Kristen Stewart grows with Twilight role

LOS ANGELES — Breaking up is always hard to do, but  Kristen  Stewart learned on the set of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” that acting out an “iconic” split from a book adored by millions of fervent fans presents a special set of challenges.  The film, a sequel to the vampire hit “Twilight,” comes out on DVD on Saturday.

“I know what’s it like to get broken up with, but I don’t know what it’s like to get broken up with by a vampire who I’ve now been physically and chemically altered by. Suddenly, you take an addict, you take whatever they’re addicted to away from them and there’s withdrawal. So, that was the most intimidating scene in the entire movie,” Stewart said at a news conference at the Four Seasons Hotel.

In “New Moon,” human Bella Swan ( Stewart) is heartbroken when her vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), ends their romance over concerns for her safety.

The depressed Bella finds a new chance for love in her burgeoning friendship with Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), only to discover he is a werewolf.

While she called the actual breakup an “iconic” moment in the books, Stewart was even more anxious about the moment Edward leaves, in which the painful reality sets in for Bella.

“I was like, ‘How am I going to, by myself in the woods with a hundred guys standing around me, filming me, die?’ Basically, literally having the equivalent of like a death scene but stay alive and get up and keep walking. It was hard,” she said.

“I really like the movie, but I don’t know if anyone ever really would’ve been able to bring that to life the way that Stephenie (Meyer) writes it.”

Based on Meyer’s best-selling, four-book series, the “Twilight” franchise has made movie stars out of its young cast. But Stewart’s film career started at age 8, when an agent spotted her performing in a holiday play at her California elementary school. After a few nonspeaking roles, she broke out at 11, when she played Jodie Foster’s daughter in David Fincher’s 2002 thriller, “Panic Room.”

But the success of the “Twilight” series has catapulted Stewart, 19, into A-list fame and made her fodder for tabloid gossip, particularly about a rumored romance between her and Pattinson, and the paparazzi photography that goes with it.

She likened the tabloid situation to a “ridiculous show,” like an obviously false soap opera with her name in it.

But the nonstop media circus surrounding the franchise has helped the teen actress become more self-assured in some ways. At last year’s “Twilight” press day, she came across as shy, awkward and a little moody.

“I think I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with talking about myself and knowing that what you say people are really going to take into consideration. And that always intimidated me so much that I minced every word that came out of my mouth. I couldn’t finish a sentence because I was so concerned about how it was going to sound,” said Stewart, dressed in her trademark grungy-cool style with a black T-shirt and jacket, dark eyeliner and her black hair casually pulled back.

In between playing Bella in “New Moon” and the third installment, “Eclipse,” which wrapped filming in October, Stewart portrayed Joan Jett in “The Runaways,” the upcoming biopic of the seminal all-girl rock band. She got to know Jett personally and studied footage of the ‘70s band.

“I really wanted to do a good impersonation, but I also didn’t want it to be imitation. I wanted it to be natural.”

Although filming “New Moon” was an intense process, Stewart said she is at ease playing an ordinary teen who finds herself in paranormal circumstances. She is looking forward to taking Bella through to the series’ end with “Breaking Dawn.”

“I’m very protective of her. I feel a shared ownership. It’s weird. If you were to talk about the character in a way that was not at all thought out or flippant, I would be right there to say that you didn’t know what you were talking about. I’m so defensive of her,” she said.

- By Brandy McDonnell