艾玛·斯通的银幕人生

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边的一家海鲜餐厅里，艾玛·斯通坐在一个不显眼的角落位子上，她正在专心致志地听留着八字胡的服务生介绍今晚的特色菜。斯通边专心听讲边热情点头，也许是蜡烛的原因，她的一双绿眸显得比平时更大。然后服务生转身离开，這位26岁的女演员把正脸转过来。“我太专注于让自己的表情看起来像是在认真听讲，都忘记要听了，”她坦诚道。“我完全没有听进去！”

我们才刚刚见面，但我感觉这是很能体现出艾玛·斯通个人特色的一刻。谦逊低调，傻傻的个性，大大咧咧的笑容。斯通是一个十分擅长于让自己看起来不像名人的名人。美国大众喜欢的也正是她这种随性自然的个性，从2007年她初涉银幕，出演《太坏了》到去年出演《鸟人》并获得奥斯卡提名。

艾米丽·吉恩·斯通成长在亚利桑那州的斯科茨代尔市，她是拼字比赛的冠军，脸上长着反复发作的痤疮。她神经紧张，患有恐慌症。“这真的很糟糕，”她说道。“第一次恐慌症发作时，我正坐在朋友的家里，我当时觉得房子要被烧毁了。我打电话给妈妈，她把我带回家，在接下来的三年里这样的情况一直持续不变。我几乎每天都要在午餐时间去护士那里，手足无措。我会问妈妈每天的具体日程安排，然后30秒后又问一次。我只是要确认没人会死去，没什么事会发生改变。”

斯通的父母带她去看了心理治疗师，但真正对她有所帮助的是她在当地一家青少年剧院的表演经历。这种会使一般人紧张的事——在数百名的陌生人面前登台表演——却能让她缓解紧张的情绪。“这与表演的瞬时性有关，”斯通说。“你承担不起胡思乱想的后果。你必须想着手上的任务。表演迫使我进入类似禅宗大师的状态：当下有什么事情在发生？”

斯通14岁时，制作了一个幻灯片演示文稿试图说服父母同意她搬到好莱坞去。此举奏效了：她和妈妈在洛杉矶租了一间公寓，并在一家狗狗面包店当面包师，不久后，她得以在迪士尼频道的一出情景喜剧里为一只狗配音。一年内，她分别在《马尔柯姆的一家》及由刘易斯·C.K.编剧的HBO短寿电视剧《幸运路易》中客串角色。接着在2006，那年斯通本应在读高三，她出演了电影《太坏了》，就此开启她的银幕之旅。

从那以后，斯通的职业生涯可大概划分成三个阶段。第一个阶段是她的配角生涯，在电影里饰演有趣、时尚大方的女三号或是女四号（《女郎我最兔》，《僵尸之地》）。然后是她的主演生涯，主演青春喜剧片（《绯闻计划》）以及喜剧戏剧（《相助》）。最近，她开始出演漫画人物，在《超凡蜘蛛侠》及其续集中出演格温·史黛西，以及在《鸟人》中出演迈克尔·基顿那刚从戒毒所出来的女儿。当她与诸如梅丽尔·斯特里普以及劳拉·邓恩这样的超强实力派一起获得奥斯卡提名时，她说自己甚至都懒得准备获奖宣言。

尽管斯通是一名有趣、有天赋的获奖女演员，光是她这张脸，伍迪·艾伦对我说过：“就值回票价了，”但如果斯通不古怪，那她就不是斯通了。她会买原料自制护肤品，默默关注陌生人的博客，通常是一些妈妈写的博客或者与烘焙有关的。她有着数不清的怪毛病：给宠物盛装打扮，一次给别人发八条而不是一条短信（“一秒之内！”），故意拼错一些十分常见的名字。

她的这些特质使她成为了伍迪·艾伦一部电影的绝佳人选。自从斯通在14岁时看了《安妮·霍尔》后，她就成为了艾伦的粉丝。她过去经常去曼哈顿的卡莱尔咖啡馆看他演奏单簧管。她甚至有一只狗叫阿尔维，以艾伦在《安妮·霍尔》里扮演的角色——阿尔维·辛格命名。她第一次与这位导演见面是因为他的上一部电影，2014年的《魔力月光》，他当时向斯通发出了会面邀请。艾伦说他在“一部青春片”里见过她，当时他在跑步机上运动，他想，“天，这个女孩太棒了。”

“那感觉太吓人了，”她补充道。“他没有让我们对台词，或者进行任何彩排。你甚至不能問任何与角色相关的问题，因为他会这样回答你：‘你知道这是一部电影，是吧？”艾伦说：“我会尽量避免与演员讨论任何与电影角色有关的事情。”

《无理之人》是他们合作的第二部电影，正如男主角杰昆·菲尼克斯在影片开头的画外音所讲述的那样，这是一部关于“道德、选择、生活美学、无序以及谋杀”的电影。斯通扮演的是吉尔，一位朝气蓬勃的大学生，她与菲尼克斯所扮演的角色，一位酗酒的哲学系教授展开了一段不幸且可能具有危险性的婚外恋。艾伦在刚开始写这部电影的剧本时并没有考虑过斯通。“但当我写了10页时，我想，天，谁还能如此完美地胜任这个角色？一个青春美丽的女大学生，一个聪明的哲学系学生？艾玛毫不费力就能演得很好。”

“你丢给她任何问题，她都能处理好，”导演威尔·古勒说道，他在电影《绯闻计划》以及《朋友也上床》中和斯通有过合作。“她做任何事情都得心应手，”艾伦同意。“我在她身上看到了许多与黛安·基顿相同的优点——她既可以出演《教父》这样的电影，与梅丽尔·斯特里普同台搭戏，也可以演好喜剧，唱跳俱佳。我认为艾玛有潜力成为一颗长盛不衰的超级巨星。”

下周，斯通会去戛纳参加《无理之人》的首映，接着和她母亲去伦敦玩几天，然后回来洛杉矶参加《洛杉矶之恋》的拍摄，这是一部由达米安·沙泽勒（《爆裂鼓手》）执导的现代音乐剧，讲述一名有抱负的女演员与一位爵士钢琴家的故事，与斯通演对手戏的是她的银幕老搭档瑞恩·高斯林（《匪帮传奇》;《疯狂愚蠢的爱》），斯通将会在里面载歌载舞，她已经彩排过舞步了。但她也试着采纳其好友比尔·默雷的意见，他建议她为自己保留一些东西——比如唱歌。

“他对我说要为自己保留一些爱好，”斯通说道。“就是说你要保留一些东西，这些东西是你觉得不需要与世界分享的，只属于你自己的。”她微笑道。