The Tragic Truth About Emma Stone

The following article includes references to mental health issues.

From the outside looking in, Emma Stone has lived a pretty charmed life. But alas, even one of her charming dance scenes with Ryan Gosling has a semi-tragic story behind it.

Before Stone won her Oscar for the dynamic duo's 2016 love letter to Hollywood musicals, "La La Land," she and Gosling tried to recreate Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey's famous "Dirty Dancing" lift in the 2011 comedy "Crazy, Stupid, Love." On "The Graham Norton Show," Stone explained that she couldn't do it because she'd fallen from the parallel bars during gymnastics class at age 7, resulting in two broken arms. "What I didn't know was that I had an internalized phobia about being lifted six feet in the air and it all went horribly wrong," she said of her failed leap into Gosling's arms. She was so upset that she had to have a good cry afterward while watching what is apparently one of her comfort movies, the 1986 David Bowie fantasy film "Labyrinth."

Much like that "Dirty Dancing" scene, Stone's career has had its exhilarating highs. But along the way, she's had to endure many failures and fight hard to hold herself up once she got where she wanted to be. Thanks to her tenacity, we have the swoon-worthy style moments of "Cruella;" the kooky, cringe-inducing comedy of "The Curse;" and the fantastical, offbeat "Frankenstein" reimagining "Poor Things." We just wish she didn't have to suffer so much for her art.

Emma Stone is a beacon of hope for those who suffer from debilitating anxiety. Anyone who's ever stepped onto a stage or in front of a camera has to appreciate the ability to withstand a thundering heartbeat and furiously fluttering belly butterflies on the reg. But what Stone had to overcome to thrive as an actor was far worse than your average nerves. During a 2018 conversation with Child Mind Institute president Harold S. Koplewicz, M.D., she revealed that she was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder as a child. She also experienced panic attacks, the first of which she suffered at age 7. "It was really, really terrifying and overwhelming," she said, recalling, "I was over at a friend's house, and all of a sudden I was absolutely convinced the house was on fire and it was burning down."

Stone's parents realized that she needed professional help when she started visiting the school nurse daily because she wanted to get sent home. "I had deep separation anxiety with my mom," she shared.

In an appearance on "The Late Show," Stone revealed that her anxiety had taken on a monstrous appearance in her young imagination, and she shared a drawing of it that she made at age 9. "[It] looks a little bit like, someone backstage said, a uterus with ovaries," she quipped. Stone revealed that she actually found doing improv beneficial, but added, "I still have anxiety to this day."

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

Before Zendaya and Tom Holland began dating, Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield were the achingly adorable "Spider-Man" couple fans of Hollywood love stories couldn't get enough of. So it was difficult for their steadfast supporters to witness their four-year romance breaking apart like a spiderweb in a storm in 2015. Well, maybe it wasn't that dramatic, but the topic of their split seemed to be one Stone didn't like being asked about during interviews. "It's so special to me that it never feels good to talk about, so I just continually don't talk about it," she told WSJ Magazine. However, she did describe the year after their split as "sad" in a 2016 interview with Vogue. She also broke Stonefield shippers' hearts a bit more by admitting that she still loved her ex.

Stone was more willing to open up about her utterly miserable first experience with having her heart ripped apart like a cobweb in a feather duster's path. Speaking to "Aloha" writer and director Cameron Crowe for Interview magazine in 2012, she said that her heartbreak was the result of being unexpectedly dumped at age 14. "I was crawling on the floor. I remember throwing up. ... I have never felt anything quite like that. It was so visceral," she recalled. "It's like someone has killed you and you have to live through it and watch it happen ... It was awful."

While being interviewed by Jennifer Lawrence for Elle in 2018, Emma Stone revealed that she had to learn to not let people's comments about her appearance get to her. "I struggled a couple of years ago with feeling like how I looked was being scrutinized," she said. She added that the remarks were often about things she already felt insecure about, which made her feel even worse. This is one reason why she's avoided being on social media.

Stone told Refinery29 that she took Accutane as a teen because her acne was so bad, and it returned with a vengeance when she was filming "Easy A." According to the actor, she's grateful that it was air-brushed away. "I realized how debilitating and embarrassing it can be to have cystic acne," she said.

Stone has also struggled with body image issues, which harkens back to what she told Lawrence. In 2014, she told Seventeen that it was difficult to see internet trolls and online articles suggesting she was engaging in unhealthy behaviors to be thin. She explained, "Keeping weight on is a struggle for me — especially when I'm under stress, and especially as I've gotten older. ... So when completely untrue statements are made about me or my health, of course a part of me wants to defend." Stone revealed that she dealt with the criticism by making sure she was doing the opposite of her haters by treating herself with kindness.

While simulating sex noises for the movie "Easy A," Emma Stone said she physically exerted herself so much that she became ill. (To be fair, some bed-jumping was also involved.) "I had a little asthma attack, without any prior knowledge that I had asthma," she told MTV News in 2010. Her breathing problems were so bad that she needed an oxygen tank to recover. "[It] was humiliating, because it was the second day of shooting," she said. Even worse, director Will Gluck later accused her of lying about her asthma diagnosis. "A doctor came, treated her, and at the end she said, 'I don't actually have asthma; I'm just out of shape,'" he told Entertainment Weekly in 2020.

Stone suffered from breathing issues again when she filmed "The Favourite." In a 2018 appearance on "The Graham Norton Show," she explained that wearing a corset was the cause of her problems in that instance. Her struggle to breathe became so bad that she started sniffing menthol in an effort to open up her airways, but the effect was fleeting. Being unable to breathe properly wasn't the only negative side effect of her uncomfortable wardrobe. "After about a month, my organs shifted, because they have to. ... It was only temporary," she said, "but it was gross."

Emma Stone's mother, Krista Stone, means the world to her and is someone she's relied upon heavily while navigating life in Hollywood. "She always helps me deal with things as they happen instead of planning them all out ahead of time," Emma told Glamour. Even when Krista was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer in 2008, she gave her daughter advice to help her keep it together in the face of something so frightening. Emma told CBS News that Krista convinced her to go to work and film "Easy A" after the diagnosis even though the actor didn't exactly feel like shooting a comedy at the time. "She was like, 'Well, you know, if you're not doing your thing, I'm not doing my thing,'" Emma recalled.

During an event for the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation, Krista praised her daughter for being remarkably calm and optimistic while she was undergoing treatment, as reported by People. However, Emma admitted, "It was terrifying." According to the actor, she relied on Krista to assure her that mothers are immortal during her childhood struggles with anxiety. "I just needed to know that no one was going to die and nothing was going to change," Emma told WSJ Magazine. While Krista can't be immortal, her cancer went into remission. When she'd been cancer-free for five years, she and Emma marked the occasion by getting identical tattoos, per USA Today.

Emma Stone shared her acting philosophy with CBS News: "You have to have a thin skin. As a creative person, you have to." She elaborated by expressing her belief that becoming numb to the acute pain of rejection has the downside of making actors less emotive when they're in front of a camera. But letting herself feel those repeated pangs of disappointment when she doesn't get much-desired parts can't be easy.

Stone explained to BuzzFeed News why being overlooked for roles was especially difficult at the beginning of her career, saying, "It feels devastating because you think everything is your chance." One of her earliest rejections really stung not just because it was a role she wanted, but also because of the circumstances surrounding it. "'Heroes' was tough because I could hear them through the wall telling Hayden Panettiere, 'You got the part. You're the best.' And then I went in right after her," she recalled to the Independent. The experience left her wondering if Hollywood would ever give her a chance to prove herself.

But whereas that audition was pretty much pointless, Stone's "Superbad" audition secured her a breakout role. Now, she views all the parts that went to other stars in a much different light. She told BuzzFeed News, "You're more lucky for the things you didn't get than the things you do, 'cause they could change the course of your life."