I’ll admit to feeling slightly sorry for Kristen Stewart specifically around her Oscar campaign. I’ve covered her interviews throughout her Spencer promotion, and she was and is extremely proud of the film and of the good reviews for her performance. She had mixed feelings about going all-in on a full Oscar campaign blitz, but she was still doing all of the interviews and awkwardly hyping herself and her performance. And then one or two remarks about how Oscar campaigning is “so embarrassing” and suddenly, she was getting snubbed for awards nominations right and left. While I never thought K-Stew should win anything for her portrayal of Princess Diana, I did think she deserved some nominations! She ended up getting an Oscar nomination, so it all worked out in the end. Kristen’s Oscar campaigning interviews are still coming out and she really is trying. She covers Vogue Australia and she was really quite peppy and happy in this piece. Some highlights:
She’s not too cool for school: “I think cool does suggest a sort of, like, level of uninvolvement or something, but I’m so involved. I would do anything for this sh-t. I’m a freewheeling kind of a motherf–ker. I’m a nice guy, I want to make cool movies and I want everyone to have a good time—or have a bad time, and that’s okay. You know what I mean?”
How she felt when she was younger: “I think that, maybe, as a younger person, that intense desire to want everyone to be good, and for me to be able to derive the most that I can out of a given experience was a little debilitating. Because I had a huge barometer for bullsh-t, and I was so unable to deal unless something was feeling true. And a lot of the worlds I was functioning in, they’re quite often very inauthentic, or planned or rehearsed or not very candid. It’s funny—the friction between my kind of energy and that, it seems like I’m the weird one.” She laughs ruefully. “I couldn’t navigate that for a long time. But now I feel like I’ve grown into a buoyancy, and a willingness to have no control over anything. I’m actually now able to reveal myself more truly. I feel like people are seeing me more clearly than they ever have, which is lovely. That’s really nice.”
How she felt playing Diana: “Right before we started shooting, I was debilitatingly nervous… The way that I could protect her, and do the truest version of our art about her, was to just sort of love her.”
Being 31, and Diana-at-30: “I’m the same age as she was at the time when this all kind of shifted. And I’m so impressed with her, because I have lived a life that was really allowed to be open, and she was so stunted. But still, kind of at the same time, [she was] like: ‘Okay, my life is undeniable,’ and she kind of broke through. She just represents freedom and liberation to me, even in the moments when she’s locked inside of herself and inside of this institution.”
How she feels about the monarchy. “I still cannot completely come for the entire idea. It’s a complicated issue.” One that is, for her, embodied in Diana’s two sons. “Diana’s legacy is walking and talking. They’re both very clearly examples of two sides. And I don’t think either is right or wrong … I think that both of those boys function so positively in the world. I see her in them and—it’s funny, it’s a weird word to use—as a fan, as somebody who’s really been obsessively watching [Diana], it’s really nice to see.”
Ultimately, she loved playing Diana: “It was a hard job, but it was so much fun; she’s such a beautiful person to think about. It felt very, very, very good to be her. This imagined skin was something that made me feel amazing. And that was kind of a surprise because her life was, in a nutshell, quite sad, but the joy in the centre of it is why it’s so sad. She had something to fight for that is so spectacular.” So much so, that “by the time we got to the end, I just felt like I was at the top of the tippy-top, tallest staircase I had ever climbed up”.
Re: the too cool for school thing… I think she was legitimately cautious about showing too much of her life or allowing people to invade her privacy, but instead of crying about it, she adopted a “f–k you, you can’t have that part of me” attitude, which was actually pretty great. She figured out her own boundaries with fame and the media and she held on to them and good for her. I also appreciate that Kristen has been given ample opportunity to chime in on Harry-vs-William, royal dramas and all of that, and she stays mostly positive and non-committal every time. She’s not trying to promote her movie on the back of the current royal soap opera.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon, Instar, cover courtesy of Vogue Australia.
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- Kristen Stewart during Spencer red carpet, 78th Venice International Film Festival, Italy – 03 Sep 2021,Image: 630404640, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Mirco Toniolo / AGF Foto / Avalon
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- Kristen Stewart arrives for the Spencer’ premiere, BFI London Film Festival, UK,Image: 637064063, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: James Shaw / Avalon
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“Boys”. White dudes enjoy the longest adolescence of any demographic it seems.
I think she uses it because they were boys in the setting of her film
The bigger issue is « girl » used by men about a romantic interest imo. I think men hate the word woman
Honora-yeah that’s what I assumed too. She played their mother in the film so it makes sense to me.
^^ I tend to agree with @Aurora on the general use of ‘boys’ terminology. Also, the constant reference in our culture to grown women as ‘girls.’ Even worse, in some instances, being called, ‘gals.’
Of course, the ‘boys’ reference to Diana’s now two adult men has been perpetual. I believe this is because our global culture continues to view them or somehow has an erasable memory of them centered on that one snapshot in time: two boys (Wales brothers) walking in grief and vulnerability behind the coffin of their prematurely dead mother.
At that time, Will and Harry were both innocents. Their personalities and character faults were not set in stone. They were both still very young and impressionable.
I suppose Kristen Stewart is smart to stay fairly neutral when asked questions about the current royal drama. But her response also reveals she has no clue regarding Will’s very uncool and negative behaviors, actions, and utterances.
It’s a nice little movie, very memorable, but very female- and emotion- centric. Not sure the male voters are ready for that
I’ve always been a KStew fan (me and my mom always joked we were Team Bella during the height of Twilight lol). I like that she’s grown up before our eyes and you can tell she just feels so much more comfortable in her own skin these days and I love to see it. I enjoyed this interview and I also appreciate she doesn’t feel the need to wade into the royal drama and is very non-committal about it all. Like she said, it’s complicated. She probably won’t win the Oscar but I truly do think she is just happy and honored to be nominated.
^^ Yep, I have a soft spot for KStew. I remember her performance in her third film in the early 2000s as a pre-teen/ teenager, Panic Room. Indeed, she has grown up before our eyes and become more comfortable in her own skin. She always had a cool, rebellious, yet vulnerable vibe.
Similar to Robert Pattinson, Kristen has managed to transcend her role as Bella Swan, at the same time she parlayed that breakthrough role into A-list success. I’m happy for her Oscar nomination, and I hope she fully takes in and enjoys every moment of her ‘Oscar-nominated’ ride. At the end of the day, it’s just a fun, light-hearted experience, or it should be. Just being nominated is a big deal to cherish, because some worthy actors never get nominated.
Diana represents freedom and liberation? Ummm….what? Diana represents the opposite. She’s a prime representation of patriarchal structures (BRF, the press) destroying a woman by trapping and limiting them…by taking their freedom and denying liberation.
Sure, Diana had happiness in her week and children, and she extricated herself best she could from a terrible marriage and the BRF, but Diana was never free or liberated. She got in a position to make her own choice, sure, but she died because she was trapped in the toxic systems she married into, despite her best efforts to get free. The system literally hounded her to death. She is a cautionary tale, not a tale of victory.
I think it would have been better had she said that Diana represented the fight for freedom and liberation, maybe?
Yes, Becks. Much better phrasing.
Perhaps we could allow space for people to see in others what they wish – my biggest memories of the Diana years are of her hugging the AIDS patient. THAT is my biggest takeaway from who Diana was and her life . It was a HUGE deal at the time when people were rampantly homophobic and afraid to sit on toilet seats.
Yes, I remember the interviews and the tampon bomb but I don’t see her as a tragic figure at all.
KStew is 20 years younger than me, I can see how her interpretation of Diana was freedom and liberation — who can forget the revenge dress.
Yagotme- “I don’t see her as a tragic figure at all”
The woman died at 37 because she could not stop the press from intruding in her life hoping to give a glimpse of another revenge dress they could sell photos of for money. All because she married some jerk who just wanted a broodmare. How is that anything but tragic?
Diana didn’t get the chance to do good, be a grandmother, or find true love and happiness. All because she married into a toxic situation she never fully escaped. I’m sorry, but interpreting her as a figure of liberation and freedom is just flat our wrong. She is the epitome of brilliant woman whose brilliance was cut short by patriarchal systems.
Rapunzel – I don’t know about that. Certainly her life was tragically cut short and she lost the opportunity to do a lot. But she never fully submitted to their desire to steamroll her, for her to dim herself. She was popular from the time that engagement was announced and frequently did good regardless of what Charles and the rest of them told her to do. She did what Harry and Meghan did, she got out, but unlike them had to face it alone. It took a lot of strength, resilience, and desire for freedom even if things didn’t work out that way ultimately. And she paved the way for her son’s freedom.
Rapunzel — it is just a matter of perspective and Diana’s legacy has had the patina of time that makes us fondly remember all the best parts of the People’s Princess. I don’t deny that her death was tragic, I just don’t discount that some could see her as a figure of liberation.
To each their own.
Her death was tragic…but she was a princess who got divorced. She DID break free from Charles and got to live life mostly on her terms at the end. She had power in how she used her voice, her image, her press. It wasn’t perfect, but it was amazing that she got there in the first place. She’s beloved, and the BRF was powerless to stop it.
They did stop her tho. Even if you don’t think they engineered the crash (with all of those weird things that have never been explained) they took away her security.
And then they tried to do the same thing to Harry and in fact are still trying!
Eh, I don’t buy into the conspiracies. She got into a car accident and wasn’t wearing her seat belt. It’s a tragedy, but not a murder.
^^ Hmmm, obviously everyone can only take in and view what happened the way they are able to based on what they specifically have imbibed or tangentially read, remember, or heard. In actuality, there’s a lot involved, and there have been detailed investigations which have outlined convincing, unresolved discrepancies surrounding the accident and the aftermath.
But to each their own in terms of situating and dealing with this unforgettable tragedy in real life.
@Rapunzel “She is the epitome of brilliant woman whose brilliance was cut short by patriarchal systems.”
I feel the exact same way.
To be popular does not equal to be allowed to be free, your true self and allowed to shine in your own light, power, rules. She had always to cater to the rules of the system, even if in her case it was the system of the institution. And I think she rebelled against it the best she could – and also with what we know of today, it does not need much to do so. So no, I don’t think she was free. But there might have been those even more trapped that considered her to be free.
This is a complicated debate, but @Yagotme best expresses how I feel about this — and I lived through it all in real time. We should allow for the fact that Diana and her memory serve as many things to many people.
I think the way Kristen has described her thoughts about Diana are valid, authentic, and don’t require corrections by any of us. After all, KStew has gone through an extraordinary experience of becoming Diana via transmuting a part of her to audiences, in the film, Spencer.
“I think that both of those boys function so positively in the world.”
LOL, that’s sweet of her and of course she was going to say that but I snorted. William doesn’t even know the meaning of positive, being incandescent all the time…
I really liked this part:
“And that was kind of a surprise because her life was, in a nutshell, quite sad, but the joy in the centre of it is why it’s so sad. She had something to fight for that is so spectacular.”
that’s why Diana is such a tragedy in the end, right? Why we still miss her and mourn her today. There was a joy about her and her life and she had something special and then there was all this tragedy and nastiness and drama that surrounded that. that’s not saying Diana was perfect or without her faults, because she wasn’t (no one is), but there was definitely something special about her and that’s why we still talk about her today and why she still fascinates us. t
I think it was that she died so young. Why we still swan on about Buddy Holly and Marilyn Monroe. Beautiful people that were taken at the height of their sparkle make us acutely feel our own mortality.
Had Diana married Dodi and they spent the rest of their days rolling about the Mediterranean I doubt there would be the same mystique.
Well, obviously. If she hadn’t died so young her life wouldn’t have been so tragic. If she had had a happy ending overall the bad parts would just have been part of the story.
Not only that, but people who die at the height of their exposure, in such sensationalized ways, are bound to be memorialized forever. It happened with those who died young and beautiful like Rudolph Valentino, Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Patsy Cline, etc, but with figures like Abraham Lincoln etc too.
Diana’s energy and personality were also thrown into massive contrast because of what she married into and how that turned out. So it has become a dichotomy of Diana vs. The Royals. And in the end because she’s passed away, people find it easy to assign personalities, viewpoints, and motives to her irrespective of what she may or may not have felt (the endless “Diana would be ashamed!!” statement tossed back and forth by royal reporters).
C — agree with all of that.
She was excellent as Diana. The movie itself was bad.
Looks great on that cover!
She photographs well, but I can’t really sit through watching her in movies.