‘I’m just more interested in films that reflect that inner life,’ says the lead in the upcoming biopic 'Spencer'
It was past midnight in Manila when we attended the live virtual event of Toronto International Film Festival’s "In Conversation with Kristen Stewart" on Sept. 15, 2021 (12:30 p.m. EDT).
The "Twilight" actress is starring as Diana, Princess of Wales in "Spencer," showing in cinemas abroad this November 2021.
Kristen Stewart was offered the role by Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín who spotted her in "Personal Shopper" (2016). Over the phone, he pitched the biographical film. “He was like, proposed the idea that he was doing a sort of, essentially Diana,” she recalls. “He asked if I would be interested in tackling the subject at all before he sent the script.”
The 31-year-old actress has matured in choosing her roles. “I’m just more interested in films that reflect that inner life versus plot-heavy pedantic. Here’s what happened, let me tell you something,’” she muses. “It’s kind of cliché and definitely how everyone puts it but I really do appreciate movies that ask you questions instead of telling you things.” Back in 2012, Forbes magazine ranked her as the world’s highest-paid actress.
"Spencer" tells of the late princess’ 1991 stay at Sandringham Estate during Christmas, before she decided to break up with Prince Charles for good.
As an actress, Kristen confesses that she asks a lot of questions on the set. “I’m always aware where the camera is,” she explains. “I’m always aware what I want the audience to feel, at the same time, if you can forget that and actually live in the moment.”
The 2020 Actress of the Decade, a recognition she was given by the Hollywood Critics Association, works mostly in director Olivier Assayas’s films. “Really great, great directors or people who I just jive with usually were able to shut me up,” she says.
To show the warmth of Diana as she transitions to leave the Royal Family is a challenge for her. “There was no way to play this part perfectly,” says the 2015 César Award Best Supporting Actress. “Or easier to be not so intimated and so daunted because the only way to capture something wild is to be that, and I can only be my version of that, and kind of hope that I learn everything about her and absorb her, be both of me and her in some weird way that it would be the best version.”
What does she think of Diana? “I always knew she was different but I did not know much about anything,” she says. “My initial feelings with her was she was incredibly attractive, like cool,” reflects the Snow White and the Huntsman actress. “She just seems to be a lovely person.”
Diana’s decision to stay out of a loveless marriage was courageous and self-sacrificing, a historical liberation. “I think she provides this incredibly lush and complicated terrain to make art about,” confesses the Los Angeles-born actress. “She’s somebody who is so inspiring and like to change the world.”
‘I really do appreciate movies that ask you questions instead of telling you things.’
Kristen was scared of many things when she accepted the role. “The accent is daunting but technically if you have time, you can learn anything,” she clarifies. “I have someone taught me to do it.”
She shares how she interpreted the Princess of Wales physically as Diana was much taller than her. “I think her struggle with food and her relationship to her own body was really self-diminishing but at the same time when she needed to feel herself, she just felt so powerful,” says the BAFTA awardee.
In one scene, Kristen really wanted to hold herself, when nobody else would physically. “It’s a part of her story that we never fully articulate as she said, ‘The royal family doesn’t hug,’” she noted. “But to say that it’s a little bit on the nose, ‘Just hold yourself’ and that communicated that aspect of the story.”
Spencer had its world premiere in-competition at the 78th Venice International Film Festival. It screened last week at the Toronto International Film Festival.
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