BEVERLY HILLS – Our day of “Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2” press conferences has already include Bill Condon, Michael Sheen (no live-blog, because I’m a man, not a machine), Melissa Rosenberg, Stephenie Meyer and Wyck Godfrey, Taylor Lautner and Robert Pattinson.
Last on the dais…
12:40 p.m. Only Kristen Stewart remains!
12:42 p.m. What was it like for Kristen Stewart to uncage Bella? “I was really lucky to have played human Bella for so long,” she says. Vampires are an enhanced version of their personalities, so Bella got to be extra-enhanced. “If you were to take the fact that she becomes a vampire completely away, it’s just a more realized version of who she’s been the entire time,” she says, explaining that it really represents a phase of life and that’s why it touches so many people. She says people always think that Bella is nuts, but finally everything makes sense for the character. “It’s really satisfying and really fun,” she says, comparing playing Vampire Bella to breaking in a new car.
12:45 p.m. “I kept the rings,” Stewart says of things she kept from the movie. “She’s not really in to ‘stuff,’ so there aren’t a whole lot of props,” she explains.
12:46 p.m. When did she realize how big this was going to be? “It’s grown so much even recently. I never really realized to the extent that it’s gotten to. Comic-Con was the first time that I was ever really hit with a wave of human energy,” she remembers. Up until that point, they thought it was only for them. “I was excited and incredibly overwhelmed, admittedly. But it’s the greatest part of the job to be able to share that,” K-Stew says.
12:48 p.m. Somebody from a fan site thanks her for respecting them and then asks about stunts. “I broke my thumb the first or second day of our intense action-type stuff, so that was frustrating, but it was fun,” she says. “I’d been on the sidelines for so long just saying, ‘I think I could do that. I think I could do that pretty well,'” she says, admitting that she probably broke her thumb because she was over-zealous.
12:49 p.m. A 14-year-old reporter asks if Kristen could pause her life at any point — vampire-style — when would it be? “I’m not there yet, so I don’t know… I can’t wait to get to that point,” she says.
12:50 p.m. How did Bella’s journey parallel Kristen’s journey? “Without taking any of the truth out of this, it’s so sorta general,” she says, meaning “universal.” “You question yourself along the way constantly and I don’t think you should ever stop doing that necessarily,” she says. “I definitely feel a little bit more realized. A lot more actually. I think that by chance we happen to be the same age. It’s a tough one, because she lives so many years in such a tight little period of time,” she says. “I think I’ve grown up a little bit. I don’t know.”
12:52 p.m. And how about the effect the movies have had on her career choices? She doesn’t know what her dream role is or where she sees herself going next. She doesn’t like viewing herself as an outsider would. She doesn’t like responding to other people’s perspective. “Things have fallen in my life and I’ve gotten incredibly, insanely lucky,” she says. “It’s always a pretty impulsive thing,” she says of her choice. She doesn’t think of herself as playing “characters.” The process for her is finding characters she responds to, which she admits is why some of her characters have been similar, but now she’s ready to dig deeper and she’s hoping to shock herself.
12:55 p.m. A reporter asks something about the end of the movie, the cumulative aspect at the end of the movie. She doesn’t want to discuss it for obvious reasons. “It’s crazy. It’s so crazy. You typically just don’t get that opportunity to look back,” she says. “[Bill] understood, really put his finger on what drives this thing. He wasn’t shying away from anything… sappy. This thing is romantic. It’s what is attractive about it,” she says. She praises Bill for not trying to be “cool” about the emotional cap, which she also describes as “a nice little knife-twist” that it’s over.
12:56 p.m. What was it like for Kristen to play a mom? “It might be something that you’re born with or not born with. Some people have really strong natural instincts,” she says. “There was never enough about that in the script for me,” Stewart says, praising Stephanie Meyer for being on set and helping bring that side to the character. She ties the relationship to the animalistic nature that vampires have already. “I have a great relationship with my mom and she can be a bit feral when it comes to being a mom,” she says. “I can’t wait to be a mom… but I can wait,” she says.
12:58 p.m. Stewart’s asked about the bonds between her and Rob and Taylor. “It’s nice to not be alone in that, I guess,” she says. “There are a lot of people who are exceeding famous, but we share the movies.” “I wouldn’t have done it in the first place unless it was something I was always going to carry and I think they feel the same way,” she says. “There a lot of exceedingly famous people and they all get it,” she closes.
1:00 p.m. But is she happy this is over? “I’m so happy that the story is told. You have no idea,” she says. She’s super-excited that the story has been told. “It’s a feeling and I will definitely miss that, but again, I feel like it’s not going anyway,” she says of being a part of this. “It’s normal. Things shouldn’t say stagnant. You’ve gotta move on.” She’s also constantly asked about explaining the phenomenon, which she can’t do. “I would just phenomenon every single day if I knew the equation,” she cracks.
1:02 p.m. Would she sign on for another franchise up-front? “My guess is probably not, but I think it’s just really rare to find something that lends itself to that,” says Stewart, who has never been a huge fan of any comic book or ongoing series. “Never say never,” she closes.
1:03 p.m. Ugh. What would K-Stew give Bella for the holidays? “Old Bella. What do you want for Christmas, girl?” Stewart muses. Much hemming and hawing. “You guys? What would you give her for Christmas? See? She’s just not that into stuff. In fact… hates presents,” she says.
1:06 p.m. Which of Bella’s powers would she like to have or to have experienced? Running really fast. The treadmill just wasn’t enough. Would she like to live forever? “No.”
1:05 p.m. Is there any question that she hasn’t been asked that she wished she’d been asked? “Nope,” she says. “What do I desperate want to let out right now? Nope,” she says.
1:06 p.m. She didn’t buy herself anything to celebrate getting this role. In fact, she finds the idea that an actor would do something like that, “the weirdest thing ever.”
And that’s it for K-Stew.