But she made it onto the stage and was helped by the former Best Actress winners who introduced the nominees on stage, with friend Jennifer Lawrence putting an arm around her waist to support her.
The custom strapless Louis Vuitton number featured a shell print on the mint-green background, with a peplum-style detail.
E! News correspondent Zanna Roberts Rassi said Stone’s stylist Petra Flannery chose the colour of the gown in homage to Poor Things’ “sorbet theme”, as well as the star’s looks at the SAG Awards and the Golden Globes earlier this year.
She finished off the look with a 30-carat yellow diamond choker, with her hair loose.
Stone took out the win for her performance as Bella Baxter in Poor Things, which was nominated for 11 awards on the night. Her co-star Mark Ruffalo lost Best Supporting Actor to Oppenheimer’s Robert Downey Jr, while director Yorgos Lanthimos lost to Christopher Nolan.
It’s Stone’s second best actress Oscar, after she won for La La Land in 2017. She’s been nominated in the supporting actress category for The Favourite and Birdman in past years as well, with a total of five nominations to her name.
Holding back tears as she spoke on stage, Stone recalled, “The other night, I was panicking, as you can kind of see, happens a lot — that maybe something like this could happen and Yorgos [Lanthimos] said to me, please take yourself out of it.
“And he was right, because it’s not about me. It’s about a team that came together to make something greater than the sum of its parts.”
Paying tribute to her co-stars and to the crew members who worked on the film, Stone then thanked Poor Things’ director Yorgos Lanthimos personally.
“Thank you for the gift of a lifetime in Bella Baxter.”
The Oscars wrapped up at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles today, with Oppenheimer taking home Best Picture, its lead Cillian Murphy taking out Best Actor, and Nolan the award for Best Director.
