The Untold Truth Of Kristen Stewart
After getting her start as a child actor, Kristen Stewart beat the odds and rose to international fame and acclaim in the blockbuster film series The Twilight Saga, cementing herself as a tabloid fixture and a sudden superstar across the world. However, if you're only familiar with Stewart's work in Twilight, you're missing out — this talented actor and passionate activist has carved out a place for herself in blockbusters and independent films alike throughout a career that's only grown more impressive since that franchise ended.
She's one of Hollywood's most recognizable and in-demand young talents, which means parts of her private life have been shared in print and across the internet for years. Needless to say, you might think you know a lot about Stewart, from her high-profile romance with Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson to her recent work in big-budget movies like Charlie's Angels — but the reality is that there's more than likely plenty you still don't know about this popular star. Here's the untold truth of Kristen Stewart.
Kristen Stewart's parents are in the industry
Plenty of well-known actors have one parent who also happen to be in show business — look at Jeff Bridges, for example. But Kristen Stewart doubled her odds of landing a spot in the industry right away — both of her parents worked in Hollywood throughout her childhood. In fact, as Stewart noted in a Vanity Fair retrospective of her career, her first project, the television movie The Thirteenth Year — in which she played a small, uncredited role — was a film on which her mother, Jules Mann-Stewart, worked as a script supervisor.
Growing up in Los Angeles, Stewart got a firsthand look at the inner workings of the entertainment industry through her everyday life at home; her father, John Stewart, is a stage manager and producer who has worked on projects like Chris Hardwick's @midnight, while Mann-Stewart has worked on projects like Jingle All the Way, The Sarah Silverman Program, Halloweentown, just to name a few. Mann-Stewart also wrote and directed her own original film, K-11, in 2012. Though Stewart didn't initially think she'd be an actor — she actually wanted to be a camera grip — it's clear that her parents' experience guided her toward the professional path she ended up choosing for herself.
A famous co-star didn't think she'd keep acting
Kristen Stewart didn't harbor any big-screen ambitions when she was younger, and apparently, that attitude shone through even after she booked her first huge film role. As it turns out, Stewart's super-famous co-lead on the project definitely noticed — and took it upon herself to share some well-meaning words of wisdom with the young star.
During the filming of Panic Room, Jodie Foster, who played Stewart's mother in the 2002 David Fincher thriller, apparently told Stewart she doubted the young performer would continue acting. As Stewart told Australian magazine Stellar, which was then reported by The Daily Mail, "I remember [Foster] thinking there wasn't a chance I'd continue being an actor."
Beyond that, Foster told Stewart she knew exactly where her career would go: '[Jodie] was like 'you're probably going to direct movies or go back to school.'" Stewart is definitely grateful for her job, but understands; as she told Stellar, "I really love my job, but I understand why she would have thought that about me as a kid. I love [Jodie.]"
Kristen Stewart's Australian roots
Kristen Stewart's mother started her journey to becoming a director and script supervisor as a child born in the land down under, meaning that Stewart has serious roots in Australia. Stewart's mother, Jules Mann-Stewart, was born in the coastal town of Maroochydore in the Queensland region of Australia, and Stewart loves visiting her mother's homeland whenever possible.
News.com.au noted that Stewart told the publication that she loves visiting the town of Noosa Head, named her dog Oz in honor of the country, and also learned to surf as a child where her mother grew up on the coast of Queensland. Stewart may have grown up in California, but it's clear that she's super connected to her Aussie heritage. Beyond that, Stewart loves one of Australia's most controversial delicacies, as it turns out. "I actually don't mind Vegemite," Stewart admitted. "I know most Americans can't stand the smell, taste or look of it but I like it."
Kristen Stewart is a real musician off-screen
Lots of celebrities are in bands as side projects to their main career — think Jared Leto's stint in 30 Seconds to Mars — but as far as Kristen Stewart is concerned, she simply uses her musical talents as a fart of her acting. In 2007's Into the Wild, Stewart even wrote a song with the film's music supervisor, and according to real-life rock star Joan Jett, Stewart took that even further in 2010's The Runaways.
When asked if Stewart really did any of her own musical performance, Jett confirmed the film uses Stewart's voice, with no dubbing required. "She's singing," Jett told MTV News. "She's definitely doing the singing, yeah. And during the filming, she was playing guitar. We went through it. I showed her the positions that I play — because some guitar players will use different hand positions on the boards — so I showed her how I played it, and she picked it up really well. I'm a lefty, too — not guitar-wise, but in my handwriting. So she switched that up too; she was writing with her left hand. She really, really embodied it."
Joan Jett loved Kristen Stewart's portrayal of her life in The Runaways
When it came to The Runaways, Stewart didn't just perform her own music, but worked extremely hard to fully embody performer Joan Jett. Apparently, Jett was overjoyed at Stewart's portrayal of her, thanks in no small part to the considerable effort Stewart put into the role.
"She's authentic," Jett told CinemaBlend of Stewart's attitude and performance. "She cared about it, it wasn't just a gig. She cut off her hair, she really immersed herself in it. I don't mean to put words in her mouth, but what I get is she feels she has to do it justice. She knows the Runaways have fans, she knows I have fans, and she was concerned about being authentic.
Not only that, but Stewart and Jett even became friends, spending plenty of time together on set. "I found her wonderful to be around. We got along great. It's really scary — when you see us together physically, the energy is so similar. The way we move, the way our hands move and our hair, the way we talk, we start and don't finish sentences. It's really bizarre, but in a great way. When you see Kristen singing, that's really her singing... I was very proud."
Kristen Stewart hit a huge Hollywood milestone at a really young age
It's not easy to get your start in Hollywood, but Kristen Stewart, after getting her start at a young age, ended up soaring to the very top of the pack with astounding speed.
In 2012, at the age of 22, Stewart topped Forbes' annual list of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood, with earnings of $34.5 million that year and an estimated $12.5 million (plus a share of the profits) per film for the Twilight Saga. By this point, the Twilight Saga was finally wrapping up — the second installment of the two-part final film, Breaking Dawn, hit theaters in 2012 — and thanks to the franchise's overwhelming success, Stewart ranked higher on the list than more established names like Charlize Theron, alongside whom Stewart would appear in Snow White and the Huntsman that same year. It's no surprise that a blockbuster series like Twilight would catapult Stewart to the top of this list, but it's still an impressive landmark to hit well before the age of 30.
Kristen Stewart's biggest struggle with Twilight isn't what you might expect
Though both Kristen Stewart and her co-star Robert Pattinson have made some comments over the years about the inherent difficulties of playing Twilight characters Bella Swan and Edward Cullen — a lovestruck teenage girl and the ancient vampire who falls for her — for so long, Stewart maintains that she's proud of her work and the franchise as a whole. Speaking to Patti Smith for Interview in 2015, Stewart said, "Anybody who wants to talk sh** about Twilight, I completely get it, but there's something there that I'm endlessly, and to this day, f***ing proud of. My memory of it felt — still feels — really good."
However, there's one thing Stewart definitely doesn't miss about Twilight: the vampire contacts she had to wear for the entire filming process. In the original books by Stephenie Meyer, Bella ultimately becomes a vampire with gleaming red eyes, and apparently, those contacts caused Stewart quite a few problems. As Stewart told MTV News after the final film, "The yellow [vampire] ones sort of limit your vision... and so you feel a little bit more closed off. That is one thing I can't wait to say goodbye to, is the contacts. They just kill you. [They give you] dead face." When you think about these serious acting obstacles, it's impressive that Stewart could deliver a performance as Bella at all, let alone one that kept fans of the franchise wrapped up in the saga until the end.
Stewart's accolades include a huge French honor
In the wake of The Twilight Saga, Kristen Stewart was unfairly derided as a middling actress, thanks in large part to the fact that the films were never critical darlings and the character of Bella Swan might not have been particularly dynamic. However, any doubt about Stewart's acting talents quickly faded away in 2015, when she broke international barriers to win a prestigious French award for one of her performances.
At the 2015 Cesar Award ceremony in France, Stewart became the second American after Adrien Brody — and the first woman overall — to win what is essentially the French equivalent of the Academy Award for her supporting role in director Olivier Assayas' The Clouds of Sils Maria. This milestone proved a major marker in Stewart's career journey away from the Twilight franchise, and if you haven't caught her performance as the assistant to an aging star (Juliette Binoche), you'll definitely want to make sure you screen Clouds of Sils Maria at your earliest available opportunity. If you've already seen that, don't miss the 2016 project that reunited Stewart with Assayas, the intense thriller Personal Shopper.
Kristen Stewart is a high-fashion brand ambassador
Throughout her career, Kristen Stewart has earned a reputation both on the street and the red carpet for an individualistic sense of style that often mixes items of clothing like torn classic rock tee shirts with couture pieces. With that in mind, it's no surprise that the star also represents two well-known fashion brands as an ambassador.
In 2012, it was announced that Stewart would become the face of Balenciaga's newest fragrance at the time, Florabotanica, and in 2014, she returned to represent the next addition to the catalog, Rosabotanica. Apparently, Stewart and Balenciaga were a match made in heaven; as she told Women's Wear Daily during the Florabotanica campaign in 2012, "There is something natural about [Florabotanica]. It's very alive," before admitting that she would have done just about anything to work with Balenciaga creative head Nicolas Ghesquière. In 2013, she was also given the chance to represent the historic fashion house of Chanel, chosen as a "face" of the brand by the late Chanel head honcho Karl Lagerfeld. Stewart's sense of style is all her own, but that doesn't mean she can't enjoy high fashion every now and then.
Stewart is unapologetic about her sexuality
After her high-profile relationship with Robert Pattinson defined much of her early stardom, Kristen Stewart kept her private life a bit closer to the vest for quite some time, but eventually went on the record about her relationships with both men and women. Stewart is bisexual and very open about her sexual preference; in a profile in The Guardian in 2017 to promote Personal Shopper, she was completely up front about her sexuality.
"The whole issue of sexuality is so grey," the actor began. "I'm just trying to acknowledge that fluidity, that greyness, which has always existed. But maybe only now are we allowed to start talking about it." With that said, she was extremely direct about bisexuality: "You're not confused if you're bisexual. It's not confusing at all. For me, it's quite the opposite."
Unfortunately, Stewart's unapologetic ownership of her sexual preference and pride in herself caused some upsetting problems throughout her career. In a 2019 interview with Harper's Bazaar, Stewart said she was told to be less affectionate with her girlfriend in public for the sake of her career: "I have fully been told, 'If you just like do yourself a [favor], and don't go out holding your girlfriend's hand in public, you might get a Marvel movie.'" For many people, that antiquated and offensive attitude seems to have fallen by the wayside lately, but it's a shame that Stewart's love life was ever put on the spot at all.
Kristen Stewart is also a director
Given that she grew up in an industry family, it's no surprise that Kristen Stewart has always been interested in the work that goes on behind the camera, and since launching her career as an actor, she's made her mark as a director as well. In 2017, Stewart made her directorial debut at Sundance with Come Swim, focused on a heartbroken young man played by Josh Kaye. As Stewart described it to The Hollywood Reporter, "My movie is about some guy who goes through heartbreak and is super sad about it." She used realistic and impressionist filmmaking techniques to tell the character's story.
During the same interview, Stewart revealed that her first feature length film, which — like Come Swim — would be made in conjunction with Refinery29, would be about gun control. Though gun control is an inherently political issue — and Stewart hasn't been quiet about her political beliefs — the actor turned director told THR, "You don't have to be a politically involved person to be uber-aware of the fact that very basic humanitarian ideas are being so incredibly trampled on."
Kristen Stewart isn't quiet about criticism over not 'smiling in photographs'
It always seems as if Hollywood starlets are expected to be smiling and bubbly during every photo opportunity, but time and time again, Kristen Stewart ignores that expectation. And, as she told Vanity Fair in 2012, the criticism she's faced over supposedly refusing to smile in photographs doesn't bother her at all.
"I get some serious s*** about it," the actor candidly told the magazine. "I'm not embarrassed about it. I'm proud of it. If I took perfect pictures all the time, the people standing in the room with me, or on the carpet, would think, What an actress! What a faker! That thought embarrasses me so much that I look like s*** in half my photos, and I don't give a f***. What matters to me is that the people in the room leave and say, 'She was cool. She had a good time. She was honest.' I don't care about the voracious, starving s*** eaters who want to turn truth into s***."
After this blunt assessment, Stewart quickly finished the thought by saying, "Not that you can say that in Vanity Fair!" Apparently, you can, and in the end, many people find Stewart's candid assessment of what's expected of Hollywood's elite to be more than a little refreshing.