By Jared Sais
On April 10th, at the World Premiere of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in London, Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield’s body language didn’t exactly scream love — proving that even Hollywood’s cutest couple can feel the strain of a long work day. The two met while filming The Amazing Spider-Man in 2010, and since then, they have become one of the most buzzed about celebrity couples. They’ve been known to gush about each other during interviews, but the lovebirds were strictly business on the red carpet.
Photo 1 (from left to right above): In this photo, Stone and Garfield are facing each other and looking deeply into each other’s eyes. Her eyes are shut more tightly, and her dimples are more defined and closer together. These signs indicate that she is feeling playful and carefree as opposed to a forced, red carpet smile. His expression mirrors her affection because it is lighter and more romantic in nature.
Although Stone’s eyes and dimples say playful, her and Garfield’s upper bodies are telling a different story. Her hand is touching her dress is a self-touch gesture, which is usually used to comfort oneself in high stress situations. This touch can come in the form of simply rubbing or playing with one’s own clothing or body parts. In this case, we see the actress use her dress as the non-verbal cue that she’s stressed out. This snapshot indicates that, while they may be absolutely in love with each other away from the cameras, at this moment, their affection seems more like a strategically posed photo.
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The final and most useful cue to identifying Stone and Garfield’s true emotions is by looking at their feet. Your feet point to the direction you want to go. If you’re interested in someone, your feet will be pointed in their direction; if not, then your feet will be pointed away. Stone’s feet are pointed straight in front of her, not toward her beau. Similarly, his feet are also pointing away from Stone. But I think this speaks more for the situation than it does the state of their relationship. Their bodies and faces may be in photo shoot mode, but their feet are ready to get inside, away from the cameras.
Photo 2: Here, their lack of enthusiasm is more evident. Stone is giving a standard glamour photo smirk. Her smile isn’t genuine because it’s missing ocular muscle movement, also known as crow’s feet or smile lines. When people truly smile, their eyes and mouth both move to form a distinct facial expression. Because Stone and Garfield are smiling only with their mouths, this means that they are smiling purely for the cameras.
Stone has her head tilted away from Garfield, which is a bit odd because couples usually tend to gravitate towards one another. If you covered up either Stone or Garfield in the photo, it would seem like they were alone on the red carpet. When a couple is being photographed together, they usually pose as one unit, which isn’t what I see here. However, this could be the 30th photo taken of them, and they most likely just want to mix it up when it comes to posing.
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As we saw in photo 1, Stone is still rubbing her dress with her hand, and Garfield continues to have his hand in his pocket. Both gestures indicate that they are trying to bring down their stress levels.
The actor is also holding his girlfriend pretty tightly. Combined with his “bad boy” facial expression, this body language tells me that he is establishing his dominance. Your state of mind can trigger your entire body to follow suit. In this case, he is portraying high confidence and a rebel persona, which is leaking into his body language and how he holds the actress in his arms.
Despite the visible signs of stress, how do I know that Stone and Garfield are still in love? In both photos, we can see that they’re mirroring each other’s body language, which is a strong indicator of affection. From their gestures of destressing to the direction of their upper bodies and feet, the similarities in their poses show that these two are like-minded and compatible. Stone-Garfield fans can breathe a sigh of relief!
Jared Sais is co-author of the website The Non-Verbal Game, where you can find free downloadable content. He is an expert in non-verbal communication, who specializes in body language, micro-expressions and lie deception as they relate to life and love.
