Suicide Girls: Interview with Kristen Stewart

 Suicide Girls: Interview with Kristen Stewart

Twilight fans hang on Kristen Stewart's every word, so she has to be careful what she says. On her first press rounds for Twilight, some of Stewart's thoughts got taken out of context and the fans got upset. That still happens, but now she chooses her words carefully and you can tell she's much more poised and polished about what she says.

If you haven't read Eclipse, here's a quick recap. Bella (Stewart) is thinking about Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson)'s marriage proposal. Her condition is that she wants to become a vampire to live with him forever. He doesn't want her to loser her humanity, so you see the dilemma. Meanwhile, Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) is still trying to convince Bella he's the right one for her. Also, her old enemy Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard) is building a vampire army to come and get her, so the boys have to join forces to protect Bella.

The Twilight phenomenon may be overwhelming but that's not all there is to Kristen Stewart. She manages to have two releases a year in between Twilight movies. This year was The Runaways, in which she played rocker Joan Jett, and The Yellow Handkerchief, a post-Katrina road movie. If you missed them, they'll be on DVD soon.

At a time when the media can be invasive, and the promotional demands of a movie keep her on the road, a press conference was the closest a reporter could get to Stewart. Even with dozens of tape recorders and microphones in her face, Stewart has a certain natural intimacy that comes across when she's formulating her thoughts. Let's face it, Kristen Stewart is F'ing cool. She's in an awesome position and takes it seriously. It may take her a few tries to express it exactly the way she wants, but she'll stay honest, no matter how many Twihards nitpick her.

You're in the middle of this journey with Bella Swan. Do you worry that it's taking over your whole career, that it becomes your persona?

KS: This is a unique situation. I get to play her for a really long time and that also is a serious indulgence and something that's really lucky because I feel really sad when I lose a character at the end of a short shoot, which is typically six weeks on a small movie which is what I'm used to. It definitely is obviously the one role that has put me in this sort of epic position. But, it's just another movie and I think it doesn't matter if you're doing a studio movie or you're doing an independent movie. When you get to set and you're doing a scene it's always going to be the same job. I really don't think about my career in terms of planning it out and what this does for me. This was a part that I just really wanted to play and luckily I got to do it for a really long time.

In this film, Bella has to make her decision for Edward or Jacob. Do you feel like that's a big challenge in the movies so far?

KS: Yeah. She's pushed to the point where the decision needs to made in this one but she does that in each movie. What's cool is that things change and as certain as she is sometimes and as absolutely gung-ho and young and courageous and brave as she is, she's also willing to take a step back and go, “Okay, I'm going to reconsider my options and reconsider how I'm treating everybody.” She acknowledges that she's being a little bit selfish. She makes the choice but I feel like the choice has been made. As soon she sees him in the first one, it's done but it's hard for her to get to point where everyone is going to accept that and this is the one that it sort of happens in.

We see Bella really mature in this film, especially choosing to be a vampire, not just for Edward but for other reasons. How do you see Bella maturing as a woman?

KS: She's definitely making decisions for herself and she's not just going along with what Edward is saying to do, which is something that people instantly just latch onto, that she's this weak and codependent girl that's just in need all the time of this guy. It's so not the case. I think if it were to be told from his perspective that he would be just as vulnerable and needy as her. It's told from her mind though so obviously those things are going to be more apparent. I think she's definitely, like I say over and over, owning up to things that have gone down. They've been both good and bad. She can reap the benefits from the ways that she's dealt with in a good way and also make the relationships in her life stronger based on the mistakes that she's made. As soon as you sort of screw someone over and go back and say, “I admit that. Can we still be cool? I've been really selfish.” Everyone now in the family is looking at her differently, like, “Oh, maybe she really does know what she wants. Maybe she's not acting so immature and crazy.” I'm glad that you felt that. That's awesome.

Was the action in Eclipse more difficult for you than the previous films?

KS: The action is actually absolutely everybody else's responsibility. I just stand behind people that are stronger than me literally the entire time. I didn't get to run around as much as I did in the second movie. So the action wasn't difficult.

Some people suggest that the success of these movies has to do with forbidden love, loving a vampire and its mix with traditional family values. What do you think?

KS: Right. I think if you took all the mythical aspects away from the story that it would still stand as a really strong, interesting thing to be a part of. I think the whole vampire and the whole werewolf thing are really good sort of plot devices. All of the aspects of the vampire and all the aspects of a werewolf are fully encompassed by the humans, by Jacob and Edward. If all of that was gone they would still be the same people. I don't think it's a big phenomenon because of the vampire mythical aspect. It definitely takes a good story and it raises the stakes and it makes it a little bit more interesting but I think it's just about who the characters are and how easy it is to have faith in them and be sort of addicted to them. They let you down a lot and then pick themselves back up. I don't think it has anything to do with the vampire thing. I think it just makes that a little cooler.

How did you work with the new director, David Slade? He shot a lot of close-ups so was there anything you had to adjust in your style of acting to compliment his filmmaking?

KS: No. We've worked with the same DP [director of photography] now, for New Moon and Eclipse and I always ask Javier, “Hey, how close are you?” That's something that David intentionally does, not tell you stuff like that which I completely understand because most actors are crazy and neurotic and don't want to know the camera is up their nose but it's good to know. No, I didn't do anything differently though. You have to change a little bit every time that you work with a new director but it's cool working with someone different on each one of those. As long as someone has the same passion for it, as long as they're into it, you have to do all this re-work. You have to reconsider all the ideas that had you been working with the same person you might just say, “Oh, we've covered that. We don't need to go over that.” But in this case I have to introduce my character to David. He meets Bella through me. I mean, I'm sorry, I'm playing her. We've done something already and it's cool to let a new person into the fold. It's fun.

Now that you've done three of these films, are there things that you wish had made into the movie from the book that didn't?

KS: Yeah, totally. There are a million things. I mean every single time we watch one of the movies, especially when the cast watches it together it's always an incredibly frustrating experience. That's why I'm glad that Breaking Dawn is going to be two movies which I can finally say. So there's going to be less of that, less of having to lose stuff. I know you want specific things but I'm trying to think of one now but I can't.

Is there a scene in Breaking Dawn that you hope makes the movie?

KS: There are a million and we haven't even shot it yet. I can't wait to see Renesmee and I can't wait to have a kid and get married. It's all of that. It's going to be crazy.

How long have you known that Breaking Dawn was going to be two films and how long will it take to film them?

KS: The shoot is going to be something like six months I think. We start in October. I think we're not going to be finished until maybe March or something, maybe February. I clearly don't really look at a whole lot of schedules. I had to hold onto this forever. They've been talking about it for a really long time and we all sort of knew it was definitely going to be two movies forever now. It's been really hard not to say that. We're all really stoked on that.

Do you see an opportunity in Breaking Dawn since it's two films to create two interpretations of Bella, pre-vampire and post-vampire?

KS: Yeah, actually. I really can't wait to get into that because I've been on the outskirts of what it would feel like to play one of them. I've had to think about it a lot considering that Bella is dating one of them very seriously. If your significant other has been dealing with these issues, I've thought about it a lot and I can't wait to actually be it. It's going to be a trip. It's going to be weird and I think she does change a lot.

Do you think they might go for a full on R rating, considering some of the things that will happen in Breaking Dawn?

KS: I guess everybody interprets those things differently. My guess is that it'll be PG-13. I have no idea. I mean, I guess we'll all see when it comes out.

In Eclipse, Bella has an awkward conversation about the birds and bees with her father. Was that something that you had to deal with in real life?

KS: No. I knew everything from word go. I was really, really mature that way. [Laughs] No, I don't know. Sure, I guess I probably have that moment. I guess that everybody does. I never had the talk. I could never have the talk. I don't know, I didn't need it.

I think some of the nicest scenes in all these films are the scenes between Bella and her father. What's that like, working with Billy Burke?

KS: I really, really love working with Billy. Just try to think of a good thing to say about someone you really enjoy working with. He's very no B.S. and obviously as an actor that's what you need. He's really good at knowing if the scene works or doesn't work, if something's real. I think he really understands the dynamic, the Charlie/Bella thing. It's not a normal father/daughter relationship. They haven't known each other very long. She just moved to Forks literally and has memories of him when she was a little kid, but I love the gradual trust thing that happens. He's really good at that because he doesn't force it and it's never creepy and a lot of times it gets weird when some guy is playing your dad and it doesn't feel real to you. It feels like they're forcing sentiment. It's disgusting and I never feel that with him. I think he's great and I love him.

What other films are you looking forward to making besides Breaking Dawn?

KS: I'm playing Marylou in On The Road. It was my first favorite book and that character is iconic and Walter Salles is directing it. I'm a huge fan of his so I'm going to start that right as soon as this press tour is over. In July we start a four week beatnik boot camp thing. We're going to read everything. It's a small movie, too and so four weeks of rehearsal is crazy cool.

Are you at the point now with Rob Pattinson where when you're doing a very passionate or dramatic scene that all of a sudden you just start laughing?

KS: That totally happens all the time, definitely. More so with me and Taylor because we have so much fun with stuff and because our intimate moments are so few and far between and weird, the way they happen in the book. We have a little bit more of that. Me and Rob are always so serious because the scenes mean a lot and we're always like, “Oh God, did we do it right?”

Source => Suicide Girls / Via => Cullens News