Emma Stone_ Playing Billie Jean King In ‘Battle Of The Sexes’ Was ‘Huge Honor’

Oscar winner Emma Stone is with us now. We were just chatting like girlfriends. She stars as Billie Jean King in the new movie Battle of the Sexes. It's the story of King's epic tennis match against Bobby Riggs that had an impact well beyond the court. Take a look. This is a lover versus a lover. Keep talking, Bobby. The more nonsense you spell, the worse it's going to be when you lose. I'm the ladies number one. I'm the champ. Why would I lose? Because dinosaurs can't play tennis. I'm gonna put the show back in chauvinism. Emma, good morning. I just saw the movie. It's amazing. Before we get to the movie, I was watching you just did a late night appearance recently, and you dropped several F-bombs. And I was just wondering, do I need to get my bleeper out? Did I drop several F-bombs? There's the bleeper. You want me to try again? Yeah, try it. Okay, perfect. Live. Oh, I can't get it. I can't sync it up. I can't sync it up. There she goes again. Oh, there I go again. Tell me about how you got involved in this movie because, I mean, you weren't even born yet when this match happened. I don't even remember it. Did you know right away what this was all about, or did you have to kind of do your homework? No, there was definitely a learning curve. I had met with the producer of the movie, Danny Boyle, a couple years ago, and then I met John and Val, the directors, and they were just incredible. I loved the script. And learning about Billie Jean was, you know, she's an absolute icon. And now we know her as this hero for equality and LGBTQ rights. But at 29, which she also was number one in the world and did this battle of the sexes, she was also struggling with a lot of things internally in her personal life. And so the story was so fascinating, and we stand on her shoulders. So it was really a huge honor to get to try, attempt to play her. It's such a great and meaty role. There's so much to tackle. What did you think the first time when you saw that, when you looked in the mirror, you saw yourself as Billie Jean? Because it's a transformation. Well, it took a while. It wasn't like an immediate looking in the mirror. It was a lot of learning tennis, a lot of weightlifting, a lot of, you know, things that I had really never done. But the team of people around me that were supporting me through that were unbelievable. There's no way I would have been able to do it without at least a dozen people helping on a daily basis. And to get Billie Jean's physique, I heard you had to kind of become like a gym rat. Yeah. Were you doing P90X and protein shakes and all that? I was doing protein shakes. I wasn't doing P90X. I had a trainer named Jason Walsh, and he's incredible. He bulked me up more than I ever thought it would be possible. And I just was deadlifting and sled pulling. And yeah, it was really, it got pretty addictive. What about the tennis? I mean, because I know there are some doubles, but you do play some tennis in this. I mean, that was another major learning curve. I had a really amazing coach named Vince Fadia, and he got me, it became kind of choreography, like learning all of her specific, you know, her specific serve, her one-handed backhand, learning on a wooden racket. Did you watch her matches? I, oh yeah. Oh, big time. Yeah, we were watching her matches constantly and her interviews and every, I mean, it was, yeah, it was just full steeping in Billie Jean. I know, you're like, Billie Jean, I'm a bit of a creepy stalker now. I am a complete stalker of you, but it is my job. Did she, I think I read that you actually played some tennis with her, that she was lobbing balls at you. And having met her now, because she was just on the show yesterday, I couldn't, was she like a drill sergeant? Was she working on your, or was she nice? She really wasn't. She's such a great coach that she sort of immediately gets a gauge of the people that she's around and asks a lot of questions and just keyed in on, all right, you can dance. That means, you know, footwork, now run. And she would just throw the ball at my face and I'd like move to the ball and get my footwork down. But it helped me so much to start out with her doing that with me. It was, it was, she's the best. She is. She's the best. You are, are you 28 or 29 now? I'm 20. I'll be 29 in a couple of weeks. Okay. You're almost 29. You won the Oscar this year. You are said to be one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood. You actually are a nice and normal person. How do you keep your head on straight? I mean, to an extent, I keep my head on straight. I'm also like. You're like, no, I'm insufferable. I'm on the verge of a breakdown. No, it's, I have, my mom, my family, my friends are all, they could care less if this was happening or that was happening. They treat me exactly the same and they all make fun of me and I love it. So it's pretty hard not to, you know, just be around great people and change it all. Part of it is that you're an Arizona girl like me. You know, Arizona girls. It's a certain breed. But that's another segment. Emma Stone, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Battle the Sexes hits theaters tomorrow.