The five blockbusters based on Stephenie Meyer’s books grossed $3.3 billion worldwide, but also destroyed Stewart’s privacy. She was the patient zero of Internet celebrities — the first young female movie star to headline a film franchise in the 24-hour TMZ cycle. “Everyone I’ve met already knows me,” she says. “It’s weird.”
In 2012, when photos surfaced of her kissing married director Rupert Sanders following the release of “Snow White and the Huntsman,” she issued a public apology — an excruciating moment for an actress usually so quiet about her personal life. Stewart, who refers to the incident obliquely as “the scandal,” believes that society relishes tearing women down.