Check out our exclusive interview with Kristen Stewart by Ben Lyons!

Hi I’m Ben Lyons. I host a podcast for The Players Tribune  called ‘The Real Fan Life’ so, as you may expect, I’m a real fan at heart. I’m a fan of a lot of things. Movies, sports teams, athletes, books, tacos, actors, actresses, the ocean, directors, Disneyland, etc…Aren’t we all REAL fans of something? Or someone?

Now, some people might think “fan” is a bad word because “fan” is short for “fanatic” and when I Google the word, “fanatic,” it is defined as:

Yikes. I don’t want to think of myself as being single-minded. While I do take my tacos pretty seriously, I wouldn’t say my fandom for them is “excessive” or “political” (perhaps a little bit religious though). I would rather choose to look at the word “fan” as a way to identify and describe someone who is devoted to passionately supporting a person, piece of art, culture, place, team, school, cause, or yes, even tacos, above and beyond the norm. A real fan is special. And if you really think about it, what’s so bad about that? We should all so lucky to have someone special supporting us to pursue what we are passionate about.

I’m a fan of HelloGiggles and the positive space they have created for fans to come together and celebrate the people who achieve and inspire and entertain and create. Like the loyal HelloGiggles fans out there, Kristen Stewart’s fans are extremely passionate and supportive.

Over the years, I have enjoyed meeting many of them at ‘Twilight’ events, film festivals, and on social media. They asked me recently if I would be interviewing Kristen Stewart for her new movie, American Ultra (which premiered this weekend). I’ve had a lot of conversations with Kristen over the years, and as I’ve said before, she’s always been one of my favorite people to watch and cover in Hollywood, so I thought this time around, it might be cool to connect her with her fans from around the world by letting them ask her questions instead of me. Using the hashtag #RealFanLifeKS, I solicited questions and then picked out a few and used them our interview when I stopped by the set of a new film she is currently shooting in LA. Thanks to everybody who sent in some ideas! (Sorry Joshy, I didn’t ask you for a question…something tells me you’ll cross paths with her again soon…)

I’m also a fan of the HelloGiggles podcast, ‘All New Friends’ hosted by my friends Tatti and Katie. They were nice enough to invite me on their show a while back, and they are super cool and smart and funny. I thought it would be fun to have my Q&A with Kristen Stewart air on their show so all of Kristen’s awesome fans would not only get to listen to the podcast, but they would discover my friend’s awesome show on HelloGiggles, and everyone can go and be awesome together. Thanks KS for taking some time…

Enjoy!
BL

Image courtesy of American Ultra