A new leading lady! Ellen DeGeneres joked that she was the first choice to play Emma Stone’s La La Land character, Mia, and teamed up with Ryan Gosling to make her own behind-the-scenes trailer. Watch it above!
The video, which aired on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday, January 18, cuts between real clips of the film’s director and producer speaking and fake scenes of Gosling (who plays Sebastian) and the comedian. “When we were casting up the movie, one of the appeals to me was that you know they’re going to be a couple,” director Damien Chazelle says. “You can see them and imagine them together. It’s like Freddie and Ginger, Bogart and Bacall — a classic, Hollywood screen couple.”
Meanwhile, the Notebook star, 36, picks up DeGeneres, 58, in his arms, and she plants a kiss on his cheek as they both start laughing. In another clip, the talk-show host re-creates the scene where Mia walks into the bar in a blue dress to see Sebastian playing the piano. DeGeneres also sports a long, brunette wig for a scene reminiscent of Mia’s one-woman show.
“You have two actors that have an onscreen chemistry that I think is one for the ages,” producer Marc Platt says.
After airing the clip on her show, DeGeneres quipped, “I shouldn’t have dropped out. I really shouldn’t have.”
The film won big at the 2017 Golden Globes, snagging seven awards. Gosling and Stone won for best actor and best actress in a musical or comedy, respectively.
