Kristen Stewart covers the October issue of Harper’s Bazaar UK to promote Charlie’s Angels for the most part. Probably a little bit to promote Seberg, but that film isn’t discussed here, so maybe not. Kristen’s interviews have gotten better as she’s gotten older. She really did spend a decade working on herself and learning and growing and figuring out who she is. She’s more confident now and funnier too. Not so angsty. In this Bazaar interview, she talks a bit about Robert Pattinson – which is sure to make headlines – and a lot about her sexuality and how she doesn’t define it or put a label on it. You can read the piece here. Some highlights:
Redefining awkward: “I try to avoid the word ‘awkward. I want to reclaim that word, because it’s been used too violently against me.”
On her relationship with Robert Pattinson: “When me and Rob were together, we did not have an example to go by. So much was taken from us that, in trying to control one aspect, we were just like, ‘No, we will never talk about it. Never. Because it’s ours.'”
Why she did Charlie’s Angels: “I did Charlie’s [Angels] because I’m a huge fan of Liz Banks and I always felt she vouched for me. I always felt, like, she doesn’t think I’m a freak.” It was still an act of friendship, but one that allowed Stewart to show off her little-known goof ball side and exceptional fighting skills. When her friends watched the trailer, they told her: ‘Dude, that’s you. Finally!'”
The fame monster: “I’ve tried to say this before, and I don’t think I’ve ever articulated it properly… but people get mad at you because you’re in such a grand position, so if you don’t hold that up, you don’t deserve it. I never valued the fame thing as much as I valued the experiences I got to do while working, and it perplexed me so much… Some people were like, ‘You ungrateful a–hole!’ and I was like, ‘ Yeah, completely, I don’t want to be famous, I want to do my work!'”
On the younger famous people: “They have this insane agency. And the confidence! That is baffling! I’m like, how are you so confident? You’re so young!” Sometimes, she’s sceptical: the virtue-signalling can be a little forced, a little on point. She names no names, obviously, but describes, tantalisingly, “a couple of people who are like real activists, really at the forefront of progress, and I’m like, ‘You are a deplorable fraud! And all you really care about is people looking at you.'”
Talking about her sexuality now: “I think I just wanted to enjoy my life. And that took precedence over protecting my life, because in protecting it, I was ruining it. Like, what, you can’t go outside with who you’re with? You can’t talk about it in an interview? I was informed by an old school mentality, which is – you want to preserve your career and your success and your productivity, and there are people in the world who don’t like you, and they don’t like that you date girls, and they don’t like that you don’t identify as a quote unquote “lesbian”, but you also don’t identify as a quote unquote “heterosexual”. And people like to know stuff, so what the f–k are you?’” She has no answer. She doesn’t identify as bisexual, she doesn’t identify as a lesbian, she doesn’t like labels. She’s a different person every day she wakes up and delighted by that. “I just think we’re all kind of getting to a place where – I don’t know, evolution’s a weird thing – we’re all becoming incredibly ambiguous.And it’s this really gorgeous thing.”
She doesn’t give AF about Marvel: “I have fully been told, ‘If you just like do yourself a favour, and don’t go out holding your girlfriend’s hand in public, you might get a Marvel movie.’ I don’t want to work with people like that. Literally, life is a huge popularity contest.”
“When me and Rob were together, we did not have an example to go by.” Literally Brangelina. I mean, I know those situations were completely different, but… really? Does she think that she and Rob were the first two costars to ever get together and have their relationship exploited by a studio machine? As for her awkwardness: “I want to reclaim that word, because it’s been used too violently against me.” OMG, Kristen!!! That made me laugh so hard. The rest of it is fine – I actually take comfort that Kristen is secretly checking on all of the garbage youths’ Instagram accounts and quietly judging the performative nature of their activism. That seems on-brand for her.
Cover and Instagram courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar UK.
Is she talking about Taylor Swift? Please tell me she’s talking about Taylor Swift.
In past interviews she usually takes the time to put down other (un-named) actresses for not being as committed to their craft as she is. Like she was in a movie that required her to look like a strung out teen so she would go days without sleep just to have that “authentic” look. Or give herself bruises instead of using movie makeup like everyone else. So my guess is that she’s talking about actresses but who knows.
This need to put others down as not being as authentic as she is has always been a blind spot in her character, she really doesn’t see how arrogant she sounds each time. Like after all these years, no one in her life has told her to check herself?
@Original T.C.
Oh please. She used to say a lot of stupid sh*t when she was younger, but she never had a habit of putting down “unnamed actresses.” Talking about going without sleep isn’t the same as trashing actresses who don’t do the same, or is ever male actor who talks about losing weight or going method doing the same thing? The only thing I can think of is that she would occasionally say things like she wasn’t good at the red carpet thing or the late night talk shows (and she would follow it up by saying she wished she was better at it), and a few people on here would conflate that with completely separate comments of hers about being true to herself and somehow twist themselves into pretzels claiming she saying others weren’t true.
@Original Tessa
She’s absolutely talking about Taylor, which I think it is sort of petty of her. Like I get being annoyed about it, but to drag it up and talk low key about it in an interview in vague ways is a bit much…
KStew’s one of the actors who gets mentioned quite frequently on the LGBTQ gossip blogs/forums, and she hangs out with a circle of a LGBTQ writers, actors, musicians, etc. who also get gossiped about. One of those writers—who Kstew associates with— basically talked about Taylor in the terms that KStew just used in an article.
Isn’t Taylor Swift slightly older than Kristen?
I thought she was talking about people who are between 18-22? I have no idea if they’re fake, but I too am surprised by their confidence. I don’t remember anyone being like that when I was younger. I don’t know if it’s now a necessity to be that assertive however because everyone is on social media and YouTube though. Look at old interviews of Winona Ryder and even Julia Roberts and they’re quite soft-spoken in comparison to what you see today. But maybe that was the style of communication favoured then. Nowadays, if you choose to keep to yourself, people almost think you’re a little strange.
I really wanna know which garbage activists she’s talking about.
I’m dying to know! It’s also interesting to note she’s been basically absent from Times Up (she’s not on the original list of donors/signatories) . Which is fine, she can donate to whatever organization she wants but it makes me wonder if it’s related to that.
Pretty sure it’s mainly Taylor, and she’s just using vague terms so people can’t identify her. I know Taylor has her supporters, but a lot of LGBTQ musicians, writers, actors, etc. were openly throwing shade or low key throwing shade after that MTV performance and You Need to Calm Down!. People were angry cause they thought she was conflating facing homophobia/transphobia/etc. with her dealing with her “haters,” ….among other things. A journalist who is friends with KStew wrote a rather angry think piece about it.
I know me too! Who are these frauds? I liked KStews interview but the whole “activist frauds” is what got me all perked up.
Part of me thinks she’s slamming Miley, who is very performative about her sexuality and uses it for attention. Isn’t Stewart dating Miley’s ex, Stella now?
Her judginess always amuses me. Always pointing the finger at someone else. Never seeing her own hypocrisy.
Right?! Puts me off from rooting for her.
I’ve never really been a fan of her (acting in twilight mainly), but man she’s grown into her beauty.
yes, she is stunning and I really like this interview.
Also, I’m glad she is sharing this: ‘If you just like do yourself a favour, and don’t go out holding your girlfriend’s hand in public, you might get a Marvel movie.’
I remember seeing that Snow White movie she did and she was so pretty in that.
I haven’t seen any of her recent stuff, but it seems like she’s grown up a lot and figured out how she wants to live her life, so good for her.
Seriously. I just came into the comments to say, “Holy smokes, her face!”
Came here to say the same. She has become very beautiful all of a sudden.
Her skin is beautiful. She glows.
She’ll gorgeous,and love how she looks with the very dark roots,stunning really.
Magazine = lighting, makeup, photoshop. Not the same as a candid street photo.
She always comes across as…not that bright? Sorry, just being honest. I think I understand what she’s trying to say but at the same time…huh? But I always forget she was a child actor so we are grading on a curve.
As far as the “example to go by” if I’m being generous she could be saying there’s no hard rule. I mean literally dozens of stars (many far more famous and successful than those two) have gotten together romantically and all done it a different way.
I used to think Kristen was just inarticulate but more and more she reminds me of a (much) less problematic ScarJo. They both think they are so smart and idiosyncratic and they are both just not that deep.
I’m probably just crabby today but she sounds dumb, privileged and bratty.
She actually admitted in an interview several years ago that her life is/has been easy and privileged.She said something like she knows she’s pretty and has had some good breaks early on,and she sounded kind of spoiled and bitchy,but now I think she was just telling the truth about herself as she sees it.
“a couple of people who are like real activists, really at the forefront of progress, and I’m like, ‘You are a deplorable fraud! And all you really care about is people looking at you.’”
Oh shut up. What is she doing that’s so great?
Right? I’ve always found her irritating.
Maybe nothing. But her point was neither are they.
No, talking about issues, even superficially, is still better than whining about people who do that.
This interview is a gas!
I’m usually pretty indifferent to Kristen but I can see what she’s saying about not having an example. The combination of them being pretty young and new in their careers, how deranged the Twilight fans were (and still are!) and the onslaught of social media. I mean that was right when Twitter was becoming a big thing. The crazy Twilight fans were tracking their every move and trying to read their body language every time they were together.
But the reason the Twihards where following them is to prove that they were really together when others said it was a studio manufacturered relationship. IMO, the frenzy and stalking of the twihards would have gone away if they just were out and open about the relationship. They played the game of hiding to keep the frenzy going. Just my 2 cents.
I won’t lie, I was one of the people who believed it was slightly manufactured. I do believe they dated (it was very obvious that Rob was into her initially), but I am convinced the studio made the relationship KEEP going on. Then they had that messy cheating scandal and got back together before the last movie came out. I remember predicting, “Watch. They’ll stay together thru the premier of the last film, stay together just a little bit longer after that, and then they’ll break up.” And that’s exactly what happened.
Yes, agreed. Brad and Angie were hella experienced with being in the spotlight, with being in high profile relationships and were both grown and established.
I’m hard pressed to think of another young, high profile couple made famous by their breakout roles and carrying a franchise together.
I agree, Brangelina is not a good example. They were both adults who had each already been married, each in the spotlight for a long time, and they didn’t have the rabid tween fanbase and the real surge of social media.
I get what she means though perhaps the word “violently” was misused. But the word awkward was certainly weaponized against her. Much in the way labels do get weaponizes against women. Every article written about her contained that word as a descriptive.
I agree with that to some extent. But that “awkward” label also helped cultivate that “girl-next-door but yet not-like-other-girls” image that she rode for a very long time. It think it only helped her career. Otherwise, without that distinction, she’s very boring.
I used to be a huge Robert Pattinson/Kristen Stewart shipper back in 2009 and my brother used to tease me about it all the time. He passed away recently so whenever there’s any ‘Robsten’ mention my mind immediately goes back to him..so I guess I’ll always have a soft spot for this former couple.
A, I’m so sorry about your brother’s passing. I hope you have many happy memories that bring you comfort.
Thank you for your kind words,Renee. God bless you.
Condolences,A I hope you find comfort in many ways and if the whole Robsten thing is a happy memory for you then I think that’s sweet.💐
She’s always dumb.
BTW her Seberg movie has only 38% on rotten tomatoes. Ouch!
But her performance is being pretty much hailed across the boards. The movie isn’t great, but SHE is great in it.
I love how she publicly refuses to label her sexuality while still openly romantically pursuing people of all genders. It’s wonderful that more & more celebrities are normalising diverse sexualities by being out of the closet.
This. People really need to move past the tendency of acting harmed by other women/ people in general not labelling or presenting themselves as only gay or straight. There’s a lot of misdirected bigotry.
Totally agree! My sexuality is very fluid in that someone’s gender has no bearing on whether or not I’m attracted to them.
Our society enforces really rigid binaries (good vs evil, woman vs man, heterosexual vs homosexual etc..)
Because of this a lot of people are biphobic and also transphobic to non binary people. Since my sexuality doesn’t on a binary it’s often treated as invalid by monosexuals.
That said I think things are changing for the better; because we discuss LGBTI+ topics more openly than we did a century ago.
It peeves me when actors claim they don’t wanna be famous. Newsflash Kristen, you’re average looking, semi-talented, “violently” (i guess we can use that word for anything now? Lol) Awkward/bland actress, so there’s no way someone like her would have gotten this known without some hustle, so just own it! If she didn’t want to be famous then she wouldn’t be working on screen, in hollywood, playing the red carpet and front row at runway shows game, signing up to do fashion etc., campaigns where the whole point of them is influencing consumerism with the use of your face and reputation. Such bs she doesn’t wanna be famous. And that goes for every actor that claims that and partake in those activities.
Come on, I’m not sure about her acting talent, but the girl is stunning.
I guess that’s subjective. I really don’t see it. Aside from the haircut, if i saw her walking down the street wouldn’t look twice, pretty generic look to me.
I agree, TrixC. She is quite pretty. And she actually is a good actress.
@Paranormalgirl
But see that’s what I mean, she might be pretty, and a “good actress,” but there are a thousands of girls that fit that, that try to make it on her level and for w.e they don’t. My point is there’s no reason she is at her level of fame other than the fact that she plays the game and has been at it for a long time. She wants the fame, just not the consequences of it.
That photo in front of the Eiffel Tower is stunning
+1! Everything about that shot is fantastic. And that is not an easy dress to pull off but she’s wearing it well (vs it wearing her).
I feel like the interview is a collective meh. She sound decent in some parts, not so decent in others….nothing terrible and nothing great.
And I say this as someone who likes her for the most part, but it’s just a bit of a boring interview except for the Marvel part (which is probably about her old talent agency) and the shade towards “frauds” (which I’m sure is Taylor…lol she sounds pretty judgey there, but I do get why people from the LGBTQ community are angry). I do like how she talked about her sexuality—I think it’s good that people are so open.
She’s definitely grown up a lot (way less cursing, and she’s more put together even if the interview is disjointed at times…and generally far less dramatic and judgey (except for the low key probably TSwift shade lol and the “awkward bit”)).
She looks quite pretty, too. Anyway, considering how many child stars end up in a bad place…I’m glad she made it pass the rocky parts and seems like a fairly well adjusted adult. Seberg got panned even if people liked her and Anthony Mackie’s performances a lot, but Amazon’s giving it a December release so I’m guessing they’re going for a Golden Globe nom for her & Anthony in the acting category.
I agree with her about the labels comment. Just be who you are and leave it at that. The “labels” are getting pretty ridiculous.
People often say about Kristen “______fill in the complaint________ , but she’s so pretty.” I feel like she always gets a pass for that, similar to how everyone used to talk about Lindsay Lohan as if she was destined to be the second-coming of Meryl Streep (laughable as now we can all see her for what she really is, a person with a great deal of mental illness and a lazy work ethic.) Being a cute kid or photogenic is not enough to guarantee anyone a long-lasting, impressive career.
Sure, Kristen is pretty. So are a lot of people. I’ve lived in Hollywood and saw beautiful people constantly who aren’t famous for it. Beautiful people are all over the world. She’s also been at times prickly, whiny, twitchy, pretentious, bored-looking and overhyped (there, I didn’t use the word she resents.) When I see her onscreen, I see Kristen Stewart, not a unique new character. If you disagree, fine, enjoy her many films and magazine covers. Also, I don’t care who she dates and good on her for trying to gloss past that subject, because it doesn’t matter.
‘We’ve all become incredibly ambiguous”. No some of us still know who and what we actually are Kristen. Sign of a celebrity incredibly detached from the mere mortals of the real world. She gets to behave and ‘be’ who she wants because she’s an actress and it’s cool. But her message is ****ed up. Mark my words she’ll return to being ‘straight’ again when it suits her.
She isn’t straight, and she won’t be even if she dates a man.
This. It shouldn’t even have to be explained at this point, but I think part of the problem is that some monosexuals are used to ‘radical feminism’ and LGBT issues centering them and feel a little insecure about the existence of others. Kristen’s point was definitely just proven.
So funny how ever since Rob became Batman she can’t keep his name out her mouth.
Also, ugh the judging. What a b. The fact is she strikes me as a cowand. Too scared and weird to say anything about anything personal, too pretentious and lame to say she has a cause or be an agent of change like her peers changing the world, too above it all to get political even in the face off criminals destroying democracy, no comment about the environment or climate change… That whole ‘my craft is all that matters to selfish a-hole me – I hate fame,’ was barely tolerable when she was a late teen or twenty. Now she’s just BEYOND annoying AF.
good lord, she suddenly seems beyond stunningly beautiful, wtf.
some ppl really do become more attractive with age.
I know people love the marvel movies…call keep a snob, but I look down on those actors/resses. Those movies arent artistic and soley for people who can read a line,know their mark. Pretty much desperate for work attention and fame…