Kristen Stewart on ‘The Twilight Saga’: I take Bella ‘to the next level’

“Twilight” fans who think they’ve seen it all should get ready for more, according to franchise star Kristen Stewart.

In the October issue of Interview magazine, the star told interviewer Dennis Hopper – in a conversation conducted before the actor’s recent hospital stay – that she’s taking her character up a notch.

“Usually, at the end of a film it’s like I’ve finally gotten to know this person completely, and then we’re done,” Kristen explained. “That actually happened on the set of ‘Twilight,’ and then it happened again on ‘New Moon.’ Each time my character Bella [Swan] became a different person, and I got to know that person and take her to the next level.”

But with millions of fans of the books and film franchise waiting to see where the movies will go next, Kristen said being Bella isn’t easy.

“I have a responsibility… to everyone who has personal involvement in the books—and now that spans the world. It’s an insane concept,” she said. “All of these girls who are fans personally feel like they encapsulate that character. So it’s like, ‘How the hell am I going to do that for all of them? It’s impossible!’ But I’ve decided, if you’re just unabashedly honest all of the time, you have nothing to be ashamed of.”

With filming in progress for the third installment, “Eclipse,” Kristen said that though the movies are filled with vampires and werewolves, they could’ve gone even darker.

“The movies aren’t that dark, as much as we’d all have loved to have made those films,” she said, explaining that they had to connect with fans of every age. “You always have to realize that the story needs to make sense to the 11-year-olds who read the book and aren’t necessarily going to be viewing a scene as foreplay. But then there is the other segment of the audience—a large percentage—who does see the scene as foreplay. And it’s pretty deep, heady foreplay. So it’s fun to play it both ways.”

Being in the public eye – and the tabloids – has been less fun for the actress, who said she spends most of her nights in her hotel room.

“The only way for me not to have somebody know where I went the night before is if I didn’t go out at all. So that’s what I’m trading. It depends what mood I’m in,” she said. “Some nights, I think, ‘You know what? I don’t care. I’m just going to do what I want to do.’ Then the next day I think, ‘Ugh. Now everyone thinks I’m going out to get the attention.’ But it’s like, no, I actually, for a second, thought that maybe I could be like a normal person.”

The next installment in “The Twilight Saga,” “New Moon,” hits theaters on November 20.