You’ve probably seen the memes. Maybe you’ve even stumbled across that one clip on a late-night YouTube spiral where a very young, very intense Emma Stone is screaming at Kieran Culkin in the middle of a grocery store. It’s loud. It's crude. It involves a public address system and a truly alarming amount of talk about HPV.
This is the reality of the Emma Stone Movie 43 connection.
If you haven’t seen the film, count yourself lucky, or maybe unlucky, depending on how much you enjoy watching A-list celebrities light their own reputations on fire for the sake of a gag. Movie 43 isn’t just a bad movie. It is a legendary, hall-of-fame disaster. We’re talking about a film that Peter Farrelly—the guy behind Dumb and Dumber—spent years cobbling together like a cinematic Frankenstein’s monster.
The Grocery Store Fight Nobody Asked For
In her segment, titled "Veronica," Emma Stone plays the titular character. She runs into an ex-boyfriend, played by Kieran Culkin, who is working the register at a CVS-style grocery store. What starts as a tense "oh, hey" quickly devolves into a screaming match over the store’s intercom.
The joke, if you can call it that, is that they are airing out incredibly private, disgusting details of their past relationship while a store full of confused shoppers listens in. Stone is fully committed. She’s shouting about "wizard" hobos and magic beans. It’s bizarre to see a future Oscar winner—someone who would eventually lead La La Land and Poor Things—delivering lines this juvenile.
Kieran Culkin, long before his Succession fame, matches her energy beat for beat. They have genuine chemistry, which honestly makes the whole thing weirder. You find yourself thinking, "Wait, these two are actually good together," right before the script takes another hard left into "fingers in buttholes" territory.
How Did They Get Her to Do This?
This is the question that haunts the internet. How do you get Emma Stone, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Richard Gere, and Halle Berry into a movie where a cat urinates on people and a man has testicles on his neck?
The answer is basically a mix of guilt, friendship, and a very clever scheduling trick.
The producer, Charles Wessler, is a long-time industry veteran with a deep Rolodex. He didn't pitch this as a traditional feature film. Instead, he approached actors with the idea of a "short film" that would only take two or three days to shoot. He’d say, "Hey, I’m doing this little thing with my friend Pete Farrelly. It’s just a weekend in NYC. Hugh Jackman is already doing it. Do you want in?"
Once he got Jackman and Winslet to film their segment (the infamous neck-testicle date), he used that footage as a "calling card." He’d show it to other actors as proof that it was okay to be "gross." Basically, he created a domino effect of peer pressure. Emma Stone filmed her part years before the movie actually hit theaters. By the time it was released in 2013, she was a much bigger star, and the movie looked like a bizarre relic from a different era of her career.
The Chaos of Movie 43 Explained
The film doesn't even have a consistent plot. In the US theatrical version, it’s framed as a desperate screenwriter (Dennis Quaid) holding a studio executive (Greg Kinnear) at gunpoint to pitch these insane stories. In the international version, it’s about teenagers looking for a "forbidden" film on the deep web.
It’s a mess.
Movie 43 currently sits with a 4% on Rotten Tomatoes. Richard Roeper called it the "Citizen Kane of awful." Most of the cast famously refused to do any press for it. They didn't show up to the premiere. They didn't tweet about it. They treated it like a collective fever dream they all hoped we would forget.
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Is It Actually "So Bad It’s Good"?
Honestly? Not really. Most "so bad they're good" movies are accidental failures—think The Room. Movie 43 is a deliberate attempt to be offensive, and that often feels more exhausting than funny.
However, the Emma Stone Movie 43 segment is widely considered one of the "better" parts of the film. That’s a low bar, sure. But because Stone and Culkin are actually talented actors who can handle rapid-fire dialogue, their sketch feels like a rejected Saturday Night Live bit rather than a total train wreck.
There's a specific kind of fascination in watching it now. It’s like looking at old high school photos of a famous person where they have a terrible haircut and questionable fashion choices. You see the raw talent Stone has, even when she's being asked to do something incredibly stupid.
Why This Movie Still Matters in 2026
We live in an era of very polished, brand-safe celebrity content. Most stars wouldn't dream of doing something this risky today. They have managers and publicists who would set the script on fire before the actor even saw it.
Movie 43 represents a weird, lawless moment in Hollywood history. It was a time when a producer could guilt-trip half of the A-list into a raunchy anthology just because he was "friends" with them. It’s a reminder that even the most calculated careers have weird detours.
If you’re a completionist who wants to see everything Emma Stone has ever done, you’ll have to brave it eventually. Just don't say I didn't warn you about the grocery store intercom.
Practical Steps for the Curious Viewer
- Watch the clip first: Don't commit to the whole movie. Search for the "Veronica" sketch on YouTube. It's five minutes long and contains everything you need to see from Stone’s involvement.
- Check the version: If you do watch the full film, be aware that the "framing story" changes depending on whether you're watching the US or International cut. The US version with Dennis Quaid is generally considered slightly more tolerable.
- Context is key: Remember that this was filmed around 2009-2010. Stone was fresh off Superbad and Zombieland. She was still building her "cool, funny girl" brand, which explains why she was willing to play ball with the Farrelly brothers.
- Skip the rest: Unless you have a very high tolerance for "gross-out" humor, most critics suggest skipping the segments involving the "iBabe" or the "animated cat." Your brain will thank you.