Audience members and die-hard fans of the Twilight series were rooting for a love story to unfold off screen just as well as it did on screen, between the film's star characters played by Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, and that's exactly what happened. After a devastating cheating scandal left the young couple at a standstill, they decided to call it quits in 2013. Two years later, Stewart admits she's still able to use the pain and emotions she felt during that time as inspiration for the work she's doing now. Stewart opened up about how she translated her "incredibly painful" breakup towards her character in the new movie Equals.
News of the couple's split spread like wildfire when photos leaked of the 25-year-old actress cheating on 29-year-old Pattinson with married director Rupert Sanders, who she worked with on the 2012 film, Snow White and the Huntsman. Sanders and the California native were caught getting hot and heavy in secluded locations, finding anywhere they could make out heavily in solitude.
Once her relationship indiscretion was made public, Pattinson and Stewart called it quits. Although they rekindled their flame for a brief moment, the two ultimately ended things for good in May 2013.
"It was incredibly painful," Stewart said to The Daily Beast. "Ugh, f*cking kill me. It was a really good time for both of us to make this movie. Not all of my friends have been through what I've been through, or what some people have tasted at a relatively-speaking young age, and we were not expected to do anything. Everything that we did was explorative, and a meditation on what we already knew."
The Still Alice star was able to reflect on her irresponsible actions and find a way to channel the raw intensity of her emotions into her work. Her new movie Equals surrounds a utopian society where feelings have been eradicated. Anyone who shows emotion is considered a "defect" and is sentenced to be killed off from their society.
Co-star Nicholas Hoult's character falls in love with Stewart's character and the two must try to escape or risk being exterminated. The story explores true love in a unique way, a feeling both stars are very familiar with, as Hoult also dealt with a very public breakup with The Hunger Games actress, Jennifer Lawrence.
One of the hardest parts of the breakup for Stewart was the realization that it was actually over and the fear of eradicating that person from your life and heart, someone who used to take up a major portion of her world.
The iconic phrase, "art imitates life" is very common, especially in song lyrics, books, paintings, and film. Stewart is grateful she was able to turn a traumatic experience into a lesson and project it through her Equals character's approach towards falling in love for the first time.
"We all felt akin by how much we've been through, and to utilize that is so scary," Stewart continued. "And to acknowledge it, reassess, and jump back into it? Usually you want to move on. But at least we could use some of that for some good. This movie was a meditation on firsts, and a meditation on maintaining, and a meditation on the ebbs and flows of what it's like to love someone-your feelings versus your ideals, the bursting of bubbles, the shattering of dreams you thought were possible, and what you have to contend with as things get more realistic."
"Relationships," she added, "you just never f*cking know."
Pattinson is now engaged to British singer and songwriter FKA Twigs, while Stewart is reportedly in a relationship with visual effects producer Alicia Cargile.
