Yahoo Movies Emma Stone Says It Was a 'No-Brainer' to Produce Zombieland Pal Jesse Eisenberg's Directorial Debut
Courtesy of the Sundance Film Festival
Emma Stone was glad to help her Zombieland costar Jesse Eisenberg make his directorial debut.
Eisenberg's movie When You Finish Saving the World, starring Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard, debuted at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on Thursday night, and during a virtual Q&A afterward, Stone, 33, explained why she and her husband Dave McCary, who also appeared during the conversation, signed on as producers for the project.
"As an actor, you usually just go with what comes to you and you're at the mercy of the process. We don't want to say we just want to make things, that sounds trite. Because we have these longstanding relationships, we thought it would be amazing to support these people in a more meaningful way than just being a cog," she said, according to IndieWire.
"It was an incredibly personal story to him that felt like something none of us had seen before," added Stone. "That's pretty much ticking every box of anything we could hope to be involved with."
Stone explained about Eisenberg, 38: "He's the most curious person I've ever met. He studies everyone and asks so many questions. He has a deep empathy to him. I knew that from acting with him, so it just felt like a no-brainer that we'd attempt to work on something with him."
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images; Mike Marsland/WireImage
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
At one point in the Q&A, according to the outlet, Eisenberg said in reference to Stone, "I don't know a smarter actor in the world than Emma," to which she cut in, joking, "If I am the smartest actor you ever met, then I am the only actor you've ever met. That's an insane thing to say! I didn't even graduate high school, Jesse!"
"You didn't have to," he replied.
RELATED VIDEO: Why Emma Stone and Emma Thompson Loved Everything About Playing Bad in Cruella: 'Apart from the Heels'
Stone and Eisenberg made two Zombieland films with each other and costars Woody Harrelson and Abigail Breslin, one in 2009 and another in 2019.
Last year, Harrelson said he would be down to make a third installment in the gory action-comedy series. "I haven't heard anything about it from many of the creative elements. I would love to do it because I just love those guys," he told Screen Rant of his costars. "That whole group is really... That's a singularly wonderful, fun, amazingly funny group of people. So what I'm saying is I'm open to it."
