollywood. And it's starting to gnaw away at Emma Stone, who revealed to W Magazine that she changed her name when she first started acting. "My real name is Emily Stone, but when I started acting, that name was already taken by another actress, so I had to come up with a different one," she told the magazine. She was about 16 at the time, a formidable age for one to choose their own name. She went with the perky option of "Riley Stone" for a few months before she realized she would never be able to answer to a name so different from her own original one. "I landed a guest spot on Malcolm in the Middle, and one day they were calling, ‘Riley! Riley! Riley! We need you on set, Riley!’ and I had no idea who they were talking to," she recalled. "At that moment, I realized that I just couldn’t be Riley." So, she became Emma. But the La La Land star misses her real name. "I would love to get her back,” she admitted. Well, I have good news — if you search "Emily Stone actress," the Oscar nominee is the first person to pop up. It looks like that America's Next Top Model contestant (seriously, that's who she told Jimmy Kimmel had taken the name) is now lost within the internet. I think it's time Stone take back what's hers. She's earned it.