Earlier this month, an Arizona teenager pulled off an Oscar-worthy ‘prom proposal’ in a bid to get actress Emma Stone to attend as his date.
Vying to grab the star’s attention through the medium of song, dance and viral video, 17-year-old Jacob Staudemaier decided to recreate the opening scene from La La Land.
Recruiting his classmates to join in as extras, he re-wrote the lyrics to opening number ‘Another Day Of Sun’ and even choreographed his own version of the memorable dance scene: the clip begins with a suited-up Jacob sitting in his car, before panning out to a ‘traffic jam.’
‘I need a date to prom. I should’ve done it earlier, but now I’ll sing the song,’ he begins, before going on to claim that ‘People say I look like Ryan Gosling, and maybe that’s a bit far-fetched.’
The prom in question takes place on April 29th in Arizona, which, as Jacob alludes to in his song, is also Emma’s home state. Being a generous chap, he’s even offering to take her to Olive Garden beforehand, which is basically the US equivalent of Bella Italia…
‘It started with the kind of crazy idea of saying, “Yeah, maybe I’ll go with Emma Stone to the prom,”’ he told USA Today. ‘I decided if I was going to do this, I really needed to do it big.’
Now, Emma has finally responded, and while sadly it's a 'no' from this year's Best Actress winner, the letter she's written is possibly the loveliest rejection ever.
'Jacob, thanks for making the greatest proposal I’ve ever received,' she wrote.
'I can’t tell you what an honour that was and how much I smiled through the entire beautifully orchestrated video. I’m in London working but I hope you have the best time at prom and I’m grateful you thought of me. Thank you.'
'PS. I do see Gosling around the eyes. Love Emma,' she signed off.
While (in the spirit of the film) Jason might not quite have got the outcome he'd wished for - and won't be recreating the planetarium sequence in his school auditorium - he's certainly raised the bar for proposals (prom or otherwise) from here on in. As Emma’s character Mia would put it, ‘Here’s to the fools who dream…’
Watch Jason's brilliant 'prom-posal' below...
READ MORE: La La Land's Director Reveals The Secret To Emma Stone And Ryan Gosling's Chemistry