Kristen Stewart is still thinking about Princess Diana after playing her in the film Spencer.
Stewart, 35, reflected in a new interview with The Telegraph published on Feb. 5, where she said that she felt “haunted” by the late Princess of Wales.
“I still am. I can’t drive ’round this city, and Paris for that matter, without thinking about her,” she said during the interview in London. “All the love that poured out of this woman… I can cry about her at any moment,” she added about Diana, who died following a car accident in the French city at age 36 in 1997.
The actress and director played Diana in the 2021 movie Spencer, which was directed by Pablo Larraín and written by Stephen Knight. The drama imagined Princess Diana navigating Christmas 1991 with the royal family as her marriage to the future King Charles dissolved.
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Reflecting to The Telegraph, Stewart said she initially thought Larraín was “insane” to cast her as Diana, but he believed in her.
“I told Pablo he was insane and he should probably hire someone else, but he refused to accept that. There were some massive distinctions between her and me. It was the statuesque thing. It was the eye color – I have green eyes; she has very famously blue eyes that match her ring. So I was like, ‘Should we make the engagement ring green, then?’ ” Stewart remembered, recalling that he told her it was about “spirit.”
Stewart’s portrayal of the princess was critically acclaimed, and she was nominated for Best Actress at the 2022 Academy Awards for her performance.
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The Twilight star added that Larraín saw “a little bit of overlap in terms of our experience. And there was something about my energy” when it came to what she had in common with the royal.
“She was plucked, plucked to death [by paparazzi],” Stewart said. “And her rebellious qualities felt so desperate, and so young and so vulnerable.” She added that that level of attention “does kind of soul suck” and revealed that when filming wrapped, “I did feel a bit like a shell, and I think she did too. That was the point.”
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Exclusively speaking to in 2022, Stewart said that “Diana Spencer made people feel good,” and that she portrayed the princess “at a time that was hard and tumultuous and sad, but she also has this unstoppable light.”
“And to even attempt to try and touch that, I learned a lot, but specifically, I felt like I was allowed to grow as a person,” she explained. “Even if it was in my imagination and I was completely convincing myself that suddenly I had this superpower that she had, which was to make people feel good.”