The "Twilight Saga: Eclipse" star looks ahead at the final installments of the franchise -- and at what it has in store for her career Kristen Stewart takes one more step toward immortality in "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse." She's put her own stamp on Bella, who's determined to take a walk down the aisle and spend eternity with her vampire lover Edward, played by Robert Pattinson.

Stewart told Parade.com's Jeanne Wolf that, just like her character, she's grown a lot since "Twilight" first became a cultural phenomenon. But some things haven't changed.

Honesty is the best policy, no matter what
"I've always said that I'm not ashamed of anything that I say because I'm always being honest, even though you can definitely make mistakes. That's Bella in a nutshell, so I can completely relate to her. I think it's a good thing to be proud of who you are, no matter what. Success is always something completely different for different people. I feel like I've succeeded if I'm doing something that makes me happy and I'm not lying to anybody. That's why I feel really good about myself right now."

So does her romance with RPattz go beyond the screen?
"It's hard to actually take details of your personal life and apply them in a scene because as much as you can identify with a feeling, you just get muddled. As soon as you start bringing your own stuff in, it's like, 'No, that's not right.' You're playing a different person. You have to leave that stuff at the door."

Kissing him onscreen wasn't the problem
"One of the most challenging scenes was probably finally kissing Jacob for the first time. Bella has got such tunnel vision that Edward is the only thing for her. That's a strange perspective. So when Taylor Lautner and I kissed, it felt like such a different dynamic. I was nervous as hell."

Relating to Bella's dad talking about the birds and the bees
"It was funny the way Bella got so embarrassed in that scene. I guess a lot of girls do because they probably don't need that lecture. I probably had that moment. I guess that everybody does. But I knew everything, from the word go. I was really mature, that way. So, I never really had 'the talk.' I didn't need it."

Giving in to fame
"I've definitely relaxed because I've like sort of just relinquished control. There's nothing I can do, but who I am, or whatever. It used to freak me out. I still wish I could tell myself to just like calm down. But that's it."

Glamming up for the red carpet
"I'm definitely having more fun with it. Usually, if I don't like what I'm wearing, you totally know it. It's like written all over me. That's why I have to make sure I get it right for me. I'm much more comfortable with my dress choices now. I feel like it's actually like I'm wearing clothes that I would wear, and not like I'm wearing weird things to events that hardly function as clothing."

Looking forward to "Breaking Dawn"
"I really can't wait to get into it because I've been on the outskirts of what it would feel like to play a vampire. It's been years of dealing with these issues and I've thought about it a lot. It's going to be a trip. It's going to be weird. I think Bella is going to be the coolest blood sucker of all of them. She's got the greatest power. She's untouchable. She's impenetrable. I think it'll be awesome to see how much she's changed from 'Twilight,' where she was this 17-year-old kid who really didn't care about a whole lot. Now, she's going to become the matriarch."

Looking ahead
"I don't really plan out my career a whole lot. My choices come from the gut. I need to have a really distinct feeling before I do a movie, and I never know what that's gonna be. So far, I've chosen really different things. I know some people think I've played a lot of disaffected teen-age girls, but that's sort of how girls are at that age. I think to play a completely mindless happy person would be mindless and fun and happy, but boring."

With Twilight: Eclipse closing in on what box office watchers say will surely be a $200+ million weekend, why have the faces of Summit Entertainment's executives taken on such a deathly pallor? It might be because Vulture hears that they've just agreed to write some very big checks, indeed: Insiders tell us that Summit will pay stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner each a whopping $25 million against 7.5 percent of the theatrical gross for starring in the next and last two Twilight movies, Breaking Dawn, Parts One and Two.

How much money will they end up taking home? The previous Twilight film, New Moon, took in almost $710 million worldwide, and Eclipse is on pace to exceed that. But let’s conservatively assume that both Breaking Dawns do as well as New Moon: After factoring in exhibitor splits, a lesser studio share for international releases, and other typical debited fees that would give you a migraine if they were explained here, each star would take in another $16 million total, giving them all final paydays of $41 million.

Meanwhile, Vulture has learned that Universal, upon hearing that this mammoth payday was being finalized, quickly sealed its deal with Lautner to star in Stretch Armstrong, for which they'll pay him $7.5 million, a sum that now seems like a yard sale.

Kristen Stewart has played Bella Swan, the young woman at the center of the hugely successful “Twilight” franchise, in three films now. But she isn’t tired of her vampire-loving alter-ego. “Everybody always asks, ‘It must be so exhausting, you must be so sick of her.’ It’s like, ‘No.’ It’s like writing a thesis as opposed to writing a paper.”

It’s a good thing she isn’t sick of Bella yet, as Stewart has two more films to complete in the series. The 20-year-old spoke with us about splitting the last book into two parts, taking on “On the Road,” and the madness of the MTV Movie Awards.

Are you excited about stretching the last book, “Breaking Dawn,” over two movies?
I’m excited. The fans are going to love it because we’re going to have the time to tell the whole story. What happens when you try to cram such a long story into an hour and a half, the first things that are skimmed off the top are the things I love the most, which are details and the little things that make the characters who they are.

Besides “Breaking Dawn,” you’re soon filming “On the Road.”
It’s finally getting made, which is really a miracle. I can’t believe I’m this age at this time when it finally gets made. Somebody the other day was like, “There’s really no plot.” I was like, “What the f— are you talking about?” There is such a line, and with every single character. I wrote a paper on that, and told [director] Walter Salles about it in a meeting that I had with him. I was like, “It’s not very smart, but you should read it, because you can tell that I really love it.” I mean, I was in the eighth grade.

“Twilight” had a good run at the MTV Awards, didn’t it?
I know. It feels weird. There are other movies that are really good every year, and because of our fan base, we’re going to win the [votes]. I hope there’s not too much resentment. [Rob and I] felt like f—ing king and queen of the prom. I never went to high school, so it was like, “Oh, this is what it’s like.”

You and Robert Pattinson won the Best Kiss category, but who were you rooting for: you and Rob or you and Dakota Fanning for “The Runaways”?
I would’ve been really proud if me and Dakota had won. Had she been there, I would’ve done the whole build-up that me and Rob did last year, and then just stop and say, “This just doesn’t feel right. Dakota, where are you?” That would’ve been so funny.