Kristen Stewart says she felt ‘huge responsibility’ to define her sexuality
Kristen Stewart attends the Chanel Haute Couture Spring Summer 2019 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 22, 2019 in Paris, France. (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty)
Kristen Stewart has opened up about the pressure she felt to clarify her sexuality.
Speaking to Associated Press on Tuesday (April 30), the actor praised a push from younger stars to accept fluidity in gender and sexuality.
Stewart was previously romantically linked to Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson and Snow White director Rupert Sanders, but quietly came out in 2015 after being photographed kissing her then-girlfriend.
Appearing on Saturday Night Live in 2017, she clarified: “I’m, like, so gay dude!”
Kristen Stewart: I was worried I was forsaking a side
However, the Lizzie star told AP: “I felt this huge responsibility, like one that I was really genuinely worried about, if I wasn’t able to say one way or the other, then was I sort of like forsaking a side.”
Stewart praised decisions by younger stars, like Game of Thrones actor Sophie Turner, to refuse to clarify their sexuality.
Kristen Stewart attends the LA premiere of Universal Pictures’ ‘J.T. Leroy’ at ArcLight Hollywood on April 24, 2019 in Hollywood, California. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty)
She added: “The fact that you don’t have to now is like so much more truthful.
“If you were to have this conversation with someone like in high school, they’d probably like roll their eyes and go, ‘Why are you complicating everything so much?’ … Just sort of do what you want to do.’
“It’s really nice.”
Stewart continued: “I just feel like we don’t even have the words to describe the complexities of identity right now.”
The actor is set to write and star in upcoming film The Chronology of Water, which is based on the memoir of bisexual swimmer Lidia Yuknavitch.
Stewart added: “So much of that spirit is completely about finding new – finding a new language. And like really understanding that your word house, so to speak, is constructed by you.
“And you can also have a million definitions of any word you want. Like they are open for interpretation. … So like words as solace — because they really can be used as weapons or really like more saviours.”
Kristen Stewart: Coming out ‘opened my life up’
Stewart explained previously that coming out had made her happier.
She said: “When I was dating a guy I was hiding everything that I did because everything personal felt like it was immediately trivialised, so I didn’t like it.
“We were turned into these characters and placed into this ridiculous comic book, and I was like, ‘That’s mine. You’re making my relationship something that it’s not.’ I didn’t like that.
“But then it changed when I started dating a girl. I was like, ‘Actually, to hide this provides the implication that I’m not down with it or I’m ashamed of it’, so I had to alter how I approached being in public.
“It opened my life up and I’m so much happier.”
