Kristen Stewart was eighteen when the first Twilight movie came out. The press hounded her, she recalls, but when she portrayed Diana in Spencer, the star says she became aware that the late princess faced similar media harassment.
“It does kind of soul suck,” the actor tells TheTelegraph, adding she experienced a connection with Diana during the filming while realizing her rebelliousness and vulnerabilities are a response to the pressures she was facing during her youth.
“Her rebellious qualities felt so desperate, and so young and so vulnerable," the actress shares.
Stewart recalls when the shooting ended, she was drained, describing her experience as “a bit like a shell."
This realization dawned on her of how Diana must have felt at the time, “I think she did too. That was the point.”
In Spencer, the 35-year-old became so connected to the late princess's role that she said she experienced “spooky, spiritual feelings” during the shooting at the time of the film's release in 2021.
“Even if I was just fantasising. I felt like there were moments where I kind of got the sign-off,” she said in an interview with the LA Times.
“She felt so alive to me when I was making this movie, even if it was just a fantasy of mine. But there were moments where my body and mind would forget she was dead.”
For her performance, Stewart received an Academy Award nomination, which showcases her determination and rigor in the role.
“I still am. I can’t drive around London, and Paris for that matter, without thinking about her... all the love that poured out of this woman," she tells The Telegraph, referring to the place where she died, adding, "I can cry about her at any moment."
It is worth noting that a car crash killed Princess Diana in August 1997.