Our favorite So Gay Dude, Kristen Stewart, is on the cover of this month’s Variety Magazine in all her gay glory: alternative lifestyle haircut, black nail polish, sequined-tank-dress-paired-with-gym-socks, noted jawline, casually discarded white blazer, suggestively parted lips, myriad tattoos. In the body of said story, entitled “How Kristen Stewart Became a Queer Trailblazer,” Stewart speaks more openly than ever on several topics relevant to our collective interests. For example: Twilight being gay, coming out to herself and then coming out on Saturday Night Live, sex scenes in the hotly anticipated lesbian bodybuilder movie Love Lies Bleeding and her struggle to get her adaptation of The Chronology of Water off the ground in an industry that clearly has no regard for what I personally would like to see on The Big Screen.
Photo credit: Emily Soto for Variety
Kristen Stewart Came Out On Her Own Terms
When Kristen Stewart came out on Saturday Night Live, it was a crescendo of what had been a multi-year build-up, including her relatively public relationship with Alicia Cargile, which began in approximately 2014. Prior to that time, Stewart recalls that she’d gotten “good at the heteronormative quality.” Stewart tells Variety that her choice to incorporate her first definitive public statement about her sexuality into a Saturday Night Live opening monologue was intentional.
“It wasn’t even like I was hiding,” Stewart told Variety. “I was so openly out with my girlfriend for years at that point. I’m like, ‘I’m a pretty knowable person….It was cool to frame it in a funny context because it could say everything without having to sit down and do an interview. ‘So what platform is that going to be on? And who’s going to make money on that? And who’s going to be the person that broke it?’ I broke it, alone.”
There are some tidbits in the story from Clea DuVall, who recalls her own reluctance to come out at the start of her career. Variety also got a quote from Jodie Foster, who called the SNL monologue “a wonderful, funny, wry, modern way to be honest to the world.”
Kristen Stewart Can See the Gay Subtext of Her Life More Clearly Now
Once upon a time in the early 2010s, we here at Autostraddle had a breakthrough about Kristen Stewart that changed how we thought about queer celebrities in general — that it was possible that she, just like so many of us at her age, hadn’t come out yet to the world because she hadn’t come out yet to herself. We tend to assume that somehow Hollywood stars, by virtue of being aware that gayness exists and being surrounded by gay people (because Hollywood is gay), will somehow figure things out about themselves more quickly than we did. The pressure on young stars to self-identify before they’re ready reached a fever pitch last year with the forced outing of Heartstopper actor Kit Connor.
Stewart confirms this theory is correct in the Variety interview — she didn’t yet see in herself what others saw in her, and she felt like she didn’t feel like he relationships with men lacked authenticity (Relatable!): “For so long, I was like, ‘Why are you trying to skewer me? Why are you trying to ruin my life? I’m a kid, and I don’t really know myself well enough yet.’ The idea of people going, ‘I knew that you were a little queer kid forever.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah? Well, you should honestly have seen me fuck my first boyfriend.’”
She now can look back at the cannon of Kristen Stewart movies and see the queer glimmers in her eyes. On a recent Panic Room watch, in which young tomboy Stewart shares the screen almost exclusively with Jodie Foster, Stewart realized; “I was already going like, ‘Don’t fuck with me.’ I was gay.”
Also “Twilight” is Gay
Terrifyingly pale body horror cinematic experience Twilight was widely beloved, even by people who knew it was bad — but like most vampire lore, managed to find its home in queer hearts despite its Mormon author and the alleged heterosexuality of its cast.
“I can only see it now…I don’t think it necessarily started off that way, but I also think that the fact that I was there at all, it was percolating. It’s such a gay movie,” she told Variety. “I mean, Jesus Christ, Taylor [Lautner] and Rob and me, and it’s so hidden and not OK. I mean, a Mormon woman wrote this book. It’s all about oppression, about wanting what’s going to destroy you. That’s a very Gothic, gay inclination that I love.”
“Love Lies Bleeding” Is Full of Lesbian Sex Scenes
Stewart loved Rose Glass’s 2020 debut film Saint Maud, and sought out Glass after seeing it, eager to learn what she was doing next. They met up in London and the conversation about lesbian bodybuilder movie Love Lies Bleeding, — about the relationship between aspiring bodybuilder Jackie (Katy O’Brian) and Lou, “a meek, boyish lesbian who looks after the gym where Jackie works out” — began there. After reading the script, Stewart was confident she was destined to play Lou. Glass agreed.
“I always wanted Lou to have this moody boyish charm, to be butch and androgynous in a way which not many actors of Kristen’s profile are,” Glass told Variety. “Weirdly, I can’t think of that many roles like this she’s done, and yet to be honest, it feels like it’s maybe a bit closer to who she is.”
Stewart’s especially stoked about sexuality in Love Lies Bleeding and its multiple sex scenes and having “the things that [Stewart] found attractive be really glorified.”
Kristen Stewart Does a Kristen Stewart Impression
In what feels like a treat for me specifically, Kristen plays a game guessing lines from her most famous movies which becomes a vehicle for her to speak about her experience making those films! She apparently hated making Charlie’s Angels, which’s fascinating. Also she does a Kristen Stewart impression to summon her memory for one of the lines and it’s perfect
Read the whole-ass Kristen Stewart cover story at Variety Magazine.
I remember that historic moment when i sighed a sigh of relief that someone, at last, treated celebrities like human beings. And young celebrities!
Re Heartstopper, this is one of the parts of the internet that i could never stand, the out of control fan girl behaviour and nosiness. It’s like an eternal teenage schoolyard, the impulse to control other people’s behaviour, dress, etc.
So, Autostraddle really won the award there!!
good reading material to prepare myself when i date a bi woman. i read the quote and fainted and hit my head ona coffee table. I am hoping theres nothing nsfw with the how in the quote or i will kms
This is a really beautiful tribute Nico. Thank you for sharing it with us <3
Pls Visit Totowayang
I had a phase early in my transition (which I think was prompted by my hair), where when I caught a rare glimpse of “her” in the mirror, sometimes if I was lucky, I’d feel a very “Kristin Stewart around the time of Charlie’s Angels” vibe. I absolutely loved it, made a Pinterest board of pics of her with a similar look, inspired my makeup by what I saw her wear…
Now I’m gonna have to read the whole interview I guess! (I did see Charlie’s Angels, on an airplane which is where I consume most of my cinema content…)
Anyway, just to say, I am *here* for more Kristin Stewart content. She’s very “be her and be with her” vibes.
(Hmmm I should see if she’s ever had hair the length mine is now…)
Btw a bunch of spam in the comments on this one, looks like two spam or at least misplaced comments. You can delete this one when you delete them too.