“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,” Stewart said of breakout film
More than 15 years after Twilight premiered, Kristen Stewart has developed a fresh perspective on her breakout hit.
After becoming a household name as protagonist Bella Swan in the vampire fantasy romance film franchise based on Stephenie Meyers’ books of the same name, Stewart, 33, is reflecting on what she feels was “a very Gothic, gay inclination” in the series.
“It’s such a gay movie,” the Love Lies Bleeding actress told Variety in an interview published Thursday. “I mean, Jesus Christ, Taylor [Lautner] and Rob[ert Pattinson] and me, and it’s so hidden and not okay.”
“I mean, a Mormon woman wrote this book,” Stewart went on. “It’s all about oppression, about wanting what’s going to destroy you. That’s a very Gothic, gay inclination that I love.”
Twilight follows a teenage Bella Swan as she moves in with her father in Forks, Washington, where she has trouble fitting in and soon becomes the object of desire of Edward (Pattinson, 37), a vampire who is part of the Cullen “family” that also includes Esme (Elizabeth Reaser), Carlisle (Peter Facinelli), Rosalie (Nikki Reed), Jasper (Jackson Rathbone), Alice (Ashley Greene) and Emmett (Kellan Lutz).
As she wrestles with her feelings for Edward (and Jacob, a werewolf played by Lautner, 31, who also yearns for Bella’s affections), Bella finds herself less and less human first in spirit and then in body, eventually becoming a vampire herself and starting her life anew with Edward and their daughter, Renesmee (Mackenzie Foy).
And while most of the romantic relationships explored in the series are heterosexual, Stewart told Variety of any potential queerness in Twilight, “I can only see it now.” She explained, “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.”
Back in 2019, Stewart opened up in an interview with the Associated Press about struggling to define her sexuality as she rose to fame with Twilight. “I felt this huge responsibility, like one that I was really genuinely worried about if I wasn’t able to say one way or the other, then was I sort of like forsaking a side,” Stewart told the newswire.
The Academy Award nominee added, “The fact that you don’t have to now is, like, so much more truthful.”
Stewart, who previously dated Twilight costar Pattinson and is engaged to screenwriter/actress Dylan Meyer, has embraced who she is and is celebrating the younger Hollywood stars who aren’t restricting themselves with labels.
“If you were to have this conversation with someone, like, in high school, they’d probably like roll their eyes and go, ‘Why are you complicating everything so much?’ ” she explained, per the AP. “Just sort of do what you want to do. It’s really nice.”
