KillerFilm Spotlight: Becoming Bella

source via heartkbitch

For many, actress Kristen Stewart has become synonymous with Bella Swan, the main character in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga and the movies that have been made of the books. It’s a role that has thrust her under an intense spotlight, not only bringing attention from countless fans, but also from the media, and it’s one that she takes seriously.
“This is a unique situation. I get to play her for a really long time, and that also is 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 typically is six weeks on a small movie, which is what I’m used to,” she said at a press conference for Eclipse. “It definitely is obviously the one role that has put me in this sort of epic position, but it’s just another movie, and I think it doesn’t matter if you’re doing a studio movie or if you’re doing an independent movie, when you get to the 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 I really wanted to play, and luckily I got to do it for a long time.”
At this point, after playing her for three films, few people know the character of Bella Swan better than Kristen Stewart. She seems to understand Bella’s faults and applauds her ability to recognize her mistakes.

“All of the things that sort of annoy me about her are things that I like about her because she always sort of comes around and realizes that she can be a little selfish. She’s definitely not naggy, but because she tries so hard not to be, sometimes I feel like, ‘Why don’t you just let yourself be.’ Sometimes she picks on herself too much. But I completely relate to that,” Stewart said. “I always say my favorite thing about her is that she screws up a lot and doesn’t care. It’s just like, ‘This is the way life is, and I’m young, and I’m growing up.’”

In Eclipse, in particular, Bella makes important decisions about her life, and Stewart gladly took on that challenge.

“She’s pushed to the point where the decision needs to be made in this one, but she does that in each movie. And what’s cool is that things change, and as certain as she is sometimes and as absolutely gung-ho and young and courageous and brave, she’s also willing to take a step back and go, ‘OK, I’m going to reconsider my options and reconsider how I’m treating everybody’ because she acknowledges that she’s being a little bit selfish. She makes the choice, but I feel like the choice has been made as soon as she sees him in the first one. It’s done. But it’s hard for her to get to the point where everyone is going to accept that, and this the one that it sort of happens in.”

Fans of Meyer’s books want to see every aspect of the stories on the big screen. But that’s difficult with books that are, in the case of Eclipse, 600-plus pages. Aspects of the plot are cut out or shifted for the sake of telling the story in movie form. Like those fans, there are things in the books Stewart wishes had made it to the screen.

“There are a million things,” she said. “Every single time we watch one the movies, especially if some of the cast watches it together, it’s always an incredibly frustrating experience. That’s why I’m glad Breaking Dawn is going to be two movies. So there’s going to be less of that. There’s going to be less of having to lose stuff.”

Now that Eclipse is in theaters, Stewart is looking forward to what’s next for her character in the upcoming films of Breaking Dawn.

“I can’t wait to see Renesmee. I can’t wait to have a kid and get married. All of it. It’s going to be crazy,” she said. “She’s going to be the coolest vampire out of all of them. I mean, she’s got the greatest power. Nothing can touch her, and she can literally protect the whole clan. I think it will be awesome to see how much she’s changed from Twilight. She’s a 17-year-old kid who really doesn’t care about a whole lot other than herself and to see her become this sort of matriarch will just be really cool.”