A woman who often plays a character who is either deeply troubled or has suffered an emotional trauma, but is a woman who was raised in a family with pure love and has the heart of gold.
By MARIANA MEJIA
Kristen Jaymes Stewart was born on April 9, 1990, in Los Angeles, California, to Jules Stewart, a script writer who directed the K-11 (2012) film, and John Stewart, a television producer who works at Fox-TV and co-produced On-Air with Ryan Seacrest (2004) and worked with George Lopez at Lopez Tonight (2009) on TBS-TV. Due to his job, he is often present for his daughter’s television appearances. “My family is amazing. I had, like, the perfect upbringing, it sucks for people like Lindsay [Lohan], but it’s not her fault that she’s so off the rails-and she’s smart, very smart,” said Stewart. Kristen Stewart also has an older brother, Cameron Stewart, who works as a grip in television and film, and two adopted brothers, named Dana and Taylor. Although she was born in Los Angeles, she did spend some of her early years in Colorado and Pennsylvania before moving back to Los Angeles with her family when she was eight years old. At age eight, Stewart was discovered by a talent agent while singing in a school play. After a talent scout caught her grade school performance in a play, she appeared on television in a few small roles. Her first significant role came when she was cast as Sam Jennings in The Safety of Objects (2001). Soon after that, she starred alongside Jodie Foster in the hit drama Panic Room (2002) and was nominated for a Young Artist Award.
“MY FAMILY IS AMAZING. I HAD, LIKE, THE PERFECT UPBRINGING, IT SUCKS FOR PEOPLE LIKE LINDSAY [LOHAN], BUT IT’S NOT HER FAULT THAT SHE’S SO OFF THE RAILS-AND SHE’S SMART, VERY SMART”
Although Stewart has since become an actress and not a singer, she did voice acting in two films: Into the Wild (2007) and The Runaways (2010). But in Stewart’s younger years, she ended up finishing the eighth grade at A.E. Wright Middle School in Calabasas, California, but due to her busy schedule, Stewart had to be homeschooled from grades 9-12. Stewart said, “School has become genuinely uncomfortable. My peers, but also my teachers, became a source of contention. They didn’t want to do the extra work or put packages together so I could keep up while away. They failed me. My teachers failed me. Not one, but all of them. I’m always slightly ashamed, in a way, of what I do. I’m slightly embarrassed as I had such serious ambitions when I was younger. I just never imagined that I would ever have a reason not to go to school, but then this happened.” Though Stewart’s most famous film was when she played the role of Isabella “Bella” Swan in Twilight (2008) at just 17 years old. The Twilight Sagas, a series of five vampire-themed romance fantasy films based on four novels published by author by Stephanie Meyer. Throughout the first four films, Stewart had to wear brown-colored contact lenses because she has natural green eyes, and Bella’s eyes are supposed to be brown. Stewart wore brown-colored contact lenses in Twilight (2008), The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009), The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010), and in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn–Part 1 (2011).
In the fifth and final film, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn–Part 2 (2012), Stewart wore red-colored contact lenses when she became a newborn vampire and then amber-colored contact lenses as she matured as a vampire towards the end of the film. “The contacts suck so badly. You can’t see anything, so people can’t see you, I feel. There is just no getting in there,” said Stewart. Stewart was then awarded the MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance in 2008 and for the Twilight movie she was named as the Fantastic Hottest Young Actress of 2008. “It took me a long time to realize that I was a girl as a teenager. At that point, I never really believed it. For a long time, I looked like a boy. Now, finally, I feel like a woman,” said Stewart. Stewart’s transformation as Bella continued in the sequels, The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010). On her 19th birthday, while filming The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) in British Columbia, specifically while shooting Bella Swan’s 18th birthday scene. At age 19, she received her high school diploma while filming The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010). Along these lines, they were finalizing the installment series, which was filmed in the late 2010’s and released in the following years as The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn–Part 1 (2011) and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn–Part 2 (2012).
“THE REASON I FEEL COMPELLED TO DO MOVIES IS BECAUSE OF WHATEVER FEELING YOU GET WHEN YOU READ IT. AND WHEN YOU HAVE FOUR YEARS OF NOT BEING DONE WITH THE TWILIGHT SAGA, IT CONSTANTLY WEIGHS ON YOU. YOU’RE CONSTANTLY THINKING ABOUT GOING BACK AND FINISHING THE SERIES. EVERY DAY YOU COME HOME FROM WORK, YOU SAY, GOD, I WISH I COULD GO BACK AND DO YESTERDAY AGAIN BECAUSE I’M BETTER NOW,” SAID STEWART.
The Twilight star was then listed as the highest earning female actress in the Vanity Fair’s Hollywood Top Earners List of 2010, with estimated earnings of $28.5 million. Then, her income after the Twilight film series between May 2011 and May 2012, soared to an estimated $34.5 million. Despite her stratospheric launch into stardom with the Twilight films, she stayed true to her roots by working on several indie projects, including Adventure land (2009) and Welcome to the Riley’s (2010). Welcome to the Riley’s (2010) was the first movie Stewart filmed by herself as a legal adult. She felt alone for the first time when she performed and directed as she added to her role as a 16-year-old runaway living alone in New Orleans. When acting as a teenager, Stewart said, “I’m sitting back and enjoying the benefits of a decision that I made when I was a person who I can still relate to but am not anymore.”
Then, in January 2011, she also landed her first American Vogue magazine cover. She had also appeared in a photo-shoot for Vogue Italia in 2011. Stewart also worked on several other leading roles between the Twilight Saga installments, including the #1 summer box office hit, Snow White and the Huntsman (2012). At the 2012 MTV Movie Awards, she was joined by Scout Taylor-Compton, one of her co-stars from The Runaways (2010). This was the first MTV Awards show she had attended without Robert Pattinson. From the beginning of the Twilight series in 2008 until 2012, Robert Pattison and Kristen Stewart dated. According to Forbes Magazine in 2011, they were ranked as the fifth highest paid celebrity couple. In their 2012 relationship with Robert Pattinson, she said, “I would never cheapen my relationship by talking about them.” People said, “Just say who you’re dating. Then people will stop being so ravenous about it. Stewart replied, “No they won’t! They’ll ask for specifics.” Kristen felt the whole relationship was set up and controlled by the media, which is why they didn’t continue their relationship any further and after several months of speculation, she started to question her own sexuality and thought of it clearly and publicly came out as bisexual on Saturday Night Live in February 2017. Kristen said,
“IT’S COOL THAT YOU DON’T HAVE TO NAIL EVERYTHING DOWN ANYMORE. THAT WHOLE CERTAINTY ABOUT WHETHER YOU’RE STRAIGHT OR GAY OR WHATEVER. YOU’RE NOT CONFUSED IF YOU’RE BISEXUAL. IT’S NOT CONFUSING AT ALL. FOR ME, IT’S QUITE THE OPPOSITE.”
Kristen Stewart is set to appear in a few new films this year, and because of her found sexuality, she had a change-of-pace with her role in the romantic comedy Happiest Season (2020), about an LGBTQI+ couple, and now she has received universal acclaim for her performance as Princess Diana in Pablo Larran’s Spencer (2021). But now, she’s moving deeper into the 2020s and she is currently working on David Cronenberg’s drama, horror, and Sci-Fi Crimes of the Future. There is no exact date for its release, but it should be released later this year.