“One solid thing I can say is that fear is not necessarily a bad thing,” declared Kristen, clad in a Stella McCartney dress and sporting Christian Louboutin shoes. “It’s something that, as you get older, you can get a bit more comfortable with. Fear is a very motivating thing in life. You should not be crippled by it—use it instead.”

Kristen said that with the release this week of “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn–Part 2,” the media interviews were making her feel like she was “graduating from high school.” The actress remarked, “Everyone’s asking, ‘What have you learned at the end of this ‘Twilight’ experience? What did ‘Twilight’ do to you?’ You pick up, drop off so many different inhibitions and you’re never going to have none. Fear is a good thing.”

Back stories

Is this really the end of the “Twilight” series? How about prequels and sequels? “We’ve spoken to Stephenie (Meyer) about it since the beginning,” came Kristen’s quick reply. “Are there going to be more books? I think Stephenie has decided that Edward and Bella are allowed to be happy forever now. We’ve gotten them to a really good place. I think we should leave them alone.”

Then Kristen offered a tantalizing prospect to “Twilight” fans: “There are so many back stories that haven’t been explored. There’s the wolf pack …”

On the final movie itself, which costars Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, of course, she had this to say: “Bill (Condon, director) really does twist the knife at the end of this one for anybody who doesn’t really want to say goodbye yet. I still feel like I don’t have to say goodbye, though. That’s the beauty of making movies. They’re not going anywhere.”

Last shooting day

She added: “There have been so many times when everybody thinks that the moment’s going to hit them. There are various degrees of letting something go. I don’t know if it’s more of me as a fan of the series, from an outsider’s perspective. It’s strange that we’re not going to sit here and talk about it directly anymore. It’s strange that we’re not going to be all together anymore but we all still have it. It’s not going anywhere.”

Kristen recounted the last shooting day: “[There were] two different times when we thought that we had finished. We wrapped on the majority of the production with the wedding scene and the entire cast was there. It was one of those moments that didn’t hit. It was almost like we all knew that we weren’t done yet.

“We had to go and do a little bit of additional footage for the honeymoon in St. Thomas. The sun was coming up. We had to stop shooting. We must have been finished hours before but we just kept going. It was weird. Nobody was tired at the end of the day. Typically, after a long day in the ocean, standing on apple boxes, everyone would be exhausted but there was this serious lightness that was unlike anything I’d felt.”

She continued to share her thoughts on the end of her “Twilight” era. What we’ve always liked about her is that she weighs the words that come out of her mouth. She does not just blurt out any empty statements. “At the end of a movie, whether it was like five weeks or five months, nobody really wants to let it go,” she pointed out.

“We got to live in this world for so long that it was like, suddenly this weight was lifted. There are so many beloved moments that weigh on you for years. The fact that it was all done—it was strange to actually miss the worry, to suddenly go, ‘Whoa, I don’t have this worry anymore.’ That’s when the pain gets you. You’re suddenly like … I’ve really desperately wanted someone to take it off my hands for so long. Suddenly, I want it back.”

Asked about Jodie Foster, whom she announced as the next recipient of the Golden Globes’ Cecil B. DeMille Award, Kristen said of the actress who played her mom in David Fincher’s “Panic Room”: “[At my age at the time] she was the perfect example to be around. This may not be the most remarkable thing about her. It’s always shocking for people to see—which is strange—that when she’s doing a movie, she’s like a hired hand. She completely understands that it takes a lot of people to make a movie. There’s no hierarchy with her. It’s a group effort. Most actors take themselves incredibly seriously. She’s just incredibly normal. I’ve always really identified with that. I have that mentality, possibly partly due to her.”

When a reporter touted the usual question about what special power she would like to have, Kristen graciously obliged with, “I would like to be able to teleport. I’d love to be able to jump. And that would be different a few years ago.” In her calm demeanor, she dished this year’s understatement: “I might be really obvious and say that I would want to fly but that would draw a little bit too much attention nowadays—if I started flying now.”

On her other film, Walter Salles’ adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s iconic novel that defined the Beat Generation, Kristen said, “I read ‘On the Road’ for the first time when I was a freshman in high school. One thing that’s said about the book is that it really does change as you get older. If you pick it up again and read it, you do start realizing that you can choose the people that you surround yourself with. You start to feel the choice in your life. You start to feel that you can actually reach out and grab something. Even if you don’t know what it is, there’s just that itching beneath the surface.”

In a fitting move for her post-“Twilight” career, Kristen boldly plunges into her role as Marylou and appears in a threesome bed scene with Garrett Hedlund and Sam Riley. “When I read the book, I was so taken by how the characters were with each other,” she stressed. “I wanted to find people who pushed me like that. I wanted to move. I’m seriously opposed to anything that stays too stagnant. I do really appreciate things being fluid and there’s nothing more fluid than that book. It runs like water. I wanted to chase after it. It’s a pretty universal feeling, too.

How to escape

“A lot of people would say that I was fairly young to read that book. Between 15 and 25 is a big gap but it’s a period so completely full of desire. It was like okay for them to explore that and it was fun.”

At the AFI Fest gala screening party of “On the Road,” Kristen, fetching in an all-black outfit (she quickly changed from her red-carpet Balenciaga attire), surprised us with her answer on what challenged her the most in the movie. She said it was the dance scene with Garrett—a wild, uninhibited one to percussive rhythm. Sitting nearby at the party was Robert.

In the press con, Kristen offered this reply about how she escapes from it all: “I really love my car. I’m from LA so any time I can get behind the wheel, I feel good.” On the road. Of course. – Source

On the Road, Walter Salles’ film adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s cult classic novel, follows a group of young adults who are searching for freedom through travel, drugs, sex, adventure and music. While the novel defined a generation, it was a long and arduous journey to get the story moved onto the big screen.

t the end of 2008, Salles, who had been attached to the project for several years already, was about to get the greenlight when the American economy fell apart, and his dream project was stalled. He had to talk the actors he had cast in 2007 into staying onboard until – through a series of luck, hard work and good fortune – he was able to finally get the financing and film the project in 2010.

The long road came to an end with the world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and now the L.A. premiere at AFI Fest 2012 on Saturday, Nov. 3, at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. In one of the most star-heavy events at the festival, Kristen Stewart, Garrett Hedlund, Amy Adams and Salles all attended.

Stewart, who will wrap up her duties as the lead in the Twilight film series with the release of the final film this month, plays the free-spirited MaryLou in On the Road.

“We were allowed to know so much about the people who stood behind the characters,” the actress, wearing a black and white Balenciaga jumpsuit, told The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet before the premiere.

While Stewart walked the red carpet solo on Saturday, she was joined by her Twilight co-star (and current beau) Robert Pattinson at the AFI Fest afterparty at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. They mingled with friends and Stewart’s co-stars around a large fire pit near the pool area.

Stewart says that Salles enrolled the main actors in a four-week “beatnik bootcamp” of rehearsals before shooting the film. Stewart’s character in the book was based on Kerouac’s friend Luanne Henderson, and Stewart got to spend a lot of time talking to Henderson’s daughter while researching the role.

“We were allowed to know things about her that people do not know,” she tells THR. “I think as soon as you know the people who inspired those characters, everything makes so much more sense. It’s not the easiest thing to live that life. It takes a really particular person to carry that out.”

Stewart says she first read the book when she was 14 or 15, and it’s been a pivotal piece of literature in her life.

“She definitely helped me break down a few walls,” Stewart said of playing MaryLou. “But I think that project actually started when I read the book.”

“At the time, there was no way I could ever possibly imagine that I could play a part like that,” she added. “I thought that the characters in On the Road were people I wanted to be able to find in my own life. I wanted to find people who really stirred me up and kept me moving and kept me pushing. And she’s that type of that person.”

Salles, who helmed 2004’s The Motorcycle Diaries, tells THR that Stewart understood that MaryLou was “several decades ahead of her time.”

“I think Kristen likes to play these roles that defy the circumstances that somehow define the time you’re living in,” the Brazilian director adds. “She did that very bravely and with complete passion and dedication.”

Salles adds that the most difficult role to cast was that of Dean Moriarty, the charming, yet destructive friend of narrator Sal Paradise. Moriarty was, in real life, Neal Cassady, the author’s friend.

Salles says that Hedlund had gone on a road trip of his own, driving from Minnesota five years ago to audition for the part.

“When he finished reading the scenes, there was such electricity in the air that we were all completely taken by it,” he tells THR. “And that electricity never disappeared. We’re still in love with Garrett.”

Hedlund, who was part of the same four-week “beatnik bootcamp” as Stewart, describes Cassady as an intellectual whose thirst for exploration was an admirable quality.

“To me, I feel that he’s one of my heroes in the way that he approached life in terms of the yearning for adventure,” he says. “I grew up with storytellers all my life, and the knowledge that he could shed and the stories that he told, that comes from a wonderful life experience and that’s what he had.”

Source

The actress spent Saturday at the press junket for The Twilight Saga:Breaking Dawn, Part 2, and at night, after a quick change into a white cut-out Balenciaga cropped tank and high-waisted trousers, walked the red carpet for her indie film On the Road. Amy Adams, Garrett Hedlund and director Walter Salles were also on hand at Grauman’s Chinese theater to debut the film (due out Dec. 21) at the AFI Fest 2012.

It was a heavy load, but you’d never know it from talking to Stewart, who will premiere Part 2 in just a week. She walked the press line calm, collected and friendly. Not even a stray piece of double-sided tape stuck to her top fazed her when a publicist stepped in to remove it halfway down the red carpet.

“Somebody wore this before me?” she joked, in mock horror.

Her good mood continued at the Audi SkyLounge after-party at the Roosevelt Hotel, where she arrived — more casual now, in jeans, flats and a black leather bomber jacket — with Robert Pattinson. Both sported wide smiles, and the pair hung out with friends until well after midnight.

On the red carpet, Stewart shared some insight about what drew her to the film adaptation of the infamous Jack Kerouac tale. The actress first read the novel at 15, and said the lessons it held stayed with her.
“I had the exact same feeling that I had when I was 15 that I did when I was like, 20,” she said. “At that age you look up and realize that you have anything that you could ever possibly imagine very much within reach. And I still feel that way.”

On the Road is a big departure for Stewart, whose character, Marylou, daringly explores sexuality, drug use and heartbreak over the course of a meandering cross-country road trip. Ask if she’s leaning toward making more indies vs. big-budget blockbusters, and she’ll tell you that the level of risk feels the same regardless.

“If you’re working for reasons that drive me,” she began, and then continued, “It’s a shame, it’s like, absolutely heartbreaking when you find yourself on a movie set that you don’t find a commonality with the director and the cast and all of that. It doesn’t really matter what scale movie it is.”

Her favorite road trip? “The one that I took right before I did On the Road, probably,” she said. “We had to cram it into three days. I went to many diners.”

Stewart’s come to TIFF to launch On The Road, an adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s classic Beat novel in which she plays Marylou, the sexually adventurous child bride of the charismatic Dean Moriarty. (Yes, there are nude scenes. No, they aren’t explicit.) On the press day, Stewart is paired with Garrett Hedlund, who plays Moriarty. And the two of them were their most animated when they were discussing the freewheeling, improvisational style director Walter Salles encouraged on the shoot.

“There are probably, like, 600 movies within the film that we shot,” Stewart says. “I think the only way to have done this, and be really true to how the book feels, is to not be so connected to [memorizing] lines. I mean, certain things just find their way into your heart, and you’re like, ‘I need to say that. I love that fucking line.’ And that’s fine, as long as you’ve opened yourself up to letting it fall out, rather than trying to do something a certain way.”

The challenge for the actors was keeping themselves in that headspace, which Stewart says she had trouble with.

“I tortured myself in the most amazing, wonderful way for four weeks,” she says, “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.’”

Hedlund credits the resources that were made available to the actors over what turned out to be a very long pre-production period. Both he and Stewart signed onto On The Road in 2007, but it took four years to get to the first day of principal photography. Fortunately, that just let everyone soak up more material.

“We’d gotten so many wonderful stories,” Hedlund says. “From real-life characters like Al Hinkle, who was in the book as Ed Dunkel. Neal [Cassaday]’s son told me a lot of wonderful stories, we’d read plenty of stories from Carolyn Cassady’s Off The Road, wonderful stories from LuAnne Henderson’s audiotapes. We always had stories to go for if there was space for improvisational infusion.”

Stewart says the fact that she was playing a real person – the aforementioned Henderson, who was the basis for Kerouac’s fictional Marylou – made her a little more careful about her own improvisations.

“It’s always fun to have freedom and have, like, happy accidents where you go, ‘Wow, that’s cool, I didn’t expect that,’” Stewart says. “But when you’re playing somebody who’s [actually] existed, you know …” And she stops herself, rethinking her position on the fly.

“I don’t want to discredit what it feels like to play a character who’s been written by somebody,” she continues. “You feel just as responsible to the writer and the character to everyone who’s been affected by that person.”

There is no doubt in my mind that she’s referring to Bella Swan. And I have to respect her instincts; given how many millions of people worship the Twilight movies – and how worried everyone is that those Twi-hards will boycott Breaking Dawn Part Two because of Stewart and Pattinson’s recent breakup – it’s the savvy thing to do. But it’s also crap, and she knows it, because as soon as she’s finished that statement, Stewart returns to her real point and her energy shoots right back up.

“I’ve played Joan Jett,” she says, “and because she was on set every day, I couldn’t improv. I couldn’t. Everything I said, I spoke to her about it. You know – you can’t put words in their mouths unless you know. Unless you really feel it, and it’s coming from the right place.”

“Unless you felt trust,” Hedlund says.

“Precisely,” Stewart says, nodding emphatically. “Because of the time that we put in initially [with the material] and because of the heart that Walter, like, shoved down all of our throats, into our chests, it had to show up. It was impossible for it not to. “

Hedlund picks it up. “And once you know what your character’s instincts are, what their wants and needs are, it can free you up – there can be carelessness, recklessness. There can be emotion.”

“Yes,” Stewart agrees. “Then you can forget everything, and just do it.”

Source

Yet there’s no place she would rather be than at the Toronto International Film Festival alongside her colleagues for the adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s 1950s Beat Generation novel, “On the Road.”
Stewart said she never thought about skipping the festival, where the film played ahead of its U.S. theatrical release in December.

She said it was important to be there with director Walter Salles and co-stars that include Kirsten Dunst and Garrett Hedlund, who like Stewart had worked for years to get the film made.

“We have been waiting for this thing to be unleashed for so long. It was sort of one of those situations where you just have to put yourself in your body and go appreciate the moment,” Stewart said in an interview Saturday.

Recalling the film’s world premiere at May’s Cannes Film Festival, Stewart said, “I would have been happy standing at Cannes with the entire theater booing it as long as I was in that row with my cast and with Walter. We would have been fine. I feel so strong with these people, and it’s so appropriate. I belonged there.”

Since Cannes, Stewart’s personal life has unraveled as she admitted she cheated on Pattinson with her “Snow White and the Huntsman” director, Rupert Sanders.

The Toronto premiere of “On the Road” on Thursday was Stewart’s first public appearance since, and she was greeted by hundreds of “Twilight” fans who came out to show support for the 22-year-old actress.

“You expect a lot of people at a ‘Twilight’ premiere, but showing up at an ‘On the Road’ Toronto film festival screening and seeing that amount of people is absolutely, disarmingly amazing,” Stewart said. “It felt pretty cool.”

“On the Road” has been on Hollywood’s to-do list for decades, but previous attempts to adapt it for film always fell through.

Salles (”Central Station,” ‘’The Motorcycle Diaries”) spent years developing the film, which stars Hedlund as beat generation free spirit Dean Moriarty, inspired by Kerouac’s friend Neal Cassady, and Sam Riley as the author’s alter-ego, Sal Paradise.

Stewart co-stars as Dean’s first wife, Marylou, who joins him and Sal on some of their crazed cross-country adventures.

The novel was a consciousness-raising experience for Stewart when she first read it as a high school freshman.

“Marylou and Dean are the type of people that I was inspired by. Initially, at 15 reading the book, going, God, these are the sort of people I’ve got to find. The mad ones,” Stewart said. “And I am so not one of them, but maybe I could be. …

“The great thing about ‘On the Road’ is that it really can crack open your shell, and I definitely realized things about myself that I didn’t realize before. That I can let my face hang out and not be too aware of it, and stop questioning myself and not be afraid of strangers, and stop being judgmental.”

Coping with photographers and TV crews at Thursday’s red-carpet premiere was a challenge.

“I was a little nervous, obviously. I’m always nervous before a red carpet,” Stewart said. “To be honest, I was just kind of telling myself, like, just don’t black out. Be there, don’t just figuratively put your head down and barrel though it. Be there, appreciate it. Luckily, very, very much I was able to do that.”

In November, Stewart faces some awkward public appearances when she and Pattinson will be promoting “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2,” the finale of their vampire romance.

Stewart is confident they will get through that all right.

“We’re going to be fine,” Stewart said. “We’re totally fine.”

Source

“Thanks, man. Thanks,” says Stewart, when told it was good of her to put herself out there, given the scrutiny she’s been under. Granted, she did her interviews with costar Garrett Hedlund and director Walter Salles. But she put herself out there and for that, I respect her.

The film is based on Jack Kerouac’s seminal American novel. Hedlund plays Dean, who has what could be generously described a very unconventional relationship with his teen bride, Mary Lou (Stewart).

Plus,Twihards, she’s just a cool chick who’s smart and well-read, with On the Road being a favorite. “I was it a freshman when I read it. I was projecting to the future a little bit. Is that what’s on its way? It was about knowing that I wasn’t there yet. I hadn’t realized what my ambitions were. It made me less insecure and a little bit more hungry.”
She’s not kidding.”I would have done anything on the movie. I would have been any crew member. I would have followed the crew in the car as a fan just to be around it,” said Stewart. “Getting to know the woman behind the character — she’s not the main character and you do wonder what kind of person would live like that?”
“Personality-wise, we’re so different. I am just a little bit more locked up and with time, I think that’s going to go,” says Stewart. “I don’t think it’s possible to change who you are.
For Hedlund, the book was “something special and changed the way I was writing. Most of the time, I was alone, working in different countries. I had so much downtime and I was writing more and more. The notepad seemed to be Kerouac’s friend.”
His Dean dumps his pregnant wife. He’s a lost man, easily bored, with few boundaries. How did Hedlund get into character? “I was able to take drives alone. There’s a lot of obstacles you overcome along the way and wonderful people you meet along the way. You have to be open and accepting and it really created conversations.”
Hedlund and Stewart’s characters have loosely, effortlessly passionate love scenes in the film. “None of them were events. Professionally, from an actor’s standpoint, you do what you have to do. I think it’s about feeling safe with who you’re with and that you’re both there for the right reasons,” says Stewart. “The only way to do Mary Lou justice was to feel free and natural doing it. It was always easy. It was done so quickly.”
For the actress, the film was a nice break from her blockbuster Twilight series.
“I have been pretty lucky. I’ve gotten to switch things up. Five years of one thing … it would asinine,” says Stewart.
And the most important question of the day: why is her finger in a splint? She broke it, shrugs Stewart.

Granted, she did her interviews with costar Garrett Hedlund and director Walter Salles. But she put herself out there and for that, I respect her.

The film is based on Jack Kerouac’s seminal American novel. Hedlund plays Dean, who has what could be generously described a very unconventional relationship with his teen bride, Mary Lou (Stewart).

Plus,Twihards, she’s just a cool chick who’s smart and well-read, with On the Road being a favorite. “I was it a freshman when I read it. I was projecting to the future a little bit. Is that what’s on its way? It was about knowing that I wasn’t there yet. I hadn’t realized what my ambitions were. It made me less insecure and a little bit more hungry.”

She’s not kidding.”I would have done anything on the movie. I would have been any crew member. I would have followed the crew in the car as a fan just to be around it,” said Stewart. “Getting to know the woman behind the character — she’s not the main character and you do wonder what kind of person would live like that?”

“Personality-wise, we’re so different. I am just a little bit more locked up and with time, I think that’s going to go,” says Stewart. “I don’t think it’s possible to change who you are.

For Hedlund, the book was “something special and changed the way I was writing. Most of the time, I was alone, working in different countries. I had so much downtime and I was writing more and more. The notepad seemed to be Kerouac’s friend.”

His Dean dumps his pregnant wife. He’s a lost man, easily bored, with few boundaries. How did Hedlund get into character? “I was able to take drives alone. There’s a lot of obstacles you overcome along the way and wonderful people you meet along the way. You have to be open and accepting and it really created conversations.”

Hedlund and Stewart’s characters have loosely, effortlessly passionate love scenes in the film. “None of them were events. Professionally, from an actor’s standpoint, you do what you have to do. I think it’s about feeling safe with who you’re with and that you’re both there for the right reasons,” says Stewart. “The only way to do Mary Lou justice was to feel free and natural doing it. It was always easy. It was done so quickly.”

For the actress, the film was a nice break from her blockbuster Twilight series.

“I have been pretty lucky. I’ve gotten to switch things up. Five years of one thing … it would asinine,” says Stewart.

And the most important question of the day: why is her finger in a splint? She broke it, shrugs Stewart.

Source

The same film is being discussed: On the Road, the Walter Salles adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s totemic 1957 Beat Generation novel, which is receiving its North American premiere at TIFF before a year-end release.

The tense body language of Stewart, 22, says all that needs to be said about how difficult the past four months have been for her, during which she confessed to an affair that led to a breakup with Robert Pattinson, her boyfriend and Twilight franchise co-star.

It would be a mistake, though, to read too much into tabloid headlines. Stewart looked as glamorous on Friday’s Ryerson Theatre red carpet as she did on the scarlet walk outside the Palais des Festivals in Cannes.

And the intense experience of making On the Road, which took years of planning and included “boot camp” readings of Beat writings, couldn’t help but have a transforming effect on all involved. That’s certainly the case for Stewart, and also with co-star Garrett Hedlund, who joined her for an interview with the Star.

“To say that this movie opened me up in a way, sounds really obvious, but it f–king did!” says Stewart, who first read Kerouac’s classic at age 15.

“I’m not just saying this. The book has had such a major effect on who I wanted to be at age 15, which is a pretty important and formidable time.”

Adds Hedlund: “How do you express the fire in which (Kerouac) expressed it? That’s the obstacle and that’s really what you’re thinking about the whole time. But at the end of the day, I feel I’ve become a much stronger person. The thoughts that I had to think, the feelings I’ve felt . . . made me much stronger.”

On the Road sets Stewart as enigmatic teen dynamo Marylou, the woman who rode with and made love to both the wild Dean Moriarty, played by Hedlund, and the cerebral Sal Paradise, played by Sam Riley.

To Stewart’s thinking, the mythmaking mileage of Moriarty and Paradise — pseudonyms for real-life pals Neal Cassady and Kerouac — might never have happened if it weren’t for Marylou, who is based on Cassady’s first wife, LuAnne Henderson, 15 years old when they married.

“It was this bridge,” Stewart says of Marylou/LuAnne’s relationships, both amorous and amigo, with Dean/Neal and Sal/Jack.

“I think that there definitely was a commonality that they could have because of her. They may have found it through something else if she didn’t exist, but there was a trust that they had just because they shared her.”

Adds Hedlund, 28: “She was like the gal in between twin brothers who had opposite amounts of patience.”

Stewart and Hedlund both wonder how modern audiences will react to the sex, drugs and all that jazz of On the Road. It shocked people so much in the late 1950s, many would often tear the cover off the book if they were reading it in public.

“It’s not so shocking to do drugs and have promiscuous sex anymore,” Stewart says.

“It’s not too shocking to see people naked. I hate to put it this way, but when I read the book I was 15, I think I was maybe a little more fascinated with pushing myself a little bit farther and being a bit of a rebel, or whatever at that age you do. You want to push yourself.”

Brazilian director Salles, who spent many years working to get the rights to On the Road and also getting a satisfying script written, says Marylou is a fascinating character and Stewart was exactly the right woman to play her. As soon as he met Stewart, after seeing her perform in Sean Penn’s maverick drama Into the Wild, he knew he’d found his Marylou.

“She knew On the Road very well, but she also understood Marylou in a way that was very, very unique. And I didn’t think twice. I invited her at that point, because I wanted somebody who could understand what motivated that character more than anything else.

“The fact that she had the passion and the desire but also the understanding of that character and what made her complex was very interesting.”

Salles was also impressed by how much Hedlund was already inside the mind of Moriarty/Cassady, when the young actor first auditioned for the role in 2007. Hedlund took a three-day bus trip from Minnesota to attend the casting session, during which he kept a journal.

“He said, ‘Do you mind if I read something to you?’ And he read what he’d written during his journey. It was if I was listening to Neal Cassady’s prose in his letters. He was so much in synchronicity with it.”

Hedlund says everything about On the Road was profound.

“I think it opened us up to having the ability to express ourselves in a much freer way and open way. I think before doing this film, if you asked me a question, I probably would have asked you to write it down and I would have been able to write you a response in the next few days rather than express myself better.”

Adds Stewart: “I’m still in that position!”

But wait. Before you scroll down to the comments to register your disgust at Stewart’s latest attempt to lead the nation’s youth into a ditch of vice and vulgarity, try to imagine any of her fellow Millennial über-celebrities giving a performance as brave, or as powerful, as the one Stewart delivers in “On the Road,” a new adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s famous novel, directed by Walter Salles (“The Motorcycle Diaries”).

For Taylor Swift, edgy is writing a breakup song and encouraging her fans to figure out who she’s talking about. For Miley Cyrus, it’s letting her side boob hang out. For Kim Kardashian, it’s dating Kanye West and daring the world to decide if the whole thing is one giant put-on.

Is Kristen Stewart the only major celebrity of her generation who also happens to be a true artist?

It’s certainly telling that she chose to make her big post-scandal comeback at last night’s North American premiere of “On the Road,” which took place at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was her first outing since photos of her fooling around with director Rupert Sanders blew her fairytale romance with Robert Pattinson to bits. And while it’s possible Stewart was contractually obliged to support the film, the decision to spend an hour communing with her fans and answering questions from the press had to be hers. Again and again, she told reporters that she would be just as happy to be there promoting “Twilight,” but I wonder. I suspect it’s important to her to remind the world that she’s more than just a twinkling star in the celebrity-weekly firmament. She’s a real actress.

Like her contemporary Shia LaBeouf, Stewart gets a lot of flak from people who can’t stand her zillion-dollar franchise. I won’t claim to be a “Twilight” fan, but I’m consistently impressed by Stewart’s work in what you might call more “serious” films, and “On the Road” is no exception.

This is definitely an “On the Road” for our times, directed by a Brazilian Boomer for a global audience of Millennials. The film doesn’t shy away from the destruction that Kerouac’s speed-demon hero, Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund), wreaked on those around him, and, as a result, the women register with far more impact than they do in the book. Kirsten Dunst plays Dean’s second wife, Camille, as an arrogant princess whose dreams fall victim to her man’s wanderlust, but it’s Stewart who steals a sizeable portion of the film. Not in a showy way — it’s remarkable how much time this massive global superstar spends in the back seat, literally and figuratively. But hers is a bold, brave, indelible performance. When we first see her, she’s topless on a bed, shaking off her sexual afterglow so she can roll a few joints for Dean’s friends. “You’re the only girl I’ve ever known who can roll tea like this,” Sam Riley’s Sal Paradise tells her, as smitten as the audience would be if their inner tabloid editors weren’t reminding them that they’re supposed to be mad at her for breaking RPattz’s heart.

The toplessness itself is an extremely courageous choice for someone as famous as Stewart. There is no question that screen shots of those scenes will proliferate all across the Internet, in contexts that would make even Marylou blush. But Stewart has proven that she’s the kind of actress who puts her commitment to the role above concerns like that. To some people, her self-seriousness comes off as pretentious, but I see it as her way of protecting herself from the madness that surrounds her.

Marylou’s sexually competitive side makes her a great fit for Dean, but she doesn’t capture his imagination the way Camille does, and Stewart does her best acting during the group’s long trip from New Orleans to San Francisco. As they depart, Dean, who has more or less replaced sleep with Benzedrine, promises to spend half his time with Marylou even though he’s returning to Camille, who gave birth to his child, but Marylou knows that’s not going to work. As the car barrels toward the coast, we watch the clouds slowly fill Stewart’s face. This is acting of the highest order, and it’s all the more impressive that it’s being done by one of America’s most notorious celebrities.

You know you’re dealing with a real movie star when her off-screen travails enhance her performance, rather than detracting from it, and that’s what happens here. Stewart’s Marylou is pure Id: she steals what she needs and she screws who she wants, when she wants. And Stewart — who, lest we forget, is only 22 — is so convincing in the role that I can’t help feeling glad that she now has the chance to stop playing house with Robert Pattinson and truly explore the world.

To my knowledge, Stewart did not address the scandal or her personal life on the red carpet last night. She kept the focus on the film — and the real people whose stories inspired Kerouac — and shrewdly did all her interviews in tandem with Garrett Hedlund. That protected her a bit by making it feel extra-inappropriate to shout out Robsten questions (not that she had much to fear from the polite Canadians bunched up against the rope line), but it also represented an admirable level of collegiality. Hedlund, after all, plays the lead in the film, not Stewart, and it was generous and right of her to share her spotlight with him.

Judging from the hundreds of fans and dozens of media outlets who crowded around her last night, Stewart has plenty of support to get her through what has been a tough time. She doesn’t need any help from me. But I’m going to keep rooting for her anyway, if only because it would be a shame if we ceded our celebrity arena to shameless fame balls and reality-TV oversharers. I still remember when the biggest celebrities were people like Liz Taylor and Mick Jagger and Jack Nicholson. People who did great work and lived fascinating lives.

If we want interesting people to share their lives with us, we can’t rip them to shreds every time they make a mistake — or a courageous choice. And we should try to recognize real talent when it arises in our midst — even when it comes attached to a corny franchise.

Always a polarizing actress, never were the latent feelings of so many expressed so vociferously after U.S Weekly’s publication of those photographs.

The extraordinary heat they generated, now somewhat lessened, will likely reignite when Stewart walks the red carpet at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival on September 6 in support of her film — the Walter Salles directed On The Road.

Adapted from Jack Kerouac’s classic beat novel, when On The Road was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, Stewart’s portrayal of the free-spirited ‘Marylou’ was hailed a standout performance.

In a pre-debacle interview with Little White Lie magazine, the actress revealed her intense connection to the role:

“Oh my god, I f*g love it [acting] so much. I’m not Marylou; I’m Sal,” said Stewart.

“Right now, I feel so full. I’m, like, bursting. I should be working. I don’t want to take a break. It’s funny, on set, I don’t have to go to the bathroom, I don’t have anything wrong, I’m perfectly fine, so through-and-through. I’m not hungry. I’m literally not even in my own body. They wrap and they send me back to my trailer and I f*g fall to pieces.”

Kristen Stewart,Garrett Hedlund and Sam Riley In On The Road

Currently gracing the front cover of British Vogue’s October issue, in another pre-July 24 interview the 22-year-old shared her thoughts about On the Road, fame and what she believes in.

On maintaining an image:

“I know that if you haven’t thought about how you want to present a very packaged idea of yourself then it can seem like you lack ambition. But, dude, honestly? I can’t,” Stewart says.

On feeling awkward in public:

“People expect it to be easy because there you are, out there, doing the thing that you want and making lots of money out of it. But, you know, I’m not that smooth. I can get clumsy around certain people,” the actress says.

“Like if I were to sit down and think, ‘OK, I’m really famous, how am I going to conduct myself in public?’ I wouldn’t know who that person would be! It would be a lot easier if I could, but I can’t.”

On her role as ‘Marylou’ in On The Road:

“There is always going to be that seam of people who want things differently to the standardized version. It’s not necessarily a rebellious thing, it’s just who they are. That world back then, it just seems freer to me than anything I could ever touch, and I’m fully nostalgic for it, even though I wasn’t even alive then.”

“It’s the loyalty aspect of it all. 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.”

Also starring Kristen Stewart, Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, Kirsten Dunst, Viggo Mortensen and Tom Sturridge to name a few, On The Road’s backstory is a potent one.

A semi-autobiographical beat generation road odyssey with three core characters at its heart. Young writer, Sal Paradise (Sam Riley, in a role based on Jack Kerouac’s experiences on the road), Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund) and Marylou (Kristen Stewart). Bound by a desire for freedom and a search for experience itself, the trio travel across 1950’s America, meeting various colorful characters along the way.

Reports that Stewart may join her assumed-to-be-estranged partner Robert Pattinson — apparently confirmed to appear — in a pre-recorded appearance at MTV’s Video Music Awards are currently swirling the interwebs. That remains to be seen.

But as renowned critic Betsy Sharkey recently observed is it not time to:

“Let Stewart get on with the business of being who she is meant to be: an exceedingly nuanced young actress who has earned her way, every step of it.”

One of the most anticipated star showings at TIFF, On The Road has been re-cut and re-jigged. Likewise, on September 6, a hopefully regrouped Stewart will return to a career she loves, in support of a film she has every right to be proud of.

There have been a fair few articles and opinion pieces about the 22-year-old actress’ demeanour, particularly when she’s on the publicity trail (sample headline: ‘Kristen Stewart Is Trolling The World’), but get her talking about what draws her to a project or shapes her performance and Stewart is forthcoming with ideas and impressions. Not all are completely formed but the fact that she seems to be considering her answers rather than relying on ready-made anecdotes and platitudes is actually kind of cool.

Along with co-star Chris Hemsworth and director Rupert Sanders, Stewart was in Australia this week to promote her latest film, the revisionist fairy tale Snow White And The Huntsman, a big-budget fantasy that adds a slight shade of darkness to the story of the ‘fairest of them all’ princess. (That said, have you read the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale lately? Some pretty gnarly stuff in there.)

She plays Snow White, imprisoned and victimised by her wicked stepmother Ravenna (Charlize Theron), a witch who retains her beauty by literally drawing the life out of the young women of the land. When Snow White escapes, Ravenna dispatches Hemsworth’s boozy, brawling Huntsman to bring her back. But it’s not long before the two outsiders join forces to take the battle to the evil Ravenna, aided by a band of dwarves played by the best-of-British likes of Bob Hoskins, Ian McShane and Ray Winstone.

Stewart believes that most people’s notion of Snow White is the sweet, demure Disney version of the character (“unless they read a lot of fairy tales as a kid, which I didn’t”), and so she admits that she didn’t really see the potential of a new Snow White story when she first heard about the film.

“I didn’t really see why anyone would want to join her cause,” she says. “Back when the Disney version was made, being a caretaker, being delicate and sweet and maternal, was kind of an ultimate goal. But to do the story today, I think she has to do a little more than sweep house. When I read it, I could totally recognise Snow White within this very dark context as someone really, really trying to retain light and not harden.

“Right now, a lot of female characters that are trying to be strong are promoted as ‘Yeah, female empowerment!’ but in this case I’m glad she remained a girl, someone trying to find her strength and her steadiness and her compassion and her trust in herself. You know, we rip her heart out and stomp on it, put it back in her chest and see if it still beats… and it does. So I thought it was really impressive, the darkness and the light of this world.”

It was revealed this week that Stewart topped the Forbes magazine list of Hollywood’s highest-paid actresses, her paydays for the last two Twilight Saga movies earning her more than $12 million (and her cut of her profits ramping it up even more). But her tastes seem to be run more towards the independent end of things, with the actress taking on roles in critically-acclaimed films like Adventureland, Into the Wild and The Runaways.

So she was happily surprised when Snow White And The Huntsman offered her the opportunity to delve a little deeper into the creative process than she imagined it would.

“It’s a big movie with a lot of people involved and a lot of money invested in it,” she says. “The type that’s done by committee…or at least I’ve heard. On this, it was really me and Rupert and Chris – me and Charlize didn’t work much together but sometimes we did – and it felt so intimate. There was a handful of us holding this thing very delicately in our hands. And it changed every day – it was shaped and moulded and rewritten and we were constantly discussing about what we’d be shooting the next day or the next week. And that’s very rare on a big movie like this. I don’t have much experience of big movies but my impression was that smaller movies were a bit freer. But we had a lot of freedom here.”

Her next role offers an interesting contrast – in On The Road, Walter Salles’ much-anticipated adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s novel, she plays Marylou, the young wife of freewheeling Dean Moriarty. It’s a project that’s been in development for decades, based on a book that many, many readers are greatly invested in.

“I’ve always felt a self-inflicted pressure,” says Stewart when asked if she feels an added sense of responsibility when attached to such a project. “And as soon as you raise your hand and say ‘Yes, I will participate’, you’re putting yourself in a position to either satisfy or let down a lot of people who really love this thing. A movie takes a lot of passion and a lot of investment, and the greatest part of the job is being able to share that with people. It’s great to share a love for something, and doing that on this scale is so remarkably unique. It will probably never ever happen to me again. When we first started, we didn’t know what was going to happen – it was something we all loved and were invested in. It was this small, quirky movie that blew up and we were lucky enough to take the ride.”

I was thinking about how that last statement seemed a little incongruous when talking about On The Road when Stewart exclaimed, “Wait, were you talking about fuckin’ Twilight or On The Road? I don’t know why I inserted Twilight when you said On The Road!” She laughed to herself before starting over, and there’s now a greater enthusiasm and sincerity in her voice than before.

“On The Road was my first favourite book. It ignited something inside of me when I read it, and when I sat down with Walter it was clear we loved it for the same reasons. He didn’t even make me audition, which blew my mind. Our expectations are high, impossibly high, as anyone’s. The way that book should become a movie is to have it feel found, stumbled-upon, spontaneous. The only way you can do that is by knowing everything – we basically spent four weeks in school studying it – and then forgetting everything. I know there are so many people with so many expectations and opinions and criticisms and I can say to them that everybody involved in this film squeezed the last bit of soul we could into it.”

She’s renowned for being moody. I’ve read whole interviews about her dislike of being interviewed, and she certainly has nervous tics. Her leg sometimes twitches like a piston, and she says “do you know what I mean” 18 times in the course of the interview. But she seems to be putting her all into being understood as genuine, and that, in itself, is completely endearing.

Anyway, her essential traits were not going over very well in the child actor market. She would go to auditions for commercials where she had to dance with the product. She pulls a face. “And in those situations I became really like a pompous nine-year-old. I was like: ‘I don’t want to do those auditions any more. I feel silly.’” She asked if she could ditch the final one, and her mother said: “Kristen! You have fucking integrity! If you make an appointment, you go. I’ll fire your agent tomorrow.”

If she hadn’t landed her role as a troubled, tomboyish kid in The Safety of Objects, followed by a role as a troubled, tomboyish kid in Panic Room, she might be off on an archaeological dig right now. Instead she’s at the heart of a juggernaut.

When she first signed up, in her late teens, to play Bella Swan in Twilight, there was, she says, no talk of sequels or merchandise or monsterish profit margins. It was a small film. Stewart has been in lots of smallish films, before and since. She has played Joan Jett in The Runaways, an 80s teenager working at an amusement park in Adventureland and a girl suffering from a serious illness in The Cake Eaters. The word that is often applied to her performances is “watchful”.

She started off on a distinctive route, then, an indie-inflected career, and Twilight seemed apt. The first film is all rain storms and inchoate emotion. Then the series took on a life of its own. The first film took almost $70m in its opening weekend in the US; the second, New Moon, had the biggest midnight opening in US box office history; the four films in the franchise have made more than $2bn at the worldwide box office in total. Last year, a Forbes magazine survey found that for every dollar Stewart is paid, her films bring in an average of $55.83, making her the best-value actor around – a value which reflects both the staggering speed of her rise, and how many young women adore her. Bella Swan might be devoid of any obvious interests beyond her lust for vampire Edward Cullen and werewolf Jacob Black, but her very blankness has allowed a generation of young women who are in love or would like to be to live out their longings for dangerous, unattainable men. Stewart is startlingly beautiful, of course, but her slightly clumsy gait, her palpable self-consciousness, have made her a perfect proxy.

She realised how big Twilight was going to be before it even came out, when she and Robert Pattinson, her co-star and rumoured boyfriend, were mobbed by 6,500 people at a comics convention. Did that make her nervous? “Oh my gosh. It blew my head off.” She’s talked since then of feeling trapped, unable to go for walks, stuck in hotel rooms. She says it’s not always like that though. “I mean, if I walked out of this hotel” – Claridge’s – “obviously I’d be screwed. But in London, I am perfectly fine, unless I have a trail of parasites behind me. “. The paparazzi are at the hotel entrance when I leave. “But I’m good at evading those little twits. Once I lose them, once no one’s trying to make a buck off you, you know, I’m fine – I know at this point that there’s a buck to be made, which is weird considering I’m just walking down the street with dirty hair.”

Stewart has a silent film star face that can project all manner of wordless emotion. It’s a quality that has been used to great effect in the Twilight series – all that endless staring, wanting, needing – and now in her new film, Snow White and the Huntsman, in which she stars as the titular heroine, and which threatens to become another franchise. The film is uneven. It’s hard to get excited about the romantic hero, played by Chris Hemsworth, a character who spends a surprising amount of the film as a sloppy drunk. But it’s visually interesting, with its blinking mushrooms, melting mirrors and dark, dark forests. Stewart and her co-star Charlize Theron, as the evil queen, are terrific.

The film is a reworking of the classic fairytale, with Stewart as a more powerful heroine, who is locked up by the evil queen for a decade, before escaping and becoming a warrior. Stewart was never a great fan of the Disney movie. “In the original she totally represents what a woman wanted to be back then: the ultimate maternal figure. She cleans house really well. It’s just that [women] do more than that now.” Instead they created a “bad-ass, girl power movie”, she says, in which the character’s strength is represented in a realistic way. “We’re not built to take out big guys in armour. So it was really more about being faster and smarter.”

In some ways, Snow White is, of course, the ultimate Hollywood story; the older woman terrified that a young girl might surpass her in beauty. (There’s a hilarious scene in which Theron sucks the life force out of Lily Cole.) I ask if Stewart finds the Hollywood focus on looks difficult, and she answers an entirely different question. She starts talking about how beauty is ruined “if you’re not cool as well. If you don’t have the heart to back up your looks, you are ugly. I’ve met so many people that I thought were so gorgeous and talented and amazing. And then you meet them for one second and you’re like,” she heaves another breath, and spits out emphatically, “‘you are wearing a costume, you are a fake, you are so unattractive’. And it doesn’t always come across in a picture, but you can be really beautiful in a still frame, and then, in life, moving around, you’re ugly. And that’s kind of what the movie’s about.”

There’s a big similarity between Snow White and Twilight, she says, in that, “there’s a stage of life represented in both movies that is so impassioned, and it doesn’t know why yet. Do you know what I mean? That was what I really liked about Bella. The fact that she trusted that at some point these feelings are going to make sense, and that she’s not going to let everyone tell her she’s fucking crazy. Also, it was just so,” she takes a big breath, “it was so intense,” she laughs.

Was she an intense teenager? “Yeah, I’m still a very intense person.” She’s 22 now. “I’m chilled out about some things. I’m cool. But definitely, I take things far too seriously … I am just a serious person. I love joking around, and it’s obviously about mood, because sometimes I can definitely be a silly idiot. But most of the time I am like this.” She makes a sound as if her mouth has been suctioned shut. Quite private? “Yeah,” she says. “And I’m overtly aware of fucking everything. I’m always like,” she mimes picking things out of the air, “details, little things. Just obsessive, analytical.”

Many thought Twilight pushed an abstinence message, presenting sex as a danger to be avoided – in this case, of course, specifically because it would involve coupling with a vampire and a werewolf. Was it worrying to have that outlook pinned to her? “I always just very honestly said that that’s not why I did the movie, and it’s not why the book was written,” she says, adding that she finds it frustrating when people read the characters differently to her. “Mostly in this idea that Bella is a weak girl who is just obsessed with these two boys, and doesn’t really think beyond her own needs, and is selfish. And she is, completely, but that’s like the way to live, man! You’ve got to follow your heart. That is actually a really bold way to live, not making concessions, or giving things up … I don’t know why people ignore the sacrifices that Edward makes. I don’t know why the power thing has been viewed the way it’s been viewed, because I just view it so differently.”

Isn’t it because the men are physically threatening, and Bella willingly becomes their potential victim? In the first film, Edward tells Bella he’s “the world’s most dangerous predator”, and has wanted to kill her. Her response? “I trust you.” “I think girls think that they’re stronger than the next one, and so they can take it,” says Stewart. “I think that she’s not hurting herself. I mean, it’s extreme, it’s really romantic, it’s really ideal. I think that the reason it’s effective is because if she was a vampire, he would do the same. He would be like ‘fuck me up!’”

Stewart grew up with an older brother, Cameron, and adopted brother, Taylor, who’s five days her senior, and says it was a very tomboyish childhood. “I don’t think I had a picture taken of me without a backwards baseball cap before the age of 14.” They all played hard. “You’d just connect skateboards to bikes and see how fast you can go down a hill without dying … I would go for it. But I would hurt myself. I’m always, always, always the one that is incredibly gung-ho, really excited, and then just before, you doubt yourself, and take a tumble.”The first time she realised a film could be really important was when she made Speak, aged 13, about a girl who had been raped. She did a public service announcement after it was shown on TV, with details of a helpline for people who had been sexually assaulted to call. An enormous number did so that night. The other film that stands out for her, in those terms, is Welcome to the Rileys, in which she played a troubled teenager, working in a strip club. She met women in those jobs while researching it, which gave her an idea she is still working on, of putting her earnings into a network of homes for women who want to leave the sex trade, or need support.

She has just made another film that means a lot to her, On the Road, with the director Walter Salles. She plays the wild, instinctive Marylou, partner of Dean Moriarty, and she loved the chance to improvise, to try to bring the feel of the book to the screen. “I think in order to do that book right, in order to make everyone happy – because there’s a lot of people sitting around going: ‘OK, let’s have it’ – it had to be spontaneous, it had to have that feeling of never quite knowing where someone’s going to jump or scream,” she says. “So sometimes it was a truer reading of the line to just forget it, and say it your own way.”

Stewart reminds me, at times, of an earlier era of actors. The sullen teenagers of James Dean’s generation (she is keen to adapt the one-time Dean vehicle, East of Eden); or the grungy young actors of the 90s – Winona Ryder, River Phoenix, Johnny Depp – with their gorgeous, unwashed earnestness. She plays a character who is a terrible role model in Twilight, but in person is a blessed relief, with her trainers on the red carpet, crumpled clothes and intensity. While many of her toothierchild-star contemporaries implode, she seems grounded. “When you make moving pictures, it’s so easy to become disingenuous,” she says. “It’s so easy to just become a commodity, and I think that’s so embarrassing.” And with that, she finishes her milk.

She is the face of Balenciaga Paris’ new women’s scent, Florabotanica, which is due out in September. Given that Stewart had never been drawn to fragrance in the past, it was an unlikely part.“On a base level, the reason you want to wear a fragrance is because you want to smell attractive,” said Stewart, sitting in a suite of Le Bristol hotel here, wearing a Balenciaga T-shirt, shorts and heels. “That in itself is a pretty mature idea, especially considering the teenager I was. I was never the one wearing my mom’s perfume and trying to be sexy. I was like hanging out with my brothers and doing the opposite of that.

“I’m very lucky that I like the fragrance, because I would have done anything with [Balenciaga designer Nicolas Ghesquière],” continued the 22-year-old. “And I’m a terrible liar.”

Stewart said she was relieved the first time she smelled Florabotanica.

“There is something natural about it,” explained Stewart. “It’s very alive. I think that as a young person wearing it — considering that I’ve never worn a scent — it kind of puts you on this level of, like, ‘Whoa, check me out.’ ”

Teaming with Ghesquière was like “kismet,” she said.

The designer took note of Stewart in the movie “Panic Room” and a subsequent Bruce Weber shoot for Interview magazine. “I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I would love to do something with her one day.’ She’s so Balenciaga,” said Ghesquière.

For her part, Stewart feels “lucky” and “really excited” about the scent project, since it came together naturally.

“Even though, yes, it’s an ad and we’re selling a fragrance — I don’t want to sound pretentious — but I want to be part of this art project,” she said. “I want to be around Nicolas when he gets excited about fabric. I want to see the look on his face when he sees me put on a dress.”

Florabotanica is the second major Balenciaga scent Ghesquière has worked on, after Balenciaga Paris, which came out in 2010. For the new project, executives from fragrance licensee Coty Inc. asked him to pick out part of his Balenciaga fashion and have a young consumer in mind. In 2008, Ghesquière had created a collection involving “nice” and “nasty” flowers. The idea evolved into taking a sampling from that garden.

“It’s more narrative, kind of a fantasy,” he said. “So when I thought about the fragrance and the character that would visit that garden, I thought Kristen could be the perfect beauty and the perfect personality to represent that.”

Ghesquière said Stewart is full of dualities — gorgeous and boyish — for instance.

He described the Florabotanica flacon as being like a laboratory bottle into which the striped tube can be dipped to cull the botanical garden’s extract. Similarly, the scent’s invented name is meant to have both a scientific and natural ring.

Florabotanica’s juice was created with International Flavors & Fragrances perfumers Olivier Polge and Jean-Christophe Hérault. It includes a vetiver, amber and caladium-leaf accord, and a (hybrid) rose, carnation and mint accord.

The advertising photo shoot set was decorated with 3-D metal sculptures looking like elements of a floral print Ghesquière made a couple of years ago.

“It’s the reality that looks artificial,” said Ghesquière. “I think it was quite interesting.”

In the print campaign photographed by Steven Meisel, Stewart — wearing a dress from the flower collection — stands fairly straight-legged, with her hands in her pockets.

“I think that’s kind of perfect for this particular ad. Usually, a fragrance ad would definitely be like,” said Stewart, striking an exaggerated, sexy lounge pose on the couch. “When I first stood there, I was like, ‘OK, do you want me to show the curves of the dress? Do you want me to stand like this? Like that?’ And they were like, ‘Just be comfortable.’ ”

There was no role-playing.

“I find when you do a really good photo shoot, you’ve unlocked something that you didn’t necessarily know you had in you,” said Stewart. “There are qualities that certain clothes, or certain environments and certain people, bring to the surface that can be surprising. But that doesn’t mean that they’re not authentic.”

Stewart confessed she has never really thought about her fashion style or traced a specific influence for it.

“I think the hottest chick that’s ever walked the earth is Brigitte Bardot, and I couldn’t be more different from her,” said Stewart. “So my style icons and stuff, even if I look up to them and think they’re really cool, I don’t think [they find their] way into my own sense of fashion.”

Stewart enjoyed what she wore in “On the Road.”

“Everything…was delicately chosen,” said Stewart. “Danny Glicker designed that movie.”

Up next, actingwise, is a leading role in “Cali,” directed by Nick Cassavetes. She explained it’s about a couple “in the valley that gets involved with really strange people, really screw themselves over and become alienated, reinsert themselves into that world and try to survive. It’s really ‘Grindhouse’-y — extreme in every way.”

To physically prepare for the part, Stewart will become tan and make her hair blonde.

“I’m going to get into the best shape of my life,” she said. “I’m going to look like a stripper. I’m going to look like a porn star.”

Stewart will also try to climb into the character’s psyche.

“If you don’t know why someone is the way that they are, then you’re just playing a caricature of a girl,” she explained. “So if an emotional scene comes up or something, I never want to lie. I don’t want to think about my cat dying when I was younger.”

For her, acting is all about self-discovery.

“A lot of times, you’ll read a script and you can identify with things that are very surprising, things that kind of shock you about yourself. And the process of making the movie is finding out why those feelings occurred,” said Stewart. “Sometimes they’re not always easy to define.”

It’s a good thing she isn’t sick of Bella yet, as Stewart has two more films to complete in the series. The 20-year-old spoke with us about splitting the last book into two parts, taking on “On the Road,” and the madness of the MTV Movie Awards.

Are you excited about stretching the last book, “Breaking Dawn,” over two movies?

I’m excited. The fans are going to love it because we’re going to have the time to tell the whole story. What happens when you try to cram such a long story into an hour and a half, the first things that are skimmed off the top are the things I love the most, which are details and the little things that make the characters who they are.

Besides “Breaking Dawn,” you’re soon filming “On the Road.”

It’s finally getting made, which is really a miracle. I can’t believe I’m this age at this time when it finally gets made. Somebody the other day was like, “There’s really no plot.” I was like, “What the f— are you talking about?” There is such a line, and with every single character. I wrote a paper on that, and told [director] Walter Salles about it in a meeting that I had with him. I was like, “It’s not very smart, but you should read it, because you can tell that I really love it.” I mean, I was in the eighth grade.

“Twilight” had a good run at the MTV Awards, didn’t it?

I know. It feels weird. There are other movies that are really good every year, and because of our fan base, we’re going to win the [votes]. I hope there’s not too much resentment. [Rob and I] felt like f—ing king and queen of the prom. I never went to high school, so it was like, “Oh, this is what it’s like.”

You and Robert Pattinson won the Best Kiss category, but who were you rooting for: you and Rob or you and Dakota Fanning for “The Runaways”?

I would’ve been really proud if me and Dakota had won. Had she been there, I would’ve done the whole build-up that me and Rob did last year, and then just stop and say, “This just doesn’t feel right. Dakota, where are you?” That would’ve been so funny.

With a the evil vampire Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard) and a Newborn Army (led by Xavier Samuel) after her, Bella Swan struggles to get her love, vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), and his family, to work with her best friend, werewolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), and his Pack, to protect her and keep all of them safe from the Volturi (which includes Dakota Fanning).

At a press conference to promote the upcoming release of the film, actress Kristen Stewart talked about her love for acting, the journey of Bella Swan and why she’s happy that Breaking Dawn will be shot in two parts.


Q: What drives you to succeed?

Kristen: Success is always something completely different to people. I feel like I’ve succeeded, if I’m doing something that makes me happy and I’m not lying to anybody. I’m not doing that now, so I feel really good about myself. I don’t know. That’s a tough one. I really, specifically, love acting, and I think it’s a really cool thing to be really indulgent and follow that. I have a lot of ambitions in life, but for the next few years, I just want to be an actor. That’s a lucky opportunity, and that drives me to want to be good at that.

Q: You’re in the middle of this journey with Bella Swan. Do you worry that it’s taking over your persona? The Runaways was a great film, but it wasn’t a hit, like the Twilight movies. How do you feel about your life and career versus Bella?

Kristen: This is a really unique situation. I get to play Bella for a really long time, and that’s also a serious indulgence and something that’s really lucky because I feel really sad when I lose a character at the end of a short shoot, which is typically six weeks on a small movie. That’s what I’m used to. It’s obviously the one role that’s put me in this epic position, but it’s just another movie. It doesn’t matter if you’re doing a studio movie or you’re doing an independent movie. When you get to set and you’re doing a scene, it’s always going to be the same job. I really don’t think about my career, in terms of planning it out and what this does for me. This was a part that I just really wanted to play and, luckily, I got to do it for a really long time

Q: In this film, Bella has to make a decision. Did you feel like that was a big challenge?

Kristen: Yeah. There’s definitely the conflict, in that she’s pushed to the point where the decision needs to be made in this one. What’s cool is that things change and, as certain as she is sometimes, and as absolutely gung-ho, young, courageous and brave as she is, she’s also willing to take a step back and go, “Okay, I’m going to reconsider my options and reconsider how I’m treating everybody.” She acknowledges that she’s being a little bit selfish. She makes the choice. I feel like the choice has been made. As soon she sees Edward in the first film, it’s done, but it’s hard for her to get to point where everyone is going to accept that, and this is the film that it happens in.

Q: Was there one scene that was really challenging for you? How difficult was the action?

Kristen: The action is absolutely everybody else’s responsibility. I just stand behind the people who are stronger than me. I didn’t get to run around as much as I did in the second movie, so the action wasn’t difficult. One of the most challenging scenes would probably be kissing Jacob for real, finally for the first time, and seeing that there was a different road to go down that was desirable as well. She’s got such tunnel vision that Edward is the only thing for her. That’s a strange perspective. Then, I have to go in and talk to Edward about it, and it’s such a different dynamic than we’ve ever had. It was a different Bella. I had never had to play somebody who would’ve done stuff like that, so that was hard, and I was nervous as hell.

Q: Because of the kiss?

Kristen: Just because of that moment and how different that kiss is to all of the rest of them, in that movie. It is the most unique moment. It’s also a mistake, and I always say that Bella makes a lot of mistakes and she’s willing to own them. I think it’s cool to see her a little bit ashamed and, at the same time, scared.

Q: Some suggest that the success of these movies has to do with forbidden love, in loving a vampire, mixed with traditional family values. What do you think?

Kristen: I think that, if you took out all the mythical aspects of the story, that it would still stand as a really strong and interesting thing to be a part of. I think the whole vampire and werewolf thing are really good plot devices. All of the aspects of the vampire and werewolf are fully encompassed by the humans, by Jacob and Edward. If all of that was gone, they would still be the same people. I don’t think it’s a big phenomenon because of the mythical vampire aspect. It definitely takes a good story and it raises the stakes and makes it a little bit more interesting, but I think it’s just about how whole the characters are and how easy it is to have faith in them and be addicted to them. They let you down a lot and then pick themselves back up. I don’t think it has anything to do with the vampire thing. I think that just makes it a little cooler.

Q: Can you talk about working with David Slade? Was there anything you had to adjust in your style of acting to compliment his filmmaking, especially with all the close-ups he did?

Kristen: No. We’ve worked with the same D.P. for New Moon and Eclipse and I always ask him, “Hey, how close are you?” That’s something that David does intentionally. He doesn’t tell you stuff like that, which I completely understand because most actors are crazy and neurotic and don’t want to know the camera is up their nose. I didn’t do anything differently, though. You have to change a little bit, every time that you work with a new director, but it’s cool working with someone different on each one of these. I had to introduce my character to David. He met Bella through me. It was cool to let a new person into the fold. It was fun.

Q: Now that you’ve done three of these films, are there things that you wish had made into the movie from the book that didn’t?

Kristen: Yeah, totally. There are a million things. Every single time we watch one of the movies, especially when the cast watches it together, it’s always an incredibly frustrating experience. That’s why I’m glad that Breaking Dawn is going to be two movies, which I can finally say. There’s going to be less of having to lose stuff. I know you want specific things, but I can’t think of one now.

Q: Is there a scene in Breaking Dawn that you hope makes the movie?

Kristen: There are a million and we haven’t even shot it yet. I can’t wait to get married and have a kid. It’s all of that. It’s going to be crazy.

Q: What are your favorite and least favorite character traits that Bella has?

Kristen: I really don’t have one that’s my least favorite because, as much as she can be all the things that annoy me about her, there are the things that I like about her. She always comes around and realizes that she can be a little selfish. She’s definitely not naggy, but she tries so hard not to be sometimes. Sometimes I think, “Why don’t you just let yourself be?” I think she picks at herself too much, but I can relate to that. I always say my favorite thing about her is that she screws up a lot and doesn’t care, and is like, “This is the way that life is. I’m young and I’m going on with it.”

Q: In the film, Bella has an awkward conversation about the birds and bees with her father. Was that something that you had to deal with, in real life?

Kristen: No. I knew everything, from word go. I was really mature, that way. No. I probably had that moment. I guess that everybody does. I never had “the talk.” I could never have “the talk.” I didn’t need it.

Q: Bella doesn’t believe in marriage. Do you?

Kristen: Yeah, sure. Whatever you want to do. I’m not ready to get married, but I have a pretty great family and I’d like that too, someday.

Q: In the tent scene, you have two gorgeous guys talking passionately about you. What was going through your head during that. Were you trying not to laugh?

Kristen: It was so hot in that sleeping bag, and the takes were so long. That scene is eternal and I have nothing really to do in it, especially when we shot it. We got close-ups on the two guys and then we did mine, which were completely separate. They ran the lines a little bit, but I was playing half-way between being asleep and hearing bits. I couldn’t get my head around hearing that conversation because she’s really not supposed to. David was like, “Let it slip in. Hear a little bit and then fall back asleep.” That was difficult. I just remember it being hot. And, in terms of being between those two guys, I’m always between those two guys. I think it’s really funny that Taylor always has to take his shirt off.

Q: What designer would love to see design Bella’s wedding dress? If you could dream it up, what would it look like?

Kristen: Well, Stephenie [Meyer] is absolutely in charge of that. I’m sure she has really specific ideas. I haven’t really thought about it. But, I feel like Bella would definitely want something really classic and really simple, but beautiful. I have no idea, in terms of designers.

Q: Would it be white?

Kristen: Yeah, or creamy, but definitely classic. She doesn’t want to get married and, because it means so much to Edward and because he has such different sensibilities and values, she’s going to give him everything. I think it’s going to be a really beautiful and monumental wedding because he wants that. Usually, it’s the opposite. Usually, the girl wants it. It’s cute.

Q: Are you the type that rushes headlong into something that you want or are you more deliberate about your choices?

Kristen: I guess it depends on what I’m making a choice about. For work stuff, I do what I feel and I don’t really worry about what it’s going to do afterwards. But, I’m kind of a control freak. I get really freaked out if I don’t know what’s going on and what’s going to happen. I guess I’m a bit of both.

Q: Are either Edward or Jacob really good choices in men? Since they’re both a little obsessive and possessive, are they actually good fantasy choices that young girls should dream about?

Kristen: I don’t know. People always wonder if we should be giving little girls ideas of meeting the perfect man. It’s not something that’s been shoved into their heads. Everyone has that ideal and, especially, little girls have this idea in their head that there is something that could be perfect for them and that they can be better than all the rest of the girls because they’ll have the perfect guy who will never screw them over. Our movie isn’t perfect. None of our characters are perfect, at all. They’re all so completely crazy and messed up, and that’s why they go well together. They don’t make excuses for their weirdness and they accept each other for who they are. On paper, I’m sure that if you were a friend of Bella’s, you’d be telling her, “You better check your boy because he ain’t treating you well.” And, Jacob is a nutcase. If you’re really in love with someone, then it doesn’t matter because that’s such an overpowering feeling and you’re willing to make sacrifices. That’s our whole story.

Q: Have you ever been torn between two guys, like Bella is?

Kristen: It’s hard to actually take details from your personal life and apply them a scene because, as much as you can identify with a feeling, you just get muddled. As soon as you start bringing your own stuff in, it’s like, “No, that’s not right.” You’re playing a different person. You can relate, but you have to leave that stuff at the door. It was hard, for the same reason that it was hard to kiss Jacob, because it was so against everything that she’s always been. To shoot the tent scene felt good because she’s always wanted Jacob and Edward to level with each other, and it’s funny that it takes place while she’s sleeping between them. It was fun for me to shoot. I didn’t have a lot to do, but it was fun because I liked the scene so much. I liked what finally happened in the season, but I wish it wasn’t as hot. I was literally in a beanie, and I was just sweating.

Q: Why would you recommend that someone go see Eclipse?

Kristen: If you’re a fan of the books, obviously I don’t need to give you any clues or reasons why you should go see the movie. But, for someone who hasn’t, I do feel that these movies stand alone. There’s a lot of backstory in each one of them, so you don’t need to see the other ones to understand this one. In this case, it’s a more mature look with the same dynamic. The love triangle is definitely at its height, and it comes to a conclusion as well. It ends here, and that’s been building up, over the whole series. Also, it has more action than the other movies, just because of the story, and we have different vampires, and everyone is trying to kill Bella again, and they all battle and stuff. For non Twilight fans, it definitely is a more dynamic movie.

Q: With Breaking Dawn, would you like to stick to the book and go for an R rating, or do you think it should be toned down?

Kristen: I guess that everybody interprets those things differently. My guess is that it’ll be PG-13. I have no idea, but I guess we’ll all see when it comes out.

Q: How long have you known that Breaking Dawn was going to be two films?

Kristen: I had to hold onto this forever. They’ve been talking about it for a really long time, and we all definitely knew that it was going to be two movies for forever now. It’s been really hard not to say that. We’re all really stoked on that.

Q: How long will the shoot be?

Kristen: The shoot is going to be something like six months. We start in October, and we’re not going to be finished until maybe March or February. I clearly don’t really look at the schedule.

Q: Do you see an opportunity in Breaking Dawn, since it’s going to be two films, to create two interpretations of Bella, pre-vampire and post-vampire?

Kristen: Yeah, actually. I really can’t wait to get into that because I’ve been on the outskirts of what it would feel like to play one of them. I had to think about it a lot, considering that Bella is dating one of them very seriously. It’s been years of dealing with these issues and I’ve thought about it a lot. I can’t wait to actually be it. It’s going to be a trip. It’s going to be weird. She does change a lot. I think she’s going to be the coolest vampire out of all of them. She’s got the greatest power. She’s untouchable. Nothing can touch her, and she can literally protect the whole clan. She’s such a mother, too. I think it’ll be awesome to see how much she’s changed from Twilight, where she’s this 17-year-old kid who really doesn’t care about a whole lot, other than herself. To see her become this matriarch will be really cool.

Q: Do you think all this speculation about you and Rob Pattinson will continue until the series ends?

Kristen: Probably, yeah.

Q: Are you at the point now with Rob where, when you’re doing a very passionate or dramatic scene that, all of a sudden, you just start laughing?

Kristen: That really happens all the time, definitely. More so with me and Taylor because we have so much fun with this stuff and our intimate moments are so few and far between, and weird. We have a little bit more of that. Me and Rob are always so serious because we have those scenes.

Q: So who is the better kisser, Dakota Fanning, Rob Pattinson or Taylor Lautner?

Kristen: Dakota. I’m just going to have to say that because it’s easier.

Q: I think some of the nicest scenes in all these films are the scenes between Bella and her father. What’s it been like to work with Billy Burke?

Kristen: I love working with Billy. He’s just very no BS and, as an actor, that’s what you need. He’s really good at knowing if the scene works or doesn’t work. I think he really understands the dynamic of the Charlie/Bella thing. It’s not a normal father/daughter dynamic. They haven’t known each other very long. She just moved to Forks and, literally, has only a few memories of him as a little kid, but I love the gradual trust thing that happens. He’s really good at that because he doesn’t force it, and it’s never creepy. A lot of times, it gets weird when some guy is playing your dad. It feels weird to you. It feels like they’re forcing sentiment. It’s disgusting, and I never feel that with him. I think he’s great. I love him.

Q: We see Bella really mature in this film, especially choosing to be a vampire, not just for Edward, but for other reasons as well. Can you talk about Bella and how she’s maturing as a woman?

Kristen: She’s definitely making decisions for herself and not just going along with what Edward is saying she should do. People instantly latch onto her being this weak, co-dependent girl that’s just in need all the time with this guy. That’s so not the case. I think if it were to be told from his perspective, that he would be just as vulnerable and needy as her. It’s told from her mind, though, so obviously those things are going to be more inherent. I think she’s definitely owning up to things that have gone down that have been both good and bad. She can reap the benefits from the things that she’s dealt with, in a good way, and also make the relationships in her life stronger, based on the mistakes that she’s made. Everyone in the family is looking at her differently now, like, “Oh, maybe she does know what she wants. Maybe she’s not acting so immature and crazy.”

Q: Can you talk about any other upcoming projects that you have, aside from these movies?

Kristen: I’m playing Marylou in On The Road. It was my first favorite book, and that character is iconic. Walter Salles is directing it. I’m a huge fan of is. I’m doing that right after this press is over. In July, we start a four-week beatnik boot camp. It’s a small movie, so four weeks of rehearsal is crazy cool.

The Runaways is about many things, but perhaps most importantly, it’s about the connection between Joan Jett and Cherie Currie, whose friendship boosted the band into short-lived stardom. Twenty-five years after they first jammed in a cramped trailer in the Valley, Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning—the duo who plays them in Floria Sigismondi’s debut film, out this Friday—are filling their platform shoes, both onscreen and off. We caught up with the duo to learn how they first bonded and whether we can expect a solo album anytime soon.

How did you get into character—especially when it came to singing and performing the songs?
Dakota Fanning: [Singing] was something that I was a little bit nervous about, something that I’ve always been self-conscious about. So I was really excited to do it, because I knew I couldn’t have done it any other way—I just would have felt weird about [lip-synching].
Kristen Stewart: Luckily I had Joan [Jett] on set every day. There’s a lot of stuff on the internet that you can look at, there’s a lot of photos, and there’s a little bit of footage, so we really did need Joan and Cherie there in order not to tell a completely superficial—I would feel like a little doll walking around with black hair, I wouldn’t feel like I was actually playing Joan.

I was just talking to Joan, and she was saying how similar you are in so many ways.
KS: I think she thinks we’re incredibly similar, because I just played her in a movie. It’s so funny, because when we see each other now, I’m pointing out the differences. I’m like, See, I don’t normally do that!

A writer described this film as “cautionary”; do you think of The Runaways in that way?
KS: I think the whole “cautionary tale” thing is really something that only older people look at this movie and say. It’s a success story on both sides; to see two people choose different paths, one of them being really successful, and the other just doing what she needed to do to be happy. [Cherie Currie] clearly knows herself fairly well, it was a really strong bold thing to give up something that you love. They needed to go through that or else they wouldn’t be who they were. It’s not a cautionary tale, it’s not like, “Ohhh…drugs are really scary, kids, don’t get famous and go crazy!” I really don’t think it’s about that at all. If it is, that’s the last thing I was thinking about.

Did you mine any experiences from your teenage years to tap into that angst and aggression?
KS: I have a lot of aggression, it wasn’t hard.
DF: I don’t think I can compare anything I went through to what Cherie went through.
KS: “Mom, I want to go. Please! “
DF: [Laughs] Yeah, I don’t think anything in my life has been as big as the things she’s gone through.

How do you think your fans will respond to your roles in this film?
DF: I think people will think it’s a lot different for me. But I hope people can…I think maybe “accept” is the wrong word—
KS: There are some people who do need to accept it from you, because so many people are like, “Oh, it’s just so weird, Dakota’s so young!” It’s like, Dakota’s the exact same age as Cherie [Currie] was, and there you go.

You have such great chemistry, both onscreen and off. What was it like the first time you met?
DF: We met a few times really briefly.
KS: It was kind of weird. The first few times we met, we were always going by each other, and I was like, This is a big deal, we’re meeting! And she was always like: [Blank stare and fake smile].

Now that you’ve played these music icons, do you have any rock’n’roll aspirations?
DF: Not in real life [laughs].
KS: I really love music, I love playing guitar, but I would have to change a lot in the next few years if I’m ever releasing an album. It’s going to be a very, very transformative few years.

Meanwhile, she’s been busy in a string of smaller films including The Runaways. Stewart co-stars as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning gets the role of lead singer Cherie Currie in the real-life story of the all-girl band that made music history. Parade.com’s Jeanne Wolf discovered why Stewart worked so hard to sing and play the guitar and why, after the third time around, it’s not getting easier to play Bella.
Filling the shoes of a rock icon.
“I think my generation doesn’t really know what The Runaways was. I didn’t, even though I was aware of Joan Jett. She’s a legend, so it was a big deal not only to meet her, but to have her on the set. The main thing that Joan talked about was just how much she cared about that period of her life because it jump-started her entire career. The Runaways was one of the first all-girl bands, so it’s an incredibly triumphant, feminist story. Joan became my friend and I was thinking about all she stood for and going, ‘Oh God, now I have to do her justice.’”

Not doing a Milli Vanilli.
“I was really concerned about getting the music right because The Runaways have a very distinctive sound. It’s not just singing, it’s trying to sound like them. I wasn’t lip-synching. I worked hard to get like that growl that Joan does when she’s performing. I’m not saying that I did it perfectly, but I gave it my best. And I learned to play the guitar because I didn’t want to fake it.”

Meeting Dakota Fanning again in the Twilight zone.
“We really bonded on The Runaways. I’m really looking forward to the three days that she’s probably going to be filming Breaking Dawn. It’s weird to see her in the Twilight setting because it’s usually the same cast of people. But, suddenly, there was Dakota. The first time I saw her in her wardrobe as Jane, on Eclipse, which was not too far after we finished The Runaways, it was bizarre as all hell.”

Her review of Robert Pattinson in Remember Me.
“I think he’s bold and different. It wasn’t an easy character to play. I thought he was really good in it.”

So who inspires these stars? “My mom,” Fanning told us. “She’s my best friend and with me every day from when I started up until now. My mom actually read [the script] first and told me I needed to read it. My parents know this is something I want to do forever, and they understand and support me.”

“I’ve grown up with really strong women, so definitely my mom,” Stewart agreed. “I haven’t had that many role models, but Joan has become one.”

Having the opportunity to actually work with the real people their characters were based on was also an inspiring experience for both of the actresses.

“I guess in a way it’s easier to play characters that are whole and complete, real people,” said Fanning. “You’re not playing this figure or person that somebody make up. You’re actually doing something real. But at the same time, when you know a person, everything changes your perception of it. But as long as they feel real to you, it doesn’t matter if they are or not.”

But singing in front of those “real people”? “It was never something that was easy,” Stewart told us. “You don’t know if you can do something until you do it, and we don’t rehearse a whole lot so it didn’t feel real until it really was the real deal. When we did ‘Cherry Bomb,’ I couldn’t bring myself to hold the guitar right. Joan was there and I thought she was mad at me or something and thinking oh my god, you did horrible. And then it ended up being great.” As for Fanning, “You have the responsibility of singing like Cherie Curie, singing a song like ‘Cherry Bomb’ that’s so iconic to so many people. It was completely intimidating!”

Last night, The Runaways stars–including Stewart, Fanning, Jett, Curie, Michael Shannon, Riley Keough, director Floria Sigismondi–arrived in New York City to celebrate the premiere at Soho’s Sunshine Cinema. Also in attendance: today’s inspiring female celebs, including Kirstie Alley, Victoria’s Secret model Alessandra Ambrosio, Life Unexpected star Shiri Appleby, Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Chloe Sevigny.

The Runaways, starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, hits theatres tomorrow, March 19th. Will you go see it? What female rocker inspires you?

Cinematical: Cherie is trying to find herself throughout the film. I don’t know how much of the film was shot in sequence, but how much of the character did you have defined when you started shooting and how much did your development of the character take place throughout filming?

Dakota Fanning: I think I was pretty prepared before the movie started. Like I spent a lot of time with Cherie and I kind of knew where she was going to end up before I started. I kind of think that’s how movies are for me – I know beforehand what it’s going to be like, and it’s like reliving it again when you’re actually filming it. [But] the only thing that was shot in sequence I think was on my first day of shooting, the first scene of the movie. That was cool, to start out fresh.

Cinematical: Joan seems to just want to make music. Did that single-mindedness make it easy to know how to drive each scene forward?

Kristen Stewart: Well, I mean, yeah, at her core essentially that’s one thing that you notice about Joan, that she’s on a road and she’s got a goal – she’s on a mission. She never forgets that, but it doesn’t consume her; there’s so much more – I mean, the fact that she has that goal is who she is. It’s not just obtaining, you know what I mean? It comes from somewhere, and that’s more rich than just somebody who’s determined.

Cinematical: How much do you intellectualize the process of figuring out how to inject scenes with these themes or through-lines? Is it more important to be present or do you have to figure out the stakes of each scene before you act it out?

Fanning: I think for this one, when you’re playing an actual person, you should probably have it figured out beforehand. That’s how I felt. Because it’s like you’re taking someone’s life in your own hands, and it’s your responsibility to do them justice, especially because this time is so important to both Joan and Cherie. It’s one of the most treasured times of their lives, so I think it was kind of important to figure out before[hand]. One thing that sticks out that I did have to figure out on the day was [when] there’s a scene with me in the corset and I’m on the phone with my sister and Johnny [Lewis], he plays Scottie, he was in the background. I’m on the phone and Marie is saying you’re dad is sick, you need to come home, blah blah blah, and I had to figure out because it’s a very find line because Cherie loved her dad so much, and her sister, and if she had actually really heard them say ‘you need to come home’, she would have come home. So you had to figure out how drugged out is she, and that was a time when I had to figure it out to not make it something that Cherie wouldn’t have done.

Stewart: A number of things draw you to a script. It’s not just like wanting to live out this experience; sometimes it is thematic. But that’s not your job; people that you’re working with can keep that together, and you need to make sure that you do everything you can to do your part. And also, playing another person, I had like a constant resource, so we were never filling in blanks. We were never going, ‘oh, I think maybe at this point, she would be…’ [because] we’d already asked what they were thinking or what that may have meant. Anything that was up for deliberation wasn’t because we had them there, so it was a different experience because it wasn’t creating a new thing. But in terms of intellectualizing acting, you have to do it a little bit, but I feel way more than I think, and I think that’s good for an actor. I mean, even if you have really good ideas about things, you have to sort of think about them and digest them and turn them out so you’re more able to just be there.

Cinematical: It is fair to say we think a lot more about all the tiny little choices you make that you make than you do?

Stewart: I mean, I’m so obsessed with little details, but they’re not conscious. I’m obsessed with like the little things [Dakota] does, and she may not be conscious of what she’s doing, but it’s because she know this person so well. So I’ll be like, oh my God – did you notice that you just did that? And you should never tell an actor that, because they don’t know, but they’re doing it for a reason. Because she’s not Dakota when she’s doing stuff like that, so it’s not like it means nothing. It’s definitely coming from somewhere but hopefully she’s not thinking about it. Because the only reason she’s able to do it is because she’s not thinking about it.

Cinematical: Does over-analysis become an obstacle for you, especially in a day where every aspect of your work and lives is constantly examined and deconstructed?

Stewart: It seems like when it does, it gets in the way, that’s a problem. Because when things are going well, you don’t.

Fanning: I’ve been saying this a lot, but even acting for me is something that when you just know the person [you're playing], I can be thinking about so many other things in my head and doing it because you are that person in that moment. If you think about it, that’s not good.

Cinematical: Do you feel a sense of responsibility or do you need to feel a sense of responsibility to the young viewers that might be seeing this film? How do you make sure that your portrayal of a character is as authentic as possible and yet doesn’t present something that might negatively influence impressionable audiences?

Fanning: I think this is a different thing because it’s a real life, a real story, and this happened. So I don’t know if you can really think about people coming to see it because they’re choosing to come to see something that’s a difficult time in their life, and that’s why there are ratings. I mean, maybe you can think about it when it’s an original screenplay or something, but it’s based on actual events, and if you’re not being authentic to that then you might as well not make the film, I feel like.

Stewart: and if you’re looking at details that make these women bad examples for people, then you’re not going to ever choose the right role model.

Fanning: Well, it’s not about Cherie being a bad person because she does drugs. It’s about seeing that because she did drugs, she saw that she was becoming a bad person and she made the choice to not be that bad person by leaving the band, and now she is who she is today. So if you can’t realize that then maybe you shouldn’t be seeing the movie.

Stewart: Plus, actors as role models, I think a lot of girls have role models that they don’t want to emulate specifically, but just that they are who they are. I mean, I really admire Joan for being who she is and not making excuses for it, but I don’t want to wear leather all day, know what I mean? So I think just who she is essentially is something to look up to, and not everyone is completely perfect.

Fanning: I also think sometimes it’s different with actors because I think you’re more of a role model in your real life as opposed to who you’re playing.

Stewart: Who you play! Yeah, exactly.

Cinematical: Ultimately why do you think this story is important, and why was it important for this story to be told now?

Stewart: I think this would always be sort of topical just because, for one thing, I didn’t know about The Runaways, neither did Dakota, and I don’t think a lot of people our age do. Why is it relevant right now? Because, well, I was really inspired by it; we don’t face the things that they faced at that time, so to know that things are a little different now. So to know that maybe they were a help in that is an interesting thing, and just to see a different perspective on an adolescent girl’s life is probably interesting for any young girl. And, people that age then are now 50, Joan’s age, and it’s cool for them to see that too so that now people who watch movies can see their childhood or whatever on screen.

What made you want to play this part?
Kristen: When I read the script it was one of those things that you get really excited about and then instantly really sick because you’re not sure that you’ve got the part. I was sort of undeniably emotionally moved by it and I think just regarding the person that I played, she makes such a comeback. I feel like in the beginning she’s so clearly disappointed in everything around her and that first time you see her she’s rejected and that’s what she’s running from.

Can you identify with the whole teenage runaway attitude that you have in the film?
Kristen: I feel like [running away] was so not thought out. It’s a pretty courageous thing to do to get in that car. And especially for a young girl, it can be considered silly. But I can identify with her in that she is doing something that is dangerous but that will ultimately be absolutely worth it. I can absolutely relate to that.

You guys must have spent a lot of time in the car. Any funny stories from filming?

Eddie: [For the scene] when we hit the [deer], we had a load of crew in the back with lights and all this stuff. And I had to do this screeching break as we hit this thing and I was like, “Be careful because I am screeching this car…”

Kristen: Again and again you said it.

Eddie: “…It’s gonna be quite a jolt when we stop.” And they said “No problem, man, no problem.” And we did the scene and they cut to me and I break the car and I scream and this guy got all bruised out of the back! And I’m like, “I told you man, I told you.”

Kristen, your character is into ballet in the movie. Did you have to take any ballet classes to prepare?

Kristen: Yeah. Something that was initially really daunting about the character was that she loved to dance and that she really used her physicality as a means of control and power. Before I did this movie I don’t think I did a two-step. So I took some ballet lessons from these really hardcore ballerinas, but what I always thought about the character was that she wasn’t really one to take a class. She sort of was like, “I really wanna do that.” So then I didn’t have to say that I was a trained ballerina, which I would never ever be able to accomplish in the two weeks that we had before we started shooting.

Eddie: Remember how obsessed you became with your dance shoes, though? Jazz pumps. You became obsessed.

Kristen: I have like, 16 pairs of these little white Capezios.

Eddie’s character plays around with a disposable camera in the movie. Did you keep any souvenirs of the photos you took?

Eddie: We did, actually. The photos used in the scrapbook in the movie are ones we took of Kristen doing her dance.

Your characters are cut off from the outside world once Kristen’s phone dies. Do you ever turn off your cell phones just to see what happens?

Kristen: I always turn my phone off and really infuriate a lot of people.

In the movie, a big storm hits and it’s rainy and gloomy for a while. Have you ever lived in that kind of climate?

Kristen: I haven’t had crazy weather… Wait a second — what am I talking about? I just made three films in the Pacific Northwest. I know the depression that is the cold west.

So does the dark weather really mess with your mood?

Kristen: Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s sort of undeniable. If you’re cold for three months and you’re always trying to stay dry…

Eddie: It’s interesting, though. In London we used to have horrific weather. But when I came to LA, the expectation is for continual sunshine. You expect it to be the perfect Hollywood dream and when it’s not, it can be mildly depressing.

Have you learned anything interesting about each other since you spent so much time together?

Kristen: There’s nothing interesting to learn about this guy.

Eddie: There’s nothing interesting to learn about her.

The Yellow Handkerchief also stars William Hurt and Maria Bello in a romance/road trip movie that also serves as a love letter to the state of Louisiana.

Three characters — Stewart’s Martine, Hurt’s Brett and British actor Eddie Redmayne’s Gordy — head out on a journey upon which each is seeking to run away or to something redeeming.

SheKnows: The film was shot years ago, what is it like to think back to a film set before the Twilight phenomenon?

Kristen Stewart: Anytime you play someone who is not yourself, you’re stepping out of your comfort zone. That’s sort of what we do, and if the role is bigger, that is more to chew on and that’s always good (laughs).

SheKnows: Arthur Cohn serves as producer. As a winner of many Oscars, what did you take away from the Arthur Cohn experience?

Kristen Stewart: He has such a faith in the material. It’s a very old school sense of, “I’m the producer and I’m going to take care of everybody and the most important thing here is the movie and the performances.” And… chocolate (laughs)!

SheKnows: Loves his chocolate… now speaking of guys, perhaps not so valiant as Arthur Cohn, the men in your character’s life in The Yellow Handkerchief are hardly model citizens. What do you think it was about the character of Gordy that you believe made Martine fall in love with him?

Kristen Stewart: She wouldn’t have needed to be won over if she had just opened her eyes and not been so affected by the other guys who had hurt her. I think that she’s the type of girl who really wants to let her face hang out. Every time she does that or puts herself out there, she gets disappointed by people. I think the journey that they take, for me, the thing that made me see Martine fall for him was how Brett (Hurt) looks at him. It’s about a girl who is dropping prejudices that she didn’t know she had.

SheKnows: What was it like for you as a young actor to work with such a professional thespian as William Hurt?

Kristen Stewart: He is absolutely the most attentive, hard-working actor I’ve ever worked with and I say that about actors I like to work with, I say that about a lot of people, oh, they’re really hard working, I really appreciate them. But, he is absolutely, you don’t know more than him. Regarding a story, he makes you work so much harder to understand the movie. I would not have understood this movie as much as I do, I would have a completely different impression, I’m sure.

SheKnows: In the film, there’s three of you in a journey, but Maria Bello’s character hangs over the convertible like a ghost, but also, the geography is truly a fifth character. How do you see your character?

Kristen Stewart: My character was so sensitive and so explosive, just like…you would never expect from this tiny little thing so much…what is wrong with you? Her problems are so completely far away from anything that he could understand, it’s like opposite sides of a magnet that just (her voice gets louder) flip over!

SheKnows: The scene where you and Eddie Redmayne kiss, is the moment of the movie. Was there any, “Oh, my God” moments before filming?

Kristen Stewart: That was what I was most intimidated by technically speaking. Literally, I start from being completely, she’s so explosive and so emotional and so raw in that moment. It was a very defining moment for her. If you do that wrong, if it seems out of no where, if I seem like an explosive weird emotional girl for no reason, arbitrarily, that was what I was nervous about. The characters were drawn so wholly and completely that if we didn’t’ play them that way, it wouldn’t have made sense. But, the last scene of the movie, that was what I was really putting everything into because it was written differently.

SheKnows: Really…

Kristen Stewart: When we got there, we didn’t have a whole lot of time to shoot. It was raining. It was like, “OK, we have 10 minutes to get this right.” Everything with her is so thin skinned, she feels everything so much. That moment when it all comes to fruition, it’s everything.

SheKnows: It is a road trip movie, but The Yellow Handkerchief was filmed in over 40 locations. Did that ever wear on you?

Kristen Stewart: It was cool because it was a road trip movie. It felt like we were on that.

SheKnows: The shoot was in and around New Orleans and after Katrina, but did you get to get out into the city of New Orleans at all and discover it’s magic?

Kristen Stewart: I was 17 when we shot this movie. I didn’t really get to… I love New Orleans. I’ve been there since. But, I’m still underage. New Orleans is such a “going out” town — just walking around is awesome. It’s an amazing place to be and you go see great music. Well, you can stand outside the club (laughs).

At her side in the film is a very cute Brit actor named Eddie Redmayne (of The Other Boleyn Girl) who was surprised to be cast as a quirky, vagabond young American guy from Oklahoma!

These two share a few kisses in the film and were both nervous and anxious to do their “getting-to-know-you” scenes justice. We wanted to know which scenes intimidated Kristen and what she learned from bigtime actor William Hurt on the project.

Why were she and Eddie worried about their final kiss in the movie? You’ll find out.

Kristen told us that she didn’t get to party in New Orleans because she was very underage (you might feel her pain).

We think Kristen is as sensitive as the character she plays in the film. When she talks about her teen character Martine, is she sort of talking about herself? Check out what else we learned about acting and this touching road trip movie from Kristen and her cute co-star!

Q: This was probably your first big lead role in a film. Was that an adjustment to play the lead at that time?

Kristen: Anytime you have to play a person who is not yourself, you’re stepping out of a comfort zone but that’s what we do and if the role is bigger that’s just more to chew on and that’s always good.

Eddie: There is more of a sense of responsibility. What was great about this film is that it’s an ensemble piece in the sense that it really is about the four of us, I’m certain Kristen and I felt in incredibly safe hands having William (Hurt) and Maria (Bello) around us and because of the intensity of the film, having three of us in a car for three months shooting, we ended up being close as a trio which is wonderful because any fears or problems you have, you have the other two to turn to.

Q: Kristen, your character Martine has bad luck with guys. Her dad has a new girlfriend and is sort of ignoring her and a guy at the first of the film kind of dumps her. So, what do you think it was about Eddie’s character Gordy than finally won her over?

Kristen: I think she probably wouldn’t have needed to be won over had she just opened her eyes and not been so affected by the other guys who had hurt her. I think that she’s the type of girl who really wants to let her face hang out and every time she does that or puts herself out there, she get embarrassed or disappointed by people. I think the journey that they take, there are a lot of revelatory things that happen. For me, what really made Martine re-evaluate him was how Brett (the Hurt character) looked at him and moreso, there’s this thing that happens; we hit a deer with the car and he does this thing and she has this…. (pausing)

Eddie: Emotional reaction to it.

Kristen: Yeah. There you go. And, he helps me earlier as well. It’s about a girl who is dropping prejudices as well that she really didn’t know she had. She’s becoming more open to people. She was very closed off in the beginning and realizes ‘I don’t want to be like that actually at all’.

Eddie: A lot of the film is about prejudice, pre-judgment.

Kristen: Yeah.

Eddie: And that’s what I love about it. Even though these characters have been prejudiced against, they also have their own prejudices and that’s what’s kind of overwhelming about all of it.

It’s about everyone dropping their guard and seeing people for who they really are beneath the veneer. Whether it’s the eccentric quality of Gordy or the self-guardedness of Martine or just the holding back of the Brett character, it’s about seeing through that translucency and finding something real.

Q: Eddie, how much a fish out of water did you feel when you started this movie and when did it click in and you felt a part of the movie and America?

Eddie: That’s a wonderful question. The truth of the matter is, when I got sent the script and asked to audition for it, I thought it was madness, I thought it was absurd and I said ‘really? Go to New York and audition for this? Guys, it’s never gonna happen’ (Kristen is laughing). ‘It’s playing an adopted Native American from northern Oklahoma. Do you really think it’s gonna happen?’ (laughter).

I’d never gone to an audition caring less because I didn’t think I had a snowball’s chance in Hell and I went in five minutes, threw this ridiculous audition down, left the room not caring what was going on ‘I’ll never hear back from that’. And, when it did happen, Udayan (Prasad) the director, coaxed me into it.

On set one of our first days, I was terrified. I’d done lots of work with a dialect coach and done some research but it was like ‘right, f**k it! Here goes!’ (laughter) It was a deep breath and I was well aware that I could end up with egg on my face. But ‘why not give it a shot’. (we think he was wonderful in the movie).

Q: Did either of you have a particularly challenging scene or one that you were either not looking forward to or wanted to get to so badly that you couldn’t wait?

Eddie: I had one scene when we’re in the motel and it’s pouring with rain outside and we kiss. I got to kiss her for the first time and (I say), ‘If I kiss you, then all the temptation will go away’ and she’s like ‘really?’

Kristen: And she’s like, ‘really’? (laughter)

Eddie: It’ll go away? But it was only because the producer kept saying ‘this is the scene’ and I’m like ‘This is the scene? How much can my eyes do in this scene to make it work?’

Kristen: That really was ‘the scene’ too. It was really a big deal, especially the way it was written. My character was so explosive and so sensitive and just like (frustrated breath). You would never expect from this tiny little thing, so much. Like (her saying) ‘what is wrong with you?’

Her problems are so far away from anything that he could understand. You have these two things like opposite sides of a magnet that just ‘flip them over!’ You know what I mean?

Eddie: On stage you could have an hour to build up to that explosion whereas when you’re filming on set, Kristen has to wipe away the tears. ‘Cut! Sorry the focus was wrong. Cut! And go again, ‘stop!’ It completely cools her freaking out and it’s tricky. It’s just different.

Kristen: And even watching this, I’d already seen the movie once but I’m like ‘bluh (negative?) okay’.

Q: So that would be your scene too?

Kristen: That was what I was most intimidated by just technically speaking in that she’s so explosive in that scene and so emotional and so raw in that moment and you don’t know her yet very well. It was a very defining moment for her. If you do that wrong, if it seems out of nowhere, if I seem like an explosive, weird, emotional girl for no reason arbitrarily, that’s what I was nervous about.

The characters were drawn so wholly and completely that, if we didn’t play them that way, it would not have made sense. It would have been like ‘this is a bit of a random story’ because it’s so quaint. It’s not like all these plot events happen so all of the little character things….

Eddie: What’s unspoken.

Kristen: Yeah, yeah. So I was nervous about that but the last scene of the movie is what I really was putting everything in. It was written differently as well. We were in a car and they went further. They drove away and wanted to come back and see something.

We got there and didn’t have a whole lot of time to shoot and it was raining and it was like ‘okay, we’ve got ten minutes to get this’. The way it was written, she was so emotional. Everything effects her. She’s thin-skinned and feels everything so much and that moment where everything comes to fruition, she’s deeply affected.

Eddie: And there is an ambiguity to that. It’s not ‘oh, they lived happily ever after’. I think it worked in the film where we are there and we watch them (Hurt and Bello) together but we’re not comfortable yet together.

Kristen: At all! It’s not we’re together now and they’re together. It’s like we’re parents looking at our kids (kissing and) going ‘awww’.

Eddie: You’re right. It’s so much in the script. We both read the script and reacted incredibly emotionally to it. But, there is so much on the set. That’s why it’s both a dream for actors and a challenge for actors, this film, because it’s about filling in the spaces and making the people who are idiosyncratic people feel real.

That last moment, if we had played it slightly close together (he pulls her closer), it would have told a completely different story for the ending.

Q: What was it like for you, as young actors working with cool, experienced actor William Hurt?

Kristen: Yeah, we’ve been talking about that all day. He’s absolutely the most attentive hardworking actor I’ve ever worked with. I say that a lot about actors that I Iike to work with. I say that about a lot of people ‘oh they’re really hard-working. I really appreciate them’ but he is absolutely, you don’t know more than him.

But, regarding the story, he just makes you work so much harder to understand. I wouldn’t understand this movie as I do if it wasn’t for him. I’d have a completely different impression I’m sure.

Eddie: He would have us in his trailer reading a book of short stories about the South. It was so important to him that a fifth character in the piece was Louisiana about getting under the skin of what that place was about. It was never-ending, his commitment to it. A lot of people including myself, when I started doing films, see people turning up at premieres in fancy dresses and say ‘oh, these actors swan from one thing to another’ but I’ve never seen someone work with such continual commitment that, for both of us, it raised our game, no question.

Q: Any particular example of how he helped you guys?

Eddie: Not only would he help us, but there were three of us in a car and in one scene, just after a fight has broken out at this store, William drives off the car quickly and it’s the first time that Gordy breaks and says ‘I can’t deal with this’ and Kristen and I sat in the back of the car having this conversation and William is driving, he kept giving us ideas.

Kristen: And he didn’t look back, he just kept driving (she indicates him holding the steering wheel staring straight ahead) (laughter).

Eddie: And there’s also a risk on film, you feel like you have to underplay things and he was like ‘go for it’. He gave us the balls to go for it and to lose fear. Yeah, we learned a lot.

Q: How big a challenge was 43 different locations?

Eddie: We were all over the place.

Kristen: Yeah. We were everywhere. It was cool though because it was a road trip movie so we felt like we were on that a little bit.

Eddie: And the continuity was the car so we had this thing that did become part of us.

Kristen: That’s such a cool idea.

Eddie: And what’s lovely is often, on film, you have hundreds of different people coming in doing various things and camera angles but because there were three of us geographically confined by the space of the car it meant that people had to kind of stay out. It was the actors so we could work together.

Q: Did either of you get to go have fun in New Orleans at all or were you busy shooting every day.

Kristen: I think I was 17 but, if I was, I was freshly 17. I’d just turned 17 so I didn’t really go out. I love New Orleans and I’ve worked there since…also underage. I’m sooo underage and New Orleans is such a ‘going out’ town that just walking around is awesome.

It’s an amazing place to be. You can go see music but you have to stand outside the club and be like (she looks sad), oh great. (laughter).

Eddie: Awwww

You were awesome in the movie. So believable.

Kristen: (smiles) Oh, thank you!

At the press day for the film, Kristen Stewart talked about what drew her to this smaller, independent film. She also gave an update on her own feeling about whether Breaking Dawn, the final book in the Twilight Saga, should be split into two films, how excited she is about the March release of The Runaways and her hopes to make the drama K-11 with her mother at the helm.

Q: What was it like to play this character, when you hadn’t done too many major roles, at the time you did this film?

Kristen: Anytime you have to play a person who is not yourself, you’re stepping out of a comfort zone, but that’s what we do. If the role is bigger, that’s just more to chew on, and that’s always good.

Q: What about Martine resonated for you?

Kristen: I can relate to her, in that she’s such the typical girl that really wants to be out there and smiling and totally in the middle of whatever is going on, but has been embarrassed one too many times and has just gone, “I can’t do that anymore.” I feel like she’s also isolated herself. She’s put herself above everyone else. She can’t talk to people because they’ve let her down too many times and, in reacting to that, she made herself better than them. And, through this journey, which is such a cool thing to see such a young person go through, she realizes, “Oh, God, I never looked at you and now I’m opening my eyes and I can see you, and I was wrong.” I liked that.

Q: Did you know this film was based on a Japanese film, and did you see that original film?

Kristen: I knew it was based on a Japanese original, but didn’t watch it because apparently it was just starkly different. It was just a different movie completely.

Q: What was producer Arthur Cohn’s involvement with the film?

Kristen: He had such a faith in the material. He has a very old school sense of, “I’m the producer and I’m going to take care of everybody, and the most important thing here is the movie, the performances, and chocolate and watches.”

Q: Your character doesn’t have any luck with guys, from her father who leaves to the guy who dumps her at the beginning of the film. What was it about Gordy (Eddie Redmayne) that you think appealed to Martine?

Kristen: She probably wouldn’t have needed to be won over, had she just opened her eyes and not been so affected by the other guys who had hurt her. She’s the type of girl who really wants to let herself hang out. Every time she does that or puts herself out there, she gets disappointed by people. The journey that they take, a lot of revelatory things happen.

For me, what made Martine re-evaluate Gordy was how Brett (William Hurt) looked at him. And then, there’s this thing that happens when we hit a deer and he had this really emotional reaction to the deer. He helps her out earlier as well. She’s dropping prejudices that she didn’t really know that she had. She’s becoming more open to people. She’s very closed off, in the beginning, and realizes that she doesn’t actually want to be like that at all.

Q: As a young actor, what was it like to work with someone like William Hurt?

Kristen: He is absolutely the most attentive, hard-working actor I’ve ever worked with. I say that about actors that I like to work with. I say, “Oh, they’re really hard-working, I really appreciate them,” about a lot of people, but you don’t know more than him about basically everything. Regarding the story, he just makes you work so much harder to understand things. I wouldn’t understand this movie as I do, if it wasn’t for him. I would have a completely different impression, I’m sure.

Q: Were there any particular scenes in this that stood out for you?

Kristen: That scene where we first kiss was THE scene. It was a really big deal, especially the way it was written. My character was so explosive and so sensitive. You would never expect so much from this tiny little thing. It was like, “What is wrong with you?” And, her problems are so completely far away from anything Gordy could ever understand. It’s like opposite sides of a magnet. I can’t even watch that scene.

That was what I was most intimidated by, technically speaking. She’s so explosive and emotional in that scene, and so raw in that moment, and you don’t know her very well yet. It was a very defining moment for her, so I was nervous about doing that wrong and having it seem out of nowhere. I didn’t want her to seem like an arbitrarily weird, emotional girl, for no reason.

The characters were drawn so wholly and completely that, if we didn’t play them that way, they wouldn’t have made sense. It would have been a bit of a random story because it’s so quaint. It’s not like all these plot events happen. So, all these little character things are unspoken. I was nervous about that. But, the last scene of the movie was what I really put everything into because it was written differently as well. We got there and we didn’t have a whole lot of time to shoot. It was raining and they were like, “Okay, we have 10 minutes to get this.” The way it was written, she was so emotional. Everything affects her. She has such thin skin and feels everything so much. That moment where everything comes to fruition, it needs to be effective.

Q: Have accents always come easy for you?

Kristen: I had to go to school for it, so they could break it down. There’s 15 accents, just within Louisiana. And then, you can fall back on it.

Q: What was it like to shoot in so many different locations?

Kristen: We were everywhere. But, it was cool though because it’s a road trip movie, so we felt like we were on that a little bit. The set just went around everywhere.

Q: Did you get to have any fun in New Orleans at all, or where you working too much?

Kristen: We shot in the summer, so I had just turned 17. I love New Orleans. I’ve worked there since, also underage. I’m still underage. New Orleans is such a going-out town, but just walking around is awesome. It’s an amazing place to be. I can go see music, but I have to stand outside the club and be like, “That’s really great.”

Q: Is there anything about New Orleans that you specifically enjoyed?

Kristen: I liked petting the mules that walked around Jackson Street. They were like, “Come on, take a ride!,” and I was like, “No way!” I just wanted to pet them. I wasn’t going to be dragged around by this thing.

Q: When you have the opportunity to take a road trip yourself, do they become profound journeys of self-discovery?

Kristen: The only road trip that I’ve ever taken was back from Portland. When I was up there doing Twilight, I bought a little truck and drove home. It wasn’t the most transformative experience, but it was fun. It gave me a sense of freedom. I was going away from something that was a rather intense experience.

Q: Because you spend huge amounts of time away from home, when you go somewhere on location, do you try to make it more like home or do you really drown yourself in the lifestyle, wherever you’re at?

Kristen: I try to do that. I know actors who go on location and make their trailer like their home. They literally put pictures up and stuff. I don’t do that. I really like being where I am. You’re made to pretend that you actually live there.

Q: Since you have your pick right now, what attracts you to a role? What do you look for when you get a script these days?

Kristen: As much as you can say, “I’d like to do this because it’s different from what I’ve done before,” I can’t really plan things out like that. Despite whether or not a character fits my description and the script is good, what actually drives me to do something like this, which is a really bizarre thing, if you think about it, is more than just to be in a movie. It has to speak to me, in some way, and that’s always hard to describe. I don’t know what I want to do. And, this is the first time I don’t have my next job lined up. I have a totally clean horizon and that’s actually pretty exciting.

Q: Is that a scary place to be, not knowing what you’re going to do next, in a business that’s so unpredictable?

Kristen: To be honest, you don’t look at scripts that are very clearly just framework and they just want to put a dollar sign in the picture frame, but that’s so obvious. I only want to do work that I find to be moving, and that’s something that I can’t be specific about. I’m totally lucky and I can’t believe that I have more opportunity than I’ve ever had. It’s awesome.

Q: You did this film before the Twilight films. Would you have approached things differently, now that you have this international profile?

Kristen: I guess because I don’t hold the reins, I really follow my heart. It would really be a shame that just because I did one movie, and I know it’s four or five films, but it’s one story and one project for me because it’s the same character, it would affect choices that I make. I don’t have this scheme for how people are going to receive my movies, in the order that I do them, and why I do scary movies or movies about disaffected teens, which I get all the time. They’re just people that I really wanted to play. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. I’m just playing parts that speak to me.

Q: Do you follow your heart when you’re acting as well?

Kristen: Yeah. You get hired on a job and I had had roles in movies before, that I took really seriously and really liked, and I learned that, if I was a fairly impulsive actor or I felt something, I didn’t need to sit down and go, “Okay, this is why,” and it helps so much. I understand the story so much more because of that.

Q: What are your feelings on Breaking Dawn? Do you think they’re going to do two films? Do you know when that will happen?

Kristen: Probably in November, but I don’t know if it’s going to be one or two films.

Q: Are you contracted for two movies, or are you contracted for one?

Kristen: I don’t know, actually. I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t want to do two films. The story so completely warrants two films, and it would be really disappointing to have to lose a bunch of the story. I would like to do it as two movies, but to be perfectly honest, I don’t know what they’re going to do.

Q: The Runaways is getting a lot of buzz now too. How has that been, and what has the experience of the festival circuit been like?

Kristen: We all knew that, if it did well, it would be a Sundance movie. But, now it’s being released. It became a bigger deal than we thought, which is just always very exciting. Sundance was awesome. I love Sundance. It’s one of the only places that you can go, show your movie, and then talk to 300 people who just saw it. It’s just a different experience.

Q: What’s it like when your mom calls you and says, “I’m going to direct a film and I’d like you to be in it”?

Kristen: I wish it was like that. We’re trying to get it (K-11) off the ground. If she called me right now and said, “We’re making the movie,” I would be really excited. We’re really close and, at the same time, we’re creatively very, very different. It would be cool. I think that we could actually leave the family thing. I feel like we both like what we do so much that we could actually work on something and do something pretty cool

THE YELLOW HANDKERCHIEF opens on February 26th .

The actresses clinked glasses and giggled.

With downtown Los Angeles’ Kyoto Grand Hotel standing in for a bustling Tokyo sushi joint last summer, the teen stars were on the set of the coming-of-age drama “The Runaways” — in character, with Fanning as Cherie Currie, the wild-child lead singer of the titular all-girl rock group, and Stewart portraying Joan Jett, its electric-guitar-wielding, ‘tude-copping founder. Between the years 1975 and ’79, the Runaways packed shows from coast to coast, toured the world and racked up hits before self-immolating in a blaze of drugs, jealousies and in-fighting.

“The Runaways” will premiere next Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, arriving as one of the fest’s most outrightly commercial offerings, thanks largely to Stewart’s demonstrated “opening” power as a marquee draw. (Put out by independent distributor Apparition, the movie reaches theaters in March.) But “The Runaways” is also one of the most piquantly feminist films to touch down this year at America’s preeminent independent film forum — albeit a punk- infused genre pic with a pronounced generational viewpoint and no shortage of blood, drug abuse and bodily effluvia.

Written and directed by Floria Sigismondi, the acclaimed photographer and video director behind such foreboding, atmospheric clips as Marilyn Manson’s “The Beautiful People” and Christina Aguilera’s “Fighter,” the movie was less intended as a by-the-book musical biopic à la “The Doors” or “La Bamba” than an impressionistic character study illuminating a unique female predicament: What happens when teenage girls get handed too much, too soon via worldwide rock stardom?

In the drama “Welcome to the Rileys,” which premiered Saturday afternoon at an industry-heavy screening at the Racquet Club Theater, the “New Moon Saga” superstar portrays someone quite unlike “Twilight’s” long-suffering vampire-lover Bella Swan. That would be Mallory, a stripper-hooker with a penchant for wearing X-shaped pasties and G-strings (and sometimes no undies at all) with fishnet stockings who makes repeated references to the state of her “private parts” and sexual acts in language not suitable for publication in a family (or even PG-13-rated) blog.

Although her “Rileys” character initially claims to be 22, it is eventually revealed that Mallory ran away at an age when most teens are first getting a drivers license to live in semi-squalor in New Orleans, where she works in a French Quarter strip club in which she charges a little extra for more personal contact.

To get ready for the flesh- and soul-bearing part, the low-key Stewart — dressed Saturday in the de facto Sundance regalia of military parka, distressed denim and sneakers  — said she didn’t “prep” per se, even  though she studied some stripper dancing for the sake of greater realism.

“I’m not ‘playing a stripper’” she said with dripping emphasis before the film’s first screening. “It’s really not a stripper movie at all. It sort of just opens your eyes about people that don’t have options. I know I’m speaking really vaguely about it.”

In the rock-surged comin- of-age drama “The Runaways,” Stewart portrays real-life rock icon Joan Jett, who co-founded the all-girl teenage band – yes, you guessed it – called the Runaways at age 16. The group burned brightly with righteous proto-punk fury then fizzled out between 1975 and ’79. In that film, Stewart snorts cocaine, makes out with co-star Dakota Fanning and drunkenly urinates on an electric guitar.

Did we mention that she embodies Jett almost perfectly?

“It’s, like, crazy,” Stewart said when a reporter asked her about her resemblance to one of rock’s foremost female titans. She bit her lip and ran her hand through her hair. “I can’t even accept it!”

In the midst of an interview about her new film Welcome to the Rileys, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this past weekend, Kristen Stewart’s cellphone, buried under a pile of puffy, winter garb, begins going off.

Stewart, who is dressed in all-black (sweatshirt, leggings, boots), is sitting on an immense leather sofa between director Jake Scott (son of Ridley) and co-star Melissa Leo (Frozen River), burrowing deeper in the confined space she always seems to create around her. Her head—hair dyed black in a jagged cut—is down, like a shy child. Her leg is tapping nervously.

Suddenly, she bolts upward and leaps in the direction of the buzzing contraption.

“Oh, shut up! I’m busy—Shut the fuck up!” she cries to no one in particular.

After silencing the phone, she returns to the sofa. “Sorry, Jake,” she says softly, and returns to what seems like her most comfortable stance: self-protected coil.

It is this nervous, very wired, “twitchy”—as she puts it—energy that has come to define Stewart. She is best known as the female lead in Twilight, the blockbuster vampire franchise, which has made her an unlikely star of both movies and tabloids. But with the Sundance debuts of two new films—Rileys and The Runaways, in which Stewart plays iconic rocker Joan Jett—Stewart is becoming known as something else: Indie “It” Girl.

Every year, the festival produces one face that stands for all that is rebellious, unorthodox, and slightly ill-fitting about scrappy movie-making. Chloë Sevigny, Parker Posey, and Zooey Deschanel have all worn the crown. Last year, An Education’s Carey Mulligan was a slightly more polished and proper Sundance debutante, but, hey, in a hoodie, anyone call pull it off.

No one more so than Stewart, who is, both in person and on screen, an awkward and self-effacing pixie. In Rileys, she plays Mallory, an underage prostitute in New Orleans’ French Quarter who finds parental figures in Doug Riley (James Gandolfini) and his wife Lois (Leo), who have lost their own, real, daughter. Mallory, who is as damaged as the city she’s living in, hides behind thick, raccoon eyeliner, and shapeless, baggy pants and sweatshirts—at least when she’s not teetering around in hopelessly high heels, ripped fishnets, and little else. In The Runaways, she’s the harder-edged, but no less establishment-averse Jett.

Stewart is coming of age—morphing from girl to woman (she’s 19), and from teen idol to serious actress—in front of a global audience. It’s not always pretty. While doing press for last fall’s Twilight: New Moon, she was lambasted for not being press-friendly enough, and for wearing her signature scowl a little too relentlessly.

Such behavior didn’t fit well with a movie designed to dazzle 13-year-old girls, and Stewart paid the price. Talking to Stewart now about the perception of her, it’s like hearing someone who was forced to parade around in a drab school uniform and has now, at long last, been given her first pair of ripped jeans.

“It was hard to turn on the Twilight stuff… I was doing a movie,” she says of the two weeks she had to leave the Riley set in fall 2008 to promote the first Twilight film.

“There are a lot of people who are like, ‘Wow, you have just turned a new leaf… You can really express yourself very, very eloquently when you care to, and, Oh! You smile sometimes!’ And it’s like: I was doing a movie! I shouldn’t have been where I was! I should have been in New Orleans! That’s why I was so completely inept. I mean, like, that’s why. Because I shouldn’t have been there.”

It is this torn-between-two-worlds quality that makes Stewart different from other alternative-cinema queens: She is being grippingly embraced by two alien universes—mainstream Hollywood and the margins. And yet she seems passionately determined to shed the former role. Over the course of our conversation, the word “movie” is always said in respectful italics. It is clear the term does not refer to Twilight.

But if Stewart is ready to decamp from the slick center of the industry and set up permanent shop on the outskirts, she’s going to have a hard time. Not only did young Stewart die-hards from Salt Lake City battle a blizzard to show up for the premiere of Rileys on Saturday. They showed up to see it again, Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. And at The Runaways premiere on Sunday evening, the red-carpet mayhem rivaled anything that Westwood has to offer: an eruption of shrieks and cellphone flashes as Stewart abashedly slunk by. The same Beatlemania broke out Saturday night during Joan Jett’s concert at Harry O’s on snow-blanketed Main Street. However much the crowd was rocking out to Jett (“Put another dime in the jukebox, baby…”), it was nothing compared to what happened when she briefly brought Stewart and her Runaways co-star Dakota Fanning out on stage. In response, Stewart shoved her hands in her hoodie and attempted to dissolve into the drum set.

And during the Q&A after the Rileys premiere, Stewart’s leg was shaking so dramatically that it looked like it was going to break off. When she lost herself in an erratic train-of-thought response to a question, Leo jumped in and answered for her in polished actress speak.

It is this palpable discomfort that kids on both side of the cultural divide relate to—the angst and ambivalence about life, fame, everything.

Of filming Rileys in New Orleans, Stewart says, “I sort of called it home. Like, Mallory, she’s not from there, but when she moved there, it became her town. And when I was there, it felt like it was my—like, it was so calm. I would walk down the street and I wasn’t recognized. Walking down the street, compared to how I would normally feel walking down the street, it was so different. Like, I tromped around.”

Stewart’s face brightens at the memory of such freedom, which is clearly a luxury.

But even at Sundance, the very womb of low-budget outsiderdom, Stewart again finds herself split, as she promotes two films, one of which is a tad more indie than the other. (Runaways already has a distributor, Apparation, and is coming out in March; it also has a splashier veneer than Rileys, which is seeking a buyer.) Having spent the afternoon talking Rileys, she’s now getting ready to dart off to the Runaways premiere.

“Talking about films that you really care about is really, like, the hardest thing for me to do, especially to people that I don’t know,” Stewart says. “So it’s scary.”

“I really, really, really like these movies,” she continues, vehemently. “I put a lot into them, more so than the other ones. So to have both at the festival—it’s weird. It’s like, Jesus! It’s a little overwhelming.”