Stewing

Kristen Stewart on Why She Won’t Smile for Photos, Even if She Wanted To

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By Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Kristen Stewart knows exactly what you think of her, and she doesn’t give a damn. The Twilight actress is a Hollywood rarity. Hugely popular and successful, she refuses to engage in any Jennifer Lawrence–style charm offensives. (And even the J. Laws have their off days.) But even though Stewart knows that her smiles are treated like rarities, and that her refusal to smile is interpreted as a “bad attitude,” she has no interest in fixing it. Here's what she told Elle:

Now I feel like if I smiled for a paparazzi photo—not that I ever would—that’s exactly what people would be desecrating me for. They’d be like, “Now you’re going to give it up, now you’re a sellout.” like, okay. What do you want? What would you like?

Whether or not she would actually be put on trial by the public regardless of her approach, is there any reason she should smile in the face of an invasive flashbulb barrage? And if she did, would there be any guarantee that’s the image we would see? Back in 2012, Stewart’s then-boyfriend, Robert Pattinson, told Vanity Fair:

People have decided how they are going to perceive her. No matter how many times she smiles, they’ll put in the one picture where she’s not smiling.

So if Stewart’s smiles are what’s most important to you, then you might have to buy a ticket to some of her upcoming films in order to see them. And from what we hear, that’s not a bad trade.