Kristen Stewart agreed to play Princess Diana before reading the Spencer script. After starting her acting career at the age of 12, Stewart rose to prominence with roles in the David Fincher thriller, Panic Room, opposite Jodie Foster, and the poignant drama, Speak. However, it wasn't until her role as Bella Swan in Twilight that she rose to the level of stardom she enjoys today. To help shed the persona of her ultra-popular Twilight role, Stewart began opting for indie films like Camp X-Ray and Personal Shopper, while eventually returning to more mainstream fare like Charlie's Angels and Underwater.
Now, for one of her most anticipated roles in years, Stewart is tackling a beloved British icon in Princess Diana. Titled Spencer in reference to her maiden name, the film follows Diana over a period of three days at Sandringham Estate in 1991 as she contemplates leaving her husband, Prince Charles (Jack Farthing). Spencer is written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight and directed by Pablo Larraín, who is known for helming another celebrated biopic about former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Jackie. The film also stars Sean Harris, Sally Hawkins, Amy Manson, and Timothy Spall.
Now, as the film makes its way through the festival circuit, Stewart reveals that she agreed to play Princess Diana before reading the Spencer script. During an interview at TIFF (per IndieWire), Stewart says that director Larraín called her, proposed the idea for the film, and asked whether or not she would be interested. Before even reading Knight's script, Stewart immediately said yes "without thinking," which she admits was "irresponsible" of her because it could have led to her butchering the role. Read what Stewart had to say below:
He called me on the phone. At first I hadn’t read the script yet, and he proposed this idea and said he was doing this sort of weird tone poem about Diana, and asked whether or not I would be interested in tackling the subject at all, before he sent the script. Kind of without thinking, very irresponsibly, I said ‘Yes, absolutely.' I could have totally f*cked it up. In the moment right before I was going to say, in a word, yes or no, I was like ‘Who are you if you don’t say yes?'
Kristen
Even though Stewart took the role without knowing much about it, her instincts already appear to be paying off. Early reviews are lauding Spencer, with the bulk of the praise directed towards Stewart's performance as Princess Diana. The actress is even beginning to garner some early Oscar buzz. Larraín's previous biopic resulted in an Academy Award nomination for Natalie Portman, who portrayed Jackie Kennedy, which bodes well for Stewart's chances of landing her first Oscar nod, too.
It's understandable that Stewart immediately said yes to Larraín, given his reputation as a respected and imaginative filmmaker. What's more, it surely would have also been difficult for anyone to pass up an opportunity to portray an iconic, larger-than-life figure like Diana. With recent critically-acclaimed portrayals of the Princess, such Emma Corrin's Diana in The Crown, season 4, Stewart's performance in Spencer has a lot to live up to.
Source: IndieWire
