Kristen Stewart felt ‘more free and alive’ playing Princess Diana ‘than on anything else’
Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana in Spencer. (Twitter/ Netflix)
Kristen Stewart has opened up about her role as Princess Diana in Spencer, saying the late royal helped her feel ‘free, alive and taller’.
The American actor wowed critics with her interpretation of Princess Diana when Spencer premiered on Friday (3 September) at the Venice Film Festival.
The drama follows the Princess of Wales’ decision to end her marriage to Prince Charles while on Christmas holiday with the British royal family.
Speaking to the press at the Spencer screening, Stewart shared her experience of transforming into Diana.
“I took more pleasure in my physicality making this movie than I have on anything else,” she explained, Us Weekly reported. “I felt more free and alive and able to move and taller even.”
The Twilight star described Princess Diana – whose tragic death left the world reeling over 24 years ago – as someone who “sticks out like a sparkly house on fire”.
Kristen Stewart said she believed Diana was born with an “undeniable penetrating energy”. But despite her immediately “normal and casual and disarmer” air, Stewart thought the late royal “felt so isolated and lonely”.
“She made everyone else feel accompanied and bolstered by this light, and all she wanted was to have it back,” Stewart said, Deadline reported.
She continued: “She was just desperate to reveal some truth in an environment that is steeped in the energy of, you know, as an outsider I can say the Brits generally have the stiff upper lip mentality, that it is the go-to generalisation.
“I look at pictures of her or just a fleeting little video clip of her, and I feel like the ground shakes and you don’t know what’s going to happen.
“The idea of somebody being so desperate for connection and somebody who is able to make other people feel so good and feeling so bad on the inside and being so generous with her energy — I just think we haven’t had that many of those people throughout history.”
Spencer – which also stars Jack Farthing, Sally Hawkins, Amy Manson, Timothy Spall and Sean Harris – premieres in theatres on 5 November, according to ABC News.
