‘Twilight’: Kristen Stewart Thought the Movie Sounded ‘Very Shallow’ and ‘Vain’ at First
Kristen Stewart has been in the spotlight for most of her life. Starring in movies like Panic Room and Speak, she was a working actor before she even entered her teen years. But when Stewart was cast as Bella Swan in the Twilight movies, her life was irrevocably changed. Stewart’s portrayal of the vampire obsessed mortal thrust her even further into the spotlight and her paychecks from Twilight and its sequels: New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn – Part 1, and Breaking Dawn – Part 2 earned her the freedom to take her career in any direction she chose.
Stewart has always been candid about how much she enjoyed the plot of Twilight and how much she enjoyed her character, Bella. But the actor didn’t always have such a positive opinion about the film. In fact, when she first read the description for the movie, she was less than impressed and didn’t have warm and fuzzy feelings about it.
Kristen Stewart wasn’t interested in ‘Twilight’ at first
Though Twilight already had millions of fans before the movies were announced, Stewart had no idea just how big the fan base was due to the eponymous book. Though Stewart’s representatives were pushing her to audition for the part of Bella, she had her reservations about taking on a project that would impact so many young women.
“I read a synopsis of the story before I read the script or the book, and it was something that everybody was freaking out over,” Stewart explained about how she learned of Twilight in an interview with Female.com. “Like, ‘Everybody wants this role. Kristen, you have to read this.’ And it was like, ‘Okay. Well, I don’t want to be a part of something that presents a completely ideological idea of love to young girls, and puts their female heroine in a position -and this was just the synopsis – In a position that is just subject to, like, this man that is all-powerful and all-holy, smart, confident, and she’s just happy with that.’”
The actor had a change of heart after she read the script
Stewart continued on to share that she really didn’t care for the way the first of the Twilight movies was initially described. She shared that the summary of it lacked substance. “It was very shallow,” the New Moon star stated candidly. “It was really vain. When you try to sum up this movie in a couple of sentences, it sounds trite and superficial.”
But, Stewart quickly changed her tune once she got her hands on the Twilight script and she realized that there was more to the story than the description was letting on. “But then I read the script, and it was just the opposite of that,” the actor shared. “And the power balance between these two characters – I mean, apart from just wanting to portray such an epic love story, which I thought was ambitious – and such a dire love story.”
We can’t picture anyone else playing Bella Swan
It’s interesting to think that if Stewart hadn’t read the Twilight script, another actor would probably be famous for playing Bella Swan. Personally, though Stewart’s performances in the movies are sometimes a little bizarre, we can’t imagine anyone else in the role.
