Much like her former Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart is a much better actress than she often gets credit for, so it was hardly surprising that more than a few eyebrows were raised when she was announced to be playing the lead role in Princess Diana biopic Spencer.
Emma Corrin recently won a Golden Globe for Best Actress after embodying the role as part of The Crown‘s fourth season, so an award winning precedent for exploring Diana’s life has already been set. On the other side of the coin, though, is 2013’s dismal drama starring Naomi Watts, which crashed and burned at the box office and was torn apart by critics on both sides of the Atlantic.
California-born Stewart would hardly have been the first name to come a lot of people’s minds when looking for someone to headline such a potentially challenging and complex performance, but in a new interview the 31 year-old admitted that she became so invested in Spencer that she’s struggled to let go, despite production wrapping at the end of April.
“She means a lot to me, but it’s all relatively new because I’m from LA and I didn’t grow up in England. Before this, she was not something that was at the forefront of my mind, because I lived so far away from it all. Now, I can’t stop thinking about her. I often wonder what she’d think about what’s going on in the world right now. To be honest, I’ve now consumed pretty much all there is to consume in terms of videos and interviews. I’ve watched everything that you could hear or see. I even go to sleep with it on.”
There’s no word on a release date as of yet, but if Kristen Stewart manages to nail her central turn, then Spencer could be released in the thick of awards season. Pablo Larrain directed Natalie Portman to a Best Actress nomination the last time he helmed a biographical drama in 2016’s Jackie, while writer Steven Knight also has an Oscar nod under his belt. It might have been a surprising piece of casting news, but Stewart has carved out a niche for subverting the expectations surrounding her for a while now, so it would be foolish to dismiss her chances of delivering a knockout performance.
