I’ve been parceling out W Magazine’s Great Performances covers and features because I’ve really enjoyed the series this year. The interviews have been great, and celebrities are telling different kinds of stories than the regular Please-Give-Me-An-Oscar-For-My-Struggle tales. Kristen Stewart has been pretty ambivalent about her Oscar campaign – she’s very proud of the film, but she doesn’t want to act like a baby-kissing political candidate, which is what most potential Oscar nominees act like. K-Stew is, as always, too cool for that. Her W Magazine interview is a trip – you can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
How ‘Spencer’ came to her: “Pablo Larraín called one day and said that he endeavored to make a movie about Diana Spencer. I was like, “Who is that?” It’s actually Princess Diana. And that was her real name. His movie is a three-day meditation, fever dream–poem, attempting to imagine what a certain period of time felt like for her, as she was trying to carve out what her identity was.
How she played Diana: “The whole movie’s perspective is incredibly internal, so I never had to deliver a heightened performance. I was actually just reacting to the elements that were in the room with me. Physically, it was about seeing how much I could put myself through, how cold I could get, how skinny I could get, how tired I could get. I still felt 10 feet tall, though. There’s something about her, even just by osmosis, just imagining her as a figure, the things that I’ve been impressed by, the things that I’ve felt protective of, the things that worry me about her, they’re still oddly, unshakably strong. By the end of the movie, I was like, “Okay, I actually could keep going.” I really tried to pummel myself into the ground on this one. I definitely attribute that to this spooky transference, her energy, who she was, it was unstoppable.
She’s been starstruck before: “Yeah. I saw Neve Campbell in a restaurant the other day, and I looked over my shoulder and did this thing that I hate when people do [it] to me, where they look and then snap back and pretend they didn’t see or something. I’m like, “Just come say hi.” And then my friend was like, “You should just go say hi.” I was like, “No way.” And then she invited us to sit down and chat for a minute. I was like, “Man, I need to go see Scream [Five].” I love that series so much. But it’s funny who actually starstrikes you. It’s never who you expect. It’s a physical thing—maybe you love a musician, maybe you love an actor so much, but you see them and you’re like, “Yeah, cool. That’s them. They’re a person.” There are some people that just get in there. Physically. And then your body goes, ahh.
Whether she follows astrology: “I’m an Aries. I don’t follow it day-to-day, but I love the conversation that it starts. I saw The Birthday Book. That thing is strikingly accurate for mine. In a way, that’s scary. The best part is, “The more highly evolved Aries will do this. The less evolved Aries will do this.”
Whether she’s ever had an identity crisis or wanted to step away: “Never. I’ve definitely wanted to go back in time and not do certain jobs, but again, there’s no way out but through. Have I ever taken a few steps back and gone, “Maybe a different path is the one for me?” I just have this infinite choice. I just am constantly going, “I don’t have one path. I have like 500 million paths that I could choose.” I mean, how many movies can I make a year? Probably three, four. I’m like, “That’s too many.” But just imagine how many experiences. I don’t know any other lifestyle that would give that to me. And I’m so addicted at this point. I can’t stop.
Reader, I laughed: “He endeavored to make a movie about Diana Spencer. I was like, “Who is that?” It’s actually Princess Diana. And that was her real name.” Oh, K-Stew. Never change! She’s talked about the process of invoking Diana before, and how much she felt like Diana was there in spirit. Having seen Spencer… I appreciated that it was done as a horror movie, and there were parts of it which were so good and interesting. But Kristen was just sort of… okay in the role. Oh, and she is such an Aries.
Cover courtesy of W Magazine, additional photos courtesy of ‘Spencer’.
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