If Kristen Stewart herself was the protagonist of the “Twilight” movies, then she probably wouldn’t have stayed with Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) for too long. Appearing on the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly) while on her “Love Lies Bleeding” press tour, Stewart said she would’ve called it off with Edward almost immediately once he started not letting her make her own choices.
“Let’s talk about Bella for a second,” podcast host Amanda Hirsch said to Stewart during the episode. “Do we not like her in retrospect?”
“Do we not like her?,” Stewart replied with a bit of surprise. “Whoa. Hey, you better be careful. I don’t know if you can tell who you’re talking to right now.”
Hirsch argued that in retrospect Bella was “a little desperate” to be with Edward, ultimately making the decision to change her life and “go through hell” to become a vampire. Stewart provided a rebuttal by saying, “Yeah, but, he was trying to sort of control whether or not she made choices for herself. I would’ve broken up with him immediately.”
Stewart referenced Edward initially being unwilling to let Bella join him as a vampire.
“I mean if I was like, ‘Hey, I want to try that,’ and he was like, ‘No, this is just for me,’ I would be like, ‘Well, this is also just for me. My whole life. Without you,’” Stewart said.
When asked if Edward was “fucked up,” Stewart answered: “Yeah. I get the sort of protection thing, but you gotta let a girl make her own choices.”
Stewart has spoken a lot about “Twilight” during her press tour for “Love Lies Bleeding.” She played Bella Swan in five “Twilight” movies that grossed a combined $3.3 billion worldwide. During an interview with Rolling Stone, Stewart remembered catching flak from critics for her performance due to her moody screen acting. She stressed that brooding kept her interpretation of Bella true to the book series. Some execs wanted Bella to be perkier and bright-eyed, but Stewart just didn’t agree.
“The studio was trying to make a movie for kids,” Stewart said. “They didn’t want what actually was the book. When the fuck are [Bella and Edward] smiling, ever?”
Stewart opened up to Variety in January about how she’s come to see a lot of queer undertones in the “Twilight” movies.
“I can only see it now,” Stewart said. “I don’t think it necessarily started off that way, but I also think that the fact that I was there at all, it was percolating. It’s such a gay movie. I mean, Jesus Christ, Taylor [Lautner] and Rob and me, and it’s so hidden and not OK. I mean, a Mormon woman wrote this book. It’s all about oppression, about wanting what’s going to destroy you. That’s a very Gothic, gay inclination that I love.”
“Love Lies Bleeding” is playing in theaters from A24.