It’s probably an understatement to say that the Kristen Stewart/Robert Pattinson Twilight period from 2008 to 2012 was mindboggingly insane.
Those were some intense years for the two stars and enough time has passed for the pair to look back on that period with rose-tinted glasses – *checks notes* – oh wait, sorry, I meant measured pragmatism.
Breaking down her biggest career roles to Vanity Fair, Kristen says that she had absolutely no idea how big Twilight was when she was cast as Bella Swan until she saw firsthand how crazy the fans were at Comic-Con.
But perhaps the most telling bit was her recollection of that period and what she took away from it:
“It was weird for me to all of a sudden be asked the question, like, ‘okay, well, now that we’re here, how do we do this right? How do we capitalise on this, basically?
“Suddenly the chance to kind of, like, kick back and go, well, the best experiences I’ve had on any project of any kind has been when you’re naturally and instinctively drawn to a person. And there’s something that you’re both thinking about or meditating on that becomes obsessive and compulsive, and you make a movie. And that’s all I know.”
“And so at that point I was allowed to pick weird things that nobody believed in because I made a big movie once.”
Reading between the lines, it appears that the Twilight series was nothing more than a stepping stone for her career and not the unforgettable role that brought her untold mounds of happiness, adoration, and and creative satisfaction.
This probably isn’t what Twi-hards may want to hear, especially after Robert’s own Twilight confession. But let’s be honest, did we expect anything else from Kristen given how intense that period was?
She tells Vanity Fair that doing “weird” stuff was her “chance” to finally not be the “girl from Twilight”, saying how that period was especially frustrating as she “didn’t leap willingly into being the centre of attention” and how that may have come across as being an “a*****e” to some people when in reality she just wanted people to like her.
But while she’s understandably hesitant to say too much about those Twilight years (to the disappointment of many Twi-hards I’m sure), it all worked out well for Kristen because she’s since emerged as a critical indie film darling who’s pumped out some seriously great, if underappreciated, work.
With a return to the Hollywood mainstream on the cards with Charlie’s Angels, something that she’s clearly far more passionate about than vampires and werewolves, there’s little doubt that she’ll be welcomed back is “Kristen Stewart” rather than the “girl from Twilight” and it’s all because she “did a big movie once.”