After paparazzi took months of photos of she and her girlfriend together, from kissing on a beach in Hawaii to holding hands at Coachella, Kristen Stewart tellsNylon magazine of her sexual orientation: "Google me, I'm not hiding."
And it's true, Stewart had been kept in the closet largely by media that coyly referred to her girlfriend, Alicia Cargile, as merely a "gal pal."
In the Nylon cover story released today, Stewart waxes philosophical about eschewing labels. "I think in three or four years, there are going to be a whole lot more people who don't think it's necessary to figure out if you're gay or straight," she says. "It's like, just do your thing."
Stewart, who played Jodie Foster's daughter in the 2002 film Panic Room and rose to international stardom as a lead in the Twilight franchise, says she enjoys being vague about her sexuality.
"If you feel like you really want to define yourself, and you have the ability to articulate those parameters and that in itself defines you, then do it," she said. "But I am an actress, man. I live in the fucking ambiguity of this life and I love it. I don't feel like it would be true for me to be like, 'I'm coming out!' No, I do a job. Until I decide that I'm starting a foundation or that I have some perspective or opinion that other people should be receiving ... I don't. I'm just a kid making movies."
In the months preceding these remarks, tabloids like the U.K.'s Daily Mail have been relentless in their coverage of Stewart and Cargile, publishing photographs of the couple being affectionate with captions like: "It seems she is much more happy enjoying the single life with her friend," an "inseparable" relationship described in captions as a "close bond," a "special bond."
The Daily Mail, which frequently writes on Stewart with such homophobic language, has yet to report on the details of the Nylon interview. One of its most recent headlines on the 25-year-old actress is "Kristen Stewart looks uncharacteristically girly in a plunging velour tuxedo dress for her appearance on The Tonight Show."
In June, Stewart's mother, Jules Stewart, spoke with another U.K. tabloid, the Sunday Mirror, about Stewart's relationship with another woman.
"I accept my daughter loves women and men," she said, adding such supportive remarks like, "What's not to be accepting about her now having a girlfriend? She's happy," and "She's my daughter, I'm just her mom so she knows I would accept her choices."
She later denied making these remarks after the article's release, although the reporter maintains, "Every word is on tape."
The only previous comments Stewart has made about the widespread coverage of herself and Cargile occurred in January, shortly after the initial tabloid reports on the photos of her and Cargile. HuffPost Live, interviewing Stewart and Julianne Moore in promotion of Still Alice, asked Stewart point-blank how often she thought coverage like the Daily Mail's was "so far from the truth."
"There's a whole other form of entertainment that's just voraciously consumed in itself," Stewart responded, before Moore jumped in to save her from finishing her answer.
"For her, especially, there's been so much interest in Kristen for the longest time," Moore said. "Because of the size of the movies she's been involved in when she was very young, it's hard to escape that."
"I think that it's also a form of entertainment. I think you have to take all that stuff with a grain of salt, and she often does."
In the Nylon interview, Stewart futher elaborates on the pose she strikes when members of the press are present. According to the unspoken rules of "outing," the mainstream media will not report that someone is gay unless the person acknowledges it publicly. Knowing this, Stewart has indeed been open about her relationship in photographs, but not in coversation, providing fuel for gossip magazines.
"It's like I'm involved in a weekly comic book. I have this assigned personality ... which I helped create, I suppose," she stated. "People stand to make a lot of money on people like me -- it's this booming industry, so why would you go and change the character that people are paying for?"
