Playing Princess Diana Made Kristen Stewart Extremely Nervous

 

CREDIT: Brian Bowen Smith

Kristen Stewart has revealed that portraying Princess Diana made her so nervous that she "couldn't open my mouth for two weeks before we started shooting."

Kristen plays Diana in the movie Spencer, which showcases the late princess pending three days with The Royal Family for Christmas in 1991, before she and Charles separated.

"I had TMJ (her jaw stayed shut) to the point where I was like, completely locked up."

"I was like, 'Huh, I guess I'm really nervous' - I was really tripping out until we started."

Spencer was directed by Chilean-born Pablo Larrain, who has previously directed Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy in the 2017 Oscar-nominated film Jackie.

Pablo told Kristen to "relax and trust the process" as well as rely on her extensive preparation for the role.

She has admitted not knowing too much about the topic before she was chosen for the film.

CREDIT: Eric Charbonneau

"I didn't have the most developed or defined relationship with the Royal Family in general. I didn't grow up following the sort of saga."

"Obviously, I do live on Planet Earth, and her impact was so immense and emotional, even for somebody who was seven when she passed away."

Kristen has received immense support and praise for her performance, but revealed she completely immersed herself into research for the role.

"I read everything, I wanted every photo...watched all the interviews that I could get my hands on. I watched The Crown, I watched every iteration of interpretation. I just tried to absorb her in an emotional and general way, and then trust the process, and expect her to show up."

Portraying such an important figure in the eyes of the public, Kristen had to anchor her portrayal based on her own feelings, considering there are so many different opinions surrounding the princess.

"I felt I wanted to protect her. I had to just not focus on other people's idea of her, and really focus on my own. And that in itself was just so distinct and specific to me." 

CREDIT: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images

"I think to do her justice is to allow her to be impulsive. Anything I watched her in, whether it was an interview, or even in a still photograph, it always feels unpredictable. Like you don't know what's going to happen."

"And it's because she has this vulnerability and this raw emotion that she cannot conceal. There's no way to do a perfect impression of that."

"You have to feel it, and it has to be yours. So I think I just had to relax."

Kristen described the film as a "tumultuous tone poem that also felt really exuberant and wonderful and joyous."

"In an odd way...it is about her fight to embody her life and have some agency, and get away from the weight that the Royal Family obviously brought to her life."

She said it is an "imagining of what it might have felt like, over the course of this decision to leave the family," but said it doesn't feel like a "betrayal" of the late princess because it is 
"a poetic interpretation of all things that we absolutely know."

"I felt such love for her and still do...I wish I could ask her if she thinks I'm doing a good job."

CREDIT: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

This film also doesn't shy away from discussing the topics of her eating disorders and struggles with mental health.

"The movie is very surreal. I think that when you go through extreme trauma in life, there are times where you feel crazy. I never felt the implication of Diana, losing it."

"There are times where you are at odds with communication and therefore feel because of this muzzled energy, a bit locked in your own head."

"And she spoke about that. I mean, that was something that she talked about all the time. And so I felt to be honest, it felt truer than the truth."

Kristen has also spoken about her being considered as a contender for the Oscars next year.

"It was really cool. I've never had that. We make movies to have the most open and large-scale conversations that we can have, as a culture and like a society. It's nice to be just for a second a part of that - it's fun."

Spencer was premiered at the London Film Festival on October 7th. It will be released in the UK and the U.S. on November 5th, and on January 26th 2022 for Australia.