Emma Stone has helped breathe some life back into the box office with her Cruella origin story, but there’s one aspect of the classic villain that hasn’t made it into the new film.
While Emma’s incarnation of the Disney favourite can be seen sporting her trademark black-and-white do, high-fashion ensembles and, of course, menacing expressions, you won’t catch her brandishing her usual staple cigarette holder.
The Oscar-winning star has now clarified that this is because they were simply “not allowed” to show Cruella smoking in her latest big screen outing.
“That is not allowed in 2021,” she told the New York Times. “We are not allowed to smoke on screen in a Disney film.”
Emma noted that it was “difficult” for her to bring Cruella to life without one of her most famous props, explaining: “I was so excited to have that green plume of smoke in there, but it was not possible.
“I don’t want to promote smoking,” she added. “But I’m also not trying to promote skinning puppies.”
Cruella sees the Easy A star going toe-to-toe with Dame Emma Thompson, who plays Baroness von Hellman, the head of a fictional London fashion house.
Meanwhile, Joel Fry and Paul Walter Hauser play Jasper and Horace, Cruella’s henchmen who were first seen in the original 101 Dalmatians film, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste appears as Anita Darling.
The latest in Disney’s live-action films has proved popular with cinemagoers, following the reopening of UK cinemas, but has received a somewhat more lukewarm response from critics.
Cruella is in UK cinemas now, and is available to watch on Disney+ with Premier Access.
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