Kristen Stewart on why Princess Diana was “wonderful,” but “ironically unknowable”
Stewart stars as Princess Di in Spencer, from director Pablo Larrain. We talked to the duo about the movie
Film Features Kristen Stewart
When Diana, Princess Of Wales, died in a car crash in 1997, it seemed like the entire world mourned. Though Diana had divorced her husband, future King Of England Prince Charles, a few years earlier, she’d remained in the public eye, whether by her own volition or not.
In recent years, several projects have taken a look at Diana’s life, including the most recent season of The Crown. The latest is Pablo Larrain’s Spencer, which stars Kristen Stewart as the Princess formerly known as Lady Diana Spencer. In the movie, Stewart’s Diana is on the cusp of announcing her separation and feels trapped by the royal family’s traditional ways.
Stewart has been lauded for her performance as Diana, with some even making her an early contender for an Oscar nomination. When we talked to Stewart and Larrain for the video above, though, it was clear that Stewart went into the project not because of awards potential, but because of what became a voracious interest in the film’s subject.
“Before we made this movie,” says Stewart, “I didn’t have a very involved perception of her. I knew that she was somebody who was loved and that we lost too soon, and then in going through her life and the way other people experienced her and what I could glean from videos and pictures and things that she said herself… it is cryptic and there are so many layers to trying to interpret what her inner life may have been because it’s not like she had journals to read. “
Calling Diana an “ironically unknowable person,” Stewart says she thinks the late royal’s legacy endures not just because of the popularity of her children Harry and William, but also because “there is multiplicity in the way that we talk about her in art. She does not go away. She’s just on our cultural psyche, and is very, very much present in that.”
Stewart also told us that she viewed Diana as “a very human subject,” but that she also thinks she was “a wonderful person” with “an unbelievable empathy… that is rare.”
There’s more from Stewart and Larrain in the video above. If you’d like to read about our critics’ first look at Spencer during the Venice Film Festival, you can do that right here.
23 Comments
Stop idolizing and excusing the behavior of rich famous people and canonizing them when they die!
How is Princess Di different from the quiet hoochie on your street, who knew her man wasn’t shit but got with him and had kids anyway, doesn’t work and is on welfare but wears nice outfits and gets her hair done, has dubious friendships with multiple men, whose kids’ paternity is questioned and hits every party?Let’s not pretend that getting one’s picture taken and saying a few words at some charity event isn’t a Palace-approved criticism-insulator to prolong the ceremonial monarchy or that it’s work or demonstrates any true interest or dedication. Cuz Misty the methhead trailer park mom sometimes remembers to pickup her kids at the bus stop too and gets no special respect for it.
“Calling Diana an “ironically unknowable person,” Stewart says”Stewart also believes she was spoken to by Diana’s spirit like a crazy person.Sounds like the world has yet another convert to the weird cult still devoted to emotionally investing into a dead aristocrat they never bloody met.
Kinda like all the people that love the queen ?
Yep. Whole monarchy is built on that shit. It’s just particularly bizarre when it’s someone who’s been dead for nearly a quarter of a century.“If she was around today she’d be saying,” claim the nutters who never met her yet want to speak for her…
WWDD? I mean, it’s just as dumb and far less destructive than WWJD, right?
That’s a bit different. The Queen (like her mother before her) is, at least in her elder years, seen as a comforting, kindly grandmother figure (to what level that’s just an act not reflecting her real personality is debatable). The cult of Diana is different. She was like a pop star — people were attracted to her youth and looks more than anything else.
The monarchy gets you so pressed. Beautiful, talented women really unhinge you, lol.
Speaking of weirdos with a creepy obsession with people they don’t know…
Creepers gonna creep.
lol “bloody”you people have such dumb fucking words for things
The only dead semi aristocratic woman I never met who I care about is Audrey Hepburn. Also a more interesting person but that’s just me.
meh I think Diana is being examined under a new light recently with a lot of problematic aspects of her personality as well, and that’s fine. I also think with queer people rediscovering their history, Diana kind of factors into being an early advocate for us queer ppl.
I’d argue that Princess Di was not unknowable. But Millennials do like to think that their ideas are perfectly original, even when those ideas have already become established fact. Kristen must do the talk show rounds though and what else would she be expected to say?
She’s not wrong. She was very introverted but also had a carefully manicured image put out there. Then again, she probably was knowable, just not known
Just like there are known knows, and unknown knows that will be known knowns, no matter what (rot in hell, Rumsfeld).
she seems like an ignorant nasty person.
Though Diana had divorced her husband, future King Of England Prince CharlesThere’s no guarantee of that ever happening. He’s next in line, but he isn’t exactly young himself. It’s not out of the question that he’ll die before the Queen. Or that the monarchy will be abolished.
Ooooh I’d like the latter.
Im really over this love affair with Diana. She was sympathic due to struggling with mental illness and its a shame she died so senselessly, but she wasn’t Jesus Christ. I swear the amount of time spent talking about her eclipses at least half of the major wars fought in the last century. I don’t need a documentary, fictional drama, Broadway musical and Netflix show all within six months please.
Umm… a big, blank canvas where people painted whatever they wanted?
She doesn’t go away because we don’t let her.
Of course Stewart finds her unknowable. She was all of seven years old when Diana died, so she has to work off second-hand sources and a quarter-century of posthumous hagiography.
saw Spencer yesterday. it’s a great film, a claustrophobic thriller and a dark comedy on manners (i stole that discription from NPR Fresh Air review).