Kristen Stewart Was Told to Stay Closeted to Get a Marvel Movie

A cover story in Harper's Bazaar heralds a new era for Kristen Stewart, the once closed-off actress and reluctant movie star who is now prepared to be fearlessly herself. That means she's willing to talk about anything, including her sexuality.

"I think I just wanted to enjoy my life. And that took precedence over protecting my life, because in protecting it, I was ruining it," she told the magazine of deciding to come out, calling herself "so gay" on Saturday Night Live and later telling The Guardian she was bisexual. "Like what, you can't go outside with who you're with? You can't talk about it in an interview? I was informed by an old school mentality, which is -- you want to preserve your career and your success and your productivity, and there are people in the world who don't like you, and they don't like that you date girls, and they don't like that you don't identify as a quote unquote 'lesbian,' but you also don't identify as a quote unquote 'heterosexual.' And people like to know stuff, so what the fuck are you?"

In the story, Stewart clarified that she doesn't identify as bisexual and has been inspired by the younger generation to look past labels. "I just think we're all kind of getting to a place where -- I don't know, evolution's a weird thing -- we're all becoming incredibly ambiguous," she added. "And it's this really gorgeous thing."

But this new mentality is the product of years of being told to hide who she is, Stewart explained. "I have fully been told, 'If you just like do yourself a favor, and don't go out holding your girlfriend's hand in public, you might get a Marvel movie.'" but Stewart said she doesn't "want to work with people like that," and now is approached for roles because of her sexuality, like next year's Happiest Season. "Literally, life is a huge popularity contest." And with a starring role in this fall's Charlie's Angels reboot, it looks like Stewart is winning.

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