Kristen Stewart has been making the rounds to promote her latest project Welcome to the Rileys. In the film, Stewart plays a young stripper who befriends a grieving father (James Gandolfini). She recently spoke at a press day in New York about how she dove into the troubled character. Here's what she had to say:
  • On her character's back story: I don't know if this will sound bad, but a lot of these girls' stories are really typical. A few things add up to being able to do something like that for a job, and we sort of inserted those little bits and details.
  • On doing research for the role: He [director Jake Scott] was really on me as well. He was like, you've got to do some work before you're going to do this. He gave me a few really good books as well; like Raised by Wolves is the one that got me, where you have really candid stories. This guy endeared himself to a group of runaway kids in Hollywood, and they really just let it all out. Then just, like, pole dancing and stuff like that.
  • On her character's bruises: They were [makeup], but I got the bruises initially in rehearsal, because I learned how to pole dance. You don't really see it in the movie. Well you do . . . it's in silhouette in the background. It really hurts, and you don't realize that it's going to show. There were so many, it was like — do you keep all of them? Is it too much? Is it going to look hokey?

    • Stewart shares more about her experience after the jump.
  • On how clothes affected her role: What was cool about the costume was you think a stripper — well, I don't think a whole lot when I think about stripper. A lot of people have ideas on how they must be, but I really didn't have any. I always imagined they'd be sort of sexy, because that's their job. But on the contrary, you're exposed so often that you're trenched.

  • On her character's growth: I think the whole point of the movie is to see that she's not going to choose to be alone anymore, even if she is. She's not lost. She's not totally dead behind the eyes.