Here it is, at long last – Kristen Stewart’s first Balenciaga ad. She’s become the face of Balenciaga’s newest perfume, Florabotanica. Which sounds like the same of a vampire, right? Or am I just imagining that? “I’d like you meet my vampire friends, Angelgrace and Florabotanica. They come from the 18th century.” As for the actual ad – it’s awful too. It’s like they morphed Kristen’s face with.. Marilyn Manson? Or someone with a giant jaw. Like, Rumer Willis. The whole thing is pretty disappointing, actually. Let’s see how good Kristen is at the shill, though – she did an interview with Women’s Wear Daily about the scent – full piece here, and here are some highlights:

Kristen on what perfume is “about”: “On a base level, the reason you want to wear a fragrance is because you want to smell attractive,” said Stewart, sitting in a suite of Le Bristol hotel here, wearing a Balenciaga T-shirt, shorts and heels. “That in itself is a pretty mature idea, especially considering the teenager I was. I was never the one wearing my mom’s perfume and trying to be sexy. I was like hanging out with my brothers and doing the opposite of that.”

Kristen actually likes the way it smells: “I’m very lucky that I like the fragrance, because I would have done anything with [Balenciaga designer Nicolas Ghesquière],” continued the 22-year-old. “And I’m a terrible liar.” Stewart said she was relieved the first time she smelled Florabotanica. “There is something natural about it,” explained Stewart. “It’s very alive. I think that as a young person wearing it — considering that I’ve never worn a scent — it kind of puts you on this level of, like, ‘Whoa, check me out.’ ”

Kristen thinks it’s ART: “Even though, yes, it’s an ad and we’re selling a fragrance — I don’t want to sound pretentious — but I want to be part of this art project,” she said. “I want to be around Nicolas when he gets excited about fabric. I want to see the look on his face when he sees me put on a dress.”

What she thinks of the ad: “I think that’s kind of perfect for this particular ad. Usually, a fragrance ad would definitely be like,” said Stewart, striking an exaggerated, sexy lounge pose on the couch. “When I first stood there, I was like, ‘OK, do you want me to show the curves of the dress? Do you want me to stand like this? Like that?’ And they were like, ‘Just be comfortable.’  I find when you do a really good photo shoot, you’ve unlocked something that you didn’t necessarily know you had in you,” said Stewart. “There are qualities that certain clothes, or certain environments and certain people, bring to the surface that can be surprising. But that doesn’t mean that they’re not authentic.”

She digs Brigitte Bardot: “I think the hottest chick that’s ever walked the earth is Brigitte Bardot, and I couldn’t be more different from her,” said Stewart. “So my style icons and stuff, even if I look up to them and think they’re really cool, I don’t think [they find their] way into my own sense of fashion.”

Kristen on her new role: Up next, actingwise, is a leading role in “Cali,” directed by Nick Cassavetes. She explained it’s about a couple “in the valley that gets involved with really strange people, really screw themselves over and become alienated, reinsert themselves into that world and try to survive. It’s really ‘Grindhouse’-y — extreme in every way.” To physically prepare for the part, Stewart will become tan and make her hair blonde. “I’m going to get into the best shape of my life,” she said. “I’m going to look like a stripper. I’m going to look like a p0rn star.”

She’s not a liar: “If you don’t know why someone is the way that they are, then you’re just playing a caricature of a girl,” she explained. “So if an emotional scene comes up or something, I never want to lie. I don’t want to think about my cat dying when I was younger. A lot of times, you’ll read a script and you can identify with things that are very surprising, things that kind of shock you about yourself. And the process of making the movie is finding out why those feelings occurred,” said Stewart. “Sometimes they’re not always easy to define.”

[From Women’s Wear Daily]

I eye-rolled a bit at several parts. I mean, obviously Bruce Weber is a talented photographer and Nicholas Ghesquière is an artist of design, but let’s not climb over each other to claim that a print ad for a vampiric perfume is somehow “ART”. Maybe it is to some. But it really did sound pretentious, caveat or not.

Photos courtesy of WENN.