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Transcript:
The Lady is a VAMP
Kristen Stewart doesn't so much greet me as collide with me, when I pitch up at her temporary West London pad for GLAMOUR's cover interview. I've arrived a few minutes early, and a clumsy moment ensues when she opens the door before I have a chance to knock, and we find ourselves face to face on the doorstep. She was just on the way to the shop, she explains, as we exchange apologies, and if I want to go straight up, she'll be back in a minute.
I'm already surprised that I've been invited to the apartment she's living in while filming Snow White and The Hunsman in London (rare in celeb-land), so it's even more astonishing when I get upstairs and discover it's going to be just the two of us --with no publicist to keep an eagle eye on the time or shut down any thorny questions. But over the next hour, we laugh a lot, as Kristen proves to be funny, sweary, self-deprecating and open to being asked anything. Whether she answers, of course, is a different matter, but this is one actress who can easily handle that herself.
Back from the shop, with her hair in a messy ponytail and wearing skinny jeans, a sloppy tee and a hood, Kristen seems relaxed, the polar opposite of the awkward, nervy interviewee who climbed aboard the Twilight Saga juggernaut in 2007. "That's a fair assessment," she chuckles good-naturedly when I put it to her. "I don't think there was much behind it other than I was young, and expecting it, and trying way too hard to be 'not fake'. When I was younger, I'd look around and see these people, even people I knew, start to do an interview and become a completely different person. I was always scared of being like that. Someone would [ask a question] and you could see my whole thought process on my face. It's like, 'Hide that shit! What are you doing?'"
Things changed when she accepted the fact that she was never going to fit the mould of soundbite-ready, cookie-cutter starlet -- and nor would she want to. A couple of times during the interview she berates herself with a: "God … I have such hard time fucking expressing myself," but at no point does she seem worried sabot saying the 'wrong' thing, even though, in the past, interview quotes have come back to haunt her. "When you say something slightly different, it throws people, and now I'm comfortable doing that," she says. "I'm just like, 'Yeah, I know -- I'm a fucking freak, huh?' You known what I mean? It just doesn't bother me any more."
Read more after the cut!
Read more after the cut!
Despite this new laissez-faire attitude to interviews, Kristen is not immune to pre-red-carpet nerves, and she wearily groans "not any more, man," when I ask if she ever Googles herself. She pauses and adds, "I do like to look at what I wear, though. It's not like I put on a fucking dress and don't care about it after."
Born in Los Angeles in 1990, style-wise Kristen is a California frill through and through when she's off-duty ("There's something about wearing jeans, trainers and a sloppy T-shirt everywhere you go that seems very southern California to me.") But she's definitely come into her own on the red carpet over the past few years (as witnessed overleaf), and when we speak, London Fashion Week is approaching. "I love choosing stuff to wear, and my publicist always calls and asks, 'Do you wanna do something like this?" [go to the shows] and if I'm not busy, I'm definitely interested. I'm going to one thing --either Burberry or Mulberry. I'm not sure." It turns out to be Mulberry as, the following Sunday, Kristen appears in the front row next to Kate Moss.
It's a rare public appearance furring her time in the UK as, for the most part, the 21 year old has been taking full advantage of the relative anonymity London affords her. Aside from a few tabloid-reported sightings, pap shots have been thin on the ground. Kristen wandered unhindered around the Notting Hill Carnival and, although she won't namecheck specific places, she insists all the pubs and restaurants within a mile radius of her flat are regular haunts. "In L.A. you have to be fairly selective about where you go, but I'm so fine here," she shrugs. "It's similar to New York, in that people are doing their own thing and they feel like they're probably cooler than you, so I tend to be able to get around very easily." Plus, she's enjoying the British pub culture. "We have bars, clubs and restaurants [in the US], but here you go to the pub for the afternoon and you have lunch. In an American publication, that would seem like, 'She's hitting the bars in London!' but it's just a different mentality here."
She's also sticking to her resolve in staying under the radar about the likely-but-never-confirmed-nor-denied relationship with Robert Pattinson. With gossip columnists alternately reporting that they are together, aren't together, have broken up, are back together, does she never feel like just going on the record about how it really is? Apparently not. "It's funny when this question comes up, because I sort of feel like, I don't really care!" she says, looking like she truly doesn't. "People can say whatever they want …" She trails off, then adds, "[The interest] is totally understandable, but when it's personal to you, it's like your life becomes a product, and I'm repelled by that. I don't like to give away gems that people are gonna be like. 'Oh m God!' So I'll always just shrug it off -- in fact, I always find it kind of funny, and not just with Rob."
Since there's no real-life Kristen/Rob exclusive forthcoming, we stick to the on-screen version of their romance. We're here to talk about the fourth installment of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1, which picks up as Bella and Edward prepare to get married. Every Twilight movie has been hyped to an enormous degree, but the existence around this one has been even more rabid, close to that headboard-breaking, pillow-biting honeymoon sex scene between the newlyweds. "On a particular level, it's entirely true that it's the most important scene in the whole movie, but obviously it goes without saying it's been built up at this point to an insane degree," she laughs, before acknowledging that even she was slightly shocked by Bella's burgeoning sexuality. "There are two big sex scenes in the two [final] films, and we did them fairly early. It was so weird, it didn't even feel like we were doing a scene within a Twilight film. I was like, 'Bella! What are you doing? Wow! What is happening here?!' It was very surreal. We [originally] got rated R [restricted for under 17s], They recut it."
Does she realize, I say with a raised eyebrow, that people would pay good money to see the original R-rated version of the sex scene? "It was tame!" she insists, adding, "I've done my fair share of coming-of-age movies, but they [the ratings board] know who our audience is, and can be like, 'Hmmm guys, just cool it a little.' It's funny because in the book, you don't see anything. It's everyone's imagination, so it's entirely subjective. I hope it's good!"
The wedding and, more specifically, the wedding dress, have both been kept strictly under wraps in the run-up to the film's release. "I had to be shrouded in secrecy the entire two days of filming … it was crazy," she laughs. "I was on full lockdown, as if I was wearing millions of dollars" worth of diamonds, and I'm so excited for the wedding dress to be revealed," she says. "It was one of those moments you go, 'This is something to remember,' and you want to put yourself in the experience so that it doesn't pass you by. It ended up being great for everyone, I think." She corrects herself with a laugh --"Well, for me, at least" --adds, with faux conceit, "I think everyone had a wonderful time at any wedding … and it was marvelous!"
She's joking, but for Twi-hards, Twilight has become so much more than a compulsively addictive book-to-film franchise and, after having her own super-fan meltdown, Kristen can empathize, even with the more overzealous among them. "There definitely are people that kind of lose it and get very emotional," she says. "But recently, I met [musician] Jenny Lewis and I had the most ridiculous experience. IT was so embarrassing, I couldn't speak. It was eye-opening, actually -- I'm sure that [fans] leave and find themselves going 'It's the one time I'm probably ever going to get a chance to meet this chick, and God, I couldn't even fucking speak!'"
Bella also swaps her jeans and hoods for a bikini during the film's honeymoon scenes. "I know I'm tiny and shit," Kristen acknowledges with candor, but stripping off wasn't without its concerns. "I did [Jack Kerouac adaptation] On the Road right before Breaking Dawn, and I definitely did hand out a little bit," she says. "Then, when I was doing prep for Breaking Dawn, I suddenly realized, 'This is so not On the Road. People definitely want to see you looking trim.' Usually, we're all making fun of Taylor [Lautner] for working out so often, and then suddenly me and Rob were like, 'Shit!' and were running around the block while Taylor laughed at us."
Speaking of her co-star's ripped physique, did she know her last three films feature six of GLAMOUR's top 50 sexiest men, namely Rob, Taylor, Kellan Lutz, and Jamie Campbell in Breaking Dawn, Garrett Hedlund in On The Road and Chris Hemsworth in Snow White and the Huntsman? Is that just good luck or some astute film choices? She starts laughing again, and it transpires that such polls provide endless on-set ammo. "The first time Rob was the 'sexiest man in the word', a couple of years ago, it was the biggest joke in the world. We never stopped taking the piss and neither did he. [But] they're all great guys and not … geez, now I sound like I'm generalizing about attractive men, but there's something a little vain about working out every single day, whereas they're the greatest guys and all kind of goofy. That's why it's so funny."
With filming on Snow White … retiring the following day, Kristen resolves to tell Chris about his as-yet-unpublished accolade. Right now, aside from the horse riding lessons she's taking for the part ("I'm fairly terrified," she admits, "I fell off the other day"), she has the rest of the day off, and she sees me out with a hug. As we reach the lift, she says, "Thanks, that was fun." And you know, I think she means it.
Brit Girl or LA Woman
We put Kristen's Brit Cred to the test
How do you take your tea?
With milk and a little bit of honey -- which is weird, I guess.
What's your pub drink?
[Proudly] It's a pound.
Gastropub or old-man boozer?
Oh, old-man pub, definitely.
Sausage sandwich or bacon butty?
I don't know what a butty is. [I explain] Oh, bacon.
How do you feel about beans on toast?
I love beans on toast.
Sunday roast of choice?
Chicken or lamb.
Have you adopted any British swear words, like 'wanker'?
I love that word, but in my accent, the funny thing about using British slang -- 'fucking wanker' -- is it just sounds so off.
American jocks or British lads?
[Looks momentarily ruffled, hides a small laugh and does an 'aw, shuck' gesture] Well, I'm kind of repulsed by jocks from anywhere, so I have to go with the lads.
Favorite British music?
Laura Marling. Man, I'm such a huge fucking fan. Rob introduced me to her on Twilight because he thought that [her music] was right for the movie. I love her.
Favorite London hangout?
I've had some really good roast dinners … the Swan & Edgar in Marylebone.
Favorite London memory?
[Another laugh] God, I can't even tell you, so annoying. Erm, hmmm … I spent my last two New Years here, and both of them were fucking incredible.
--strictlyrobsten.com
~Robstenfan
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