"Spencer" Is A Perfect Showcase of Kristen Stewart's Talent
by Audrey Fox
Kristen Stewart’s career as an actress began long before she took on the lead role of Bella Swan in Twilight, and she’s had plenty of roles since the infamous young adult vampire series came to an end. But for a long time, it was that performance that would define her, overshadowing the rest of her filmography. Although she’s repeatedly shown both considerable talent and, like her former Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson, a keen eye for interesting independent films, it’s only recently that she’s begun to get the credit that she deserves, shattering once and for all the image of her as a stammering teenage klutz in love with a mopey vampire.
It was clear even during the days of Twilight that she was never quite comfortable amidst a massive, big-budget franchise. In fact, it’s possible that no one hated Twilight as much as its two leads, whose relationship with the film series would vacillate between awkwardness and open hostility. In between each of the Twilight films, she would take on work that reflected her own dramatic sensibilities a bit more: Adventureland in 2009; The Runaways in 2010, where she played a young Joan Jett; On the Road in 2012, a big screen adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s famous Beat Generation novel. These films would establish a familiar pattern for Stewart: her performances were generally praised, but the films never seemed to find audiences.
Filmmakers, on the other hand, have been identifying her as a star of interest to work with for years now. When Drake Doremus was developing Equals, a science fiction film about a community where all emotion has been bred out of humanity, he envisioned Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult in the two lead roles, and was unwilling to make it unless he had both of them on board. But the transition in Kristen Stewart’s career where people really began to take notice was in 2016, when she starred in Personal Shopper, a film that didn’t make a huge impact when it was first released but has steadily grown in estimation in the years since.
And now we’re faced with Spencer, the film that will erase any doubt as to the quality of Kristen Stewart’s acting. Fragile, vulnerable, yet incredibly self-possessed, her performance as Diana, Princess of Wales is one that has not only put her in the Oscar conversation for the first time in her career, but has her poised to be an early frontrunning in the Lead Actress race. As her Diana navigates the tireless, burdensome traditions of a royal Christmas celebration immediately after learning of Prince Charles’ alleged infidelity, she is mercurial and awe-inspiring: you can’t look away from her when she’s on screen. And with any luck, this performance will finally prove to casual filmgoers (who are perhaps unaware of her indie film cred) that there’s so much more to Kristen Stewart than Bella Swan in Twilight.
