Kristen Stewart gets locked up in Chanel for the cover of Elle magazine’s September 2014 fashion issue, on newsstands nationwide August 19.

On her growing career: “Never at any point have I sat down and plotted how I should proceed from here on. As soon as you start thinking about your career as a trajectory—like, as if you’re going to miss out on some wave or momentum—then you’re never doing anything for yourself anyway. Then you’re truly, actually, specifically working for the public. You’re turning yourself into a bag of chips.”

On not being a people pleaser: “Now I feel like if I smiled for a paparazzi photo—not that I ever would—that’s exactly what people would be desecrating me for. They’d be like, ‘now you’re going to give it up, now you’re a sellout.’ like, okay. What do you want? What would you like?”

On when she realized the impact of Twilight: “The day the movie came out there was a picture of me—in the New York Post, I think. I was sitting on my front porch, smoking a pipe with my ex-boyfriend and dog. And I was like, Oh sh-t, well, I have to be aware of that.”