# External SWF - accessing the stage

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/external-swf-accessing-the-stage/306421>\
**Category:** flash\
**Created:** [March 15, 2010, 9:24am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/external-swf-accessing-the-stage/306421 "2010-03-15T09:24:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RossKidd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@RossKidd](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/RossKidd)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2010, 9:24am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/external-swf-accessing-the-stage/306421/1 "2010-03-15T09:24:54Z")

</div>

This works fine in my Move but when I load this as an external movie

```auto
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE, moveMyMouse);

```

the error is

“Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.”

How can I use the parent stage to detect the mouseevents?

Thanks