You could leave home, disappear from the radar, have different circles of friends, and spend that hidden time figuring out who you are. Now, every move, every mistake, every shift in personality is Twittered, Facebooked, MySpaced, texted and tracked via an elaborate network of cellphones and websites.

That’s how Kristen Stewart sees it. She became entrenched in the electronic babble when she became a superstar last year playing lovelorn good-girl Bella opposite smoldering vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson) in Twilight, the blockbuster adaptation of the best-selling novels.

The actress, 18, gets to explore what her life might have been like laying low a generation ago in Adventureland, opening Friday. The coming-of-age comedy about a girl and a guy who fall in love while toiling for the summer at a run-down amusement park is set in 1987 — three years before Stewart was born.

The teenage characters drink, smoke weed, lie to everyone (especially members of the opposite sex) and try their best to avoid abstinence (usually a reason for the lying).

“Movies like Adventureland remind you of a time my parents talk about when they were younger, when it seems like they were so much more independent,” says Stewart, sitting in a beachside restaurant, her back to the ocean. “My dad was living on his own when he was 18. My mom was out (of the house) before she even graduated high school.” Sometimes she wants to ask them: “God, do you guys realize —”

Her folks both got into show business, working behind the scenes. Her mother, Jules Mann-Stewart, is a script supervisor, and her father, John, is a producer and stage manager. She also has an older brother, Cameron.

Parents today, she says, “are incredibly hands-on.” Then she is quick to clarify: “Not that my parents are overbearing or anything. … Now it’s a little different because I’m getting older, but a few years ago, if my parents didn’t know where I was at a given time, that’s sort of unacceptable. And it’s very easy to track you down, considering.”

It’s not just ever-present parenting that makes growing up harder. It’s your friends — and yourself, she says. Everyone is complicit in their own surveillance, especially young people, who chronicle their lives obsessively, maybe seeking validation, which is still no easier to find.

‘Everyone knows who you are’

“You’re so connected to people and they all know how to get to you, and everyone knows who you are, so explicitly. They think they know you. It’s like, ‘You really think you know me? I don’t know me! How do you know I’m not different around someone else?’ ” Her voice gets a little loud, and she slumps back in her chair.

“It almost makes the secrets more important, those few things you actually do choose to keep to yourself,” she says quietly.

Right now, Stewart may be Hollywood’s only real teenager playing girls who are moody, reckless, cautiously sexual but still awkward, and more self-reliant than many parents would like to acknowledge.

Other stars her age tend to fall either into the fantasy realm of the squeaky-clean Hannah Montana/Jonas Brothers variety, or play teens who seem more like they’re established jet-setters, as with the campy-fun Gossip Girl.

Stewart has earned both praise and criticism for being a kind of sulky girl on-screen — the kind you can see sleeping until noon, getting into a fight with her parents and running away, only to try sneaking back in just past curfew.

Crooked games, misfit friends

In Adventureland, she’s a bit of a rebel playing Em, a quiet but tough girl who works one of the crooked games at the theme park. Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale) stars as uptight James, a fellow lost soul and minimum-wage slave who tries to work up the courage to win over Em as they both grapple with fractured families, misfit friends and hostile parkgoers.

As James draws closer to her, he discovers that there are as many different Ems as there are giant stuffed pandas in his games booth. “For Em, no part of her lives are connected,” Stewart says. “She is a different person in every one of the circumstances.”

Adventureland was written and directed by Greg Motolla (Superbad, The Daytrippers), who based it on his own experiences working at a theme park of the same name on New York’s Long Island.

He says the girl in the story “needed to be complicated and needed to be truly conflicted. We needed an actress who can convey a really believable sense of strength,” he says. “I knew with Kristen that character wouldn’t just be a brat. With Kristen, you can’t dismiss her that easily. She’s no pushover.”

Em maybe isn’t much of a role model, but the actress says there is something true about her, and beautiful, in a way the character doesn’t even realize. “They are both unaware of how cool they are; they don’t feel worthy,” she says of the main characters. “I feel like it’s a pretty common thing.”

Stewart could be a case study. Feeling worthy of media attention appears to be a struggle. At the start of the interview, she says she’s bad at this — talking about her movies, and herself.

“Really, I’m incredibly disjointed and not candid,” she says. “Just in general, my thoughts tend to come out in little spurts that don’t necessarily connect. If you hang around long enough, you can find, like, the linear path. But it will take a second. That’s why these interviews never go well for me.”

It’s why she has been slammed by some reporters and why she had what some considered a disastrous interview with David Letterman for Twilight.

She has a reputation of being cranky, or a bit aloof. But over the course of about two hours, she reveals a kind of insecurity. She tries to say something, thinks it’s coming out wrong, stops and starts again, then finally gets frustrated — and clams up.

Another thing that makes her stop in mid-sentence: teenage girls. A group enters the restaurant, and Stewart abruptly shuts up until they pass. She apologizes, a little embarrassed, and whispers: “If those type of girls saw me talking about Twilight, you don’t understand. If I said ‘Jacob’ too loud, they’d be like —” She makes her eyes wide and sticks her hands out like claws.

“More than three girls of that certain age — run away,” she says, laughing as the threat settles in a distant part of the patio. “Girls are scary. Large groups of girls scare the (crap) out of me.”

She says Pattinson gets it worse. “They covet him. I think half of them are so jealous that they hate me,” she jokes.

It doesn’t help that many Twilight-ers want her and Pattinson to be a real-life couple. She’s actually dating Michael Angarano, 21, whom she co-starred with in the 2004 drama Speak.

“It doesn’t make my relationship harder. It’s not like, ‘Maybe I should be with (Pattinson) to make them happy and it’ll make me more popular!’ ” Stewart laughs, adding that her real boyfriend “is totally not a threatened guy. But, dude, it sucks.”

Why the adoration?

But Stewart is mostly grateful for Twilight — though she doesn’t think she did anything special.

“I’m really proud of Twilight. I think it’s a good movie. It was hard to do, and I think it turned out pretty good. But I don’t take much credit for it. So when you show up at these places, and there’s literally like a thousand girls and they’re all screaming your name, you’re like, why? You don’t feel like you deserve it.”

One person who thinks Stewart did contribute a lot to Bella is Twilight author Stephenie Meyer. The character is regarded by some as overly passive, letting her vampire paramour take control, but Meyer says Stewart, currently shooting series sequel New Moon, gives the character an inner forcefulness.

“Kristin does a version of Bella that’s very strong. And you can see that what she’s doing is maturely thought out,” Meyer says. “In a lot of ways she’s a little bit impetuous, but you get the sense that she’s very adult about what she’s doing. She comes across as a girl who’s very serious and who happens to know what she wants.”

That also describes Stewart as she navigates her way to adulthood, on-screen and off. Unlike her Adventureland character, she’s not able to hide any of it.

Contributing: Carol Memmott

Source/Credits: USA Today

As we all know by now, Twilight was one of last year’s biggest hits, New Moon starts shooting any minute now, and the studio most recently announced they’ve officially started work on developing Eclipse.

“We all really hope there is going to be a number four,” Stewart, 18, told me yesterday afternoon when we sat down to chat in a suite at L.A.’s Sofitel hotel. “I’m pretty confident that the fans aren’t going to all of a sudden lose interest. The only case that a fourth one wouldn’t be made is if all of a sudden people stopped caring, and I really don’t think that’s going to happen.”

And that’s not about to happen for Stewart, either. In fact, she’d like to set the record straight about critics who have come to attack her as some sort of Hollywood ingrate who doesn’t think very highly of Twilight or its more dedicated—some would say obsessed—fan base.

“I love the fans,” she insists. “I feel like I am one of the fans and any direct interaction I’ve ever had with them has been the most warm and pleasant and enthusiastic. If anything, it’s the biggest driving force that could propel you to do something.”

That doesn’t mean all the new attention—OK, hysteria—can’t be overwhelming at times. But when she was recently quoted in a magazine as describing some of these experiences as “psychotic,” some felt she was taking a dig at the fans. “It’s not normal for me to be in a situation that Twilight puts you in,” she explains. “It’s not personally normal for me to see 5,000 screaming girls. But I’m not criticizing them for being ‘crazy’ about me. I’m sort of going, “Wow, this is just crazy!’ ”

Crazy too are the yet to be proven rumors that she and Robert Pattinson are more than just friends. “Rob and I are great friends,” Stewart says. “But I understand why you would assume that when we lean on each other for support, there must be something more…And I’m not criticizing anyone for thinking it either. If anything, they’re really perceptive, because they can see a closeness.” (Her longtime boyfriend, actor Michael Angarano, isn’t fazed by the talk either. “We laugh about it,” Stewart says.)

When Stewart wasn’t at the Oscars last month, critics pounced again. Did she dislike Twilight so much that she wasn’t willing to support it like Pattinson, who was a first-time presenter? Was she scared the supposed secret romance between her and her costar would be too hard to hide if they appeared together on the same stage on Hollywood’s biggest night?

Um, no! She had a very good reason for not being there—she wasn’t asked. “If I was invited to the Oscars, I would be there in a nanosecond,” she says. “If I got an invitation to the Oscars, I wouldn’t turn it down!”

Perhaps next year she and Pattinson could sing together at the Oscars? Late last month, the two engaged in some late-night karaoke while promoting Twilight in Tokyo. Stewart and Pattinson covered Elton John’s “Your Song.” “Rob could definitely do a musical,” Stewart says.

Also belting out tunes were Hugh Jackman and director Baz Luhrmann, who were in Tokyo for the local premiere of Australia. When Stewart first arrived at the bar, Pattinson and Jackman were already engaged in a “really, really elaborate ABBA moment.” Later on, Luhrmann joined Pattinson at the mic. “It was really funny seeing Baz Luhrmann and Rob singing a David Bowie song,” Stewart says. “It was a talky one so they both could sort of talk to each other, and they were riffing back and forth.”

She adds with a laugh, “They were looking longingly into each other’s eyes.”

As for Stewart, she starts rehearsals for New Moon next week, followed by about four months of filming in Vancouver and Italy with new director Chris Weitz. Then she’s off to play Joan Jett in a biopic about her 1970s all-girl band, The Runaways. Stewart plans to do her own singing. “I don’t see any reason not to,” she says. “If it’s not going to be Joan, it’s going to be me.”

Her research included spending New Year’s Eve with Jett. “We were in a little city in Washington and she played through midnight,” Stewart says. “And then we spent, like, hours into the morning talking.”

On her plate right now are two upcoming indies. In the quirky and very sweet Adventureland, from Superbad director Greg Mottola, she’s an angst-ridden coed spending her summer working at her hometown amusement park, where she finds herself torn between a married man (Ryan Reynolds) and a lovable nerd (Jesse Eisenberg). In first-time director Mary Stuart Masterson’s The Cake Eaters, she’s a high school student with a fatal neurological disorder trying to find love before it’s too late.

“I get to do something that literally if I didn’t get to do I would implode,” Stewart says of acting. “There’s really no better position for me to be in right now in my life, and I am entirely grateful.”

Source.

When asked what she thought about the bad press she’s been getting in the wake of her Nylon interview, Stewart is adamant that her words are being taken out of context—professing, believably might I add—to having nothing but the utmost respect and care for the Twilight story and situation as a whole. “I love the Twilight fans. I have literally never said anything remotely negative about them,” she told us.

So all the hullaballoo? She attributed that to learning the ropes about what is going to read in print and what isn’t. “You have to stay away from certain key words that can be twisted in a negative connotation. Like the word ‘psychotic’ apparently is really bad,” she said, provoking laughter around the table.

“I feel like it’s a really humble position to take that it’s not normal—you know what I mean?—to find yourself in a situation where there are 5,000 screaming girls. I feel like that’s not normal and it’s not something I should just say, ‘Oh yeah, it’s really cool, I love them,’” she continued. “I feel like everything I said in that Nylon interview, if you actually read the whole thing, was very honest and genuine and talking about something that I am so immersed in and I have absolutely no control over. And I’m just trying to stay honest and true to something that I care about.”

According to Stewart, cameras are set to start rolling on the next installment of the Twilight saga, New Moon, on March 23rd and she’s eager to dive back in. “It’s a completely different story. It’s like it completely undermines the first,” she explained. “Edward’s gone and for me that was the whole story. It’s hard for me to get past—I don’t know how Bella’s going to deal with that. She matures. A lot. And it’s a much more painful story than the first one. It’s actually quite devastating. It’s a smaller scale as well. She’s very solitary for quite a while, so that will be interesting. I’m excited about that.”

Source.

“Twilight” is a far cry from anything that’s come before for Stewart, whose resume boasts roles in films by directors as diverse as Mike Figgis, David Gordon Green, Jon Favreau and Sean Penn.

The first to be filmed in the bestselling series of teen fantasy novels by Stephenie Meyer, “Twilight” centers on a romance between Bella and forever-17 vampire Edward Cullen. Thousands of teen girls would kill to be in her shoes.

Indeed, Stewart already had a taste of her imminent fame at last summer’s San Diego Comic-Con panel, where she was greeted by the kind of screaming one usually associates with a Miley Cyrus concert. “That was the first time a physical manifestation of what everyone was talking about presented itself to me,” she says, still a little shell-shocked.

Stewart says it was Bella’s novelty that made her want to play the part. “She doesn’t fit into the obvious role of victim,” she explains. “The power balance is fascinating between her and the vampire. It’s funny that she is so unsure and tortured about this relationship and that she is surefooted and confident for no reason. Bella is a powerful character.”

“Twilight” may make her a star, but Stewart is already thinking about what’s next, including “Welcome to the Rileys,” starring James Gandolfini, and “Adventureland,” directed by Greg Mottola.

“I was thrilled to do (“Adventureland”) because it takes place in the 1980s and Jesse Eisenberg was already involved,” says the actress. “It was a very cool project because we were in a theme park doing a comedy with the ‘Superbad’ team.”

Recent breakthrough: Landed the role of Bella Swan in “Twilight.” If you don’t know what that is, ask any teen girl.

Role model: “My grandma, for her strength and resilience.”

What’s next: “Adventureland,” in which she plays opposite 14-year-old Jesse Eisenberg of “The Squid and the Whale” fame.

From http://www.variety.com

So, without further ado, MTV hereby present the third entry in their “Twilight” Stars Answer Fans’ Burning Questions series. Feel free to keep submitting your wildest queries, and look below for all you’ve ever wanted to know about Anna Kendrick’s lung capacity, Lutz’s love of velour, and RPattz’s promise to suck on your neck. (Head over to the MTV Movies blog for news on special fan events leading up to the “Twilight” premiere.)

Q: “What’s it like kissing the most gorgeous man alive, Robert Pattinson?” – Ceejay
Kristen Stewart (Bella Swan): His teeth are pretty sharp. It’s great. I like it. It’s cool.

MTV: People are also debating whether Edward and Bella will French kiss.
Robert Pattinson (Edward Cullen): It’s more of a Chilean kiss.
Stewart: What’s that?
Pattinson: That just wasn’t funny. Whenever we kiss, I just try to kill her all the time.
Stewart: And I love that. She’s a total sadomasochist, if you think about it.
Pattinson: And I’m just gay.
Stewart: Or impotent.

Q: “Kellan Lutz likes Runts. Do you have a favorite candy?” – Liz
Cam Gigandet (James): It changes a lot, because I do something I shouldn’t do: I will lock in on a candy, and I will eat it until I can never have it again. I don’t know why. I do love cookie dough more than anything in the world, but that’s not really a candy. I would probably say, right now, it’s Heath bars. No, Skor. Skor bars! That’s it for sure.

MTV: Well, Mike Welch was sent thousands of socks after he made a comment about how he needed them. Are you ready for thousands of Skor bars to come your way?
Gigandet: Hmmm … I love Lamborghinis. [Laughs.] I love them, I really do.

Q: “If you had a choice to play any character (gender aside), who would it be?” – Bob
Kellan Lutz (Emmett Cullen): I’d play Rosalie. She’s just so feisty. And you know, to think about the gender thing, playing a female would be quite fun. It would be a stretch for an actor who is male, so yeah, I would enjoy playing your role.
Nikki Reed (Rosalie Hale): Well, thanks, babe.
Lutz: And she has a hot outfit. I’m wearing velour, by the way, so I doubt anyone said Emmett.
Reed: My monkey man! I think I would play Alice. There’s something about Alice that’s just [intriguing]. I’m sure a lot of other people feel this too. Like her psychic abilities … and that she was in a mental hospital. They checked her into a mental hospital before she became a vampire because she could see the future, and so they thought she was crazy.

Q: “Do you have the lung capacity to speak as fast, for as long, as Jessica? Because I don’t.” – Evangeline Annie Van Holzen
Anna Kendrick (Jessica Stanley): It was a cake walk after “Rocket Science”! I remember Stephenie Meyer [being on set] the day that I was doing that big speech about the Cullens. It was just a lot of dialogue. … She is quite a chatterbox, but it wasn’t too bad, because it all seemed to make sense and come from this really sweet, desperate place.

Q: “Are you aware that you’re being stalked?” – Serena
Peter Facinelli (Carlisle Cullen): Am I? Yes, and I wish you would take the tent down from the front of my house — now. That’s kind of rude! No, I had no idea.

Q: “If there were such a thing as vampires, would you want to be turned? – Kristin
Christian Serratos (Angela Weber): I don’t know. I probably would, just out of pure curiosity.

MTV: Would you want to be frozen now or later on in life?
Serratos: There’s a lot of thought that’s going to go into me becoming a vampire. I’d probably wait — no, why not? If I’m going to do something crazy, I’m going to do it now. I’d become a vampire right now.

Q: “If you could describe yourself in three words, what would they be?” – Em
Ashley Greene (Alice Cullen): I would like to think that I’m kind of chipper, upbeat and fun.
Jackson Rathbone (Jasper Hale): Um … I’m a loner who loves company.
Greene: [Laughs.] He’s a weirdo, basically.

Q: Michael, how does working on a production like “Twilight” compare to the work you’ve done in the past? – Ann
Michael Welch (Mike Newton): Well, I started out my career in television, just doing different guest spots. [I] started out with sitcoms. Actually, my first role that I got was as Young Niles on “Frasier,” because when I was younger, I was always doing impressions. That’s how I broke into acting to begin with. That allowed me to break into the sitcom world, and then from there I made the transition into dramas and then got lucky enough to be on a show called “Joan of Arcadia,” which was on for two years. Since then, I’ve been doing independent movies that probably will never come out, most of them. And then all of the sudden, this “Twilight” just came out of nowhere! It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever been a part of, man. It’s so exciting.

Q: “Robert, will you suck my blood out?” – Alley
Pattinson: Yes. Right now? Do they give their addresses and stuff?

MTV: They give their names, and I am sure if you click on MTV.com, you could e-mail any of them.
Pattinson: “Will you suck my blood out?” Is that, like, a worried question? Or is it kind of a desiring question? I won’t if you don’t want me to.