Becoming an actor at an early age, Kristen Stewart’s career ensured that the star’s childhood wouldn’t be exactly the same as most. Especially when it came to going to school.
After some of her peers found out about her passion, they made school a bit more difficult for her.
How Kristen Stewart graduated high school on a ‘Twilight’ set
Stewart spent more time in her formative years on film sets than she did in school. By the time she was 18 years old, her acting career reached new heights after starring in the monster hit Twilight series.
Because of her film career, Stewart already had to leave behind traditional schooling at an early age. When it was time for the star to graduate high school, she was already filming the third Twilight film Eclipse. Ironically, Eclipse presented the perfect opportunity for Stewart to experience the graduation ceremony she might have missed out on.
“I went to public school up until junior high. I know it’s a little late and I’m a little old, but I just finished high school — with honors,” she once told MTV News. “The other day I was doing a graduation scene on Eclipse, and I had just finished high school myself the week before, so I told the crew, ‘Hey, just so you know, I’m actually graduating right now, and I’m not going to have another ceremony.’”
Stewart decided to simulate a real-life graduation ceremony right there on set with her co-workers.
“So I took a mock picture with an extra,” she said. “I literally asked the actor to come back and shake my hand and hand me the diploma while I was dressed in a cap and gown.”
Kristen Stewart didn’t have the best time at school after classmates found out she was an actor
For Stewart, leaving traditional school wasn’t a difficult choice when she was younger. She felt that her double-life as an actor and student was sabotaging her experience with the latter.
“I was happy to leave school at 14 and study on set, because it took a load of work off my shoulders. The fame and the pressure was taken off because they had been failing me in school,” she said in a 2012 interview with Mirror.
At the time, Stewart wanted to keep her career as an actor a bit of a secret. But when her peers found out, it made difficult high school years even worse.
“I was never the type of girl to walk around talking about being an actress, so I didn’t get a whole lot of s*** until someone found out,” she said. “I was playing it down, but I definitely got, ‘Oh, she’s such a b****’ I was like, ‘You’ve never spoken to me, but you think I’m a b****? Great.’”
Kristen Stewart didn’t regret missing out on her high school experience
Although she may have sacrificed the typical high school adolescent experience, Stewart thought the trade-off of having a film career was worth it.
“I so haven’t missed out. I’ve met hundreds of people. It’s like a hierarchy at school and I was really glad not to be a part of that. It’s weird, though, because once you’re done with school you realise it’s just a smaller version of life. That said, I am still glad I didn’t go,” she said.
However, later on in life, Stewart did confide that she regretted not continuing her education in her college years.
“The biggest struggle I’ve ever had has been about not going to school and working instead. I was worried about turning down specific individual experiences. Like each movie was, ‘F***, I have to do that movie,’” she once told Marie Claire.
