To become a contestant on 'Jeopardy!', Emma Stone explains, you have to take a test, and you can only take it once a year, so she reapplies every June. Photo: Reuters
Emma Stone has amassed a trove of prestigious Hollywood awards — an Oscar, two Golden Globes and three SAG Awards among them — but the accolade that eludes her is the one she covets most: Jeopardy! contestant.
"That's my favourite show. That's my dream," she said on the most recent Awards Circuit podcast episode.
To become a contestant on Jeopardy!, Stone explained, you have to take a test, and you can only take it once a year, so she reapplies every June — thus far to no avail.
"They don't tell you how you did. They just say, 'We'll let you know in the next nine to 12 months if you got on the show,' and guess what, I haven't gotten on the show."
When Schneider countered that, surely, the Poor Things star could secure a spot on Celebrity Jeopardy!, she was quick to clarify that she meant "real 'Jeopardy'!"
"I really want to earn my stripes," she said.
Stone wouldn't be the show's first high-profile competitor. In 2018, Jackie Fuchs, who played bass in rock band the Runaways, won four games and took home more than US$87,000. Paris Themmen, who played Mike Teevee in the original Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, competed in 2018, but host Alex Trebek introduced him merely as an entrepreneur and "avid backpacker."
Although the casting department hasn't selected her yet, Stone is prepared for the day it happens. Every night, she watches the long-running game show — which is in its 40th season — marking down how many answers she gets right.
On the podcast, the host jokingly characterised Stone's efforts as "very Rosie Perez (in) White Men Can't Jump."
In that 1992 sports comedy, Billy Hoyle (played by Woody Harrelson), a former college basketball player, makes his living by hustling streetballers. But in the movie's gem of a side plot, Billy's girlfriend, Gloria Clemente (Perez), dreams of competing on Jeopardy! and is always quizzing herself on random factoids in preparation.
When she finally lands on the show, the categories serendipitously align with the exact material Gloria has been studying — Old Testament figures, natural disasters, foods that start with the letter "Q."
For now, Stone is still waiting for her "Gloria Clemente" moment.
In the meantime, her plaudits continue to pile up. Come Jan. 23, Stone could be the second woman Oscar-nominated for producing and acting in the same year, following Frances McDormand, who won in both categories for 2020's Nomadland. – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service
