Kristen Stewart Debuts Strawberry Blonde Hair at the Venice Film Festival Premiere of Spencer
Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Kristen Stewart
Kristen Stewart has arrived in Italy to promote her highly-anticipated biographical drama Spencer at the Venice Film Festival.
On Friday, the actress, 31, debuted a strawberry-blonde hue at the red carpet premiere of the Pablo Larraín-directed film, in which she stars as Princess Diana.
Stewart chose a seafoam green silk Chanel tunic with a black bow, white lace detailing and matching pants. The Twilight star and longtime Chanel ambassador accessorized with a silver necklace and white pumps. She styled her freshly dyed hair in loose waves and sported her signature black smokey eye makeup.
Ahead of the red carpet premiere, Stewart arrived in Venice wearing another Chanel look — this time, a black tweed blazer with classic gold buttons and barely-there hot pants.
Marc Piasecki/Getty Images
Fans have been scrutinizing the similarities between Stewart and Princess Diana ever since the first-look photos of the actress in costume came out. The movie poster portrays Stewart, in character, appearing to be weeping into the skirt of an enormous ivory gown — echoes of Diana's famously ornate wedding gown. The Chanel Haute Couture gown seen on the poster, which was custom-created for the film based on a 1988 design from the brand's Métier des Arts collection, took more than 1,000 hours to create.
Stewart also showed shades of the princess as she disembarked from a gondola ahead of the film festival. Princess Diana also arrived in Venice via gondola in June 1995 to attend the Peggy Guggenheim Museum for a reception as part of the Biennale exhibition. The style icon shimmered in a red dress designed by Jacques Azagury and matching pumps.
Marechal Aurore/ABACA/INSTARimages.com; Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images
Back in August, fans got a first look at Spencer, which hits theaters Nov. 5, when Neon and Topic Studios released the first official teaser trailer.
The clip opens on Queen Elizabeth's Sandringham estate from above as a children's choir rendition of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" plays. The film is set over the course of a weekend in December 1991, when Princess Diana joins the royal family for the Christmas holiday — and decides to leave her fractured marriage to Prince Charles.
Cars arrive and preparations are underway, from the kitchen where chefs are carefully making the family's holiday meal to the wardrobe where outfits are being laid out. Shots show Princess Diana's meticulously planned ensembles, with tags that read "P.O.W.," standing for Princess of Wales, and the corresponding event such as "Christmas Day lunch."
The audience's first glimpse of Stewart as Diana comes after a knock on a door.
"Ma'am," a voice says as Princess Diana lets out a sigh. "They're waiting for you."
RELATED: Hear Kristen Stewart's Cryptic First Words as Princess Diana in the New Spencer Trailer
Shots of Princess Diana dancing in the palace and ice skating are quickly intercut with her lying in bed, shutting a door and standing in a dark room wearing a ballgown under a jacket. Finally, a scene of her running in the yellow outfit cuts to black.
In the final seconds, fans hear Stewart speak her first words as Princess Diana.
Prompted by a confidante played by Oscar-nominated actress Sally Hawkins ominously telling the princess, "They know everything," Stewart's Diana replies, "They don't."
According to Stewart, "Spencer is a dive inside an emotional imagining of who Diana was at a pivotal turning point in her life. It is a physical assertion of the sum of her parts, which starts with her given name: Spencer. It is a harrowing effort for her to return to herself, as Diana strives to hold onto what the name Spencer means to her."
