Sporting a bleached-blond buzz cut, American actress Kristen Stewart hit the red carpet in New York to promote her new film Personal Shopper saying she hoped to help others by going public about her sexual orientation.

The 26-year-old, who used to date her co-star from the Twilight film series, Robert Pattinson, made headlines in February when she announced she was gay while hosting the US late night sketch show Saturday Night Live.

“I always wanted to keep what was mine in private, mine. And then I thought like you know, you open it up a little bit and you can help one or two people, it’s absolutely worth it,” she said on Thursday. Personal Shopper directed by Olivier Assayas, tells the story of Maureen (Stewart), an American woman working in Paris, who is trying to connect with the spirit of her dead brother Lewis. The film has been described as a seductive, mysterious ghost-story.

“It’s a character who is in a moment in her life where she has to somehow become herself because she’s just lost her twin brother. So it’s really like a character who will gradually rebuild her life and become someone,” Assayas said.