She aced it! Emma Stone totally transformed into tennis legend Billie Jean King on Thursday, April 28, on the L.A. set of her upcoming movie Battle of the Sexes.
The 27-year-old actress rocked a 1970s-esque white tennis dress with blue and yellow stripes and wire-rimmed glasses, and ditched her red locks for King’s brunette ‘do. Stone, who has been frequently hitting the gym to play the tennis champ, looked super toned and athletic.
The Oscar nominee is starring in the film with Steve Carell, who plays former men’s world tennis No. 1 Bobby Riggs. In 1973, Riggs taunted female tennis players, saying that even the top women in the country couldn’t beat him at age 55. King, then 29, initially turned down his invitation for a match, but after he defeated Margaret Court and continued to put down female athletes, she eventually accepted his challenge. King beat him in an epic match, known as the Battle of the Sexes, at the Houston Astrodome — breaking down barriers and pushing for gender equality in pro sports.
In her career, King, who is now 72, won 39 Grand Slam titles, including 20 championships at Wimbledon, and the site of the U.S. Open was renamed in her honor. She was also one of the first openly gay professional athletes.
There are currently multiple films in development about the Battle of the Sexes tennis match, including a Will Ferrell movie, The Match Maker, which explores the theory that Riggs bet that he would lose and threw the match to pay off his gambling debts. There is also a still-untitled HBO project that will star Elizabeth Banks as King and Paul Giamatti as Riggs.
Battle of the Sexes is set to hit theaters in 2017.
