USA Today interview + new portrait

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Are you finally ready to take Kristen Stewart seriously as an actress?

We are — and most critics are, too. Since the Twilight saga wrapped in 2012, the 25-year-old has impressed with dramatic turns in films such as Camp X-Ray, Still Alice and Clouds of Sils Maria, for which she won a best supporting actress Cesar Award earlier this year. For those unfamiliar, it’s essentially the French equivalent of an Oscar and she’s the first American to ever win one.

And with roles lined up in new Woody Allen, Ang Lee and Kelly Reichardt films, Kristen is exactly where she wants to be in her career. Promoting her latest, American Ultra, she told USA TODAY:

“It’s nice to have people be like, ‘Hey, good job.’ But I’ve always been really confident about my path. It’s hard for me to speak to the whole idea of fewer roles for women, even though it’s absolutely true, because I’m just like, kind of swimming around this Olympic-sized pool of indulgence, which is so unbelievably lucky. And so (the Cesar) was just kind of a nice pat on the back. Honestly, it was just really cool to get together with everyone and go, ‘(Expletive) yeaaah.’ “

And with the entire awards show in French, she was especially surprised to hear her name called.

“I’m going to be so real with you — I was in utter disbelief sitting there next to Juliette (Binoche, her co-star), who told me, ‘It is crazy you were even considered to be nominated! No way, no way! They’ll never give it to you!’ So I was just sitting there, we were just shooting the (expletive), hanging out, like, ‘Oh, is this the category?’ And then all of a sudden the row cleared out. It was awesome.”

Source/Via