The Real Life Partners Of The Cast Of Cruella
Disney's "Cruella" was originally scheduled for a December 2020 release, but — like so many other movies — its premiere was pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic. The crime comedy turned out to be well worth the wait, of course, and, in June 2021, Deadline reported that a sequel is officially in the works. The film's success is due, in part, to the incredible cast and their crazy (in every sense of the word) onscreen chemistry. Even though the characters in "Cruella" thrive on conflict, the secret behind their fierce onscreen rivalries was actually their intense love for each other behind-the-scenes.
The Emmas of "Cruella" demonstrated that love clearly during a gushing joint interview with "Entertainment Weekly." "She's so much fun! I mean, she would just come into the trailer like, we're having tequila," Emma Stone said of working with Emma Thompson. "I love her to death." And Thompson agreed, adding, "We had to control ourselves, put it that way. We had to prevent ourselves from having too much fun, because then the job would simply not have got done and we'd have had to have our makeup done lying on the floor, with ice bags on our heads."
Clearly, the chemistry is strong on- and off-screen for the "Cruella" cast, but many of them also extend that offscreen sizzle more romantically, toward their real-life loves. Here's a look at who the members of the "Cruella" roster are with IRL.
Emma Thompson met Greg Wise amid the breakdown of her first marriage
Emma Thompson, who plays London fashion designer (and Cruella de Vil's eventual rival) Baroness von Hellman, has been married to fellow actor Greg Wise since 2003, but the couple connected all the way back in 1995 on the set of "Sense & Sensibility." At the time, Thompson was still married to her first husband, Kenneth Branagh, but the relationship was breaking down. "Work saved me and Greg saved me," Thompson later explained during a BBC Radio 4 interview, according to The Guardian. "He picked up the pieces and put them together again."
In a 2020 essay for Red, Thompson shared what she's learned over the course of her relationship with Wise, which has lasted more than 25 years now. "I've learned you're not going to have the same relationship after 20 years as the relationship you had when you met — people change and it's important to be honest about that," she wrote. "When couples say they've had two decades of unbroken bliss, they're lying. Within that time your relationship will die and comeback as a new one maybe four or five times. If you're lucky, it'll be with the same person. When things do go peculiar, the world isn't falling apart — the old relationship is making way for the new one." Over the years Thompson and Wise have grown their family: they welcomed a daughter, Gaia, together in 1999, when the actor was 40 and, in 2003, the couple adopted Tindyebwa Agaba, a former child soldier from Rwanda.
SNL brought Emma Stone and Dave McCary together
When it comes to the love life of the top-billed star of "Cruella," most people probably think first of her high-profile relationship with her "Amazing Spider-Man" costar Andrew Garfield, whom she dated for four years before their 2015 split. Now, Emma Stone is married and she and her husband, Dave McCary, seem to make a conscious effort to keep their relationship as low-key and private as possible. Stone and McCary crossed paths for the first time on the set of "Saturday Night Live" when she hosted the long-running sketch comedy show in 2016. McCary worked on "SNL" from 2013 until 2019 as a segment director and directed Stone in the sketch "Wells for Boys" during her stint as host. The actor and comedian started dating in 2017 and announced their engagement in December 2019 (McCary actually shared a very rare couple's photo on his Instagram for the occasion). They wed the following fall and welcomed their first child, a baby girl, in March 2021.
Shortly after news of their engagement broke, a source close to the pair spoke to People about why they work so well as a couple. "Dave is a super down-to-earth guy. Most of his best friends are people he's known since he was a kid, and he's not affected by Hollywood," the insider said. "He's very creative and funny, and he and Emma share the same sense of adventure."
Did Emily Beecham get married in secret?
Emily Beecham, who plays Cruella's adoptive mother, Catherine Miller, is generally tight-lipped about her romantic life, but has apparently been linked to German actor Max Befort "for years," according to The Cinemaholic. What's more, there have been rumblings about the pair's marital status. Speaking to the Mail on Sunday in the spring of 2021, Befort's mother said something that suggested that the "Sulphur and White" costars may have actually secretly tied the knot.
"This is always top-secret. They are both very busy at the moment," she said. "And because my daughter-in-law is a superstar, I won't talk about her. I want her to remain my daughter-in-law!" Of course, just because she called Beecham "my daughter-in-law" does not necessarily mean Beecham and Befort are definitely married, but stranger things have happened. So far, neither Beecham or Befort have personally commented on the rumors of a wedding.
Beecham doesn't really open up about her personal life in the press, and it sure seems like she wouldn't mind keeping it that way. Chatting with Grazia about the pressure and attention that often comes with celebrity, she said, "But what can go wrong if you just keep a low profile, be nice and do your own thing? I can't imagine people would be really that interested in chasing me around.'
Mark Strong says wife Liza Marshall picked up on his 'evil soul'
In "Cruella," Mark Strong plays the Baroness' valet, John. In real life, he's a dedicated husband and father. The actor shares two children with his wife, film producer Liza Marshall. In a 2020 interview with "The Road Less Travelled" podcast (via Evening Standard), the actor explained that growing up without a father himself has had a big impact on his own approach to parenting. "I take my responsibility as a father and my behavior as a father really seriously because I have no blueprint, I have nobody who kind of told me, I had no father to look up to and no father to tell me what to," he said.
Strong has made a career playing bad guys and credits his wife with pushing him in that direction, professionally. "She saw my evil soul before anybody else," he explained in a 2013 Express interview. "She realised that I could play the part but nobody else did. The people at the BBC didn't believe it, nor did the writer Joe Penhall who is now a great mate. They all thought because of the parts I had played: 'He's way too nice, he can't plumb the depths of darkness.'"
Kayvan Novak and his partner, Talitha Stone, are dedicated pet parents IRL
Kayvan Novak plays Roger Dearly (aka the future owner of Pongo, Perdita, and every last one of their adorable puppies) in "Cruella." In real life, the Anita to his Roger is Talitha Stone, an actor whose credits include "Emmerdale," "The Durrells," "Oi, Pussy," and "The First Team." Appropriately, considering Novak's role as the future pet parent to some (well, dozens) of Disney's most iconic animals, the couple are pet-lovers in real life, and Stone regularly posts pictures of their cat, Milo, and dog, Ziggy, on social media. The two also share snaps of their adventures on IG, such as a carousel of photos they took while visiting San Diego for Comic-Con in 2019.
On July 19, 2020, the "What We Do In the Shadows" star revealed that he and Stone had been together for half a decade. "Happy 5 year anniversary @talitha_stone__ You are the ❤️ of my life," the actor wrote on Instagram, along with a picture of the pair kissing through face masks amid the coronavirus pandemic.