Kristen Stewart still feels 'haunted' by Princess Diana 5 years after starring in biopic

Kristen Stewart continues to feel emotionally connected to Princess Diana five years after portraying the late royal in the film Spencer. 

In an interview with The Telegraph in London published on Feb. 5, the 35-year-old star said she still feels "haunted" by Diana. 

"I still am. I can't drive 'round this city, and Paris, for that matter, without thinking about her," she said. "All the love that poured out of this woman... I can cry about her at any moment."

The late Princess of Wales died in 1997 after figuring in a car accident in Paris while trying to flee paparazzi in a vehicle with her then boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed. She was 36. 

Stewart received a Best Actress nomination at the 2022 Academy Awards for her performance as Diana in Spencer, which was released in 2021. The film explored how the late princess spent Christmas in 1991 with the royal family while dealing with her dissolving marriage to then Prince Charles. 

The Twilight star shared how she initially felt she was wrong for the role, communicating the same to the film's director Pablo Larraín. 

"I told Pablo he was insane and he should probably hire someone else. But he refused to accept that. There were some massive distinctions between [Diana] and me. It was the statuesque thing. It was the eye color. I have green eyes, and she has very famously blue eyes that match her ring. So I was like, 'Should we make the engagement ring green, then?'" Stewart said. 

It was her spirit, though, that the director said closely matched Diana's. 

Stewart said Larraín saw "a little bit of overlap in terms of our experience. And there was something about my energy."

It was also her experience with the paparazzi that made her a good fit for the role, as Diana displayed the same aversion to hovering photographers. 

"She was plucked, plucked to death [by paparazzi]," Stewart said. "And her rebellious qualities felt so desperate, and so young and so vulnerable."

The constant unwanted attention "does kind of soul suck," added Stewart. After filming wrapped, the actress said, "I did feel a bit like a shell, and I think she did, too. That was the point."

A few years after the Twilight trilogy came out, Stewart said in an interview with Harper's Bazaar that "having that much human energy thrust at you and then being critically analyzed is obviously disarming." 

"Fame is the worst thing in the world. Especially if it's pointless. When people say, 'I want to be famous' Why? You don't do anything," she added.