Before there was Emma Stone, there was Desiree Garcia.

Garcia, 39, played Madeline in Damien Chazelle’s 2009 Boston movie “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench,’’ about the complicated romance between a jazz musician and a grad student. The film went on to become a hit at the Tribeca Film Festival. It was also the inspiration for Chazelle’s latest film, “La La Land,’’ which is up for 14 Oscars on Sunday.

Garcia, who filmed “Guy’’ while she was getting her PhD at Boston University, and is now associate professor and director of film and media studies at Arizona State University, has followed “La La Land,’’ not only because of her history with the film, but because she teaches a class called “The Musical’’ and has focused her academic work on the genre.

She’s paid attention to the raves for the best picture-nominee, but also to the controversy surrounding its cast; “La La Land’’ stars two white actors, Stone, who plays actress Mia, and Ryan Gosling, who’s plays jazz-obsessed pianist Sebastian. Garcia said critics should take note that “Guy and Madeline’’ starred a Latina woman and a black actor, trumpeter Jason Palmer, who played Guy. She said Chazelle’s “La La Land’’ cast says more about what it takes to get a movie made in Hollywood than the intentions of the director.

“As he has said, multiple times, it was really hard selling this film,’’ Garcia said.

(Chazelle spoke to the Globe at the Toronto International Film Festival about getting financed. “It was not exactly a ka-ching thing for Hollywood,’’ he said. “Original anything is not exactly easy right now. Original musical is about as uneasy as it gets.’’)

While Garcia had no involvement in the film, she does get a credit in “La La Land,’’ even though she didn’t notice it at first. She’s listed as having made a contribution to the soundtrack because in the opening scene, which features freeway drivers in traffic listening to music in their cars, one of those cars is playing the soundtrack from “Guy and Madeline.’’

Garcia said she was heartened by some of the other nods to the original film. One, she said, is a “La La Land’’ shot of Stone walking by a mural of Hollywood legends, which mirrors a “Guy and Madeline’’ scene where Garcia passes a mural near the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square.

Garcia was in her late 20s when a young Chazelle contacted her about appearing in his musical. The director, who’d studied at Harvard, was looking for a dancer, and was given Garcia’s name by a local tap teacher. After meeting with Chazelle, Garcia agreed to play Madeline in the movie, as long as it didn’t interfere with her studies.

“It was kind of a stressful time for me,’’ she remembered. “The first priority was my dissertation.’’

Garcia said she didn’t intend to teach “Guy and Madeline’’ as part of her curriculum this year, but that her students have wanted her behind-the-scenes take on the film. “I feel a little strange asking it to be required,’’ she said, with a laugh.

Garcia is the author of “The Migration of Musical Film: From Ethnic Margins to American Mainstream.’’ Last week, she gave context to “La La Land’’ in an article with the headline: “La La Land’s ‘Burst-Into-Song’ Style Echoes the Intimacy of Early Black, Mexican, and Jewish Productions of Yore.’’