Despite everything she’s already achieved, American actress and director Kristen Stewart turns just 30 years old on April 9. Here she talks to us about her love for indie films, her sexuality, her time as Karl Lagerfeld ’s muse, and how she stays true to herself. Shutting down Donald Trump and dating women – why Kristen Stewart is an LGBTQ+ icon Despite having appeared in blockbusters Underwater and Charlie’s Angels , she supports indie projects with as much passion as she does mainstream movies I’m definitely not the most practical person when it comes to navigating my career thoughtfully. So, even though it seems like I’ve moved towards mainstream movies, we made this movie a few years ago. When I decided to do Underwater , I hadn’t made a big movie in a long time. She’s also a director. Her short film Come Swim premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, and she’s now planning on directing a feature film, The Chronology of Water , based on the autobiography by the American bisexual swimmer-turned-writer Lidia Yuknavitch As time goes by, I realise that there are many outstanding stories to be told. I’m always looking for stories and often when I watch a period film, I wonder where the gay characters are because gay people have always existed. But those stories were being very narrowly told and it’s only been lately that we’ve started to tell those stories. Did you know all these celebrities identify as LGBTQ+? During my own journey of self-discovery, I’ve been able to play gender-fluid characters and I’m happy to be able to defend and tell those stories as a director. I don’t see a big difference between being an actor and a director – the two activities overlap and complement each other. She’s honest about her sexuality – in 2017 declaring “I’m so gay, dude”, on Saturday Night Live I’ve felt a responsibility to not be this fake thing who’s only putting out what people want to hear, but at the same time not wanting to leak details about my private life. I was in the situation where hiding the fact that you’re with a girl is different from hiding your being with a particular guy, and that’s why I decided to say it openly. But today’s generation doesn’t attach that much importance to gender roles. We don’t believe in those big distinctions and reducing everything to one kind of identity vs another. There’s so much more going on in the inside and a lot of young people today assume that naturally. She stays true to herself and now is able to skilfully handle the gossip and news It’s usually a losing battle to get involved with that. All you’re doing is adding to the bull … even when you’re trying to be honest and doing your best to address a situation. And when you’re dealing with something like a break-up, usually you’re only going to make things worse and keep the story going. Just like I’ve never planned out my career in a specific way, I don’t try to control the perception of me or make people think a certain way about me … I don’t know how people do that. 5 things to know about Michael Jackson’s daughter, Paris I don’t know how people tactfully traverse their careers. I don’t know how they choose, “Well, this is a different side of me people have not seen and so I will present that to them no”’ [when doing interviews]. It’s like, “Why are you doing this for other people? You should be doing it for yourself”. And so I’ve functioned from that position since I started, and therefore I really don’t care about all that. She was a muse for Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel It was an amazing experience. Karl Lagerfeld was a true visionary and someone who loved to be able to improvise and let feelings flow. It’s an instinctive attitude that we both shared, and I have so much admiration for his creative genius, which was so limitless. You learn so much and gain so much inspiration from being around people like that. Who is Naomi Scott, Princess Jasmine in Aladdin remake? She hasn’t changed much after achieving fame Even with all the success I’ve had, I don’t feel any different from the girl I was before I became famous. It’s hard for me to analyse it and compare how my life would have been if Twilight hadn’t happened, although when I look at where I am, I can at least say I’m pretty happy with how far I’ve come. I try to do the things that I feel passionate about and focus on the work rather than on the money involved. I’ve learned that you shouldn’t worry so much about how things might not be, how you would like them to be, but instead focus on all the good things that are around. Want more stories like this? Sign up here . Follow STYLE on Facebook , Instagram , YouTube and Twitter .