NEW YORK, New York --

“The Twilight Saga” has turned Kristen Stewart into a global superstar.

And after “Twilight” hauled in over $380 million worldwide, Kristen and company are ready to release “New Moon” on Friday – a movie which fans are already lined up for outside theaters across the globe.

While some stars might be overwhelmed by the attention, Kristen said it was actually a very welcome change for her.

“Does this all register with you?” Matt Lauer asked Kristen during an interview on NBC’s “Today” show on Wednesday.

“It does in the way that I’m so used to doing movies that people don’t see,” Kristen joked of her indie film past.

Although she is thankful for the success her role as Bella Swan has brought, being a global phenomenon can also be quite taxing on a star’s schedule. But for Kristen and her fellow “Twilight” stars, they’ve been too busy to really notice it.

“Luckily, we’ve been so busy, we haven’t really had a second to look up and see what it seems like it is on the outside. It seems really crazy, like we live this life on TV, but it’s so not true,” she explained.

“We’ve made two movies this year – ‘New Moon’ and ‘Eclipse’ – so in a way, it’s actually the coolest opportunity an actor can be given because we not only get to explore our character for more than six weeks, which is what I’m used to on an independent movie,” Kristen continued.

The 19-year-old actress was also appreciative of the legions of “Twi-hard” fans.

“It’s also… I’ve never been able to share what I love with so many people – this is a once in a lifetime [opportunity]. We make movies for people. I’ll never have this… they call it a phenomenon for a reason,” she said.

But Bella isn’t the only role on Kristen’s radar. She’s recently wrapped filming her role as Joan Jett in the biopic “The Runaways.” And it’s a role she said came with added pressure thanks to her real-life relationship with the rock icon.

“In a way that ‘Twilight’ is a unique experience, because you not only have a responsibility to yourself and the people you’re working with, but all of [the fans], now Joan is such a close friend and this was such a seminal part of her life,” Kristen explained. “It was the most important thing in the world to her – she changed rock ‘n’ roll for women in every way and people don’t know that it actually started with the band The Runaways.

“She’s amazing and it’s awesome,” she said of Joan.

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