Before Emma Stone starred in La La Land or even booked her first role, Stone struggled with severe childhood anxiety—"my brain naturally zooming 30 steps ahead to the worst-case scenario," she described it to Rolling Stone in a new cover story.
"My anxiety was constant. I would ask my mom a hundred times how the day was gonna lay out. What time was she gonna drop me off? Where was she gonna be? What would happen at lunch? Feeling nauseous. At a certain point, I couldn't go to friends' houses anymore – I could barely get out the door to school."
Stone started acting to help cope with it. She took improv classes ("you have to be present in improv, and that's the antithesis of anxiety") and began seeing a therapist. She also wrote a book called I Am Bigger Than My Anxiety. The coping strategy in it is especially cute—and resonating for any age:
I drew a little green monster on my shoulder that speaks to me in my ear and tells me all these things that aren't true. And every time I listen to it, it grows bigger. If I listen to it enough, it crushes me. But if I turn my head and keep doing what I'm doing—let it speak to me, but don't give it the credit it needs—then it shrinks down and fades away."
Stone also discussed what she and Jennifer Lawrence (the pair whose friendship began with a "f*ck off" text-turned-The Notebook-style texting every day for a year) do when they hang out. It's basically what you do with your friends, even with their A-list status and wealth.
They both live in New York City. "We go on trips together, we hang out at each other's houses, watch shit," Stone said. "I was over at Jen's place last month–we watched Hocus Pocus."
Stone has a pretty normal life in the city: She sees dance performances, eavesdrops on strangers' sidewalk conversations, and stays in and bakes sometimes. Yes, she is still single, she told the outlet—despite the fact that she and her ex Andrew Garfield have both said in recent interviews that they still love each other. (Likely as just amicable exes-turned-good friends, but we can hope for more.)
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she's not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
