Emma Stone takes flight with Birdman

It hardly matters. At 26, Stone is one of those actresses that draws people into her orbit. A comedienne, who graduated from adolescent films like Superbad and Easy A to more sophisticated efforts like Crazy Stupid Love, she has that Goldie Hawn-like effervescence about her. "It's really rare that you see a really funny, beautiful, smart, grounded woman, who really just has the whole package," says Woody Harrelson, who worked with her on Zombieland. "She's got it all."

If Stone is beloved by the older generation (Bill Murray called her "gold", Diane Keaton dubs her "adorable"), the feeling's very much mutual. "Growing up, I was crazy about Diane Keaton and Steve Martin and Bill Murray," she says. "I was really crazy about comedy. That was always my love." She considers Murray's classic country-club comedy Caddyshack her all-time favourite - unsurprising given she grew up on the grounds of Arizona's Camelback Golf Club, which her parents once owned.

There was a moment when she panicked, that comedy would be her only option. "For a long time, I didn't get worried about being boxed in, and then I started thinking about it too much, and then it scared me. And now I'm just trying to let go of it, and realise that whatever my path is going to be, it's going to be. I'm not going to try to control what people think of me... I don't want to make choices because I feel like I need to. Or second guess what I've done."

The Help, Tate Taylor's $216 million-grossing adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's novel set in the Deep South, was a big help in that regard. Cast as Skeeter, the narrator who documents the lives of the black domestics around her, "It was an entrance into the dramatic realm that I wasn't even expecting," she admits. Since then, Stone has truly flourished: a coveted role as Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man, a three-year ongoing relationship with its star, Andrew Garfield, even a brand ambassador gig for cosmetics giant Revlon.

Now comes Birdman, Or The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance - a fresh-out-the-box comedy-drama that's already shaping up to be one of this season's major awards contenders. Seven Golden Globe nominations - including Best Supporting Actress for Stone - it would seem only Richard Linklater's Boyhood can stop it now. Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, the Mexican behind 21 Grams and Babel, it's a bold and breathless satirical slam dunk against actors, audiences, critics and creatives.

Set backstage in a Broadway theatre, it stars Michael Keaton as Riggan Thomson, a fading actor still best known for playing a superhero in a Hollywood franchise. "It's three days of him unravelling," explains Stone, who plays Sam, his ex-junkie daughter now reluctantly working as his assistant as he tries to relaunch his career on the New York stage in a Raymond Carver production. Never mind first-night jitters; Riggan is haunted by a life-size manifestation of his 'Birdman' character - abusing his every move.

In Stone's eyes, Sam holds up a mirror to her father. "I think your kid is probably the best reflection of you in many ways... they see all of your flaws unfortunately, whether you want them to or not. The person who he spent no time with is the one telling him he's irrelevant, no matter what. He thinks he's known for this superhero movie, and he's this celebrity and he needs to be taken seriously. And she's telling him it doesn't matter if you're Birdman, or if you're a serious theatre actor, you're completely irrelevant and no one knows that you exist."

While Stone's work in these scenes is electric, what really makes Birdman standout is the exhilarating manner in which it's been filmed. As the camera hurtles up and down the backstage corridors of New York's St James theatre, the film has been shot as a series of long uninterrupted takes, seamlessly woven together. It meant extensive rehearsals and retakes. "You'd try it and try it again," says Stone, "and keep digging and searching until it's the most truthful it could possible be, and Alejandro yelled 'Yes!' and you moved on."

On some level, the film took Stone back to her pre-Hollywood days. Born in Scottsdale, Arizona, she started in local regional theatre in Phoenix when she was 11 (The Wind In The Willows was her first production). Four years later, she petitioned her father Jeff to let her start auditioning professionally, with a persuasive PowerPoint presentation titled 'Project Hollywood'. Suitably impressed, he agreed - with Stone and her mother Krista heading to LA, leaving him and Stone's younger brother Spencer behind.

Her "rock bottom" moment, she says, came when she tried out for the NBC sci-fi show Heroes, only to overhear the casting directors tell the girl before her "on a scale of 1 to 10, you're an 11". Out came Hayden Panettiere - who ended up with the role of cheerleader Claire Bennet - and Stone went home, mortified. Then she changed things: replacing her birth name Emily with her current stage-moniker, she also dyed her naturally blonde hair - first to brown and then, on the advice of Judd Apatow, the producer behind, Superbad, to flame-red.

Since then, she's done it all - a Vanity Fair cover, presenting at the Oscars, even hosting Saturday Night Live. Hollywood is no longer a pipe-dream. "Before you know what that experience would be like, there's something that seems - especially to a 15-year-old kid - glamorous or exciting," she says. "My 15-year-old self thought it was very interesting. I think it's something that I've formed a different relationship to over the past ten years. Once you actually have that experience, things change in a pretty major way."

It's not always been easy. Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer back in 2008, and had to endure 25 weeks of "terrifying" chemotherapy. Thankfully she pulled through. So the story goes, they got matching tattoos - bird's feet, in a nod to The Beatles' song Blackbird, one of her mother's favourites - when she got the all-clear. Ever since, Stone has made it her mission to raise awareness about cancer. "To be able to speak to women about early detection is really touching," she says.

Since completing Birdman, she has two more films ready for release in 2015: a second outing with Woody Allen, following this year's rather timid Magic In The Moonlight, and the new movie from Cameron Crowe. "What I've always wanted to do are movies like [the ones] Woody makes, and Hal Ashby or Billy Wilder movies. Movies that are heartbreaking but have a lot of levity. That's the way I see life. I don't see life in these split ways. I don't think anybody does."

First, however, she has to get through her first stint on Broadway, playing Sally Bowles in a new production of Cabaret. "I think the experience of theatre is incomparable," she says, even if making Birdman sent a shiver of foreboding down her spine. "I did think 'Oh God!'" Nevertheless, the critics went wild. "The red-headed beauty has found a good way to put her own personal stamp on the role," said industry paper Variety. "She acts the hell out of it."

For all the acclaim - and there's a good chance Stone will be Oscar-nominated next month for Birdman - she's relieved that, in all likelihood, her career might not always be this white-hot. "Will not," she emphasises. "Not 'might' - [things] will not always be the way they are now."

Does she means this? She nods. "Everything is so transient, there's something so comforting about that... the fleeting nature of fame is a blessing." She smiles. "That would be an impossible long-term existence."

Birdman opens on January 1