There has been a lot of praise forKristen Stewart, from both the public and critics, since her stand-out role as Princess Diana inPablo Lorrain’sSpencer. However, this is not the first time that she has tackled a project that revolves around a strong-willed, powerful woman.
Stewart, who rose to huge international fame with theTwilightfranchise in the 2000s, has taken on many roles in human-led stories over the years. Some of these roles include playing a troubled teenage stripper inWelcome to the Riley’s(2010), a correctional officer at Guantánamo Bay inCamp X-Ray(2014), the daughter of a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s inStill Alice(2014), and a woman desperate to connect to her deceased twin brother inPersonal Shopper(2016), among many more. In addition to these indie films, Stewart has also found commercial success in mainstream media, such as in the 2019 action comedyCharlie’s Angelsand Hulu’s queer romantic comedyHappiest Season(2020).
Stewart excels in roles of substance, particularly in troubled women. Her ability to personify a feeling is made that much more powerful when it’s a real person, whose spirit she is bringing to life on screen. She has taken on this task three times now, portraying rock star Joan Jett, actress and activist Jean Seberg, and the larger-than-life Princess Diana. Each of these strong female icons broke away from societal expectations in their own way, and somehow, Kristen Stewart found a way to slip into their skin and tell their stories.
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The Runaways: Joan Jett Didn’t Give A You-Know-What
The LA music scene in the late ’70s was rough and tumble, drug-addled, dangerous, desperate, and angry — and that’s even if you weren’t a teenage girl with no supervision. When the iconic musician Joan Jett formed her first band in 1975, The Runaways, female rock stars weren’t even a thing. Jett had an unforgiving determination to succeed in a male-dominated space and threw middle fingers up at the hecklers, the misogynists, the record labels, her manager, and even her bandmates. Even after The Runaways broke up due to a myriad of personal and professional differences, Jett pursued a solo career and eventually became a platinum-selling musician, one of the first female recording artists to found her own record label, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with her band Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.
In 2010, music video director Floria Sigismondi was tasked with creating a fictionalized portrayal of The Runaways' rise to international fame, and the movie version ofThe Runawayswas born. Kristen Stewart was cast as Joan Jett, and Jett herself was an executive producer on the set, which allowed the two to work closely together, ensuring that Stewart could give the most authentic performance of the rock star. Stewart perfectly embodies the physicality of a runaway teenager thrust into sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll — from the way she slams the strings of her electric guitar to the way she leaves her leather pants unbuttoned, à la Jett. Regarding Stewart’s masterful ability to capture Jett’s mannerisms,Jett told MTV, “She’d listen to my accent and watch my body language. She’s an actress of weight, honesty, integrity, and depth.” Kristen Stewart was toThe Runawayswhat Joan Jett was to music — unbridled passion, a whole lot of heart, and absolutely zero you-know-what’s to give.
Seberg: Jean Seberg Fought Against Injustice
Jean Seberg was an Iowa-born actress who rose to fame with French New Wave cinema and transitioned to Hollywood in the 1960s. Seberg was unswayed in her beliefs, one of which, was her pursuit of racial equality. Unfortunately, this was not a popular opinion during this time period in America. She contributed money and resources to the Black Panthers, as well as other Black liberation groups.Sebergtells the true tale of the covert FBI operation which had the sole purpose of harassing, defaming, discrediting, and ultimately ruining her. Seberg was spied on, stalked, and tormented for years under the direct command of President J. Edgar Hoover. Her life was marred by scandal; she had absolutely no privacy, and she was professionally blacklisted due to the FBI’s smear campaign. This took a severe toll on Seberg’s mental state and contributed to her self-medication and even the loss of her baby, from which she was never able to fully recover. She died in 1979 at age 40 of probable suicide.
Kristen Stewart shines as Seberg, embracing both her delicateness and fierceness in equal parts. Rather than the in-your-face attitude of Joan Jett, Stewart had to deliver Seberg’s quiet determination, as she suffered largely in silence for years, refusing to give up on the causes she cared about even if it meant her life would be massively more difficult. Jean Seberg was an undoubtedly troubled woman who often stepped out of her marriages, was somewhat absent as a mother to her young son, and suffered from mental illness. However, she was also an esteemed actress, an unapologetic defender of liberty, and a true survivor. Stewart studied Seberg and her films in preparation for her role, and when asked about how she channeled Jean Seberg’s spirit,she told USA Today, “You take a cumulative impression and then fiercely attempt to protect her.” And isn’t that exactly what Seberg was striving for in her own life.
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Spencer: Princess Diana Broke the Royal Rules
Princess Diana is arguably the most popular royal of our time. She achieved global adoration when she married into the royal family in 1981, and became known as “the world’s most photographed woman.” It’s common knowledge that the unrelenting stress of being a public person, let alone one forced to adhere to strict generational rules of conduct, took a toll on Diana’s mental health — and ultimately led to her death in a car crash that occurred while trying to flee paparazzi. Before there was Meghan Markle, unapologetic about forging her own path as royal, there was Diana. Princess Diana became known for shirking expectations of the Queen and the royal family, including publicly discussing intimate details of her life such as her eating disorder and failing marriage to Prince Charles, forgoing particular fashion traditions, and sending her two sons to public school.
Pablo Larrain’s 2021 Oscar-nominated filmSpenceris an intimate look at Diana’s experience during the royal family Christmas of 1991 — a meticulously planned-out weekend at the Queen’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk — and her internal desperation to break free of the rules imposed on her. The name of the movie alone, a homage to Diana’s maiden surname, invokes the feeling of her unique identity that she refused to let go of, even when she was fully immersed in the intricacies of royal life. Kristen Stewart as Princess Dianabeautifully portrays the frustrationand mental and emotional agony of being bound to autocratic rules when all she really wants is to escape her adulterous husband and be a normal mother to her sons.Spencerhas the air of a psychological thriller and Stewart’s physicality expertly displays Diana’s inner struggles, most notably in a scene portraying self-harm, and her prowess earned her anOscar nominationfor Best Actress. Stewartsaid in an interviewthat agreeing to this role was an effort to “try and absorb an essence and let her soul reverberate.” Ultimately, she was able to fully embody a woman suffocated by outside expectations and yet refused to sacrifice all of herself.
