Kristen Stewart says she was told to hide her sexuality to further her career.
While the actress – who has dated both men and women including Robert Pattinson and Stella Maxwell – has received praise for being open about her sexuality, she told Harper’s Bazaar that it hasn’t always been the case.
“I have fully been told, ‘If you just like do yourself a favour, and don’t go out holding your girlfriend’s hand in public, you might get a Marvel movie.’ I don’t want to work with people like that,” she recalled.
Now, she says people approach her for roles because of her sexuality. “Literally, life is a huge popularity contest,” she added.
Kristen doesn’t identify as straight, bisexual or gay, and credits the younger generation for giving her the confidence to realise she doesn’t need to put any label on her sexuality or who she is.
“I just think we’re all kind of getting to a place where – I don’t know, evolution’s a weird thing – we’re all becoming incredibly ambiguous. And it’s this really gorgeous thing,” she explained.
Asked what it’s like to have her sexuality become a subject for debate in the media, Kristen said: “Well, I think I just wanted to enjoy my life. And that took precedence over protecting my life, because in protecting it, I was ruining it.
“I was informed by an old school mentality, which is – you want to preserve your career and your success and your productivity, and there are people in the world who don’t like you.
“They don’t like that you date girls, and they don’t like that you don’t identify as a quote unquote ‘lesbian’, but you also don’t identify as a quote unquote ‘heterosexual’. And people like to know stuff, so ‘What the fuck are you?’”
Kristen is set to star alongside Ella Balinska, Naomi Scott, Elizabeth Banks and Noah Centineo in the new Charlie’s Angels reboot, which is due out in cinemas on 29 November.
She’ll also appear opposite Mackenzie Davis in an upcoming rom-com called Happiest Season, which follows a young woman who plans to propose to her girlfriend at her family’s annual holiday party. That’s set for release in 2020.
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