Here’s Kristen Stewart on the cover of October/November’s Interview Magazine. I love this cover. It‘s artsy-fartsy while still being very beautiful. I don‘t think I‘ve ever noticed how pretty Kristen‘s eyes are. And take note Penelope Cruz‘s Vanity Fair makeup artist – this is how you do some cat eyes. (here for the full interview and slideshow). Dennis Hopper interviews Kristen for the cover story, and the first thing he does when he gets Kristen on the phone is hand off the phone to his 6-year-old daughter Galen, who wants to say hi to Kristen. Kristen is very sweet to the little girl, and it’s very cute. When he gets back on the phone, Kristen tells Dennis, “I’m just sort of intimidated by kids. I didn’t know what to say.” Here are some of the highlights:

Kristen Stewart on the Twilight phenomenon: “The sad thing is that I feel so boring because Twilight is literally how every conversation I have these days begins—whether it’s someone I’m meeting for the first time or someone I just haven’t seen in a while. The first thing I want to say to them is, “It’s insane! And, as a person, I can’t do anything!” But then I think to myself, God damn it, shut the f-ck up.”

KS on how she relates to Bella: “I do feel more of a pressurized strain [on the Twilight series] than what is typical for me. Usually, what drives you is your own personal responsibility to the script and the character and the people you are working with. But in this case, I have a responsibility not only to that but to everyone who has personal involvement in the books—and now that spans the world. It’s an insane concept. There are certain things in Twilight . . . As much as I’m proud of that movie and I do like it, I feel like maybe I brought too much of myself to the character. I feel like I really know Bella now. But most readers feel like they know Bella because it’s a first-person narrative. She’s like a little vessel and everyone experiences the story through her. All of these girls who are fans personally feel like they encapsulate that character. So it’s like, “How the hell am I going to do that for all of them? It’s impossible!” But I’ve decided, if you’re just unabashedly honest all of the time, you have nothing to be ashamed of.

KS on the Twilight series “darkness” and masochism: “The movies aren’t that dark, as much as we’d all have loved to have made those films. But as pretty as it is to watch and as nice as it is to have watched these two characters find solace in each other, everything around them is absolute chaos. I mean, you have to question their motivations—to watch two people so unhealthily devoted to each other . . . I stand behind everything that they do. I have to justify it in my mind, or else I couldn’t play the character. But they are definitely not the most pragmatic characters. The weirdest f-cking themes run through this story—like dominance and masochism. I mean, you always have to realize that the story needs to make sense to the 11-year-olds who read the book and aren’t necessarily going to be viewing a scene as foreplay. But then there is the other segment of the audience—a large percentage—who does see the scene as foreplay. And it’s pretty deep, heady foreplay. [laughs] So it’s fun to play it both ways. I mean, I don’t know what it feels like to make out with my vampire boyfriend because it isn’t something that anybody has ever felt. But it’s funny to think that a lot of the audience is 10 years old and will maybe one day grow up to realize there are a lot of involved thoughts in Twilight that they didn’t see before.”

KS on fame, Part 1: “There’s an idea about who I am that’s eternally projected onto me, and then I almost feel like I have to fulfill that role. Even when things come out of my mouth, I want to be sure I’m saying exactly what I mean. All I’m thinking of is the fact that everything that I say is going to be criticized—not criticized, just evaluated and analyzed. And it’s always something that matters so much to me that doesn’t come out right. But in terms of how my life has changed, I never really went out a whole lot before. I’m sort of an in-my-head kind of person. I wish I could take more walks . . . I’d like to take more walks after work, instead of having to come back to my hotel room and not leave. So it can be boring.”

KS on fame, Part 2: “There’s nothing you can do about it, to be honest. I don’t leave my hotel room—literally, I don’t. I don’t talk to anybody about my personal life, and maybe that perpetuates it, too. But it’s really important to own what you want to own and keep it to yourself. That said, the only way for me not to have somebody know where I went the night before is if I didn’t go out at all. So that’s what I’m trading. It depends what mood I’m in. Some nights, I think, “You know what? I don’t care. I’m just going to do what I want to do.” Then the next day I think, “Ugh. Now everyone thinks I’m going out to get the attention.” But it’s like, no, I actually, for a second, thought that maybe I could be like a normal person.”

[From Interview]

I found the “dominance and masochism” quote the most interesting, obviously. I think Kristen’s right on – and I like what she’s trying to say about the little girls who don’t really understand the more complicated and darker stuff at work in the series. All in all, I think Kristen is actually a very bright, intelligent girl, but I think having this kind of fame thrust upon her as thrown her for a bit of a loop. She certainly sounds a lot more grounded and intelligent than I did at her age – which is why I give her a pass for being a bit snotty at times. Also – I should note, throughout the entire interview, Sparkles Pattinson’s name was not mentioned once. Gasp!

Photos via CoverAwards, with more on Interview’s website