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The actress says she had a panic attack when filming the 'Dirty Dancing' scene with Ryan Gosling in 'Crazy, Stupid, Love'

Easy-going, laugh-til-you-snort Emma Stone wasn't always so laid back.

In fact, the 23-year-old actress admits that growing up, she was a "really anxious kid" who only learned to steel her nerves through comedy.

"It gave me a sense of purpose. I wanted to make people laugh," she tells the July issue of Vogue. "Comedy was my sport. It taught me how to roll with the punches. Failure is the exact same as success when it comes to comedy because it just keeps coming. It never stops."

Stone suffered from her first panic attack at age 8, and still has them from time to time - most recently when she starred opposite Ryan Gosling in "Crazy, Stupid, Love" and had to perform the now-iconic "Dirty Dancing" lift.

To calm her nerves while filming "The Amazing Spider-Man," with now-boyfriend Andrew Garfield, Stone said she took to baking. A lot.

"I think I felt really out of control of my surroundings," she said. "I was just baking all the time. There were stacks of things in the kitchen that nobody could possibly go through.

"It seemed like it made me feel, if I put these in, I'll know what the outcome is. ...I was overbaking."

The result was the kind of wild abandon that, according to Garfield, is "the only way acting with someone should be."

"Working with Emma was like diving into a thrilling, twisting river and never holding on to the sides," he said of Stone's spontaneous screen stylings. "From the start. To the end. Spontaneous. In the moment. Present. Terrifying. Vital. The only way acting with someone should be."