Since donning the role of Bella in last year's TWILIGHT, life has become very different for the young actress A lot can change in one year. Kristen Stewart went from a relatively low profile actor to top of the teen hot list. I’m talking, of course, about her role as Bella Swan in the vampire epic, TWILIGHT. Since the release of the film, Bella has soared into that rare stratosphere of teen worship and tabloid fodder. But the nineteen year old has taken fame in stride, becoming more at ease with her new life in the public spotlight and people hanging over her every word.“I think I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with talking about myself and knowing that what you say people are really going to take into consideration and that always intimidated me so much that I minced every word that came out of my mouth,” says Stewart. “I couldn’t finish a sentence because I was so concerned about how it was going to sound. I didn’t want to come across insincere about something that I really love to do.”
It’s a whole new game for Stewart, but this isn’t the first time she’s been in the media. Stewart has been acting since she was child. She was on her way when before reaching her teens when she acted along Jodie Foster in 2002’s PANIC ROOM. But once Stephanie Meyer’s vampire adaptation came knocking, the rules were about to change completely.
As with all celebrities, the price of fame is the loss of a certain amount of privacy. Stewart is no exception to this rule. Paparazzi follow her constantly, waiting to break a “story” about her latest antics. Stewart has learned to deal with the negatives of stardom.
“I’ve gotten more comfortable with the whole rumor, tabloid stuff,” Stewart states. “It’s so obviously false to me. Look, even before I became a part of it, once I sort of became a star…it’s like a show. It’s like a ridiculous show.”
A “show” is how she frames it, “With false realism like a soap opera that seems real but you’re not quite sure," she adds. "It doesn’t bother me. I don’t take it personally. Luckily, because I’ve had so much experience it’s gotten easier to talk about the work.”
Nosey journalists aren’t the only people Stewart has to worry about. Rabid fans of TWILIGHT can be found the world over. Stewart recalls a time when she and Taylor Lautner, who plays Jacob Black, were in Brazil while Robert Pattinson, who plays Edward, was in Japan.
“This guy was chasing after us,” recalls Stewart. “There was a huge crowd anyway but this one very persistent fellow was like, ‘Where is Robert!? Where is Robert!?’ I couldn’t stop laughing and I felt really bad because he was distraught and emotional and I was like, ‘It’s just Robert.’ It was really funny.”
But Stewart understands how passionate her fans can be. Again, it’s the price of fame. Yet the notion of people obsessing over her, or even stranger, people who are unable to separate her from her character, Bella, is something that she is not quite accustomed to.
“I totally understand why people have a hard time separating ourselves from our characters,” begins Stewart. “It’s also just sort of the way our world is going. People are obsessed. There’s an incredibly large group of people that spend most of their time considering other people’s lives. It’s strange to me.”
She is quick to add, however, “I just let it sort of fall by the wayside and it doesn’t really affect me.”
Ultimately, tabloids, crazed fans, intrusive paparazzi, it’s all something Stewart has had to learn to deal with over the course of one short year. Her solution? To simply not pay attention to the chaos around her.
“I don’t think that anyone can get a handle [on that],” Stewart relates. “It’s like 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 not having to care so much and to not try to think that I’m going to be able to plan out the way that everyone perceives me.
“There are no false impressions,” she continues. “Everyone’s impression of you is going to 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 fine with that. I’m going to own what I’m going to own and literally…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 in mind and I completely understand considering that we’re playing characters that are so coveted by so many people so I get why they want to know more about us and they want us to be together and all of that. I just sort of have to not think about it.”
From the sound of it, one may get the idea that being famous is a chore in itself. A negative consequence, if you will, of pursuing an art form that you love. But in the end, Stewart chose this path because precisely because she does loves acting. Stewart enjoys the human aspect of acting, of being able to connect with people on a genuine level.
“That’s also the best part of it, the fact that so many people are affected by [TWILIGHT] and are invested in it just as much as me if not more,” says a reflective Stewart. “If you don’t like people and if you don’t want to make movies because you care about people then you probably are just wanting to be just rich and famous. So the fact that this is so important to so many people makes me so happy.”
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