Kristen Stewart On How Spencer Helped Her Understand

Spencer's Kristen Stewart spotlights mental health in a public statement, making the most of awards season following her Academy Award nomination. Kristen Stewart released an in-depth statement on Monday sharing her insights on mental health, which were shaped by her role as Princess Diana in Spencer. 

Stewart has enjoyed the honor of her first-ever nomination for Best Actress for the 2022 Academy Awards for the biopic, directed by Pablo Larraín. She's made great use of the press tour so far, generating plenty of media buzz which has celebrated that the category will include a nominee who identifies as openly bisexual to foster visibility for LGBTQ+ actors. She also recently served as the honorary chair at the Independent Spirit Awards, where she and fellow hosts Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally gave Vladimir Putin the middle finger in opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Spencer intimately follows a slightly fictionalized version of Princess Diana as she wages subtle battles with the British royal family over the course of a holiday weekend. Stewart's performance demanded much of the actress, who portrays one of the world's most beloved tragic figures, including the tricky execution of a visceral scene in which Stewart as Diana appears to eat pearls from a broken necklace. 

Larraín, who directed a similar historical psychological drama in his 2016 film Jackie starring Natalie Portman, provided a perspective on the Princess rarely seen, which addresses not only the figure's publicized issues within her marriage to Prince Charles and the pressures of living in the royal family, but also alludes to her struggles living with an eating disorder.

In an emotional statement using the official letterhead for Spencer, which was shared on Twitter by entertainment journalist Courtney Howard, Stewart writes intimately about her role and overall career. Stewart's statement furthers the conversation surrounding mental illness not only in words, as the actress also committed to a donation to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Academy Award nomination, Spencer wasn't receiving as many nominations as expected following its positive critical reception. The actress' performance was snubbed by the BAFTAs and passed over by the Screen Actor's Guild. Stewart did receive a nomination for a Golden Globe, though she lost to Nicole Kidman in Being the Ricardos. The film received the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival in 2021, the highest prize offered by its organizing committee. As this year's Academy Awards quickly approach, Stewart's nomination and press coverage continue to spotlight topics the actress chooses to be vocal about – further bolstered by her compassionate portrayal of such a renowned icon and activist.

It's clear from her thoughtful expression in the statement that the role has not only greatly impacted Stewart's career, but has shaped the meaning she finds in her own personal life as well. 

Fans of Stewart have been given yet another reason to praise their outspoken hero in her ability to weave together seamlessly the roles she has taken in her career, the person that she is, and the causes that she cares about. As Stewart makes the most of her moment in the sun following the likely dark and painful experience of playing such a difficult role, she has made a conscious effort to spotlight ongoing humanitarian efforts, much like the legacy of the character she portrays in Spencer.

Kristen Stewart Deserves an Oscar for Spencer

The film has been overlooked for most Oscars - but if ever a performance was award-worthy, Stewart's is. Here's why. Last fall's critically-acclaimed drama Spencer has proved less of an awards' magnet than it seemed to critics upon its release. 

In spite of impeccable cinematography by Claire Mathon, standout supporting turns from Timothy Spall (Harry Potter, Denial), Sean Harris (Mission Impossible: Fallout, The Green Knight), and Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins (Godzilla, The Shape of Water), and a beautifully-judged free jazz score from Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, the film garnered no nominations for this year's BAFTAs. It was also overlooked in every Oscar category, save one - Best Actress for Kristen Stewart's portrayal of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Stewart Diana Is Likable

Not, of course, that the Princess wasn't already. On the contrary, she was immensely likable during the sixteen years that she was in the spotlight. In the opening scene, a lost Diana stops at a roadside cafe to ask for directions. "Where am I," she asks a room filled with strangers. She is met with silence. No one helps, not out of indifference or hostility, but because the other customers are dumbfounded. Here, in front of their eyes, is a royal, and not just any royal: the most glamorous and yet most accessible new member of the British royal family to come to prominence in decades. It is a poignant reminder of how thirty years ago -- before the succession of scandals that have dogged the British royal family in recent years -- Diana was not merely liked by the majority of the British public but adored.

And yet, playing Diana would always be an uphill struggle. Despite her affable public image, beauty, and endearingly undisguised fragility, there is the perennial disconnect faced by anyone who tries to make a film about the British royal family. It is extremely difficult to get paying audiences to sympathize with someone who by default has lived a life of exceptional privilege, safely cossetted within an institution that benefits from public funds, and has struggled for decades to define a reason for its continued existence.

Only a few actors have managed to evoke sympathy for the royals - one thinks of Judi Dench's moving work as Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown (1997) and Victoria & Abdul (2017), or Colin Firth's Oscar-winning performance as King George VI in The King's Speech (2010). But the sheer rarity of such examples shows what thin tightrope actors walk in, bringing out the pathos of individuals for whom not even First World problems excite much anxiety. Kristen Stewart pulls it off with aplomb, successfully portraying the princess's loneliness in a family whose members often saw her as fractious and difficult.