Kristen Stewart says there’s a ‘grey area’ when it comes to straight actors playing gay characters

• Kristen Stewart addressed the topic of straight actors playing gay characters in a recent interview with Variety.
• Stewart, who is bisexual, said that it’s a topic she thinks about a lot seeing as she is “a young white girl who was straight” and is “skinny.”
• “I mean, if you’re telling a story about a community and they’re not welcoming to you, then f— off,” she said. “But if they are, and you’re becoming an ally and a part of it and there’s something that drove you there in the first place that makes you uniquely endowed with a perspective that might be worthwhile.”
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In a recent interview with Variety, Kristen Stewart — who is bisexual — admitted that the push for characters in movies and TV shows to be played authentically is an issue she thinks about “all the time.”

Especially being an actress who is “a young white girl who was straight” and is “skinny,” she said.

“I’ve just lived with such a creative abundance,” she told Variety while promoting her new movie “Happiest Season,” in which she plays a woman planning to propose to her girlfriend (Mackenzie Davis) only to find out she hasn’t come out to her conservative family yet.

The way Stewart sees it is there’s a “grey area.”

“I would never want to tell a story that really should be told by somebody who’s lived that experience,” she told Kate Aurthur. “Having said that, it’s a slippery slope conversation because that means I could never play another straight character if I’m going to hold everyone to the letter of this particular law.”

Stewart believes that for the performance to work for an actor who does not live that particular experience in real life, you to have your "finger on the pulse and actually have to care." Then the acceptance comes.

She pointed out that her costar Davis does not identify as lesbian but she "couldn't imagine making the movie with anybody else."

"I mean, if you're telling a story about a community and they're not welcoming to you, then f--- off," she said. "But if they are, and you're becoming an ally and a part of it and there's something that drove you there in the first place that makes you uniquely endowed with a perspective that might be worthwhile, there's nothing wrong with learning about each other."

"Happiest Season" will be available Wednesday on Hulu.

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