[Quotes are ordered from the ones with the least content to the most]
Others
There’s something so endearing about how awkward she can be. (Teresa Palmer)
Kristen’s someone who marches to the beat of her own drum, and I appreciate that. (Kirsten Dunst)
Kristen is one of the coolest chicks that has been in this business for a long time. (Sandra Bullock)
I haven’t really talked to her a lot since, but the times that I have, she’s still the same, and for me that kind of gives me reassurance that I don’t have to change. I can still be me. (Josh Hutcherson)
She is not only beautiful, she is one of the brightest young people I have met in many years. And there’s a fire in her that I think will make her one of the top actors in her generation. (Gerald Nicosia)
How old is she? Twenty-three, twenty-four? I don’t know that many twenty-three or twenty-four year-olds that get picked up at 4 am and work until 10 at night, six days a week. She comes on set smiling and laughing, and she knows her lines. (Nick Frost)
She is the kind of actor that I like to be around because there’s nothing she’d really stop at in order to do the job. She’s got a tremendous amount of talent and, you know, I think you can have talent, but if you don’t have tenacity and moxy… She’s bad ass. (Charlize Theron)
Stewart has braved more scrutiny of her private life than most presidents. She has taken big career risks by doing films like Welcome to the Rileys, The Runaways and On the Road (nudity, I hear). She has worked her ass off. Whatever Snow White may be, Kristen is a warrior queen. Give her the crown. (James Franco)
The extreme loyalty and passion she has for all her characters extends to the scripts. We worked everyday rewriting trying to make it more real. Kristen’s an intense person - she’s the searcher for the truth in a scene, in reality. Even if we were supposed to start shooting and there was an entire crew of hundred people standing around, if she didn’t feel something, we would step aside and find a way to make the lines better, make the emotion feel real. And it shows, she’s compelling in every scene. (Catherine Hardwicke)
Robert
I see love as an evolution of true friendship.
I like crazy people who don’t give a fuck.
People have decided how they are going to perceive her. No matter how many times she smiles, they’ll put in the one picture where she’s not smiling.
The perception of her is that she’s “awkward.” But it’s funny knowing her. It’s the absolute opposite of what people think. She’s insanely confident.
You can never be known for what you want to be known for. People will know you for whatever they want to know you for.
My parents met when my mom was 17 and my father 25, they are still together and seem very happy. I grew up believing that you can be together all of your life.
If every single actor wasn’t afraid of trying to do, you know, something… something slightly abstract, and not concerned about their movie making tons and tons of money, then eventually the industry would change.
It’s a very satisfying feeling when you feel you faced up to your fears and accomplished something, especially when acting can leave you very insecure and unsure of yourself by the nature of the profession. You’re often occupying your own little world and you need to work harder to find what’s real in your own life.
Kristen
It’s okay not to be okay.
I am myself for myself and not for anybody else.
I’m proud of myself- so if the other people aren’t, that’s totally cool.
If you are going to make something forever, you should be yourself.
You can’t regret anything if you’re coming from a really honest place.
I hate it when they say I don’t gives a shit, because nobody cares more than I do.
I think it’s ridiculous that you need to look a certain way to be conventionally pretty.
Hate me for who I am- I don’t care. At least I’m not pretending to be someone I’m not.
Sincerity seems to be a problem today, but I’d rather be hated than be false and fool people.
Well, screw that. I shouldn’t be the superhero’s girlfriend- I should be the superhero. (On getting pitched a female role in a comic-book superhero movie)
Vanity is a silly thing to be obsessed with because… it sounds cliché but it leads you to emptiness; it goes away.
It’s funny, people are always like, “Kristen, what is wrong?” Absolutely nothing, that’s just my face.
If you respect yourself and you love yourself, that’s the only way anybody else is going to.
I just don’t like teetering over all those young girls, I want to be able to run around and talk to them. (On wearing sneakers/converse on the red carpet)
I don’t pretend to be perfect. I don’t want people to think that I am. I want people to see me as I am.
If you lose the desire to find new things, as soon as you get comfortable, life becomes incredibly boring.
I love being on the periphery with a group of people who have the same values that I do. People who don’t get off on fame, who just like the process of making movies and thrive.
I don’t say I’m not magnetic to try and sound self-deprecating. I’m just not. Though I actually love people. I would like to meet more people. I know no one.
I feel like I’ve succeeded if I’m doing something that makes me happy and I’m not lying to anybody. That’s why I feel really good about myself right now.
It’s not about the result. It’s really about the experience of it. Like even if nobody saw Snow White, the experience of it has given me so much.
My favourite people in the world are the ones where you’re just like “Wow, you’re crazy, I love you.”
It’s a physical thing. I fucking love everything about acting. I love movies. I love what they do. I am just so fuelled by it like nothing else.
I learned that if a relationship is honest, it can last through anything despite all the challenges we have to face and everything that happens around us.
It’s impossible to always get across what I’m trying to say, but, if I just stay honest, then I’m not going to look back on any of these interviews and wonder what I was trying to do or be.
It’s gonna sound redundant- everything I say, but to share this with all of you means so much to me, because you know, I really loved every step, so thanks for taking it with us.
I would never cheapen my relationships by talking about them. People say, “Just say who you’re dating! Then people will stop being so ravenous about it.” It’s like, “No, they won’t! They’ll ask for specifics.”
It’s more than just shining for others. You don’t need to have the perfect face to be beautiful. Being ugly or beautiful is a matter of energy, and true beauty comes from the heart.
If you’re being too aware of what you’re presenting to them, then you’re not real anymore- you’re not being yourself. And you can’t force yourself to do something that you’re not.
I’m asked all the time in interviews about who I am, and I know a few people my age who have a strong sense of self, but I couldn’t say I know myself and sum it up and give it to you in a little package. I don’t know myself at all yet.
You don’t need to give reasons for the things you do- you just have to do what you want. And sometimes the thing that seems messed up to everyone else is what’s right for you. You have to do it and not be ashamed for it.
I don’t apply being a role model to the choices I make. I feel like a role model is not necessarily someone you want to imitate, just someone you admire. I don’t say I’m not magnetic to try and sound self-deprecating. I’m just not.
Acting is such a personal thing, which is weird because at the same time it’s not. It’s for the consumption of other people. But in terms of creative outlets and expressing yourself, it’s just the most extreme version of that that I’ve ever found.
“Well I want to do a comedy. I want to do something lighter.” Life for me isn’t like that. Things aren’t just funny or just sad. They have to be real. Follow the heart and you’ll usually wind up where you want to be. (When asked, What do you want to do next? What’s on your horizon?)
I love it because I love to tell stories. I like being in movies that have a great story. I’m not so interested in being a Hollywood star. It’s a job, you know. When you wake up at six in the morning every day for a week, it feels like hard work. (On her love for acting)
It is said that I’m distant and cold. I’m just someone who’s very shy. I’m not comfortable doing interviews because I have to talk about myself. To talk about yourself, you have to know yourself pretty well, and I feel like there are still some shades in me that I don’t know about.
I’m not trying to rebel against anything. When you have something slightly different, people are just like, “What’s wrong with you? What are you doing?” I’m like… I don’t know! (When asked, What do you think about people admiring you because you break the typical Hollywood stereotype?)
I have realized that you can close yourself off to life if you put walls up, but it’s a difficult thing. You can’t see over, people can’t see in, and you also can’t see out. So I’ve gotten quite comfortable with just being unafraid. I keep saying the same thing: it’s not about being fearless but really just embracing the fears and using them.
If a woman isn’t happy and un-opinionated and long-haired and pretty, then she’s weird and ugly. I just don’t get it. I hate it when they say I’m ungrateful and I fucking hate it when they say I don’t give a shit, because nobody cares more than I do. I’m telling you I don’t know anybody who does this that gives a shit more than I do.
To me ‘they lived happily ever after’ means to be happy with yourself. My parents always taught me that being happy has to work without Prince Charming. My life is completed without a prince, but it’s nice of course to have someone who loves you and fights for you.
If you want something that sounds impossible, I say do it. Go make a movie. If you don’t have what you want, you can’t go through life blaming people. Grab your iPhone and make a movie, make it happen. It sounds simplistic, but you have to pave your own way and never blaming others.
Let me tell you- I’m pretty happy right now. I’m at a really good stage of life. I don’t look in the mirror and have to deny anything. I’ve done everything from a really honest standpoint. If you like yourself, other people will like you. You know, I don’t mind what I’ve got going on here. (On what she sees when she looks in the mirror)
I tortured myself in the most amazing, wonderful way for four weeks, and then as soon as the four weeks were done it was like, ‘You need to stop thinking, because if you don’t you’re gonna regret this entire experience. You’re gonna look back and say: I fucked up. I thought too much.’ (About her work in On the Road)
You should have the opportunity to be more than one person with different people because you have that within you. It’s not like you’re faking it. If everyone knows you so well and can always get a hold of you, then you’re stuck to this thing that people think you are. You should have the opportunity to reinvent yourself. Because you do. Naturally.
Canada has become like my second home. I’m there constantly. I love it there. The one thing is I’m very thin blooded and it gets a little chilly up there- not my favorite thing. I’ve worked in L.A. once or twice. It would be nice to work here more but if we’re going to go anywhere, I’d really like Canada. It’s a pleasant place to be. I have a lot of friends there now. (I put this on here just because I’m Canadian ^_^)
I am quite odd and different, but what is wrong with that? I am proud for not fitting in in any specific box. For some younger girls it’s really important to try to fit in to become accepted or liked. But I think trying to be someone else makes you unhappy. That’s just playing a game. One should be proud about being the one you are. And if others can’t accept or like you the way you are, then it’s their problem, not yours.
With my just having played Snow White, everyone’s like, ‘You play all these strong characters; it must be so important for you to be a strong girl.’ The whole point is that as soon as you mention it, you discredit it. ‘Oh, yeah, strong for a girl. Thanks. ’I think when your perspective is slightly different from other people’s and you’ve got the trust in yourself and the strength of heart to follow that, that’s a rebel.
There are different people in life. One really distinguishing factor is whether you’re motivated or crippled by fear- do you move toward or away from it? It’s so normal as a teen to be fearful. As I’m getting older, though, I’m getting more comfortable and well versed in the fear. That’s when you’re challenging yourself and you’re going to thrive. Life should offer things that are unexpected. Be ready to accept those experiences.
No one cares about the fact that I sprained my ankle and was in pain. I mean, I do wear these things [high heels] for the photos and totally understand that a pretty dress looks better in high heels. I don’t want be in pain while signing autographs and some people in Hollywood just don’t seem to understand that. They’re nagging about the way I dress because I’m not doing what they expect me to do… But life is about so much more than just looks.
People think that I’m really untouchable, and that’s also translated into a lot of people thinking that I’m super-ungrateful. I think people are used to seeing actors be wide open and desperately giving of themselves, and while I do that on a movie set as much as I can, it’s so unnatural for me to do it on television, in interviews, in anything like that. I don’t find that my process as an actor is really anyone else’s business… I mean there’s that awesome quote where Joanne Woodward said, “Acting is like sex: you should do it, not talk about it.”
I hate when people ask, “What advice do you want to give your fans?” It’s just weird because that question always presents, “So, why are you better?” And I’m literally the same as my fans, which is why it’s so cool. I thank them too. The same reason they like me, I’m sure I’d like them. It’s common ground, and it’s because I’m placed on this pedestal, it looks like, “Wow, it’s so incredible that you can be that way,” but not really. It’s so weird. Trust me, come on up; you’ll see there’s really no difference.
What I really love about Snow White is that she is absolutely… I mean she’s the hero of the story… but I think nowadays there are so many female characters that people say, ”Oh, they are really strong!” because they are imitating a man. And all that ballbusting in your face. There’s something very strong and very feminine about steadiness. I think that’s when a woman is at her strongest. I mean… It’s not about the groove. I think that she’s very motivated by fear, she’s not crippled by it.
Doing a photoshoot that has a story is so much easier and being in an environment like this. I really love being able to play the part, every character is so defined. It’s all about Mario, and the clothes are stunning! Usually it’s hard to wear stuff like this, but in this photo shoot, I felt so completely ‘in’ the clothes, I felt like I knew them. If you don’t have a connection to what you are wearing, it sorta look a bit like it’s wearing you, and I never got that feeling on this, which surprised me considering it’s so‘couture’. (Referring to her photoshoot for the July 2012 issue of Vanity Fair)
Usually I come in and sit down at roundtables in America and they look at me like, “What is wrong with you?” Just because I don’t fit… nobody fits into the frame that typical Hollywood young actresses do, but they try to. They try to be this thing. Try to memorize answers and make everybody happy. That’s so horrifying and scary to me. So when you’re not that, you get criticized for it. You get criticized for being honest and criticized for being nervous. So that’s kind of annoying. I do a whole day of press and then I get calls from publicity people that are like, “you might want to be a little bit more bubbly.” And I’m like, “no”. People get very upset in the States. It’s weird. Fans of the book especially. They don’t understand me. Which is fine. I guess it doesn’t really matter who I am, it just matters that they like the movie.
The important thing is to keep in mind that acting is like any other job. A job that gives you the chance to keep reinventing yourself, living new emotions and expressing yourself, but that doesn’t really make you different or special. Anyway, I know I’m lucky, because what happens when you’re acting, it’s extraordinary. Sometimes you’re so deeply taken by your character or the story, that you almost risk to lose yourself. It happened to me when I shot Speak. I played an introverted girl that decides not to speak to anyone, ever again. Her silence it’s how she defends herself from other people: her schoolmates, her teachers, her family even herself. At the end, it was hard to leave that comfortable silence I had created for myself. With silence you get peace and even your thoughts are more organised, it’s extraordinary and really hard to explain. I lived an interesting experience with On the Road as well, where I play Marylou: I explored the freedom of actually living “on the road”, mentally and physically. That’s what I’m talking about, it’s the magic of acting.
