Awards season can be a cutthroat, competitive thing, but no one seemingly told Best Actress frontrunners Lily Gladstone and Emma Stone that.
Like their fellow 2024 Oscar nominees, The Holdovers‘ Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Oppenheimer‘s Emily Blunt — who have buddied up even though they’re going head-to-head in the Supporting Actress category — Gladstone and Stone have become “fast friends” through the whole awards campaign process. The Killers of the Flower Moon leading lady recently revealed as much in Vanity Fair’s 2024 Hollywood Issue, where she shared that the acclaimed actresses have been bopping around town wearing matching friendship rings:
[Shows a gold ring on her hand] My Infinity Stones ring—Emma Stone has the same one. She sent this to me yesterday, and then she sent me a picture of her wearing the same one because we became fast friends in this whole process. And that’s our thing. We call each other Infinity Stones.
Of course, “Infinity Stones” plays on both stars’ surnames, a fact that interviewer Katey Rich pointed out when suggesting that they bring another famous Stone—Sharon Stone—into their friendship fold. Gladstone joked:
Oh, we’re talking. We’ve got big plans.
Lily and Emma have been neck-and-neck throughout the 2024 awards season. The former scooped up the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for her captivating work as Mollie Burkhart in Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed dark Western. And Stone took the Globe for Best Actress in the Musical or Comedy category, as well as the BAFTA and the Critics’ Choice Award, for her bold, brazen performance as Bella Baxter in the seductively weird Poor Things.
The decorated duo is honored in the same category at both the upcoming Screen Actors Guild Awards on February 24 and the Oscars next month, on March 10. But whoever wins—Maestro‘s Carey Mulligan, Anatomy of a Fall‘s Sandra Hüller and Nyad‘s Annette Bening join them in this year’s Best Actress category at the Academy Awards—Gladstone proclaims she’s found “a sister in all this” in Stone. She previously told The Washington Post:
[We’re] rooting for each other so much. I’m getting all these sweet texts from her. Or we’re needing to vent about stuff. It’s a very sweet friendship.
Gladstone has received public support from another famous friend too: her Killers of the Flower Moon co-star Leonardo DiCaprio. She noted how the notoriously press-shy movie star has been uncharacteristically showing up to more industry events this promo season to give his lesser-known co-star a boost, telling Vanity Fair:
This project is super special to him. You can see that in how much he’s been turning up for it. I’ve thought about that. It’s leading by example and just being there. We just enjoy each other’s company. We had some settling-in time at the beginning, just getting to know each other. But after a few scenes, I just saw immediately that there was room for improvisation, that there was room for experimenting with the different levels of love, complicities, suspicion, all of it.
If Lily Gladstone does take home the gold on Oscar Sunday for her acting opposite Leo, she will make history, becoming the first Native American woman to win Best Actress. And she’ll undoubtedly have her pal Emma Stone cheering her on while she does it. Or if the equally worthy Emma is the one at the podium at this year’s ceremony, Lily will surely return the favor. They, and we, will be happy either way!
