Living in the
Twilight zone
SheKnows: What do you find the most rewarding about doing this saga?
Kristen Stewart: I think my favorite thing about this is I can keep it personal. It’s still something that, if this saga didn’t become a franchise and the series of movies that I
had done, they would mean just as much to me. The fact that so many people are affected by it and invested in it just as much as me if not more, that only makes it more (rewarding?). Like I said
about Chris, if you don’t like people and you don’t want to make movies because you care about people, then you’d probably just start wanting to be rich and famous. So, the fact that this is so
important to so many people, makes me so happy. I think that’s it.
SheKnows: Having such an avid fan base, how do you draw the line when people want to know so much about your private life?
Kristen Stewart: I don’t know if anybody can get a handle on it. As soon as I stopped trying to control everything that came out of my mouth and every picture that came out,
that’s when I became so much happier and it was so much easier to deal with. It wasn’t like it was a turning point. I’ve just grown into being able to not care as much and to not think that I’m
gonna be able to plan out how everybody perceives me. There are no false impressions. Everybody’s impression of you is always gonna be what it is in that isolated moment. It’s people not
considering where you are in that moment when you give that impression. I’m gonna own what I’m gonna own. (She fumbles some words). I should just stop trying to control what’s coming out
of my mouth. I’m always going to keep what’s important to me, mine and people are always gonna want (more), and I completely understand considering that we’re playing characters that are so coveted
by so many people. I get why they want to know more about us and they want us to be together and all of that. I just have to sort of not think about it.
SheKnows: How was doing the very emotional scene in New Moon when Edward breaks up with her? There were girls crying in our audience.
Kristen Stewart: Oh, that’s good (laughter). That was the scariest thing I’ve ever (done). I was almost more worried about messing it up than I was about what I actually
should have been thinking about which was the issues that Bella’s dealing with. Reading it, it’s such an iconic moment. There’s nothing like it in reality even. It’s not like a normal break up
scene. I know what it’s like to get broken up with but I don’t know what it’s like to get broken up with by a vampire who I’ve now been physically and chemically altered by. Suddenly you take an
addict and take whatever they’re addicted to away from them. There’s withdrawal. That was the most intimidating scene in the entire movie and I don’t know how to explain how I did it.
Kristen Stewart (continued): Chris really helped me out. It was just about talking to him and reading the book. It was so overwhelming. I had no other actors to play off. The break
up scene that I did with Rob, that’s not where it happens yet. That’s not what I was intimidated by. She doesn’t even believe it yet. It’s when he goes. It’s the absence of him that I was scared
of. How am I by myself, in the woods with a hundred guys standing around filming me, going to die? Basically literally have the equivalent of a death scene but stay alive, get up and keep walking?
It was hard. I was really intimidated. I’ve seen the movie. I really like the movie. I don’t know if anybody ever would have been able to bring that to life the way Stephenie (Meyer) writes it.
SheKnows: What were some of the other challenges?
Kristen Stewart: This for me was the most emotionally conflicted (film). Bella is so sure all of the time. And this is the one movie where she actually is baffled and totally like
‘I don’t know’. It’s weird to play Bella like that because she’s so not like that. That was difficult. I can’t think of a particular scene. It was really hard to go back and forth because you don’t
shoot a movie in sequence, I had to do stuff with Jacob where I was alive and happy and out of this depression thing and then, after lunch, go back and scream in my bed for six hours. That was
difficult.
New Moon & Eclipse’s changes
SheKnows: The scene with Victoria is really harrowing. I wondered what it is like to work with Bryce Dallas Howard (on Eclipse) in that role?
Kristen Stewart: Really good. Bryce is scary. She’s really oddly sweet as well so it’s funny to see her switch back and forth. But Victoria, for Bella, is an ever-present fear.
Even when Victoria’s not around, she’s scared that she’s coming back. Bryce is such a good actress that it was easy to be scared of her.
SheKnows: How was working with director Chris Weitz?
Kristen Stewart: Chris has everything. I think, to be a good director, you have to be a good person and you have to care about people and I don’t an any more compassionate human
being. I couldn’t have done this unless I had such a believable environment, a comfortable, safe environment to be so vulnerable in and he provided that tenfold. He’s one of the coolest guys,
smartest, funniest guys. And, he really likes the project as well. He wasn’t just jumping on the next big thing so it wasn’t about breaking him in at all. He made everything what it is. He’s
incredible. I love him.
SheKnows: Didn’t he give everyone some kind of guidebook for the film?
Kristen Stewart: Chris did a very different thing that I’ve never had a director do. He put together a syllabus of what we were supposed to achieve and how he was going to make it
easier for everyone; sort of an introduction to how he likes to work. It didn’t only introduce the idea of collaboration, it was inviting everyone onto this project and saying, ‘please everyone
love it and everyone be invested and work hard, because we’re all here to work’. It was very encouraging. It also had technical aspects of how he was so sorry that so much of the movie was gonna be
CGI stuff that we’d have to react to but he was always going to make us aware of what we were acting with and it was never going to leave us high and dry. A lot of effects movies, you don’t know
what you’re reacting to. So, he had a full rundown of how he planned on making the movie. Most directors are like ‘have you put together notes for our meeting?’ ‘Uh, no. That’s your job’. So he’s
amazing. I love him.
New Moon: Vancouver vamps while Italy enlightens
SheKnows: What is it like to shoot in Vancouver? Is it like home? Do you have favorite hangouts?
Kristen Stewart: I love Vancouver. When we’re doing the Twilight series there, I don’t get to go out as much as I’d like to. I’m also sort of a boring person. I don’t go
out to the bars and stuff unless it’s an event. It’s a beautiful place to be. I just like being outside there. I don’t have favorite spots. It’s the climate. It’s so different from what I’m used
to.
SheKnows: How did being in Italy effect the romance for your character?
Kristen Stewart: The fact that we didn’t have to be on a set and we were really in Italy made it so much easier to really immerse yourself in this world. It was so cool that we got
to go to Italy and we didn’t have to fake it. I think it really did add, I’m taking Chris’s words right now, a “scope” to the film that wouldn’t otherwise be there. To go from Forks to Italy, is
such a stark contrast and romantic just in the idea of it. So to actually be there and feel it, it of course only helps to have the real environment.
SheKnows: What is the craziest moment you’ve had with fans since starting this?
Kristen Stewart: The funniest thing in the world just happened to me in Brazil. I’ve had a lot of really varying experiences, some absolutely touching and overwhelming and daunting
and some just like crazy. Then sometimes they’re really funny. I was in Brazil and me and Taylor went to Latin America this time and Rob was in Japan. That’s just how it goes sometimes. We’re sent
all over and it means nothing who we’re with. This guy was chasing after us. There was a huge crowd anyway, but this one very persistent fella was like, ‘Where is Ho-bert? Where is Ho-bert’? I
couldn’t stop laughing and I felt really bad because he was distraught and emotional and I was like, ‘It’s just Ro-bert.’ It was really funny. I found that funny. Sometimes you get letters that are
sort of reassuring. It’s funny when you can actually relate to the fans on a human level and it happens all the time. People assume that’s impossible. So when that happens it’s the coolest thing.
SheKnows: Anything scary happen?
Kristen Stewart: Scary? No. I’m scared of crowds but individually no, of course not. Just personally I’m sort of intimidated by a lot of people.
Up next…Stewart talks about what it was like when it was announced Hardwicke was out and Weitz was in and how it affects a female-driven story.
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