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Kristen Stewart calls critics of her latest Rolling Stone cover “sexist and homophobic”.
On 11 March, the 33-year-old Love Lies Bleeding star discussed the cover on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, calling out critics for their negative reactions. When host Stephen Colbert revealed that CBS had requested that he not show the cover on the show, he brought out a picture of the polarising cover to show the audience what the fuss was all about.
“Now before I show this cover, I just want you to know and the audience to know that I think it’s a perfectly lovely cover. We were asked by CBS not to show it,” he told Stewart. “They thought that would not be a good idea for us to show this and I understand why.”
To the cheers of the audience, Colbert then revealed the cover and said to the actor, “I want to say that you look better in a jockstrap than I ever did.”
On the Rolling Stone cover, Stewart can be posing in a black vest and a white jockstrap with her hand snaking down the front of the jockstrap.
When Colbert asked Stewart about the backlash to the cover, she replied, “Well, okay, let’s keep this light. You know, I think it’s a little um … well, it’s a little ironic because I feel like I’ve seen, like, a lot of male pubic hair on the cover of things.”
“I’ve seen, like, a lot of hands in pants and like, unbuttoned,” she continued. “I think there’s a certain overt acknowledgement of a female sexuality that has its own volition in a way that is annoying for people who are sexist and homophobic.”
“I’ve certainly seen more revealing covers on Rolling Stone or Sports Illustrated for that matter,” Colbert added, to which the Twilight star responded: “It’s not remotely explicit, yeah.”
“No, I think it also violates public expectations of female sexuality as opposed to how you’re presenting it here,” Colbert noted. “Yes, because female sexuality isn’t supposed to actually want anything but to be had,” Stewart agreed. “And that feels like it’s protruding in a way that might be annoying.”
“But f*** you,” Stewart said, looking directly into the camera to more cheers from the audience. At the same time, as Colbert added “I think that’s why they’re mad at you!” She joked, “But I never will!”
Stewart spoke about how she wanted to provoke people in her Rolling Stone cover interview, explaining that she wanted the cover shoot to be the “gayest f****** thing you’ve ever seen in your life.”
“If I got through the entire Twilight series without ever doing a Rolling Stone cover, it’s because the boys were the sex symbols,” she pointed out. “If I could grow a little moustache, if I could grow a f****** happy trail and unbutton my pants, I would. Guys – I’m sorry – but their f****** pubes are shoved in my face constantly, and I’m like, ‘Ummmm, bring it in.’”
Stewart is promoting her upcoming film Love Lies Bleeding, produced by arthouse production company A24. The revenge thriller film follows the romance between Stewart’s character, a gym manager named Lou, and Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder.