Emma Stone, one of Hollywood's most acclaimed actors with seven Oscar nominations and two wins, has revealed the two comedies that inspired her to pursue filmmaking. Speaking to the Houston Chronicle, Stone explained that watching great films fills her with a desire to create, saying she often imagines herself as the characters she sees on screen. Her comedic instincts, evident throughout her career from Superbad to Easy A and Poor Things, appear rooted in films she loved and mimicked as a child.

The two titles she named were The Jerk (1979), starring Steve Martin as an adopted man who leaves home to discover himself, and Hocus Pocus (1993), the Halloween favourite featuring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy as three witches. Stone described the pairing as showing "my age and not my age", noting both films shaped her sense of humour growing up. The Jerk is also known to have been a favourite of director Stanley Kubrick, while Hocus Pocus has since become a cult classic among Halloween enthusiasts.