Since her rapid ascent to fame as The Twilight Saga's leading lady, Kristen Stewart has had something of a rough time when it comes to her professional and public life. It's bad enough having the latter combed over in fine detail, but when your talent is called into question, that must sting all the more.
But here's the thing about Kristen Stewart. She isn't a bad actress in the slightest. In fact, right now she's on the kind of under-the-radar hot streak that suggests she's destined for real career longevity. Twilight, now receding into the cultural distance, was never the finest example of a franchise that fostered great acting work, and Stewart suffered as audiences naturally connected her with sullen on-screen alter-ego Bella Swan.
Over the last 18 months Stewart's big screen work has seen her take on a trio of diverse roles that have smartly distanced her from anything vampire-related. In Camp X-Ray she plays Amy Cole, an army newbie who finds herself stationed as a guard at Guantanamo Bay.
The film itself, from writer/director Peter Sattler, won't go down as a masterpiece, but right at its heart is a terrific performance from Stewart, whose character finds her outlook and worldview shifting the more time she spends with detainee Ali (Peyman Moaadi). The idea of Stewart in military garb may not immediately seem like a natural one, but she invests her performance with the kind of inner steel we never saw from Bella.
Camp X-Ray wasn't just a one-off. Still Alice proved to be the Julianne Moore show right up until her Oscars victory this year, but Stewart matched her every step of the way, only to find herself scandalously overlooked at awards season. She's quietly brilliant as Lydia, an aspiring actress shaken by her mother's Alzheimer's diagnosis.
Initially distant both emotionally and geographically, she rushes from California to New York to aid her struggling mother just as the rest of the family begin to pull away, unable to accept the sight of a loved one fading. It's Lydia's compassion and empathy for her ailing mother that lend Still Alice emotional weight. The final scene - Lydia reading aloud a passage from Angels in America to Alice - is absolutely devastating.
In Clouds of Sils Maria, arriving in the UK next week, Stewart again finds herself up against a titan in the form of Juliette Binoche. Olivier Assayas's film casts Binoche as a seasoned actress who agrees to star in a revival production of the play that made her famous two decades earlier.
The film provides a fascinating look at identity, ageing and the nature of fame and success. Binoche's Maria Enders confronts two reflections of herself: Chloë Grace Moretz's brattish movie star Jo-Ann Ellis and her trusted assistant Valentine, played by Stewart. Imagine Black Swan without all the hysterics.
As with Still Alice, Stewart is more than a match for her more decorated co-star, providing a neat counter-balance to Binoche's diva. Maria and Valentine are perhaps more entwined than it initially appears on the surface, with the latter abruptly vanishing towards the close of the film. Was Valentine a figment of Maria's imagination? Had one outgrown the other and the disappearance was a symbolic one? The mystery is left up to the audience to decide.
Stewart may not have had any awards love for Still Alice, but she made history earlier this year when she became the first American actress to win a Cesar Award. This career resurgence isn't going unnoticed - upcoming roles for Woody Allen and Ang Lee show that Hollywood's A-list filmmaking talent recognise what she's capable of... but then they've probably known all along. In the years before she blew up with Twilight, Panic Room, Into the Wild and Adventureland saw her deliver impressive turns for David Fincher, Sean Penn and Greg Mottola.
Stewart is a markedly different star and personality to her contemporaries Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Watson, two actresses she is frequently bracketed with. You won't catch her photobombing Taylor Swift or standing up in front of the UN any time soon, but too little is made of what Stewart isn't capable of as opposed to what she is. That is an actress adept at forging a deep emotional connection with her character, then relaying that back to the viewer. It's a priceless commodity, and one that's seeing her step out of Bella Swan's shadow and slowly but surely cementing herself as one of cinema's must-watch stars.
Movies Editor
Simon has worked as a journalist for more than a decade, writing on staff and freelance for Hearst, Dennis, Future and Autovia titles before joining Cision in 2022.
