Stewart is tomboy chic in Charlie’s Angels

Kristen Stewart jumps out of a plane, rides a racehorse, packs pistols and dances her way through the new reboot of Charlie's Angels.

The 29-year-old US actress leads the female-driven cast in this latest iteration of the popular 70s TV show, with Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska rounding up the titular trio.

They still work for the mysterious Charles Townsend, whose security and investigative agency has expanded internationally, with multiple teams of Angels guided by multiple handlers all named Bosley.

Writer-director Elizabeth Banks stars as one of the Bosleys, alongside Patrick Stewart and Djimon Hounsou, in the action comedy which opens here tomorrow.

Of her character Sabina Wilson, Stewart said at our interview at the Conrad New York hotel in New York City: "I feel she is like a peacock... the cock with the walk, she is definitely fluffing her feathers.

"She is a party girl, she wants to have a good time, she wants people to connect, she wants life to feel fun. And I like that she has a fancy name."

Sabina is also interesting as there are glancing references to her being the "queer" angel, as though the film-makers felt the need to acknowledge Stewart's bisexuality indirectly without labelling it as such.

Her costumes are mostly glammed-up street clothes without the eyelashes and designer suits that characterised previous Angels. Even her hair is short and dark with blonde highlights in keeping with the road warrior image.

She said: "I think there are pressures to sort of water yourself down as a woman in order to be more easily digestible.

"When I was younger, I really wanted to look like everyone else. You can look at the first few interviews I did, I had long blonde hair and I definitely wanted to be pretty. So I did that for a minute and then I moved away from it and I'll probably go back to it at some point.

"I hate thinking that there is only one way for you, that you don't change every day, that there aren't a million versions of yourself."

Even though something mainstream like Charlie's Angels appears like a detour from the smaller indie productions Stewart favoured after The Twilight Saga film series (2008 to 2012) and Snow White And The Huntsman (2012), she said she chooses her projects depending on where she happens to be in her life.

WHEN SHE SAYS YES

"What I am attracted to has always been personal and definitely a reflection of what is going on inside me. And that is not to say that I can't play characters that feel like a departure, but I can't play characters that I don't know.

"I've definitely read scripts that I've liked that I didn't think I was capable of doing that I responsibly turned down. So I feel like when I read a script and I go, I really know how to do that, I want to chew on all those words, I want to wear the shoes, I want to put the clothes on, I want to get as close to this thing as I possibly can, that is when I say yes."

Stewart has come a long way from her Twilight years when she was awkward and shy in front of the press.

She said she has found her voice after a gradual process of being in the spotlight for much of her youth.

"As you get older, you get to know yourself more, and it becomes easier to translate your inner life in a way that you can share," she said.

"I've gotten better (at) being comfortable because I've learnt the language of my own internal life. It makes more sense to me as I get older. I never felt like I didn't have a voice, I always just felt like how to articulate it was a learning process."

Stewart and her English co-stars Scott, 26, and Balinska, 23, bonded on the international shoot which filmed in Berlin and Istanbul, among other places.

"It was about building a team which actually ended up happening naturally. As soon as I met the girls, I felt protective of them.

"Our dynamic was immediately at play, we didn't have to get to know each other, it was just somewhat immediate. And I was so thankful because I knew that was what the movie hinged on," she said.

Then there was the dance sequence she does with Balinska to replace a big fight scene that was cancelled last minute for budget reasons.

She said: "And so, (Elizabeth) was freaking out and had to come to terms with the fact that she had to kill a darling. And her new baby was, you guys are going to do a choreographed dance scene to the original song. And we had to learn it in one day.

"A choreographer came, and in between sets and at lunch and before and after work, Ella and I were in this dance studio trying to learn this thing.

"And at first, I was like, 'Are you kidding me, it is hard and impossible and we don't have time and it is going to look stupid and this is embarrassing.' It ended up being the most fun I had on the movie."

The writer is the chair of the board of directors of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a non-profit organisation of entertainment journalists that also organises the annual Golden Globe Awards