8 Things You Never Knew About Kristen Stewart, Courtesy of Her Marie Claire Cover Interview

She has words for men who like her better with long hair.

Arm, Lip, Hairstyle, Sleeve, Shoulder, Textile, Hand, Fashion model, Beauty, Fashion,
(Image credit: TESH)

Kristen Stewart graced the cover of Marie Claire this August, and opened up to writer Allison Glock about the hellish few years she had under the Twilight microscope. Check out 8 much-needed doses of real talk from the star of American Ultra, out this weekend.

"The public kind of burned me at the stake. But that's OK, I can take it. I'm not dead."

"Between ages 15 and 20, it was really intense. I was constantly anxious. I was kind of a control freak. If I didn't know how something was going to turn out, I would make myself ill, or just be locked up or inhibited in a way that was really debilitating."

"I lit my universe on fire, and I watched it burn. Speaking very candidly, it was a really traumatic period in my early 20s that kick-started something in me that was a bit more…feral."

"Lately, I've been doing less of the [assumes whiny cry voice] 'I'm sooooo sorry.' And more of the [drops several octaves] 'No. Fuck. Jesus.'"

"So many people say, 'Oh, it must have been so easy for you.' You think because I'm an actor that I didn't have a normal progression of self-hatred?"

"My hair was such a crutch. I looked quote unquote 'sexy' no matter what. I could hide behind it. As soon as I didn't have all that hair, I had to let my face hang out. I felt more confident than I had in a really long time. And it felt really good. It was like not having your iPhone for a couple months. It was the same feeling of release. It sounds so obvious, but it's like the hair really did make me feel like a 'real girl.' Like I'm pretty, I'm feminine. I don't know why I valued that so much, as if that's something to prove."

"Every single guy in my life, men that I respect," she says, pointing to her extensions, "are telling me, 'God, Kristen, you look great right now.' It's like, Wow. Maybe to most people long hair is prettier. But then what? Is your main goal in life to be desired? That is boring as fuck."

"Kristen is more self-aware than most people you'll meet, regardless of age," he says. "She's in a profession where you are made to question yourself, women more than men. She's always been very intuitive. We share a dismissal of pretentiousness. And we both take what we do very seriously."

Megan Friedman
Editor

Megan Friedman is the former managing editor of the Newsroom at Hearst. She's worked at NBC and Time, and is a graduate of Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.