While Kristen Stewart is best known for her role as Bella Swan in the Twilight saga, the Los Angeles native began acting long before then. In fact, Kristen’s first major motion picture was in 2002, where she played Sarah Altman alongside Jodie Foster in Panic Room.
Of course, when the first Twilight film hit theaters in 2008, Kristen immediately became a household name — similar to Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games franchise or Daniel Radcliffe in the Harry Potter films. However, after the Twilight saga came to an end in 2012, her career went in a different, less mainstream direction.
Most of Kristen’s projects following Twilight were much smaller, including 2014’s Still Alice and 2016’s Certain Women. That said, she’s still incredibly relevant in Hollywood! In December 2020, fans were thrilled to see her starring as Abby in Hulu’s Christmas original The Happiest Season.
The LGBTQ-friendly movie also starred Black Mirror‘s Mackenzie Davis as Harper and Daniel Levy from Schitt’s Creek as John. Kristen, who is openly queer, had a unique connection to the role. Abby, a lesbian, is dating Harper, who has yet to come out to her friends and family — but she still decides to bring her girlfriend home for the holidays.
“The first time I ever dated a girl, I was immediately being asked if I was a lesbian. And it’s like, ‘God, I’m 21 years old.’ I felt like maybe there were things that have hurt people I’ve been with,” Kristen told InStyle in an October 2020 interview conducted by The Happiest Season‘s director, Clea DuVall, who asked how she related to the story. “Not because I felt ashamed of being openly gay but because I didn’t like giving myself to the public, in a way.”
The Charlie’s Angels alum went on to detail how being in the public eye affected her sexuality. “Even in my previous relationships, which were straight, we did everything we could to not be photographed doing things — things that would become not ours,” Kristen explained. “So, I think the added pressure of representing a group of people, of representing queerness, wasn’t something I understood then. Only now can I see it.”
Later in 2021, audiences will get to see Kristen as the late Princess Diana in Pablo Larraín‘s Spencer.
Scroll through the gallery below to see Kristen Stewart’s total transformation over the years.