For Emma Stone, Being Bad Feels Awfully Good

With “Cruella” and other recent projects, the Oscar winner is drawn to playing an antiheroine: “There’s something so freeing about it,” she says.

Sure, Emma Stone can give you yearning. But isn’t it more fun to do a little scheming instead? Since her Oscar win four years ago for the winsome romantic musical “La La Land,” the 32-year-old Stone has gravitated to walks on the wild side. “The Favourite” proved she can play avarice as brightly as innocence, and now Stone’s budding penchant for villainy gets a full-blown showcase in “Cruella” (opening Friday), which imagines a live-action origin story for the animated foe from Disney’s “101 Dalmatians.” “I loved the character of Cruella — I don’t mean I love the things that drove her, because she’s obviously a very sick woman, but I found the character very interesting,” Stone said.