Kristen Stewart is seeing Twilight from a new perspective.
During a conversation with Variety, the 33-year-old discusses her career trajectory as a queer actress. In the popular teenage franchise — which she starred in alongside her ex-boyfriend, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner — she played a teen girl (Bella Swan), who fell in love with a much older vampire.
At the time, Stewart wasn’t open about her sexuality and had not shared her “gayness” with the world. Today, she feels that her presence in the film is enough to classify it as a piece of “gay'” art.
“I can only see it now,” Stewart tells Variety. “I don’t think it necessarily started off that way, but I also think that the fact that I was there at all, it was percolating. It’s such a gay movie. I mean, Jesus Christ, Taylor [Lautner] and Rob and me, and it’s so hidden and not OK. I mean, a Mormon woman wrote this book. It’s all about oppression, about wanting what’s going to destroy you. That’s a very Gothic, gay inclination that I love.”
Stewart and Pattinson and Lautner starred in five Twilight films together, which spanned from 2008 to 2012.
In 2017, years after leaving the franchise and ending her public relationship with Pattison, Stewart confirmed her sexuality during Saturday Night Live, while firing back at Donald Trump (who was vocal about her relationship with Pattinson).
“Donald, if you didn’t like me then, you’re really probably not going to like me now, because I’m hosting SNL — and I’m, like, so gay, dude,” she said during the opening monologue.
“It was cool to frame it in a funny context because I could say everything without having to sit down and do an interview,” she tells Variety about the moment.
Stewart also says that prior to that moment, she was open with her sexuality. However, she feels the media didn’t acknowledge it.
“It wasn’t even like I was hiding,” she says. “I was so openly out with my girlfriend for years at that point. I’m like, ‘I’m a pretty knowable person.'”
Stewart reveals that in addition to taking on more roles where she portrays queer characters, she is embracing it in her public life. For instance, walking the 2022 Oscars red carpet with her fiancée, Dylan Meyer.
“It’s not that I wasn’t scared,” the Spencer actress says.. “It was just that there was no other way to live.”
Stewart and Meyer began their relationship in 2019. In 2021, Stewart confirmed their engagement. In October, Stewart revealed that they were still working out wedding planning and details.
