The 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards will air this February and while several critically acclaimed and commercially successful films made the list of nominations, one is noticeably absent. Twilight star Kristen Stewart’s performance in Spencer as Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales and Prince Charles’ beloved ex, is not on the list.
A Vanity Fair analysis says there are several reasons why Stewart was left off the list. “Kristen Stewart’s transformative performance as Princess Diana in Pablo Larraín’s haunted drama made her an early front-runner in the awards race, all but guaranteed to land the actress her very first Oscar nomination,” it reads in part. “But perhaps Larraín’s film was too dark? Too apocryphal and outré for voters to really sink their teeth into? Perhaps Stewart’s Diana was a touch too tragic compared to the more traditional biopic performances that did manage to land nominations?”
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The 2021 historical fiction psychological drama is written by Steven Knight and is inspired by Princess Diana’s decision to end her marriage to Prince Charles and leave the British royal family. Jack Farthing stars alongside Stewart as Prince Charles.
Stewart’s performance has been at the top of critics’ praise. In an interview with NPR, Stewart, who was just a child when the Princess was killed in a car crash, says she initially relied on memories of the time to scope her view. “I had image-based memories. I remember the flowers outside of Buckingham Palace, and I absolutely remember it being an event,” she said. “The extent of my knowledge or sort of involvement with the story was just that I knew that she was so coveted. I was like – I mean, I could tell people were very upset.”
She also said that she connected with Diana on being in the public spotlight, though Diana’s was on a much greater scale. “Her whole job was so different. She was perpetuating a lie. She was a princess,” she said. “I mean, she felt like what she was supposed to go out and do wasn’t true. And it became so painful and impossible for her to continue that she had to make the crazy, groundbreaking decision to leave the royal family, which, obviously, as we all know, is like a – it’s not a small thing. And she was never allowed to be herself, and I cannot imagine what that was like.”
Spencer premiered at the 78th Venice International Film Festival, with a theatrical release in November 2021. So far, Stewart has been nominated for the Golden Globe Award and Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Actress.
