My Life Is Twilight: In Defense Of Kristen Stewart

As the editor of a moderately popular Twilight blog, I encounter a lot of opinions about Kristen Stewart. Everyone has an opinion about Kristen Stewart, including my mom. Here's the entirety of an e-mail I once received from my mother:

So the Bella team was on the Today Show this morning… she uses the word “like” in every other sentence. Matt Lauer asked her if she’s getting a bunch of offers, she hardly knew how to answer the question and then acts like she is so particular about scripts…

It really ended with ellipses like that. My mom's opinion of "the Bella team" (by which I am 85% sure she means Kristen Stewart) is obviously a negative one. And she is not alone; I take it most people feel this way. Kristen Stewart haters can be divided into three camps, roughly.

1. People who seem to think she is a shitty person, like my mom.
2. People who hate her because she (allegedly, but really, she does) fucks Robert Pattinson on a regular basis.
3. People who think she is a bad actress.

I can't do anything about the people in category 2. Except to say they are TOTALLY banging, DEAL WITH IT. But I disagree with categories 1 and 3. Not only do I think Kristen Stewart is a pretty good actress, I think she seems like a cool chick who I would want to hang out with. Consider the gauntlet thrown down.

• First of all: lets address my mom's problem: Kristen Stewart is a bad interviewee. Um, so is Kanye West. And My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is great. Ergo: shut up. Next question.
• But seriously, mom: in this era of obsessively trained-and-micromanaged child stars, isn't it kind of refreshing to see a young person who acts like a young person? Taylor Lautner is the fucking freak, not Stewart. Mumbling and being nervous around Jay Leno is a totally normal and acceptable reaction, isn't it? Matt Lauer is a jerk. Shouldn't he be treated as such?
• I get that people will say that doing press and being good at it and at the very least not coming off as ungrateful is the cost of fame, but we forget that becoming Kristen Stewart-level famous is like going viral. You don't really have any control over it, and maybe you didn't want it in the first place. There are plenty of actors in Hollywood who just get to act and don't have to worry about getting out of their car the wrong way or walking by the wrong window EVERY MOMENT OF THEIR LIVES. And again: celebrity culture is a result of our fucked up values. Why is there a cost of fame? Why do we feel like these people "deserve" the paparazzi and all that? We're the ones getting this backwards, not Kristen Stewart.
• As for the acting thing: Stewart's oeuvre is pretty small (that's what she said) but in two non-Twilight movies I saw this year, The Runaways and Welcome To The Rileys, she did a bang-up job. In the latter she even kind of out-acts James Gandolfini, who can't get a grip on his character's accent so he kind of goes on a road trip with it, exploring different regions of America in each scene. In the former she is upstaged by Michael Shannon and Dakota Fanning, but those two are basically super-talented aliens from the planet Actori or something.

• People always say Kristen Stewart only plays mumbly, twitchy people. Okay. Well, I know a lot of mumbly, twitchy people, don't you? Also: she's good at it. Also: that same sort of complaint could be leveled at any actor or actress her age, and often is. Michael Cera, anyone? Give these kids a couple years! Also: Into The Wild!
• Speaking of Into The Wild: Kristen Stewart got noticed for Twilight because of her (disconcertingly sexy) performance in that indie film, and she has used her clout in Hollywood to continue to act in more small indie films. I write a lot about Stewart's Twilight co-star Ashley Greene (mostly because look at her), the current girlfriend of Joe Jonas and frequent victim of harsh cyberbullying campaigns. I try not to say anything bad about Greene, because other people do that enough, but she has used her post-Twilight fame to move from low-budget horror flicks (Summer's Moon) to... big budget horror flicks (The Apparition). And movies opposite Miley Cyrus (LOL: Laughing Out Loud - Yes, that is what it is really called. Don't even get me started). Even if Kristen Stewart isn't a talented actress (not that I am saying she isn't) she is at least channeling her energy in the right places.

So there. Stop picking on Kristen Stewart! Twilight itself is still indefensible, of course.