Kristen Stewart covers the latest issue of Variety as sort of a preview of this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Kristen is a regular at Sundance because she’s spent a huge chunk of the past fifteen years working in independent films. So much so that Sundance is honoring her this year with the Visionary Award, and she promises Variety that she plans to stay in Utah for the entire festival, not only to promote her latest two indie projects, but to see everyone else’s movies. The bulk of this Variety piece is about how Kristen Stewart is something wholly unique: a queer Millennial movie star. She’s out, she’s been out for years. She plays any kind of character she wants and she’s prioritized working with female and queer artists. The Variety piece is really good, and here are some highlights:
She’s comfortable with herself now: “People say to me, ‘Oh, you’ve just so come out of your shell.’ I’m like, ‘Well, yeah. I’m 33. It was really hard.’”
Deciding to come out on SNL in February 2017: “It wasn’t even like I was hiding. I was so openly out with my girlfriend for years at that point. I’m like, ‘I’m a pretty knowable person.’ For so long, I was like, ‘Why are you trying to skewer me? Why are you trying to ruin my life? I’m a kid, and I don’t really know myself well enough yet.’ The idea of people going, ‘I knew that you were a little queer kid forever.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah? Well, you should honestly have seen me f–k my first boyfriend.’”
Her “I’m, like, so gay, dude” coming out on SNL: “It was cool to frame it in a funny context because it could say everything without having to sit down and do an interview. ‘So what platform is that going to be on? And who’s going to make money on that? And who’s going to be the person that broke it?’ I broke it, alone.”
She’s good at playing straight though: “Because I’m an actor, I want people to like me, and I want certain parts. I have lots of different experiences that shape who I am that are very, very far from binary. But I did get good at the heteronormative quality. I play that role well. It comes from a somewhat real place — it’s not fake. But it’s f–ked up that if I was gayer, it wouldn’t be the case.”
Bringing her girlfriend Dylan Meyer to the Oscars in 2022. “It’s not that I wasn’t scared. It was just that there was no other way to live.”
She thinks “Twilight” has its own queer sparkle. “I can only see it now. I don’t think it necessarily started off that way, but I also think that the fact that I was there at all, it was percolating. It’s such a gay movie. I mean, Jesus Christ, Taylor [Lautner] and Rob and me, and it’s so hidden and not OK. I mean, a Mormon woman wrote this book. It’s all about oppression, about wanting what’s going to destroy you. That’s a very Gothic, gay inclination that I love.”
She spends a lot of time hyping her new film Love Lies Bleeding, where she got to play a butch lesbian (that’s how she describes her character) for the first time and now she doesn’t want to stop playing those kinds of characters. She also skirts around the Rupert Sanders affair – in 2012, she was caught fooling around by an Us Weekly paparazzo and the whole thing blew up into a massive tabloid scandal. I can’t believe that was 12 years ago, sob. While Kristen doesn’t talk about that directly, she does say that she really appreciated Jodie Foster’s public support during that time, and Jodie is quoted at length in this Variety piece. Jodie still loves her and still has surrogate-mom energy towards Kristen, but Jodie also admires how Kristen lives her queer life out loud in a way Jodie never could. Anyway, it’s a good article and I got a little bit choked up at how this angsty lip-biter grew up and became a butch swan.
Does Kristen Stewart remember her lines from her most famous movies? https://t.co/7hVbcuhhj8 pic.twitter.com/xmnu2o50Uj
— Variety (@Variety) January 11, 2024
One of my favorites with her is the SNL Tostinos commercial with Vanessa Bayer. “What are you hungry for?”
Love that one! And the guys watching the game are like “whatever the hold up? You makin’ out in there? Huh huh”
Her hungry guys
OK that interview was funny. I like the part where she didn’t recognize the line that she had said in some movie, and so she goes “Let me do a Kristen Stewart impression” and says the line like… stylized herself…. and immediately gets the movie it was in. hahaha.
This is so different than the interviews she did for say, Twilight. She’s so much more comfortable and open and and herself here. She was iconic in Twilight (the whole series was a thing) and I also didn’t think she was very good at acting for a while. All I could see were KStew mannerisms. But this makes me want to see more of her movies.
(I was talking about the “do you know your lines” clip)
I didn’t get her acting until I watched American Ultra.
She was awesome. I went back & rewatched her movies & she’s really an excellent actor.
Twilight, she nailed that role. The Bella in the book is exactly what she acted.
Agree @Kokiri, I think it was a big misconception for a lot of people that KS couldn’t act because of Twilight when you’re totally right, she played Bella down to a tee.
I really enjoyed Variety’s do you know your lines bit w/Kristan Stewart – thanks for posting
SO many gems in this interview my GOD. “The idea of people going, ‘I knew that you were a little queer kid forever.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah? Well, you should honestly have seen me f–k my first boyfriend.’”
Sorry but that’s f*cking hilarious. She sounds like she’s at a really comfortable place right now and I hate to play into the media narrative that she’s *come into her own* but it really does feel like that.
Love that ‘does she remember her lines’ video. She’s so interesting and natural and intelligent.
It’s been a minute since I’ve seen Kristen Stewart do an interview and wow, she has definitely matured and is way less twitchy and stuttery. I know she was super young when the first Twilight movie came out and it took her awhile to find her footing. I also didn’t notice any lip biting, maybe that’s a habit she grew out of? Though I wonder if she’s more comfortable here because there isn’t a studio audience. There are obviously quite a few people on set for this but way less than a live studio audience and an annoying TV host asking questions and getting laugh reactions from the audience. I was impressed she remembered most of the movies that the lines were from! I was also surprised when she said she hated making the Charlie’s Angels movie. I didn’t see it and will probably never see it but I remember the reviews were pretty terrible. I felt so bad for the actors on that movie because they were trying to promote this reboot like it was going to be the best thing ever.
I haven’t seen her in a movie in awhile because the few I’ve seen, she always seem to be playing herself. But I’ll have to give one of her other movies a try someday.
Some of her past actions and comments have “meh” me on her.
Did not like the twilight book and don’t even remember if I saw the movie, but love the framing of ‘ wanting what will destroy you ‘.
She is growing on me a lot in recent years as an actor. I think I get her more now that I’ve seen ‘Underwater’ and some of her other movies. She’s hilarious in this interview. More KStew.
It was originally supposed to be a queer story — Stephenie’s “dream” it was based on was two women but yknow mormon