Growing up, the star (who was born Emily Jean Stone) suffered from recurring acne, anxiety and panic attacks.

“It was really bad,” she said. “The first time I had a panic attack I was sitting in my friend’s 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.”

Her parents took her to a therapist but what turned it around for her was acting at a local youth theater. “There’s something about the immediacy of acting. You can’t 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?”

After convincing her parents to let her move to Los Angeles (with a strategic PowerPoint presentation) at the age of 14, she's gone on to be the star of mega hits such The Help, The Amazing Spider-Man and Crazy Stupid Love. This year she lost out on a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in Birdman. Knowing she was up against acting heavyweights such as Meryl Streep and Laura Dern, she said she didn’t even bother prepare a speech. “Are you out of your mind? Are you actually insane? Patricia Arquette had that thing locked up!”

However the Lego Oscar statuette (which she was given by the makers of The Lego Movie while sitting in the audience at the ceremony), took pride of place her nightstand until recently being moved to a drawer.

Having grown up living on the 16th hole of a golf course - “Wikipedia says my parents owned the course, but that’s not true” - Stone recently moved away from New York back to Los Angeles. She lives in a "half-furnished rental house she’s sharing with her younger brother" and pet golden retriever–Irish setter mix, Ren.

“It feels different being by the water. You’d be surprised at how much of life can be taken up by doing yoga and nothing,” she says.

With a couple of months off from work, she's using the time out to carve her next move in the acting world. “I was actually on the phone all day today, trying to put the pieces together,” she said. “When I sit in my house for too long, I think too much—but I really like sitting in my house.”

Read the full interview at wsj.com.

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