艾瑪·斯通：跟自己死磕的追夢女孩

Emma Stones favorite place for sushi in Los Angeles is a no-frills1） spot in a Sunset Boulevard2） strip mall3）. Its here， having barely taken a seat that she starts telling me about her hiatal hernia4）. “I cant have spicy foods，” Stone says. “I was born with it，” Stone notes cheerfully. She snaps apart her chopsticks. “I was like a little old man as a young lady.”

I first met Stone approximately 11 minutes ago， but it feels like Im hanging with an old buddy. She huddles over the table mock-conspiratorially; drops5） callbacks to small talk we only just made like shes citing long-cherished in-jokes. That Stone is preposterously6） affable should come as no surprise to anyone whos seen her act. Shes a resolutely human-scale movie star—the type that somehow tricks you， onscreen， into forgetting that shes a movie star at all.

Stone is often likened to her hero Diane Keaton7）， and the comparison tracks in a few ways： Both are beautiful， funny， repeat Woody Allen muses. But in Stones combination of gameness8）， wry wit and ability to make an overriding aura of good-heartedness come off as magnetic rather than dull， shes got a lot in common with another hero of hers—Tom Hanks. She auditioned to act alongside him in Larry Crowne， back in 2011， not because of the script so much as the fact that she adores Hanks. She didnt get the part， but that same year， Stone got top billing9） in The Help and stole scenes in Friends With Benefits and Crazy， Stupid， Love. Watching those movies and the others that Stone has elevated over the years—Superbad， Easy A， Zombieland， and The Amazing Spider-Man reboots， among them—you routinely get the impression that shes operating an amused half-beat ahead of everyone else; that shes having a blast on her own terms， unconcerned with whether anyone is even watching.

Stone lives in New York. Shes in Los Angeles right now because she has an excellent new movie coming out， called La La Land. Its a musical， captivating in its sweetness， about two broke-and-scrappy Hollywood dreamers who fall in love while dancing and singing their way in spectator shoes across L.A. Like Stone herself—who sometimes seems like a screwball comedienne10） beamed into the present—the movie bridges classic and contemporary eras. “I needed someone whod make the traditional musical feel relevant and accessible to people who think they dont like musicals，” says La La Land writer and director Damien Chazelle11）. “Emmas very modern， but theres a timelessness to her， too.”

La La Land features Stones most bravado performance yet， and shes emerged as an early Best Actress Oscar contender herself. When I mention this， she says， “Im trying not to think about that”—her default mode being self-deprecation12）， not self-promotion; jokes， not bluster. “I just focus on what Ive got to do at any one moment， and dont necessarily think about where its all leading.”

Emma Stone recently turned 28， but she gave her first performance at age six， in a Thanksgiving-themed school musical called No Turkey for Perky. She grew up in Scottsdale， Arizona， the daughter of a homemaker mom and a contractor dad， with a younger brother. The Stones were supportive， permissive parents—“reins out，” as she puts it， when it came to discipline. “Like， ‘If youre gonna drink at a party， call us and well pick you up.”

She kept doing plays and improv， and started training with a local acting coach who tapped13） some old Hollywood connections to set Stone up with an agent. So it was not outright delusion when Stone， at age 14， notified her parents that she wanted to drop out of high school， move to L.A. and try her best to go pro. She made her pitch in the form of a PowerPoint presentation， which she entitled “Project Hollywood.” Other parents may have been taken aback， but hers had come to know this hyperlogical side of Emma： When she was 12， shed made a different PowerPoint presentation， successfully campaigning for them to homeschool her.

They decided to let her give acting a shot， too， and in January 2004， Stone moved with her mother into a unit at the Park LaBrea apartment complex， just south of Hollywood. Stone says， “I auditioned for three months pretty steadily， got absolutely nothing， and then they stopped sending me out.” Not ready to give up， she got hired making treats at a bakery for dogs—a ridiculous gig14） that she clung to “because I was， like， ‘Now Im working， see？ Im not getting auditions， but I gotta stay here.” She booked just enough work to keep hope alive. “I did an episode of Malcolm in the Middle，” she says. “And an episode of Medium.”

Stone got crucial encouragement from casting director Allison Jones15）， a veteran comedy talent-spotter who helped launch the careers of James Franco16）. “I auditioned for Allison for three years，” Stone recalls. “She would bring me in for things and theyd never work， but then one Friday evening she called me and said， ‘Hey， my office isnt even open tomorrow， but I want to put you on tape for something. It was Superbad.” Stone got the part， playing Jonah Hill17）s high school crush Jules.

Ever since， Stone has steadily broadened her range， pushing into serious dramas. The unifying trait across her portrayals is a core decency—on display from The Help， where she played a privileged white woman in the Sixties-era South， to the Best Picture winner Birdman， where she got a Best Supporting Actress nomination playing Michael Keaton18）s daughter， fresh out of rehab. This part is one of the very few times that Stone has portrayed a fuck-up. She describes herself as having an eager-to-please side， and she concedes that its hard to imagine her getting cast as a villain anytime soon. “If part of what youve craved in your life is to not upset anybody，” Stone says， “its easy to be drawn to characters that arent gonna upset anybody.”

One night in 2013， though， while shooting Birdman， Stone lost her shit—and it felt fantastic. The film， which director Alejandro González I?árritu19） wove together from a series of extremely long takes， demanded not just emotional rawness from Stone but technical exactitude. “I had to come in at the very end of this one scene， and it was so scary， because everything was timed out.” She botched20） a take. “Alejandro told me， ‘Emma， you have to go faster around the corner or its going to ruin the movie！ And I was like， this is a horror， this is so hard， its actually insane. Later that night， Edward Norton21） and I were shooting on a rooftop at， like， 2 a.m. Wed done this scene 30 times， and Alejandro wasnt getting what he wanted. He said， ‘Maybe its not going to work. I went to my dressing room， pacing， like， I cant do it. Im losing my fucking mind. This thing came over me. Im usually a people-pleaser， but I felt like， fuck it. I dont even care anymore. So when we went back to do the scene， I was crazy. And Alejandro goes， ‘Beautiful—there it is！” Stone shakes her head at the memory. “I wasnt trying to make it perfect anymore.”

La La Land， like Birdman， depended not only on an emotionally authentic performance from Stone， who is onscreen for almost the entire movie， but precise choreography22）， too， which she had to nail over a daunting series of uninterrupted takes. When she was first considering the role， Chazelle recalls， “She said， ‘How much prep time do you have， because I dont wanna half-ass this—if Im gonna tap-dance23）， I wanna learn how to tap dance. I dont want to cheat it with forgiving camera angles and misleading close-ups. Thats not normal for actors， or for people， period： wanting to make something harder for yourself.”

When I ask if shes considered writing a script herself， or directing one， Stones eyes widen. “Writings interesting， but Ive never done it in any way，” she says. “And directing， God， thats a hard job. Its all the things you dont think about as an actor. ‘We lost a location. ‘That costume is wrong.

“Coming out of improv，” she continues， “where everythings so reliant on the team， its still hard for me to be out front—even when its a big role. I like being a cog in the machine.”

艾瑪·斯通在洛杉磯最喜歡的壽司店是位于日落大道一處購物中心內(nèi)的一家樸實無華的小店。在這家店里，斯通剛一落座就和我說起了她所患的食管裂孔疝?！拔也荒艹岳钡臇|西?！彼f?！疤焐瓦@樣，”斯通歡快地講道，“啪”的一聲將筷子分開，“我一個年輕女士倒像是小老頭一樣。”

我大約11分鐘前才第一次見到斯通，但卻感覺像是和一位老朋友在一起。她像要密謀什么似的從桌上湊過來，重新提起我們剛剛閑聊的內(nèi)容，就像回想起她長久以來喜歡的老友間的笑話。斯通很隨和，這看似反常，但看過她表演的人都不會對此感到意外。她絕對是一位接地氣的電影明星——總會在銀幕上迷惑你，讓你完全忘記她是個電影明星。

斯通常常被比作她的崇拜對象黛安·基頓。兩人確實有很多相似之處：都很漂亮、風(fēng)趣，都曾多次出演伍迪·艾倫影片的女主角。不過，斯通勇敢頑強、詼諧機智，并且能讓心地善良這一最顯要的品質(zhì)顯得極富魅力而非沉悶乏味，鑒于此，她倒是與她的另一位偶像湯姆·漢克斯有很多相同之處。2011年，她去參加電影《拉瑞·克勞》的試鏡，并不是因為劇本，而是因為她崇拜漢克斯，想和他一起出演。她沒有得到那個角色，但那一年，她領(lǐng)銜主演了電影《相助》，并在影片《朋友也上床》和《瘋狂愚蠢的愛》中成功搶鏡?？纯催@幾部影片，以及這些年因斯通參演而備受歡迎的其他幾部影片，如《太壞了》《緋聞計劃》《僵尸之地》和《超凡蜘蛛俠》重拍系列等，你往往會覺得她的表演比其他人要快半拍，而且快得很開心。無論她演什么都可以很嗨，不管有沒有人觀看。

斯通住在紐約。目前她在洛杉磯是因為她的一部很棒的新片《愛樂之城》要上映（編注：英文原文發(fā)表于2016年12月）。這是一部歌舞片，以其甜蜜動人引人入勝，講述了貧困但敢于拼搏的兩個人懷揣好萊塢夢想，墜入愛河，穿著雙色布洛克鞋載歌載舞，跑遍了整個洛杉磯。斯通有時候看起來就像神經(jīng)喜劇的女演員，從過去穿越到現(xiàn)在。這部電影也同她一樣，連通了古典與現(xiàn)代。“有些人覺得自己不喜歡歌舞片。我需要一個人，能讓這些人覺得傳統(tǒng)歌舞片與自己息息相關(guān)，能讓他們看懂并欣賞歌舞片，”《愛樂之城》的編劇兼導(dǎo)演達米恩·查澤雷說道，“艾瑪非常時尚，但她也有一種超越時間的美?！?/p>

在《愛樂之城》里，斯通貢獻出了到目前為止最為冒險的表演，也因此很早地成為奧斯卡最佳女主角獎的有力競爭者。當(dāng)我提到這一點時，她說：“我盡量不去想這些?！彼?xí)慣于自我貶低，而不是自我標榜;習(xí)慣于玩笑，而不是吹噓?！拔抑魂P(guān)注自己在某一時刻所做的事情，不刻意去想這些事情會帶來什么?！?/p>

艾瑪·斯通剛剛28歲，但她第一次表演是六歲的時候，參演一部名為《火雞不給傲慢的人》的感恩節(jié)主題的校園歌舞劇。她在亞利桑那州的斯科特斯戴爾長大，父親是一位承包商，母親是家庭主婦，還有一個弟弟。斯通夫婦對孩子們很支持，也很寬容。當(dāng)被問及父母對他們的管教時，斯通的表述是“放養(yǎng)”?！氨热缢麄儠f，‘你如果要在派對上喝酒，給我們打電話，我們?nèi)ソ幽??！?/p>

她后來繼續(xù)演戲和做即興表演，并開始跟隨當(dāng)?shù)匾幻硌萁叹氝M行訓(xùn)練。這名教練著手利用原先在好萊塢的關(guān)系，為斯通找到了一位經(jīng)紀人。所以，斯通14歲時并不是完全憑著幻想對她的父母說她想放棄高中學(xué)業(yè)，搬到洛杉磯，盡她最大的努力去做職業(yè)演員。為了說服父母，她做了一個PPT，標題就叫“好萊塢計劃”。其他父母或許會極為震驚，但艾瑪?shù)母改冈缇椭浪龢O為理智的一面：她在12歲時就做過一個不尋常的PPT展示，成功說服了父母，讓他們自己在家教她。

他們也決定讓斯通去嘗試表演。2004年1月，斯通和媽媽一起搬入帕克·拉布里亞公寓樓的一間公寓，就在好萊塢的南邊。斯通說：“我不斷地試鏡，試了三個月，卻什么機會也沒得到，之后他們就不再送我去試鏡了。”她并不準備放棄，于是去寵物店找了份做狗糧的工作——這是一份荒謬的工作，但她堅持去做?！耙驗槲业囊馑季褪恰F(xiàn)在我在這兒工作，看到了嗎？我不是要試鏡，但我必須留下來?！睘榱司S持希望，她預(yù)約了很多工作?！拔以凇恶R爾柯姆的一家》中的一集里跑過龍?zhí)祝彼f，“在《靈媒緝兇》中也演過一集?！?/p>

斯通從選角導(dǎo)演艾莉森·瓊斯那兒獲得了極大的鼓勵。瓊斯是老牌喜劇星探，曾經(jīng)幫詹姆斯·弗蘭科開拓事業(yè)。“我為艾莉森試鏡三年，”斯通回憶道，“她會帶我去參加很多試鏡，但都沒能成功。后來一個星期五的晚上，她打電話給我說，‘嘿，我辦公室明天不開門，但我想讓你去試個鏡。那部電影是《太壞了》?！彼雇ǖ玫搅诉@個角色，扮演喬納·希爾的高中暗戀對象茱爾斯。

自此之后，斯通穩(wěn)定地拓展戲路，向嚴肅的劇情片進軍。她所刻畫的人物具有統(tǒng)一的核心特點——端莊得體，通情達理。從《相助》到《鳥人》，都是如此。在《相助》中，她扮演20世紀60年代美國南方一位高貴的白人女性。而在曾獲奧斯卡最佳攝影獎的《鳥人》中，她扮演邁克爾·基頓剛從戒毒所出來的女兒，并憑借該片獲得奧斯卡最佳女配角提名。斯通演過的問題角色屈指可數(shù)，《鳥人》中的角色是其中之一。按她描述，自己有極力去討人開心的一面，因而她承認很難想象自己會很快出演反面角色。“你如果在生活中就渴望不要惹惱別人，那就很容易被不會惹人生氣的角色所吸引?！彼雇ㄕf。

然而，2013年的一個夜晚，在拍攝《鳥人》時，斯通發(fā)飆了——但那讓她感覺好極了。這部電影由亞利桑德羅·岡薩雷斯·伊納里多執(zhí)導(dǎo)，他要把一系列超長鏡頭編排到一起，這要求斯通不僅要表現(xiàn)出真實、自然的情緒，表演也要精準到位?！拔冶仨氃谝粋€場景的最后一刻出鏡，這太可怕了，因為所有的一切都是定好時的。”她搞砸了一個鏡頭?！皝喞５铝_對我說，‘艾瑪，你在角落里要走快一點，不然會毀掉這部電影！我當(dāng)時覺得，這太恐怖了，太難了，簡直不可理喻。之后，我和愛德華·諾頓在屋頂上拍到了好像夜里兩點鐘。這個場景我們拍了30次，但都不是亞利桑德羅想要的。他說，‘可能拍不出來了。我回到化妝間，來回踱步，覺得自己就是做不到。我快瘋了。那種感覺很難受。我通常是一個討人喜歡的人，但那會兒我覺得，去他的，我不在乎了。所以當(dāng)我們再回去拍那個場景時，我怒氣沖天。然后亞利桑德羅說，‘漂亮，就是這樣！”斯通回憶這段往事時搖了搖頭，“我不會再追求完美了?！?/p>

在《愛樂之城》中，斯通幾乎從頭到尾都在銀幕上。和《鳥人》一樣，這部電影要求斯通不僅表演出真情實感，還要注意舞蹈的精確性，她需要成功演好一連串頗具挑戰(zhàn)性的不間斷鏡頭。根據(jù)查澤雷的回憶，斯通在第一次考慮這個角色時，“她說，‘有多長的準備時間？因為我不想敷衍了事，如果我需要跳踢踏舞，我就去學(xué)踢踏舞。我不想通過那些容許演員犯錯的拍攝角度和誤導(dǎo)人的特寫鏡頭去騙人。通常不會有演員或任何人愿意這樣做：愿意給自己增加難度。就是這樣。”

當(dāng)我問斯通是否考慮過自己寫劇本或者自己導(dǎo)電影時，她一下睜大了眼睛。“寫劇本很有趣，但我從來沒做過，”她說，“至于當(dāng)導(dǎo)演，上帝啊，那可是苦差事。盡是當(dāng)演員時不用去想的那些事?！恢貌粚??！b錯了?！?/p>

“我的演員生涯從即興表演開始，”她繼續(xù)說道，“做即興表演，什么事都靠團隊，直到現(xiàn)在，對我來講，要站在前面領(lǐng)導(dǎo)大家，甚至只是演一個大角色，還是很難的。我喜歡做機器里的一個齒輪?！?