Just as every studio head on Monday morning was surely ordering their underlings to go find the next "Fifty Shades Of Grey," the same happened when it became clear that "Twilight" was going to be a phenomenon in 2008. We’ve already seen several YA series go for that audience ("The Hunger Games," "Divergent," "The Maze Runner") while others have failed ("Beautiful Creatures," "The Mortal Instruments"), and while the young leads in all the franchises have diversified their CV’s, the actors of "Twilight" (probably because they were first) have unfairly had a harder time shaking whatever stigma has been attached to them for their work in the vampire saga. But Kristen Stewart has no time for the haters.
In an interview in, um, Interview, punk-rock legend Patti Smith complements her interviewee’s efforts in the "Twilight" movies. "I loved your work in those films. I thought the commitment of everyone in those films was true. Like ‘The Hunger Games’ —if you accept the world that you’re entering, and if the people deliver that world, that’s what we’re looking for," Smith said.
"…it was a long process, so it’s hard to generalize about it as a whole. It wasn’t entirely cohesive. We ebbed and flowed. I will definitely acknowledge that," Stewart responded. "But the intention is so fucking pure in a weird way. Anybody who wants to talk shit about ‘Twilight,’ I completely get it, but there’s something there that I’m endlessly, and to this day, fucking proud of. My memory of it felt —still feels— really good."
Stewart says the film is part of the continuum of her career. "Every movie that I’ve done, they don’t stand independently from one another because a little bit of me is in every single one of those, and it’s part of my own personal growth. I don’t think that there’s much hiding that actors can do," she explained. "If you’re doing good work, you’re showing a part of yourself to someone, so I can’t say that ‘Twilight’ doesn’t have anything to do with ‘Still Alice‘ and ‘Sils Maria.’ They have everything to do with each other. They are who I am."
Meanwhile, Smith has nothing but praise and admiration for Stewart and the art of acting in general. "…I would say that of all the arts, acting is the most grueling, thankless. Never apologize for your work. If people don’t accept the ‘Twilight’ series for what it is, well, fuck them," she states. "Millions of people loved that series. It gave them something. It said something about love and honor. And acting is a really hard job. It’s not a romantic job. I’ve watched the hours in makeup, hours sitting around waiting for the lights, or because you lose your light, or it starts to rain or whatever. And you feel like shit or you have a migraine, but you have to do it, 12, 13 hours a day."
"What will remain 20, 30 years from now— all those people and their snarky comments and their projections will be forgotten— but if your work continues to grow and you do great work, that’s what will be remembered," Smith added. "It’s all about work in the end. And you’re not a bit behind. You have learned a lot of technical things, a lot of disciplines. And you can apply everything that you’ve learned from one genre into another."
From one legend to an actress with a long, promising road ahead…be sure to read the their talk in full right here.