Tucked into a corner booth at a seafood restaurant off the Pacific Coast Highway， Emma Stone listens attentively as a waiter with a handlebar mustache describes the evenings specials. Maybe its the candles， but Stones green eyes look even bigger than usual as she nods enthusiastically， taking it all in. Then the waiter turns to leave， and the 26-year-old actress lets the facade drop.“I was concentrating so hard on making my face look like I was listening that I totally forgot to listen，” she confesses. “I wasnt listening at all！”

Weve just met， but this feels like a very Emma Stone moment. The self-effacement， the goofiness， the slapstick laugh. Stone is a famous person who is very good at not seeming famous. Its the kind of loose-limbed naturalism that has allowed America to fall for her， starting with her breakout role in 2007s Superbad all the way to her Oscar-nominated turn in Birdman last year.

As a girl in Scottsdale， Arizona， Emily Jean Stone was a spelling-bee champion with recurring acne. She was anxious and suffered panic attacks. “It was really bad，” she says. “The first time I had a panic attack I was sitting in my friends house， and I thought the house was burning down. I called my mom and she brought me home， and for the next three years it just would not stop. I would go to the nurse at lunch most days and just wring my hands. I would ask my mom to tell me exactly how the day was going to be， then ask again 30 seconds later. I just needed to know that no one was going to die and nothing was going to change.”

Stones parents took her to a therapist， but what really helped was when she started acting at a local youth theater. The thing that would induce anxiety in most people—performing onstage in front of hundreds of strangers—for her helped ease it. “Theres something about the immediacy of acting，” Stone says. “You cant afford to think about a million other things. You have to think about the task at hand. Acting forces me to sort of be like a Zen master： What is happening right in this moment？”

When she was 14， Stone created a PowerPoint presentation to try to persuade her parents to let her move to Hollywood. It worked： She got an apartment with her mom in L.A. and a job as a baker at a dogtreat bakery， and before long had graduated to playing the voice of a dog on a Disney Channel sitcom. Within a year shed landed guest spots on Malcolm in the Middle and Louis C.K.s short-lived HBO show， Lucky Louie， and then in 2006—which would have been her senior year of high school—she shot Superbad and was on her way.

Since then， Stones career can be divided into roughly three eras. First came her supporting years， playing the funny， cool girl third or fourth on the bill（The House Bunny， Zombieland）. Then her lead years， doing teen comedy （Easy A） and comedic drama （The Help）. Most recently came her comic-book period， playing Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man and its sequel， as well as Michael Keatons recoveringaddict daughter in Birdman. When she was nominated for an Oscar alongside such luminaries as Meryl Streep and Laura Dern， she claims she didnt even bother writing a speech.

Though shes a funny， gifted， award-winning actress whose face， Woody Allen told me， “is worth the price of admission，” Stone is not without her eccentricities. She buys ingredients to make her own skin-care products. She lurks on strangers blogs， usually mom blogs or ones about baking. She has no shortage of pet peeves： animals dressed in outfits， people who send eight texts instead of one （“Just take a second！”）， classic names intentionally misspelled.

All of which makes her sort of a perfect fit for a Woody Allen movie. Stone has been a fan of Allens since she saw Annie Hall when she was 14. She used to go to the Café Carlyle in Manhattan to watch him play clarinet; she even had a dog named Alvy， after Allens character in Annie Hall， Alvy Singer. She first met the director when he requested a meeting about his last movie， 2014s Magic in the Moonlight. Allen says hed seen her in “one of those young peoples movies” while exercising on his treadmill and thought， “My God， this girl is remarkable.”

“Its terrifying，” she adds. “He doesnt do table reads or any rehearsal. You cant even ask questions about your character， because hell be like： ‘You know this is a movie， right？ ” Says Allen： “I never talk to any of the actors in any of my movies about anything if I can avoid it.”

Irrational Man， their second film together， is a story about， as Stones costar Joaquin Phoenix says in a voice-over at the beginning of the film，“morality， choice， the aesthetics of life， randomness and murder.” Stone plays Jill， an enthusiastic college student who embarks on an ill-fated and possibly dangerous affair with Phoenixs character， an alcoholic philosophy professor. When Allen first began writing the film， he wasnt thinking of Stone. “But once I was 10 pages in， I thought， Oh God， who else would play this so perfectly？ A beautiful young college student， an intellectual philosophy major？ Emma could phone this in and be great.”

“She can handle anything you throw at her，” says Will Gluck， who directed her in Easy A and Friends with Benefits. “Shes so good in everything，” agrees Allen. “I see a lot of the best traits of Diane Keaton in her—Keaton was someone who could be in The Godfatherand and movies with Meryl Streep， but could also do comedy and sing and dance. I think Emma has the potential to be one of the biggest female stars for years.”

Next week Stone goes to Cannes for the premiere of Irrational Man， then to London for a few days with her mom. Then its back to L.A. to start work on La La Land， a contemporary musical about an aspiring actress and a jazz pianist， directed by Damien Chazelle （Whiplash） and co-starring her frequent on-screen partner Ryan Gosling（Gangster Squad; Crazy， Stupid， Love）. Stone will sing and dance in it; shes already rehearsing the dance numbers. But shes also trying to follow the advice of her good friend Bill Murray， who counseled her to keep some things—like singing—for herself.

“He told me to keep some things I love just for me，”Stone says. “The idea is to have some things that you dont feel like you need to share with the world. To have some things that are only yours.” She smiles.

在太平洋海岸公路旁邊的一家海鮮餐廳里，艾瑪·斯通坐在一個(gè)不顯眼的角落位子上，她正在專心致志地聽留著八字胡的服務(wù)生介紹今晚的特色菜。斯通邊專心聽講邊熱情點(diǎn)頭，也許是蠟燭的原因，她的一雙綠眸顯得比平時(shí)更大。然后服務(wù)生轉(zhuǎn)身離開，這位26歲的女演員把正臉轉(zhuǎn)過來?！拔姨珜Ｗ⒂谧屪约旱谋砬榭雌饋硐袷窃谡J(rèn)真聽講，都忘記要聽了，”她坦誠道?！拔彝耆珱]有聽進(jìn)去！”

我們才剛剛見面，但我感覺這是很能體現(xiàn)出艾瑪·斯通個(gè)人特色的一刻。謙遜低調(diào)，傻傻的個(gè)性，大大咧咧的笑容。斯通是一個(gè)十分擅長于讓自己看起來不像名人的名人。美國大眾喜歡的也正是她這種隨性自然的個(gè)性，從2007年她初涉銀幕，出演《太壞了》到去年出演《鳥人》并獲得奧斯卡提名。

艾米麗·吉恩·斯通成長在亞利桑那州的斯科茨代爾市，她是拼字比賽的冠軍，臉上長著反復(fù)發(fā)作的痤瘡。她神經(jīng)緊張，患有恐慌癥?！斑@真的很糟糕，”她說道?！暗谝淮慰只虐Y發(fā)作時(shí)，我正坐在朋友的家里，我當(dāng)時(shí)覺得房子要被燒毀了。我打電話給媽媽，她把我?guī)Щ丶?，在接下來的三年里這樣的情況一直持續(xù)不變。我?guī)缀趺刻於家谖绮蜁r(shí)間去護(hù)士那里，手足無措。我會(huì)問媽媽每天的具體日程安排，然后30秒后又問一次。我只是要確認(rèn)沒人會(huì)死去，沒什么事會(huì)發(fā)生改變?！?/p>

斯通的父母帶她去看了心理治療師，但真正對(duì)她有所幫助的是她在當(dāng)?shù)匾患仪嗌倌陝≡旱谋硌萁?jīng)歷。這種會(huì)使一般人緊張的事——在數(shù)百名的陌生人面前登臺(tái)表演——卻能讓她緩解緊張的情緒?！斑@與表演的瞬時(shí)性有關(guān)，”斯通說。“你承擔(dān)不起胡思亂想的后果。你必須想著手上的任務(wù)。表演迫使我進(jìn)入類似禪宗大師的狀態(tài)：當(dāng)下有什么事情在發(fā)生？”

斯通14歲時(shí)，制作了一個(gè)幻燈片演示文稿試圖說服父母同意她搬到好萊塢去。此舉奏效了：她和媽媽在洛杉磯租了一間公寓，并在一家狗狗面包店當(dāng)面包師，不久后，她得以在迪士尼頻道的一出情景喜劇里為一只狗配音。一年內(nèi)，她分別在《馬爾柯姆的一家》及由劉易斯·C.K.編劇的HBO短壽電視劇《幸運(yùn)路易》中客串角色。接著在2006，那年斯通本應(yīng)在讀高三，她出演了電影《太壞了》，就此開啟她的銀幕之旅。

從那以后，斯通的職業(yè)生涯可大概劃分成三個(gè)階段。第一個(gè)階段是她的配角生涯，在電影里飾演有趣、時(shí)尚大方的女三號(hào)或是女四號(hào)（《女郎我最兔》，《僵尸之地》）。然后是她的主演生涯，主演青春喜劇片（《緋聞?dòng)?jì)劃》）以及喜劇戲?。ā断嘀罚?。最近，她開始出演漫畫人物，在《超凡蜘蛛俠》及其續(xù)集中出演格溫·史黛西，以及在《鳥人》中出演邁克爾·基頓那剛從戒毒所出來的女兒。當(dāng)她與諸如梅麗爾·斯特里普以及勞拉·鄧恩這樣的超強(qiáng)實(shí)力派一起獲得奧斯卡提名時(shí)，她說自己甚至都懶得準(zhǔn)備獲獎(jiǎng)宣言。

盡管斯通是一名有趣、有天賦的獲獎(jiǎng)女演員，光是她這張臉，伍迪·艾倫對(duì)我說過：“就值回票價(jià)了，”但如果斯通不古怪，那她就不是斯通了。她會(huì)買原料自制護(hù)膚品，默默關(guān)注陌生人的博客，通常是一些媽媽寫的博客或者與烘焙有關(guān)的。她有著數(shù)不清的怪毛?。航o寵物盛裝打扮，一次給別人發(fā)八條而不是一條短信（“一秒之內(nèi)！”），故意拼錯(cuò)一些十分常見的名字。

她的這些特質(zhì)使她成為了伍迪·艾倫一部電影的絕佳人選。自從斯通在14歲時(shí)看了《安妮·霍爾》后，她就成為了艾倫的粉絲。她過去經(jīng)常去曼哈頓的卡萊爾咖啡館看他演奏單簧管。她甚至有一只狗叫阿爾維，以艾倫在《安妮·霍爾》里扮演的角色——阿爾維·辛格命名。她第一次與這位導(dǎo)演見面是因?yàn)樗纳弦徊侩娪埃?014年的《魔力月光》，他當(dāng)時(shí)向斯通發(fā)出了會(huì)面邀請(qǐng)。艾倫說他在“一部青春片”里見過她，當(dāng)時(shí)他在跑步機(jī)上運(yùn)動(dòng)，他想，“天，這個(gè)女孩太棒了?！?/p>

“那感覺太嚇人了，”她補(bǔ)充道?！八麤]有讓我們對(duì)臺(tái)詞，或者進(jìn)行任何彩排。你甚至不能問任何與角色相關(guān)的問題，因?yàn)樗麜?huì)這樣回答你：‘你知道這是一部電影，是吧？”艾倫說：“我會(huì)盡量避免與演員討論任何與電影角色有關(guān)的事情。”

《無理之人》是他們合作的第二部電影，正如男主角杰昆·菲尼克斯在影片開頭的畫外音所講述的那樣，這是一部關(guān)于“道德、選擇、生活美學(xué)、無序以及謀殺”的電影。斯通扮演的是吉爾，一位朝氣蓬勃的大學(xué)生，她與菲尼克斯所扮演的角色，一位酗酒的哲學(xué)系教授展開了一段不幸且可能具有危險(xiǎn)性的婚外戀。艾倫在剛開始寫這部電影的劇本時(shí)并沒有考慮過斯通?！暗?dāng)我寫了10頁時(shí)，我想，天，誰還能如此完美地勝任這個(gè)角色？一個(gè)青春美麗的女大學(xué)生，一個(gè)聰明的哲學(xué)系學(xué)生？艾瑪毫不費(fèi)力就能演得很好?！?/p>

“你丟給她任何問題，她都能處理好，”導(dǎo)演威爾·古勒說道，他在電影《緋聞?dòng)?jì)劃》以及《朋友也上床》中和斯通有過合作。“她做任何事情都得心應(yīng)手，”艾倫同意?！拔以谒砩峡吹搅嗽S多與黛安·基頓相同的優(yōu)點(diǎn)——她既可以出演《教父》這樣的電影，與梅麗爾·斯特里普同臺(tái)搭戲，也可以演好喜劇，唱跳俱佳。我認(rèn)為艾瑪有潛力成為一顆長盛不衰的超級(jí)巨星?！?/p>

下周，斯通會(huì)去戛納參加《無理之人》的首映，接著和她母親去倫敦玩幾天，然后回來洛杉磯參加《洛杉磯之戀》的拍攝，這是一部由達(dá)米安·沙澤勒（《爆裂鼓手》）執(zhí)導(dǎo)的現(xiàn)代音樂劇，講述一名有抱負(fù)的女演員與一位爵士鋼琴家的故事，與斯通演對(duì)手戲的是她的銀幕老搭檔瑞恩·高斯林（《匪幫傳奇》;《瘋狂愚蠢的愛》），斯通將會(huì)在里面載歌載舞，她已經(jīng)彩排過舞步了。但她也試著采納其好友比爾·默雷的意見，他建議她為自己保留一些東西——比如唱歌。

“他對(duì)我說要為自己保留一些愛好，”斯通說道?！熬褪钦f你要保留一些東西，這些東西是你覺得不需要與世界分享的，只屬于你自己的?！彼⑿Φ?。