Kristen Stewart reflects on 'spooky' 'Spencer' role; says she felt Princess Diana gave her 'sign off'

Kristen Stewart has been making headlines for her recent transformation into Princess Diana for Pablo Larraín's directorial "Spencer." The actress says that playing the part was an extremely emotional process and had a huge impact on her as she often felt that Princess Diana herself was giving her the "sign-off."

The 31-year-old said in a recent conversation with the Los Angeles Times that Diana's "live wire" energy always improved her performance in the biopic. "Any picture or interview I've ever seen of her, there's an explosive, ground-shaking quality to her that I always feel like you never really know what's going to happen," she explained.

The "Panic Room" actress said that it felt a "little bit scary" even when she saw tapes of the late Princess walking the red carpets. She added, "That could be projection, because we all know what happened. But she just has this feral cat feel. So I wanted to convey that. There's no way to plan chaos. You just have to fall into it."

Stewart said that the Princess of Wales, who lost her life in a car crash in Paris in 1997, felt "so alive" to her while making the movie, even though it was just a fantasy. She explained that this made channeling the late royal easier for her as there were moments where her body and mind would forget she was dead.

"And suddenly, I would just have an image of what happened. And remember who she left behind. And I was amazed by the renewed emotion. Every single time," she recalled.

The "Twilight" alum said that she was struggling to keep Diana alive within her every single day, so much so that she would break down two or three times a week about the fact that the Princess died more than two decades ago.

"It was still a fight to keep her alive every day, and so remembering that she was dead was just absolutely lacerating. It just destroyed me constantly. And that itself felt spiritual ... there were times where I was like, "Oh, God," almost like she was, you know, trying to break through. It felt like there were moments where I kind of got the sign-off. It was weird. And amazing. I've never felt anything like it in my life," she said about the filming.

"Spencer," which opens in theatres on November 5, follows three days in the life of Princess Diana in 1991, in which she spends the Christmas holiday with the British Royal Family at the Sandringham estate and takes the decision to end her tumultuous marriage to Prince Charles.