"I'm very protective of her," said Stewart at the LA press conference for New Moon. "I feel a shared ownership. It's weird. If you were talk about the character in a way that was not at all thought out or flippant, I would be right there to say that you didn't know what you were talking about. I'm so defensive of her. So, yeah, I feel like I like her a lot."
Kristen Stewart Interview
A year ago you seemed to be a shy, sensitive young actor. How has this past year been for you in terms of this nonstop thing on New Moon and you and Rob Pattinson?Kristen Stewart: "I think I've gotten a lot more comfortable with talking about myself and knowing that what you say, people are really going to take into consideration. That always intimidated me so much that I minced every word that came out of my mouth. I couldn't finish a sentence because I was so concerned about how it was going to sound. I didn't want to come across insincere about something that I really love to do. So I realized that instead of refraining from saying, 'I've put my heart and soul into this thing and I love it,' that's what I should've said instead of like the really logical, over-analytical reason why I love it. You just do. I've gotten more comfortable. The whole rumor, tabloid stuff, it's so obviously false to me. Look, even before I became a part of it, once I sort of became a star…it's like a show. It's like a ridiculous show."
It's a soap opera with your name in it?
Kristen Stewart: "Exactly. With false realism like a soap opera that seems real but you're not quite sure. It doesn't bother me. I don't take it personally. Luckily, because I've had so much experience it's gotten easier to talk about the work."
What about the work on this one?
Kristen Stewart: "I had a really good time on this movie. It was intense. Just because of the nature of the story, it goes in a completely different direction. We undermine the first. We establish a very ideological [story] of love and basically tell our main character, our main protagonist, that she was wrong. And it's like, 'Where's our story? You're going to be left if Edward's not there.'"
"What I really love about New Moon is that you see this girl build herself back up and by the time she makes this sort of rash decision to spend eternity with a vampire, she's in a position where you actually believe her. You're like, 'Okay, you're old enough, your mature enough to know. You've lived life.' She grows up. I don't know what I'm talking about anymore."
What has it been like working with Bryce Dallas Howard?
Kristen Stewart: "Really good. Bryce is scary. She's really oddly sweet as well. So it's funny to see her switch back and forth, but Victoria for Bella is like an ever-present fear. Even when Victoria isn't around she's scared that she's coming back. Bryce is such a good actress and it was easy to be scared of her."
Can you talk about breaking in your new director? How did you work with Chris Weitz?
Kristen Stewart: "Chris has everything. I think to be a good director you have to be a good person and you have to care about people. I don’t know a more compassionate human being. I couldn't have done this unless I had such a believable environment, a comfortable and safe environment to be so vulnerable in. He provided that tenfold. He's one of the coolest, one of the smartest and funniest guys I know. He really loves the project as well. He wasn't just jumping on the next big thing. So it wasn't about breaking him in at all. He only helped make everything better. He made everything what it is. He's incredible. I love him."
Did he give you guys any guidance when he came in? How did that work?
Kristen Stewart: "Chris did a very different thing that I've never had a director do. He put together, it's like a syllabus almost of what we were supposed to achieve and how he was going to make it easier for everyone, sort of an introduction to how he likes to work. It didn't only introduce the idea of collaboration, it was like inviting everyone onto this project and saying, 'Please, everyone love it, and please, everyone be invested and work hard.'"
"It was very encouraging. It also had technical aspects of how he was so sorry that so much of the movie was going to be CGI stuff that we were going to have to react to, but that he was always going to make us aware of what we were acting with, that he was never going to leave us high and dry. A lot of the FX movies are hard to do because you don't know what you're reacting to. So he had a full rundown of how he planned on making the movie. Most directors are like, 'Have you put together notes for our meeting?' It's like, 'No. That's your job.' So he's amazing. I love him."
Taylor Lautner is emerging from this movie as a huge star. If you could wipe the slate clean and make a decision, do you really think that she wouldn't have gone with fine, old Jacob?
Kristen Stewart: "I know, trust me. I feel you completely."
Can you talk about working with Taylor because he did an incredible job in the face of controversy going into the movie?
Kristen Stewart: "I think that controversy has probably been made bigger than it was. We needed to be sure that whoever played Jacob was going to be Jacob in New Moon. He's such a different person. He becomes a man. There's an entire [thing]. It's not just a physical transformation. He really becomes an adult. I mean, I always knew that Taylor could do that, but we just needed to make sure because it was so important. So once he actually proved himself, which wasn't hard to do, even seeing him walk around on set was like a different experience. He's literally become a different person. He's just grown up. He's so confident and the nicest guy that I've ever met. I know that I'm using this grammatically incorrect, but he's the funnest guy I've ever hung out with. So he's great. I'm so proud of him."
