Kristen and Pablo Larrain's interview with the Insider for 'Spencer'

 

Insider: Kristen, I know you have said in the past you were stressed out leading up to shooting the movie. Did it get to the point where you questioned if you could do the role?

Stewart: No, definitely not. In a word: No. 

Larraín: Really? 

Stewart: We were on the movie for a year and a half so it was this looming pressure that was constantly building. 

Larraín: It was a slow process. 

Stewart: Yeah, it was a snowball going down a hill. It started as this beautiful little snowflake of an idea and then it just started rolling down this hill and became heavier and heavier.

Before you start doing something, you can't picture what it's going to feel like. So it's really irresponsible to tell somebody, "I know I can do this." I didn't say, "I know I can do this," I said, "I'm going to do the best I can."

I wasn't going to pass up this opportunity. It was too sparkly. But it is scary because before you have those words in your mouth and before you see what the environment is, you can't picture it so you can't control it. 

Kristen, what was the process of doing Diana's voice on the day of shooting? Would you stay in the voice off set, or could you go in and out of it?

Stewart: I didn't stay in character when we were off set. I like to be as present as I can because I love the process of filmmaking. I don't need to do any backflip trickery. I don't need to convince myself that I'm this person. I learned the accent. It became very technical and physical. Once I realized that I had such embedded emotional protective feelings about this person it was just all there. We were ready to run. 

Pablo, before you made "Spencer," you created "Jackie," which focused on a moment in the life of Jackie Kennedy. What is it about powerful women in history that grabs you?

Larraín: Why not? [Laughs.] They are just fascinating people. They have something that is very unusual. They are born in these very particular types of families that are related to power and media in a way that is very unique. But they are both women who were able to find their identities anyway.

In the case of Diana, she's someone who built so much empathy around the world and became such a universal person. It's fascinating. But it's also fascinating to understand that you will never be able to really know who they were. So any attempt to do it, in the case of what we do, is fiction. It's not a documentary. This is a fable.

'It was like, 'No, I'm fine,' but inside was like, 'Keep it together, keep it together.''

Pablo, did you come up with any ways to ease Kristen into the filming, seeing as she had nerves coming into it?

Larraín: I saw an actress completely fearless, honestly. And I had some panic inside of me, which I tried to hide. So maybe she saw a fearless director. And that's a good way to do it because you keep it together and you find a force within each other just to move on and get where you want to get. 

Stewart: In fact, the most straightforward directing I received from Pablo in this movie was on the first or second day when he just came and said, "You need to physically relax because you have her. You just need to trust that."

Because I think that first or second day, I was trying to play the whole movie in the scene we were doing because I wanted to prove myself to myself. "Can I do this?" And after that, we found our stride. We were both doing the same thing, trying to settle our nerves.  

You were both faking it until you made it. 

Stewart: I have worked with directors that really instill fear in you. It always feels like, "This is the big scene. This is the one you should be worried about," and you can feel their lack of control. Pablo leans into that feeling, as do I, so I just didn't want him to ever feel like I didn't feel confident. I did feel confident, but I had a natural fear of the unknown. It was like, "No, I'm fine," but inside was like, "Keep it together, keep it together." 

Larraín: More than halfway through, we found a groove and I just stopped telling Kristen things. I became very silent and less worried about what she was doing. 

Stewart: That's when you know you are telling a story that is pure and honest and it's living on its own. 

I'm running out of time but I wanted to ask this last question, Kristen. The paparazzi and media had such an appetite for Diana. I'm sure you can relate to that. Filming this movie, have you changed the way you live your life at all?

Stewart: No. We have completely different occupations and I think I've talked a lot about that. So considering you have no more time, Google that shit. I'm done. [Laughs.]

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