"Thankfully I was never told I needed a Prince Charming or anything more than what I already had in me,” she offered. “You have to find your own way in life. I’m not into that rescue stuff.”
“I’m sort of bored now,” she confessed [talking about 'what's next'] “I wanna work on something and maybe it doesn’t have to be an acting job. I’ve been hanging out with my dogs and my family and, to be honest with you, I’m still catching up on sleep. I’ve worked for 2 years solid, literally since Eclipse. But I’m itchy now. I wanna do something.”
Her first shot at redefining her career came in September [release date in Australia], with her star turn in the big-screen adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road."
Reminded that she need never work again for the rest of her life, she smiled and said: “Yeah, I know. I’m in an insane position that I would do my job for free and that’s something that a lot of people say, but I actually mean it. But you need to need it or else it’s not worth doing.”
That work ethic can largely be attributed to her upbringing. Raised by industry parents, she did her homework on the sets of her parents’ TV shows, where dad John Stewart worked as a stage manager and her mother, Jules Mann-Stewart – originally from Maroochydore, Qld – as a script supervisor.
“My parents are really working class. They make movies. I really looked up to them because of that, and always wanted to make movies and be a part of that. I don’t know what I’d be doing if I wasn’t an actor.
“Growing up, my parents weren’t really strict. They let me be who I wanted to be. It’s not like my mum ever sat me down and said, ‘You need to be yourself, Kristen’ or ‘Don’t take any crap, Kristen’, although she did say that to me quite a few times,” she recalled, laughing.
“I thought I was an adult when I was, like 12. I don’t know why. I’ve never been complacent. I wasn’t brought up that way. I’m the youngest in my family and always felt like I had to take care of my brothers. I’ve always been a worrier. I’ve never been that kid who just doesn’t give a crap about anything, even when I was in kindergarten.”
Stewart admitted she has struggled with the attention fame has brought.
“I’m particularly weird because I don’t even like being looked at,” she revealed. “A lot of actors love it and they love going out and literally doing it as an activity. I hate it.”
She spends little time in front of the mirror, leaving it to a six-member prep team to make her red-carpet ready. “I don’t especially enjoy the process, to be honest. I have a lot of actor friends who love getting ready for something just because they feel kind of important. I don’t identify with that. But being in the public eye, I’m expected to look good and I understand that.”
This year, Stewart signed on as the face of Balenciaga’s new women’s fragrance, Florabotanica. In some respects it’s a no brainer, her dark, rebellious streak pairing nicely with the label’s high fashion style.
“It was one of those things that just felt right. I’m a huge fan of the fashion world now that I’ve been allowed to be a part of it, even if sometimes I don’t even know what I’m wearing.” she said indicating her current choice of denim and a faded t-shirt. “But whenever I put on anything Balenciaga I’m like ‘Oh, that looks like Balenciaga!’ You can see it, you can pick up out of a rack.”
(interview was conducted around the same time as Comic Con)
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