Kristen Stewart On Acting: 'It's a Pretty F---ing Odd Thing, to Pretend to Be Another Person'

Inez & Vinoodh for V Magazine, January 10

Twilight star Kristen Stewart has made enough money to be pretty picky about her upcoming projects. Last week, Forbes listed her as 2012's second highest bankable actor, topped only by Natalie Portman.

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So now what? Considering the personal and professional pressure cooker she was in last year, she may want to take a break from stepping out in designer gowns on red carpets for a while. And new experiences now interest the privacy-seeking star.

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She next stars with Ben Affleck in Focus, a comedy in which she plays a young woman who catches the eye of his veteran grifter. But she may want to branch out and try new projects, she said to V magazine: “I have realized that you can close yourself off to life if you put walls up. …. I keep saying the same thing. It’s not about being fearless but really just embracing the fears and using them.”

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Stewart also reveals that she would be interested in a stage production: “That is a completely different way of working, but yeah, I would very much be down.”

She explained that she could envision an ensemble cast, perhaps with actresses she likes and admires such as Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams or Dakota Fanning: "I am not closed off to anything right now. I don’t want to deprive myself of any bit of life."

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But she does admit that acting -- albeit lucrative in her case -- is a very strange way to make a living. “It’s a pretty f---ing odd thing to want to pretend to be another person. And then have a lot of other people who watch you do that."

She's right. Especially about the number of people who watch her pretending — her latest, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, has brought in over $800 million at the box office worldwide.