Kristen Stewart is getting real about the “added pressure” of being Queer in Hollywood.
As InStyle magazine‘s November cover star, the actress, 30, opened up about representing the LGBTQ+ community and her new film, “Happiest Season”.
“The first couple of times I played queer characters, I was not [openly] queer yet. I’m drawn to stories and people for a reason, and I think, by default, I represent what I stand for. I do think it’s important that we step into different roles and into other people’s shoes in order to really expand ourselves, albeit not ever taking up space for people who should be telling their own stories,” Stewart recalled.
Adding, “The first time I ever dated a girl, I was immediately being asked if I was a lesbian. And it’s like, ‘God, I’m 21-years-old.’ I felt like maybe there were things that have hurt people I’ve been with. Not because I felt ashamed of being openly gay but because I didn’t like giving myself to the public, in a way. It felt like such thievery. This was a period of time when I was sort of cagey. Even in my previous relationships, which were straight, we did everything we could to not be photographed doing things—things that would become not ours. So I think the added pressure of representing a group of people, of representing queerness, wasn’t something I understood then. Only now can I see it.”
Stewart previously dated actors Michael Angarano and Robert Pattinson, singer Soko, VFX producer Alicia Cargile and Stella Maxwell.
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And now, with her new role in “Happiest Season”, Stewart is bringing other “poignant things” to light.
“It deals with very poignant things that, for me, are extremely affecting and triggering—even though now the word ‘triggering’ triggers me more than anything in the whole world. [laughs] But the movie is so funny and cute, and I loved the couple,” she explained. “They’re both people I really felt protective of in different ways, because I’ve been on both sides of that dynamic where someone is having a hard time acknowledging who they are and the other person is more self-accepting. I [personally] came into the more complex aspects of myself a little bit later. I never felt an immense shame, but I also don’t feel far away from that story, so I must have it in a latent sense.”
“Happiest Season” premieres Nov. 25.
