Kristen Stewart was deemed “perfect” to star in ‘Happiest Season’ thanks to her famous ‘Saturday Night Live’ monologue.

The ‘Twilight’ star confirmed she is “like, so gay” when she hosted the sketch show in 2017 and Clea DuVall, who directed her in the upcoming festive tale admitted the way she showed off her “silly” side on the programme made her ideal for the role of Abby in her movie because she knew the actress would be able to handle both drama and comedy.

She said: “She is known as an actor for doing more dramatic work, but seeing her on 'SNL', so funny and so silly, was thrilling.

“That's what made me feel like, OK, I think this is the perfect person to play Abby because she can have the humour and the warmth but then also be able to connect with the emotional journey of the character.”

And Clea was thrilled with the partnership Kristen forged with her co-star and on-screen lover Mackenzie Davis.

She told Diva magazine: “I love Kristen and Mackenzie so much. They have this depth and nuance to their performance where you really feel for them and you really feel connected to their experience. "I knew that for these two characters, I really needed that.

"Particularly for Mackenzie's character ,whose journey is so complicated.

"To have an actor that was able to play all those layers and bring everything to it was really, really vital and Mackenzie knocked it out of the park."

In the film, Kristen’s character is about to propose to her girlfriend over the festive season, only to find out her partner’s family don’t know about their relationship, but Clea was keen not to “vilify” anyone in the story because coming out is so “challenging and personal”.

She said: “I really tried hard not to villify anyone in the movie because I do think that coming out or not coming out is challenging and it is personal.

"However it happens and however you get there, that's your journey.

“And for families of LGBTQI people who are struggling, dealing with someone who has just come out... That is its own journey. There don't have to be bad guys in this situation.

"The more that we try to love and respect and empathise with each other, hopefully the further along we'll get. "

This movie is really an embrace of people on all sides."