Though some Hollywood pundits had counted her out, Kristen Stewart earned her first-ever Academy Award nomination this week for her starring role in Pablo Larraín’s “Spencer.”
The actor’s chilling portrayal of Princess Diana earned near-unanimous praise from critics when “Spencer” hit theaters in November. Still, her Oscars odds began to look less certain after she was passed over for both BAFTA and SAG award nominations earlier this year.
Fortunately for Stewart, her fiancée Dylan Meyer had a backup plan in place if she’d gotten snubbed. Shortly after the Academy Award nominations were announced Tuesday, Meyer posted a photo of a mock Oscars statuette to Twitter with the inscription “Best Sweetheart.”
“Guess I’m not gonna have to give her this anymore,” Meyer quipped.
Stewart announced her engagement to Meyer, a screenwriter, in a November appearance on “The Howard Stern Show,” but didn’t specify where or when the proposal had taken place.
“With two girls, you never know like who’s going to fulfill what weird fucking gender role thing,” she said at the time. “We don’t do that or think about it in those terms. She just grabbed that bowl and made it happen. It was fucking so cute.”
The “Twilight” and “Happiest Season” star will face some stiff competition in the Best Actress category at the 94th annual ceremony, set to take place in Los Angeles March 27. She’s nominated alongside Hollywood heavyweights Jessica Chastain, Olivia Colman, Penelope Cruz and Nicole Kidman.
Stewart’s nomination, however, puts her in line to make history. The actor is one of two openly queer women to score an Academy Award nomination this year. The other is Ariana DeBose, who received a Best Supporting Actress nod for her performance as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s remake of “West Side Story.”
Together, Debose and Stewart are the first openly LGBTQ actors to be nominated for an Oscar since Ian McKellen’s Best Supporting Actor nod for 2002’s “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.” As IndieWire points out, either of the two women could be the first to acknowledge their LGBTQ identity in an Academy Awards acceptance speech if they win.
