Every Word of Emma Stone’s 2024 Best Actress Oscars Speech: ‘It’s Not About Me’

Emma Stone is officially a two-time Best Actress winner—and she used her speech to turn the focus on all the people who worked with her on Poor Things.

“Yorgos [Lanthimos, Poor Things’ director] said to me, ‘Please take yourself out of it,’ and he was right, because it’s not about me,” she said. “It’s about a team that came together to make something greater than the sum of its parts. And that is the best part about making movies, is all of us together. And I am so deeply honored to share this with every cast member, with every crew member, with every single person who poured their love and their care and their brilliance into the making of this film.”

She also gave her family, including her husband, Dave McCary, and daughter, a shout-out at the end of her speech. “I really just want to thank my family, my mom, my brother, Spencer, my dad, my husband, Dave. I love you so much,” she said. “And most importantly, my daughter, who’s gonna be three in three days and has turned our lives technicolor. I love you bigger than the whole sky, my girl. So thank you so much. Don’t look at the back of my dress. Thank you.”

Stone, who first won the award in 2017 for La La Land, took home the honor again for her work in Poor Things.

Here, her full remarks:

Hoo boy, my dress is broken. I think it happened during “I’m Just Ken.” I’m pretty sure. Oh, boy, this is really, this is really overwhelming. Sorry. My voice is also a little gone, whatever! The women on the stage, you are all incredible, and the women in this category: Sandra [Hüller], Annette [Bening], Carey [Mulligan], Lily [Gladstone], I share this with you. I am in awe of you, and it has been such an honor to do all of this together. I hope we get to keep doing more together. I don’t know what I’m saying.

Oh my God, I’m totally—OK, the other night I was panicking as you can kind of see—it happens a lot—that maybe something like this could happen. And Yorgos [Lanthimos, Poor Things’ director] said to me, “Please take yourself out of it,” and he was right, because it’s not about me.

It’s about a team that came together to make something greater than the sum of its parts. And that is the best part about making movies, is all of us together. And I am so deeply honored to share this with every cast member, with every crew member, with every single person who poured their love and their care and their brilliance into the making of this film.

And Yorgos, thank you for the gift of a lifetime in Bella Baxter. I am forever thankful for you. Thank you for inviting all of us to be members of this team. Thank you.

Oh, wait, I just—I know I have to wrap up, but I really just want to thank my family, my mom, my brother, Spencer, my dad, my husband, Dave [McCary]. I love you so much. And most importantly, my daughter who’s gonna be three in three days and has turned our lives technicolor. I love you bigger than the whole sky, my girl. So thank you so much. Don’t look at the back of my dress. Thank you.

Watch her speech below:

Stone wore a Louis Vuitton peplum dress on the red carpet. Inside, she had a reunion with her longtime close friend, Jennifer Lawrence, who was a presenter at the ceremony:

Stone opened up about the rehearsal process for Poor Things and contrasted it to her experience working on La La Land in a February interview with Variety.

“For La La Land, we did a ton of rehearsals for a very long time, but it was very specific: dancing and singing,” Stone said. “But when Yorgos was talking about rehearsal, I didn’t know what exactly that entailed. And it turns out that his rehearsals, they have nothing to do with what you’ll ultimately do on the day. But what it does, I think, subconsciously or in a subterranean way, is it lets everybody feel very comfortable with each other. You’re playing a lot of games.”

“I loved it. I loved it. Yeah,” Stone added of the process. “And I realized by the time that we were on set, we all felt very close to each other. We had all gotten to know each other in a much more intimate way than we would’ve if we’d just been blocking and saying our lines over and over.”