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Emma Stone says it was ‘not possible’ to have Cruella smoke cigarettes in new Disney film
Actor has received positive reviews for her performance in Disney’s origin story of the famous villain
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Emma Stone has implied she was disappointed after learning she would not be able to smoke onscreen in her role as Cruella de Vil.
The Hollywood actor stars in the title role of Disney’s new live-action film, Cruella, which serves as an origin story for the villain in 101 Dalmatians.
While Stone has received praise for her performance, fans observed that her character was missing the iconic cigarette holder used by the animated version in Disney’s 1961 animation. Glenn Close also used one in the 1996 live-action film.
“That is not allowed in 2021,” Stone told The New York Times.
“We are not allowed to smoke onscreen in a Disney film. It was difficult to not have that cigarette holder... I was so excited to have that green plume of smoke in there, but it was not possible.”
Stone said she didn’t want to promote smoking, but added that she was “also not trying to promote skinning puppies”.
Disney is believed to have placed a ban on smoking onscreen in its films around 2007, with the policy now applying to Lucasfilm, Marvel and Pixar as well.
In a four-star review for The Independent, critic Clarisse Loughrey praised Stone for creating her own take on the role of Cruella, instead of trying to emulate Close’s version in the 1996 live-action film.
“She’s a perfect centrepiece for a film like Cruella,” the review said. “Wickedly stylish and an absolute gas, it’s essentially a fashion film, full of immaculate gowns and unabashed showmanship. Dana Fox and Tony McNamara’s script has “Cruella” simply be a nickname given to Estella’s natural mean streak, which she’s done to well bury as a promise to her kindly (and very dead) mother Catherine (Emily Beecham).
“It’s a far less aggressive attempt to rehabilitate a villain than 2014’s Maleficent, which poured buckets of tragedy onto Sleeping Beauty’s relatively simple story of a sorceress peeved that she wasn’t invited to a party. Cruella was never good, just in denial.”
Read the full review here.
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