How much of a dual sense of responsibility do you feel to this material given that it’s such a well-loved novel and comes from such a deeply personal place for both director Tate Taylor and author Kathryn Stockett?

Emma Stone: Did you say pressure [laughs]? I felt from the very beginning that there was a little bit of pressure because it’s my mum’s favourite book and she made that very clear at the very beginning. So, at home there was pressure. You always figure that your mum would be like: “I’m so proud of you!” But no, she was: “I don’t see you as Skeeter but maybe you’ll surprise me!” I’m just kidding, just kidding! I like being hard on her in public because she does it to my grandma and I finally have the chance to get her back. But I think you feel the pressure and the responsibility because it’s a beloved book and you love it too. But then you have to kind of put that aside and play the character in the best way you know how, and do what you need to do in order to bring that character to life and not worry about the millions of people that you may be disappointing!

Does the responsibility of taking on a role like this cut deeper because of the burden of representation? There are some really, really big issues being discussed and yet the story focuses on a white girl, which has been criticised in some quarters…

Emma Stone: For me, the political part of being an actor is very tough. To sit here and tell you why you should feel this way or that way about my character does not feel like my responsibility. It feels like the responsibility of the writer and the person who created it. I mean, learning this kind of process of “let me tell you why you shouldn’t see Skeeter this way” or “you’re coming in with this judgement of her being a white character who is supposed to be taken this way or that way”. I’m just focused on playing the character to the best of my ability. I didn’t see Skeeter that way as a reader, I didn’t see her that way as an actor, but I can’t tell the audience or reviewers how to feel and that’s something that Viola [Davis] has also pointed out. As an actor, you have to just think about the truth of your character. You have to think about how to play the character in the way that you know it needs to be played in your heart and why you were hired. So, it’s hard for me to sit here and go, “see Skeeter this way,” and it’s hard for me to fight for that because I didn’t write the character.

How does racism affect Hollywood? Does it manifest itself at all within the industry from what you’ve experienced?

Emma Stone: Well, as Viola has said, it’s all about making money and things become increasingly stereotypical and increasingly watered down as time goes on. I mean, one of my favourite movies is Network and that movie would never be made now. You don’t want to call people out on their crap! You’re sitting in a little room and you’re looking at your little TV and you don’t want to hear that anymore. You want to hear that it’s important, that it’s important to read your websites, and important to watch your TV shows, and important to stay in your own little world and escape. This is the stuff that you don’t want to hear, or you don’t want to be confronted with and so explosions are fun to watch! And I’m not saying that’s bad. It’s great. I love explosions. I love my websites and I love my TV. But I think that we also need to face the fact that we’re afraid to face ourselves a lot of the time and that’s why a lot of this is happening.

So, would you say that Hollywood is getting more and more conservative?

Emma Stone: There’s so much censorship it’s insane, even in comedy in the sense of not being able to curse. I saw Fast Times At Ridgemont High for the first time two weeks ago and that movie would never be made now… a 15-year-old having sex with a 30-year-old. You would never see that in a movie now and that was 25 years ago. I mean, it’s just increasingly, increasingly… you take an R-rated movie and you make a PG-13. There’s not as much censorship on the BBC, I know that. Or when you go to Canada everything’s not blurred. But in the States, everything is bleeped, blurred, cut early…