Kristen Stewart reveals Princess Diana still haunts her years after 'Spencer': “I can cry about her at any moment”

Kristen Stewart says Princess Diana has never really left her life. Years after stepping into the late royal’s world for Spencer, the acclaimed actress known for her breakout role in The Twilight Saga, has revealed a profound and ongoing emotional connection to Princess Diana of Wales, more than four years after portraying her in the critically praised 2021 biographical drama Spencer. The actor admits the experience still lingers every time she moves through the cities that defined Diana’s story and legacy.In a recent interview, Kristen Stewart reflects on how deeply the role has stayed with her and how unlikely it initially seemed that she would be the one to play Diana. “I still am. I can't drive around this city, and Paris for that matter, without thinking about her,” she told The Telegraph, before adding, “All the love that poured out of this woman… I can cry about her at any moment.”Kristen Stewart remembered that when director Pablo Larraín first approached her about Spencer, she was convinced he had made the wrong call. “I told Pablo he was insane and he should probably hire someone else, but he refused to accept that,” she recalled. What unsettled her most were the stark physical differences between herself and Diana. “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?’” Kristen Stewart said, adding that Larraín reassured her it was really about Diana’s “spirit.” Living inside that spirit meant confronting the brutality of fame. “She was plucked, plucked to death [by paparazzi],” Kristen Stewart said, summing up the relentless pressure Diana endured. “And her rebellious qualities felt so desperate, and so young and so vulnerable.” Having faced her own intense scrutiny from her Twilight years onward, Kristen Stewart admitted that level of attention “does kind of soul suck.”By the time Spencer wrapped, the emotional cost of carrying Diana was clear. “I did feel a bit like a shell, and I think she did too. That was the point,” Kristen Stewart said. Her performance as Diana in the 2021 film, which imagines a tense 1991 Christmas at Sandringham as her marriage to the future King Charles unravels, was widely praised and earned Kristen Stewart a Best Actress nomination at the 2022 Academy Awards. Today, she carries Diana with her in quieter ways, in passing thoughts on familiar streets and sudden waves of emotion that remind her how vivid the princess became in her own heart.