As a parent, I would never want any child of mine to be a movie star; there is too much risk to the psyche. But if I did have a daughter who found herself headlining a mega franchise like the "Twilight" series, I'd be pleased if she handled her fame the way Kristen Stewart has: sometimes crankily, often awkwardly, but with an admirable and defiant reserve. Bella, the heroine of the world's longest and most ridiculous perfume commercial, is played by Kristen Stewart, but Kristen Stewart isn't played by anyone except herself, a 19-year-old girl who hasn't been to charm school, stylist camp or studied the fine art of the sound bite. I don't like her franchise, but I've come to like her.
Video: 'New Moon' clips and extras Photos: More of Kristen Stewart
When the whole "Twilight" insanity began, I tried to ignore it (it wasn't going to be "Buffy"), but it was hard to miss Stewart as she made the publicity rounds. I saw her on a few talk shows, notably "David Letterman," where she seemed remarkably fidgety and diffident. The little girl who seemed such a fantastic casting choice to play Jodie Foster's daughter in "Panic Room" was now a tall, slender teenager, wearing a lot of makeup but somehow still looking innocent. She looked down at her nails every chance she got, as if this sacrifice of time to nibble on them might create some sudden growth spurt she'd have to thwart as soon as possible.
More: 'Twilight' Superfans Blog
She was so unlike the other starlets you see elegantly crossing their legs on "Letterman" that I thought quite possibly she was stoned, especially after she told Letterman she was looking forward to driving from London to Russia. He made quiet but ruthless fun of her. "Oi," I told the screen. "Get that girl a proper publicist. She's awful."
Since then, a year has passed, and in that time I've seen reams and reams of gossip columns and magazine articles devoted to the are-they-or-aren't-they aspect of her relationship with "Twilight" co-star Robert Pattinson, who plays the brooding Edward to her brooding Bella. I've glanced at these pieces and posts only in moments of desperate procrastination, because really, I could not care less. As a couple, they are slightly less tedious than the Gosselins, but only slightly so. No offense to either Stewart or Pattinson, but I'm no more interested in their future (unlikely to have much longevity) than I am of the relationship between the prom king and queen of the high school in the town where I live. They're just too young. (Johnny Depp, you might remember, once had a tattoo of "Winona Forever" on his arm. Now it says, "Wino Forever." It is best not to get too vested in youthful Hollywood love.)
But I've also watched Stewart in this spring's enchanting release "Adventureland," where I expected she'd be nothing more than "that girl from 'Twilight,'" playing another Bella type, and instead found her surprisingly captivating. She is not an eager actress, but rather one who intrigues through balancing an overarching distance with small intimacies that resonate all the more for the contrast. It's tempting to dismiss that as just Stewart herself, angsty, artsy, removed.
Video: 'New Moon' clips and extras Photos: More of Kristen Stewart
When the whole "Twilight" insanity began, I tried to ignore it (it wasn't going to be "Buffy"), but it was hard to miss Stewart as she made the publicity rounds. I saw her on a few talk shows, notably "David Letterman," where she seemed remarkably fidgety and diffident. The little girl who seemed such a fantastic casting choice to play Jodie Foster's daughter in "Panic Room" was now a tall, slender teenager, wearing a lot of makeup but somehow still looking innocent. She looked down at her nails every chance she got, as if this sacrifice of time to nibble on them might create some sudden growth spurt she'd have to thwart as soon as possible.
More: 'Twilight' Superfans Blog
She was so unlike the other starlets you see elegantly crossing their legs on "Letterman" that I thought quite possibly she was stoned, especially after she told Letterman she was looking forward to driving from London to Russia. He made quiet but ruthless fun of her. "Oi," I told the screen. "Get that girl a proper publicist. She's awful."
Since then, a year has passed, and in that time I've seen reams and reams of gossip columns and magazine articles devoted to the are-they-or-aren't-they aspect of her relationship with "Twilight" co-star Robert Pattinson, who plays the brooding Edward to her brooding Bella. I've glanced at these pieces and posts only in moments of desperate procrastination, because really, I could not care less. As a couple, they are slightly less tedious than the Gosselins, but only slightly so. No offense to either Stewart or Pattinson, but I'm no more interested in their future (unlikely to have much longevity) than I am of the relationship between the prom king and queen of the high school in the town where I live. They're just too young. (Johnny Depp, you might remember, once had a tattoo of "Winona Forever" on his arm. Now it says, "Wino Forever." It is best not to get too vested in youthful Hollywood love.)
But I've also watched Stewart in this spring's enchanting release "Adventureland," where I expected she'd be nothing more than "that girl from 'Twilight,'" playing another Bella type, and instead found her surprisingly captivating. She is not an eager actress, but rather one who intrigues through balancing an overarching distance with small intimacies that resonate all the more for the contrast. It's tempting to dismiss that as just Stewart herself, angsty, artsy, removed.
But as much as the real girl resembles some facets of that character of Em in "Adventureland" or Bella in "New Moon," there's one important difference: Stewart is confident on-screen and nervous off it. After I went on a YouTube bonanza and watched clips of her squirming and gazing longingly at her fingernails for Meredith Vieira, Jimmy Kimmel and Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa, among others, I've realized, it's not that she's stoned or poorly prepared. It's just that she's not capable of faking it.
Stewart doesn't play the game, and host after host, particularly the guys, become uncomfortable as they realize she's not going to do the girlie thing, because she's too busy being an actual girl. As their discomfort rises, it bounces back to Stewart and expands exponentially. Outside of Rockefeller Center, greeting "Twilight" fans on a cold autumn day, she shifted from foot to foot on her high heels, trying to stay warm. Her hands were plunged into the pockets of a parka that looks completely wrong with her dress, it must have matched her street clothes, not her styled "Today" show outfit. She's just like a girl at a football game, wearing the wrong outerwear, unaware that she should try to look comfortable even if she's not.
I don't think Stewart disdains the talk show thing; I think she's not interested in pretending to be someone she's not. That's the nature of her day job, after all. When Kelly Ripa does something goofy in front of her, Stewart laughs, gamely, but it's not an overabundant laugh, it's something genuine and small; Ripa is a little bit funny, but just not that funny. When Jimmy Kimmel tried to tease Stewart about still living at home with her parents and brothers, she makes it clear she likes living with her family, and considers it appropriate. Then he suggested that she buy her family home and "evict your parents." "That kind of defeats the purpose," Stewart said, sincerely. Kimmel's suggestion was stupid. Rather than suck up to him, she just said what is obvious and true. Is it her job to make him feel big? Hardly.
As Vieira led Stewart (and Pattinson, they were doing an interview together) out to those screeching hordes in Rockefeller Center, she asked both the young stars whether she should be scared of the fans. "They're all pretty nice," Stewart said. "To your face." It wasn't a statement that implied dislike of the fans. Instead it was a reflection of reality. Screaming hordes of fans would in fact tend to be nice to your face. But get most of those girls aside and really grill them, and they will likely tell you that Pattinson deserves someone with a little more je ne sais quoi, as in, "Less like her and more like me!" Fans are in fact fickle, and not to be trusted long-term, attached as they are to the fleeting mistress of fame, and it is a very good thing that Stewart gets that.
Of course, none of this, the nail biting, the frankness, the acting of one's actual age, is the best strategy if you want to come across as a vibrant, together young starlet. But what if you were just doing what your job required you to do: showing up and talking to some people? To behave the way Stewart does shows integrity. She's perfectly polite, but she hasn't forgotten who she is, just because she's been in some highly successful and highly anticipated movies. She only seems sullen because we are used to people who really play the game.
This is not to say she's perfect. If I were her mother, I'd urge her to sit up straight and stop swinging her leg during interviews, allowing her body language to reflect her inner strength. I'd also ask that she not ever use the word "retarded" publicly again (in their cover story on Pattinson, Vanity Fair quotes her on the "Robsten" fever as saying, "It's so retarded. We're characters in this comic book") and recommend that she stick to "silly" or "idiotic." The mentally challenged don't deserve to be verbally linked to the nonsense over some Hollywood romance.
But I do respect her refusal to dish about her private life. Last week she told Entertainment Weekly she wasn't going to give "the fiending" an answer because everyone had made such a big deal of it. (Fiending: I love that choice of words, or rather, a non-word, which so nicely evokes the insanity of the tabloids.) People, she noted, assume, "'Well, you chose to be an actor, why don't you just f---ing give your whole life away?! Can I have your firstborn child?'" She offered a couple of answers she could, hypothetically give ("Okay, we are." "We aren't." "I'm a lesbian."), none of which would satisfy, or rather quiet, the hordes. It's true. Does the fact that Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens are a couple stop the speculation about what lies within their real lives?
"I'm just trying," Stewart said "to keep something." That something is herself, the one who lives outside of the movies and the press junkets and the endless talk shows. She may chew her nails to the quick, but it is a bold and self-confident young woman who at 19 refuses to succumb to the public's desire for her private life. Think it's hard to resist? Conjure up the gushing footage in your head of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck in the throes of their former love affair -- it's OK if you can't, but, sadly, I can -- and you'll realize how easy it is for even a smart grown-up like Affleck to open that door.
I watched that "Letterman" clip again this week. This time I noticed that the one time Stewart lit up with real excitement was when she was talking about her mother, a script supervisor who had recently finished a screenplay for a movie Stewart plans to star in. It's called "K-11." "She's directing as well," Stewart said to Letterman. "I'm so stoked for her I can't even stand it." How can you not love that girl?
Stewart doesn't play the game, and host after host, particularly the guys, become uncomfortable as they realize she's not going to do the girlie thing, because she's too busy being an actual girl. As their discomfort rises, it bounces back to Stewart and expands exponentially. Outside of Rockefeller Center, greeting "Twilight" fans on a cold autumn day, she shifted from foot to foot on her high heels, trying to stay warm. Her hands were plunged into the pockets of a parka that looks completely wrong with her dress, it must have matched her street clothes, not her styled "Today" show outfit. She's just like a girl at a football game, wearing the wrong outerwear, unaware that she should try to look comfortable even if she's not.
I don't think Stewart disdains the talk show thing; I think she's not interested in pretending to be someone she's not. That's the nature of her day job, after all. When Kelly Ripa does something goofy in front of her, Stewart laughs, gamely, but it's not an overabundant laugh, it's something genuine and small; Ripa is a little bit funny, but just not that funny. When Jimmy Kimmel tried to tease Stewart about still living at home with her parents and brothers, she makes it clear she likes living with her family, and considers it appropriate. Then he suggested that she buy her family home and "evict your parents." "That kind of defeats the purpose," Stewart said, sincerely. Kimmel's suggestion was stupid. Rather than suck up to him, she just said what is obvious and true. Is it her job to make him feel big? Hardly.
As Vieira led Stewart (and Pattinson, they were doing an interview together) out to those screeching hordes in Rockefeller Center, she asked both the young stars whether she should be scared of the fans. "They're all pretty nice," Stewart said. "To your face." It wasn't a statement that implied dislike of the fans. Instead it was a reflection of reality. Screaming hordes of fans would in fact tend to be nice to your face. But get most of those girls aside and really grill them, and they will likely tell you that Pattinson deserves someone with a little more je ne sais quoi, as in, "Less like her and more like me!" Fans are in fact fickle, and not to be trusted long-term, attached as they are to the fleeting mistress of fame, and it is a very good thing that Stewart gets that.
Of course, none of this, the nail biting, the frankness, the acting of one's actual age, is the best strategy if you want to come across as a vibrant, together young starlet. But what if you were just doing what your job required you to do: showing up and talking to some people? To behave the way Stewart does shows integrity. She's perfectly polite, but she hasn't forgotten who she is, just because she's been in some highly successful and highly anticipated movies. She only seems sullen because we are used to people who really play the game.
This is not to say she's perfect. If I were her mother, I'd urge her to sit up straight and stop swinging her leg during interviews, allowing her body language to reflect her inner strength. I'd also ask that she not ever use the word "retarded" publicly again (in their cover story on Pattinson, Vanity Fair quotes her on the "Robsten" fever as saying, "It's so retarded. We're characters in this comic book") and recommend that she stick to "silly" or "idiotic." The mentally challenged don't deserve to be verbally linked to the nonsense over some Hollywood romance.
But I do respect her refusal to dish about her private life. Last week she told Entertainment Weekly she wasn't going to give "the fiending" an answer because everyone had made such a big deal of it. (Fiending: I love that choice of words, or rather, a non-word, which so nicely evokes the insanity of the tabloids.) People, she noted, assume, "'Well, you chose to be an actor, why don't you just f---ing give your whole life away?! Can I have your firstborn child?'" She offered a couple of answers she could, hypothetically give ("Okay, we are." "We aren't." "I'm a lesbian."), none of which would satisfy, or rather quiet, the hordes. It's true. Does the fact that Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens are a couple stop the speculation about what lies within their real lives?
"I'm just trying," Stewart said "to keep something." That something is herself, the one who lives outside of the movies and the press junkets and the endless talk shows. She may chew her nails to the quick, but it is a bold and self-confident young woman who at 19 refuses to succumb to the public's desire for her private life. Think it's hard to resist? Conjure up the gushing footage in your head of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck in the throes of their former love affair -- it's OK if you can't, but, sadly, I can -- and you'll realize how easy it is for even a smart grown-up like Affleck to open that door.
I watched that "Letterman" clip again this week. This time I noticed that the one time Stewart lit up with real excitement was when she was talking about her mother, a script supervisor who had recently finished a screenplay for a movie Stewart plans to star in. It's called "K-11." "She's directing as well," Stewart said to Letterman. "I'm so stoked for her I can't even stand it." How can you not love that girl?
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