Kristen Stewart gains perspective on fame playing Diana

Kristen Stewart has long chafed at how her teenage “Twilight” fame robbed her of her privacy and a normal life, but don’t get the wrong idea: It’s nothing compared to what Princess Diana endured.

“She was the most famous woman in

the world,” Stewart said Friday. “I have tasted a high level of that, but really nowhere near that monumental, symbolic representation of an entire people or nation.”

Stewart gained that perspective filming Pablo Larrain’s “Spencer,” the latest cinematic look at the late Princess of Wales, which premiered Friday at the Venice Film Festival. Coming out in between seasons of Netflix’s “The Crown” and with the Broadway musical “Diana” about to open, Larrain’s upside-down fairy tale focuses on the three-day Christmas holiday in the early 1990s that preceded Diana’s formal separation from Prince Charles.

Much has already been said, seen and written about the collapse of the royal marriage, Diana’s deep unhappiness and the cruel confines of the British monarchy. “Spencer” doesn’t add new information or novel insights to the Diana pantheon, allowing itself instead to imagine what transpired in those three days at the queen’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk, as the “people’s princess” unraveled.

“I think the really sad thing about her is that she — as normal and casual and disarming as her air is immediately — she also felt so isolated and so lonely,” Stewart told a Venice press conference. “She made everyone else feel accompanied and bolstered by this beautiful light, and all she wanted was to have it back.”

Stewart drew the line between mere movie star and global icon. “I’m allowed to make mistakes,” she noted.

Joel C Ryan / Associated Press Pablo Larrain, left, and Kristen Stewart pose at the photo call for the film “Spencer” during the 78th edition of the Venice Film Festival.