Emma Stone & Dave McCary Take 'Step Forward' With 'A Real Pain' (EXCL)
Emma Stone is enjoying great success as a movie producer and is firmly on track to emulate the success of her A-list peers like Reese Witherspoon and Margot Robbie, according to an insider, who exclusively tells Life & Style she’s living out her Hollywood dreams side by side with doting husband Dave McCary.
“Emma and Dave are in this for the long term and the great thing about their partnership as producers is that they are egoless,” says a professional and personal contact of the couple. “It’s all about the work and it’s all about elevating their friends.”
Emma, 36, and hubby Dave, 39, founded their production company Fruit Tree in 2020, though the insider notes, “They made a giant step forward this year with A Real Pain, which is making money, has already landed two Oscar nominations and seems to have cornered a certain win with Kieran Culkin‘s work as a supporting actor.”
A Real Pain’s star, writer and director, Jesse Eisenberg, who first met Emma while filming their 2009 movie Zombieland, lauded the producer to People in October 2024, telling the outlet of when they first met, “I remember just thinking, ‘This is, like, the smartest person I’ve ever met.’ She’s so brilliant.”
“She’s an incredible producer,” Jesse, 41, added of the La La Land star. “It’s hard to describe, because what a producer does is a little bit amorphous, but I’ll just give some examples: She read the script and gave me the best note I got on my script of a thing that I could rewrite. She’s on marketing calls with the movie studio about how to present this movie to the world.”
The insider adds that, “This year, Jesse Eisenberg has been the big beneficiary of Dave and Emma’s creativity and expertise, and people are finally taking him seriously as a director and writer because of the special endorsement and encouragement Dave and Emma have provided.”
“Remember, Jesse has been trying to crack the A-list filmmaking game for years, but it was Dave and Emma who finally ushered him into the big leagues. That’s huge for all three of them and bodes for big things to come.”
“There’s something deeper going on here,” when it comes to Emma’s preternatural producing talent, especially when combined with her husband, the insider suggests. “When you look at famous couples who have partnered up to produce, it goes wrong more often than it goes right,” the source adds.
“Jennifer Aniston was once a partner at Brad Pitt’s Plan B before their marriage fell apart. Reese Witherspoon and Jim Toth‘s marriage seemed to be a victim of too much success at the company they formed and then sold, Hello Sunshine.”
But unlike those Hollywood horror stories bound for flames, “Dave and Emma have a healthy relationship and an army of people they’ve known forever who love them and who are rooting for them, from Emma’s best friend Jennifer Lawrence to Dave’s longtime confidant, former SNL mainstay Kyle Mooney.”
“They all work together incredibly well.”