FILM INTERVIEW: KRISTEN STEWART

'Twilight' Star Talks About Changing Direction & Running Away to 'Adventureland'

By: Izumi Hasegawa

April 3, 2009

Taking a break away from supernatural love triangle, Kristen Stewart plays a college student who also works at a theme park, and carries on a scandalous (at least in the eyes of her family) relationship with the park's maintenance man. Alongside her and down for a ride in Adventureland, are Jesse Eisenberg, Ryan Reynolds, and SNL's Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig.

Buzzine's Izumi Hasegawa sat down with Ms. Stewart to talk older men, adolescent rebellion, the next step in the Twilight Saga and about stepping into Joan Jett's (ass-kicking) boots in the upcoming biopic of Joan's iconic 70's all-girl rock group, The Runaways...

Izumi Hasegawa: Did [writer/director] Greg Mottola tell you that your character in Adventureland was based on anyone he knew? How did he present it to you?

Kristen Stewart: I think she was based on a compiled [list of] girlfriends of his in the past, like a melding of a couple of different people, failed relationships [laughs] with girls that were kind of damaged, but not a specific person, so it wasn't like one relationship he had.

IH: Did you know anyone like that when you were growing up?

KS: I never met a terribly introverted damaged girl at a theme park in the ‘80s... [Laughs]

IH: Did you base the character on anyone you knew, or relate to her easily?

KS: I like characters who are written whole, who don't feel like it's easy to tell what would be right and wrong and how they would feel about something, because they're very defiant. It's not like they're just a placeholder. I'm not like the girl in the movie. She's a real person. I mean, I got all my inspiration from her. I could imagine what it would be like to not like yourself very much and not have a mom and not have a dad to reassure you and sort of be kicking it alone and feel like you’re smarter than everybody, but no one gets it. I get all that, and then the masochistic aspects girls are good at, so I can relate on that level.

IH: How do you understand and relate to the girl who dates and sleeps with older guys?

KS: I think it's an outlet for her, and it's just something that she can go do, and it's mindless. She has a void and it's not necessarily being filled by that, but it's a distraction and she's not proud. She doesn't tell people about it. It's obviously not something that she's too excited about, but she keeps doing it.

IH: Was that more of a rebellious thing of that character against her father?

KS: Yeah, I think that was more about her dad getting to know that she was actually a real person and not just a little girl. Your little girl is going to grow up into a woman [who] does things for her own good, who makes her own choices that wouldn't necessarily coincide with his, but I don't think it was defined. She may have actually really liked that guy. It seemed like that funeral thing was actually genuine; she wasn't just there to piss her dad off.

IH: Obviously, I would be remiss if I don't ask you a Twilight question as you’re getting ready to shoot the new one. What  are you most looking forward to?

KS: Just picking up where we left off. There's a six-month period in between where the first one ended and the second one picks up, but nothing [has] changed. They're at a good solid point in their relationship. I'm interested to see him leave, because that's what the first one is entirely based on -- it's just that abandoned devotion, ultimate love story, and now she's going to be stripped of that. So Bella is actually an interesting character on her own. And Taylor Lautner is Jacob, and he was under deliberation for a little while, so we're glad that he's in it.

IH: How is the difference for you as an actress, in starting New Moon, already knowing some of what to expect?

KS: It's so much easier. It's just experience; it's realizing that it's a different world. I'm more aware, I'm not as freaked out by it; it's all proven to be fine and, at first, I was just kind of freaked out.

IH: Does that mean you can have fun with it, or are we still not at the point where fun is a possibility?

KS: Sometimes things are fun, but as long as I say what I mean and it's not entirely jumbled and I feel like something's gotten across, then I'm proud. As long as I keep doing what I like to do, then whatever happens with all this stuff is just going to happen.

IH: The third Twilight film is coming out very quickly, the following summer. What does that mean for the cast as actors? Are you just in these characters solidly for the next year? Are they giving you a break?

KS: I have a movie in between. I do New Moon and then we do The Runaways and then I do Eclipse.

IH: Joan Jett? The Runaways?

KS: Yeah!

IH: What kind of research are you doing?

KS: Just trying to immerse myself in that music scene, just to educate myself about it.

IH: Are you concerned about that rock and roll image at all? Because you have so many young girls who are just crazy about you...

KS: Joan is such a remarkable role model for any young girl. She was the first female to start a record label -- she was so young. I think she was in her early 20s. She's an activist, she's a feminist... she's a great role model.

IH: Here's the big question: Are you doing your own singing?

KS: I don't know yet, to be honest. I want to, very badly, but I also want it to sound right and I don't know if it will be a combination, like they'll lay our voices on top of each other, or if it will be just her or just me. We'll see how able the other actors are to play the music themselves. It would be awesome. We're definitely on band practice. We're going to be a group of people [who] actually make music together. There's a lot of performance in the movie.

IH: Dakota Fanning is doing both movies with you (New Moon and The Runaways), right?

KS: Yeah.

IH: Are you looking forward to basically spending the next year with her on sets?

KS: Yeah, absolutely. I've always loved what she's done. She's very controlled and poised, and then in terms of her actual work she makes, it's always so different. She's going to rock this. Talk about abandon, she's going to have to lose herself in this [because] it's pretty heavy.

IH: Is there a sequence that you're especially looking forward to doing - a scene that you want to shoot that you're really amped to do?

KS: Yeah, the relationship that's really interesting is Cherie and Joan -- the two frontmen of the band. They get tattoos together in Japan and, obviously, they still have those tattoos [laughs], but I'm looking forward to that just because it's a fun part of the movie. I like the big conflict. It's like Cherie can't really handle the success, nor does she want it, necessarily, in that respect, and Joan knows this has kick-started her whole career, and so to watch it all fall apart and her still stand, I'm excited about that. It's a really explosive scene. Amps are kicked through and guitars are smashed.

Miramax Films' 'Adventureland' is in theaters now.