Emma Stone
Emma Stone first met Damien Chazelle in 2014 when she was performing in Cabaret on Broadway. Chazelle and Hurwitz turned up to the performance without Stone knowing and then approached her for a meeting. Stone claims that it was Chazelle's passion and vision for the film that made her say yes to the project. They talked through how they'd make the film feel cohesive, with its small intimate scenes and big dance numbers, and Stone felt she'd be in good hands.
Stone had studied ballet as a child and fell in love with musicals after seeing Les Miserables at the age of eight. Stone says the grueling schedule for Cabaret helped her build up the necessary stamina for La La Land.
Originally, Mia and Sebastian were supposed to be in their early 20s, but once Stone and Gosling had been cast, it became more realistic for Mia to have spent six years waiting for a break, rather than a year as had been previously scripted. And so Stone and Chazelle felt they needed to find a more concrete reason why she'd stuck at the dream for so long, despite seemingly having no success. In Mia's last audition in the film, she sings a song about her aunt. In previous versions of the film, Mia wasn't asked to tell a story in the audition—she was given a script as usual, and the script was the story of the aunt. Stone and Chazelle decided that instead of Mia only having been spurred on by late greats such as Ingrid Bergman, it her commitment against all odds would make more sense if she wanted to succeed because her aunt had introduced her to acting. And so, the story of Mia's aunt was built into the script after Stone came on board, and because of her.
Some of the singing in the film was recorded live, including Mia's audition song. It was Stone who asked if she could sing the song live, as she felt it was more like a monologue than anything else and wanted it to feel raw.
Ryan Gosling
Ryan Gosling was approached by Chazelle after he'd met with Stone, Chazelle saying that the two "feel like the closest thing that we have right now to an old Hollywood couple."
Although Gosling could play piano by ear before work started on the film, he'd never learnt jazz piano before. By the end of the three month rehearsal process he was able to play all the numbers we see Sebastian playing in the film. No hand doubles were used.
Gosling was no stranger to singing and dancing. As a child, he appeared on The Mickey Mouse Club, performing alongside Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Justin Timberlake. He also took part in amateur hip-hop dance competitions.
“I was really intrigued by the fact that Damien wanted to make a film in the style of the Fred and Ginger and Gene Kelly eras, because those are the musicals that move me. The fact that he wanted this film to have that kind of aesthetic and spirit of playfulness was fantastic, because it was also a secret wish of mine to make a film like that,” says Gosling. "What other job is it a part of your job to just sit in front of a piano for three months and play? It was one of the most fulfilling pre-production periods I've ever had."
John Legend
La La Land is ten-time Grammy- and Academy Award-winning singer, songwriter and musician John Legend's first major film role, although he has made appearances in Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm and American musical comedy film Soul Men. Producer Jordan Horowitz explained that they "wanted to cast someone out of the music world for [the role of Keith] and John came along." Legend was delighted to accept the role:“I thought this would be a great opportunity to transition into doing more acting in a role that feels pretty familiar to what I already do for a living, which is make music,” he says.
Legend was deprived of his normal instrument, the piano, for La La Land and had to learn to play the guitar for the role instead.
Legend wrote the musical number "Start a Fire."
J.K. Simmons
Simmons plays the manager of Lipton's restaurant. Chazelle explains how, after Simmons' Oscar winning performance as the passionate and tyrannical drum coach in Whiplash, they all got a kick out of him playing the "jazz-hating, bitter owner who keeps trying to dissuade his pianist from playing anything other than jingle bells."
