Javier, Kristen and Nicole in W

“The first movie I remember seeing is All That Jazz. All That Jazz is pretty strong for a 5-, 6-year-old kid, but I loved it. There were naked women, which was nice. In Spain, we understand sex better than violence.” —Javier Bardem

“Everyone asks about the nude scenes in On the Road, but I also had to dance, and dancing is harder than being naked. My character, Marylou, is so exuberant, and I had five minutes to do something that showed she was sort of like the craziest motherfucker around. In the book, it says, ‘Dean takes Marylou and they do a love dance and no one can take their eyes off them.’ It’s one sentence. And I was mad-intimidated by it. We did the dance four times to the song ‘Salt Peanuts.’ By the end, I was as red as a fire truck. I was holding onto Garrett [Hedlund] because I was going to fall over. I almost passed out every single time.” —Kristen Stewart

“The first part I played was in the Nativity play at school. I auditioned for an angel and didn’t get it. I auditioned for Mary and didn’t get it. So I made up the character of the sheep who sat next to the baby Jesus. I bleated through the whole thing and got my first laugh. And that was it—I was hooked. That became a metaphor for my whole career: Every time I’ve thought, 'Oh, I should be Mary,' I somehow go and find something offbeat and different.” —Nicole Kidman

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Quotes from W's February 2013 issue; photographs by Juergen Teller