On Feb. 4, Kristen Stewart arrived at Saturday Night Live for rehearsal. It did not exactly go well. “I couldn’t get out one line,” Stewart, who was hosting for the first time, says. “I was embarrassed. I was so nervous. Just being on stage with the whole crew — and that cast is epic — and everyone was killing it immediately. I felt like they were all thinking: This poor girl is going to crash and burn.”
But when the show went live that night, it was a confident Stewart who strode onstage. In under five minutes, she poked fun at her nerves, her image, and reminded the world of the bizarre fact that the current president of the United States used to obsessively tweet about her love life and then-boyfriend and Twilight co-star, Robert Pattinson.
“Donald, if you didn’t like me then, you’re probably really not going to like me now,” she said with a sly smile. “Because I’m hosting SNL and I’m, like, so gay, dude.” The audience roared its approval, Twitter melted down, and Stewart went on to deliver one of the show’s best episodes this year.
“Oh, it was so fun,” Stewart says a few weeks later, stretched out on a sun-dappled balcony in Los Angeles. “If they would have me, I’d go back every year.”
She seems amused by the buzz her “coming out” announcement garnered. “I’ve been talking about it for a really long time! I’ve lived pretty openly.” Indeed, she’s been romantically linked to several women, including singer Annie Clark (a.k.a. St. Vincent) and most recently model Stella Maxwell. Her declaration shouldn’t have been a big deal, and yet … “I guess because it was simple and straightforward. Just — ‘I’m so gay, dude.'” She pauses, and smiles. “In that moment, to make it normal and cool and completely unashamed? It felt really cool.