Kristen Stewart Wants to “Crash and Burn” in Cannes

Kristen Stewart is issuing a PSA.

“Stay vigilant, and look alive,” she urges her fellow Hollywood creatives. The 35-year-old, a long-time icon of the screen thanks to her starring role as Bella Swan in the era-defining vampire franchise Twilight, admits that the industry is in a dark place.

“[Trump‘s] shadow is bleak. You could almost say opaque,” Stewart tells The Hollywood Reporter in one of her first interviews as a filmmaker. “I think we’re all looking over our shoulders going, ‘Holy shit.’ The slippage is just terrifying.”

Perhaps no one is more qualified to talk on the downfall of the movie biz. Through her 20-plus years as a film star, we’ve watched Stewart grow into a self-assured and cool-as-a-cucumber celebrity. She departed from mainstream productions after an appearance in the twisted Disney adaptation Snow White and the Huntsman in 2012, instead opting for indie sets like Olivier Assayas’ Personal Shopper (2016) and his Clouds of Sils Maria (2014), the latter of which earned her a prestigious César Award for best actress. And then, just like that, she was back in mainstream territory with a remake of Charlie’s Angels in 2019 and Pablo Larraín’s Princess Diana biopic Spencer in 2021, securing Stewart’s first Oscar nomination.

The beloved actress returns to Cannes‘ Un Certain Regard in her directorial debut. She’s no stranger to the Croisette, of course — she presided on the Feature Films jury in 2018 (and, lest we forget, gave us a legendary bare-foot red carpet look on the Palais steps). But Stewart’s wanted to direct since the age of nine. So what’s finally got her off the mark?

“When I read [the book], I just went, ‘Oh, fuck. We need to put this on its feet so we can do it all together,” she says of Lidia Yuknvavitch’s 2011 memoir The Chronology of Water. Stewart, recruiting British stars Imogen Poots and Earl Cave for her first outing behind the camera, commits herself to a story of tragedy and triumph, detailing the life of the once-hopeful Olympic swimmer Yuknavitch.

“I cannot believe it,” she says about returning to the Côte d’Azur to present her film. “We barely finished this movie. It’s not even done. This is my fucking first draft… We’re running in here half-dressed. But I’m into it.”

As candid as ever, Stewart discusses with THR why she hopes The Chronology of Water “crashes and burns” in Cannes. She explains why making mistakes is “fucking hot,” how the state of the industry is more treacherous than ever, and premiering a film that has become the first of 10 she plans on making: “This fucking thing should sprawl. It sounds so dramatic, I mean this in a way that is incredibly celebratory — it should be a woman limping and bleeding.”

Kristen, how long have you wanted to direct?

KRISTEN STEWART I think I asked a couple of actors on one of my very early projects [about] the youngest director they could stomach working with. And I was sat down by most of them and asked, “Why are you even asking us that question?”

I had to wait until right now for this to be actualized, because there are portals that set you free. Texts or songs or conversations that give you ways into figuring out how you want to wield your voice. And even though I always knew that I was waiting for that trigger, I hadn’t found it yet until [The Chronology of Water]. This was eight years ago. So it’s been a slow and laborious birth, but I’ve wanted to direct movies as long as I have been an actor and it’s been a multi-tiered development. But for some reason, psychotically, I’ve wanted to do it forever, because I do think the exchange between an actor and a director is a bridge between two very different positions. You actually have to end up doing the same thing together to hold this reciprocal energy in this emotional space and make something feel congruent. So I was like, “Oh, I’m half of you.” And I feel like my actors are half of me and I just wanted to do both. I wanted to get onto the other side. I think I was like, nine years old, but then I figured out how to actually fucking do it. And now I’m 35.

Can you think of any directors who along the way served as inspiration for you?

I don’t want to make any kind of exclusive list in terms of the people I’ve bounced off of, even though there have been some standouts that have felt like people that have given me keys to a certain castle. Pablo Larraín, Olivier Assayas, so many other people, but I will say that there are certain relationships that just make you go, “Holy fuck.” It feels unleashing in a way that, again, feels very reciprocal. But yeah, in terms of inspirations and movies, it’s so personal. My whole life, I always want to process in cinema. I always want to figure out a way to lay it down in a subconscious sense, because there are literal ways you experience your life, and then processing and memory and transfusion — and turning those things into art, you always make a different statement. I feel like I’ve basically taken every experience making films and living my days on earth into every day that I directed this movie. And it’s really hard to be hyper-specific about it. I’ve been lucky enough to work with people that I’ve felt so instinctively drawn to that they’ve shaped me in every way.

You mention this trigger…

The word trigger is triggering! What I meant is really more of a catalyst. Your triggers should be something that gets you up and want to say something about the fact that you’ve been triggered. There are different starting guns. And yeah, this starting gun fired eight years ago. It’s been really hard to wrangle.

What was the starting gun then — reading the memoir? Meeting Lidia? Why did Kristen Stewart land on The Chronology of Water for her first directing gig?

It was just a book that I read and impulsively, after 40 pages, put down and reached out to the writer. I thought, “There are certain things that I’ve read that really do live in your brain and it would be an honor for them to live there.” And they get to multiply within your own personal experience. But this one felt like it needed to get up and share space with a lot of people. It was one of those books that I wanted to read out loud with all of my friends. It was one of those books that felt like a choir that you wanted to join. It felt like permission. And also this relationship that the book has to the corporeal and the physical… it’s uncharted territory in the cinema that I have personally consumed. We’re not reinventing the wheel or saying anything that someone else hasn’t said before.

But in terms of saturation, the territory that we traverse, the things that we look at, [they] excite me. They feel revealing in a way that is loving. [We’re] definitely looking at things that hurt, but in a way that encourages active transformation and restoring, rebranding, reframing, in order to make those things that can steep us in shame feel actually good. That’s the stuff we can do for our friends. That’s the stuff that we do in conversation, in therapy! I felt like this movie, and when I read [the book], I just went, “Oh, fuck. We need to put this on its feet so we can do it all together.” I just hadn’t read anything like that until then, and it also felt like it was breaking a seal because now there’s 10 more movies I want to make fucking yesterday.

I have a million questions based on what you’ve just said — why was Imogen Poots, someone I consider quite an under-loved actor in the U.K. — the right person to go on this journey with?

It’s been funny describing Imogen because I also always want to say under-utilized, under-loved, and I don’t want that to imply that people do not take advantage of her incredible nature all the time, because everything I’ve ever seen her in is my favorite performance. It’s not that she’s not enough — it’s that it’s never enough for her. I’m like, “Give this girl more!” I have just loved her for so long, and I felt connected to her before I met her. She sent in an audition tape and it blew me away. Auditioning is such a beautiful process of getting to know each other. It’s weird to not audition for parts. It’s nice to get to know whether or not this is the right thing, respectively, for each artist. It’s almost like a mutual consent process where you’re like, “Do we want to do this together?” 

But when she sent the tape in, I was like, “Wait, this is one of my favorite actors.” And then we did a quote unquote “callback,” and we spoke, I think, in the lobby of a hotel in London a couple of years ago. There are just so few people that you immediately trust and that you feel seen by and like. I wish I had newer words! I think we were both recognizing this as an opportunity to make a really good movie that’s important, that girls need to have and eat and metabolize. I felt from reading the book and our endeavors on set, even in just a really personal and selfish way we were both like, I think we can big each other up and we can look at each other in new ways. We’re both 35, ready to stop perpetuating other people’s desires and stop checking other people’s boxes. And figure out what ours are. This introduction happened to coincide with this release in both of us, and I caught it on camera. The fact that we both felt emboldened enough at this stage in our lives to listen to each other, trust each other enough and really release and break and put the pieces back together in a way that feels cohesive… And we’ll have it forever. I love her so much, and I’ve gained a sister in this. She is one of the best actors I’ve ever been around in my entire fucking life, and I have worked with so many actors. I couldn’t believe it. She is so good at living.

Wow — I hope she reads this interview and hears how you speak about her.

She hears it all the time. I have to [tell you], just so she knows it’s not bullshit.

Well, Earl Cave speaks about you the way you speak about Imogen, I think. I wanted to ask you about the industry you entered all those years ago compared to the one that Earl is entering now. Has it changed? And if it has, has it been for the better or for the worse?

I do think there have been some tectonic shifts in terms of who’s allowed to take up space and be heard, but at the same time, I don’t know what the filters are. The really quick acceleration… It’s not super easy to keep up with the process and be able to describe [what’s happening] in real time. It’s almost easier to say in retrospect that it’s definitely not the same as it was. It’s tricky to put into words — and when I say words, I mean print.

By the way, Early is such a beautiful man. And those two words are really satisfying to say with a straight face. I could be best friends with that kid. What is he? 23? Is he 24 now? I guess I’m using all the same words because I referred to Imogen as my sis but he could be my little brother. I would be so lucky. And I have no fear for that kid, he is so honest and present and concerned about the most pure things. And I do think that there is a little modicum of room — compared to what I experienced — for people to be out there and for people to find ways and paths and tributaries toward each other. I sound like an old person or whatever, but I think kids like that can find them, and I’m very happy to see that there is possibility. But at the same time, we’re also living in a world that’s literally folding in on itself by the split second. So, who the fuck knows?

That is completely apt.

The loss is so palpable. It’s an exciting time to be alive. And it’s cool that we all get to be loud together, but at the same time, is that going to do anything? What’s gonna happen? I think we’re all looking over our shoulders going, “Holy shit.” The slippage is just terrifying.

How big a shadow do you think Trump has cast over Hollywood and the film industry?

You mean like, for fear of being put on some “fuck you” list?

And also the movie tariffs, encouraging such polarizing belief systems, or making Hollywood even more risk-averse than it already is.

We discuss this every day, like, what’s gonna happen? [Especially] now that we’ve finally found our voices… Not that it wasn’t treacherous before but now, [it is] in a way that is so literal, so strikingly essential and vital than ever, but naturally terrifying. I think [Trump’s] shadow is bleak and very dark. You could almost say opaque. And I think to try and work through that is what we’re going to do. But in terms of knowing anything, I think we should expect the worst and fight for the best. Stay vigilant. Look alive.

I think a lot of people on the Croisette agree with you. You’re arriving as a director, rather than onscreen talent. What kind of creative fulfilment does directing give you that you don’t get from acting? Would you ever consider starring in a project you’re also directing?

I would love to be in something that I was directing. I would love to work with the actors. There’s always a singular perspective that is honored and serviced, but at the same time, the writers that you have on set with you, they’re so important. And I know that I could create a dynamic that would support me, while uplifting and preserving the initial impulse and the perspective, as long as you design the process.

My system runs on acting. It’s my favorite part of directing, being with the actors. But at the same time, to be able to really make something from the ground up all the way up to the sky with your bare hands and with your exclusive and specific eye, there’s nothing more satisfying than allowing other people to step in on that. It’s like planting seeds everywhere in a big, huge field, waiting for all your best friends to go pick the flowers and go look at these seeds you planted. I’m like, “Good job going and finding them!” Then as an actor, I’m out there searching for flowers. They’re different jobs, but they hold hands. They’re so related and I want to make 10 movies in the next fucking five minutes. But there’s something oddly more methodical about acting because you’re serving someone else’s vision. So you have to create a huge emotional foundation over a two-month period as you never really have much more time to prepare for a role than that. It’s really based on other people’s desires and your own. You have to make this cocktail of what you both want, whereas as a director, everything is about what you want, and it’s incredible. It’s just the most indulgent, spectacular beast in which other people help feed you. Then it becomes something that you share, and you look around the table and there’s fucking 50 people there that love it just as much as you.

Do you feel like you’re reinventing yourself with The Chronology of Water? Are Kristen Stewart the director and Kristen Stewart the actor two separate people?

I think that you can do that within performance to a certain degree, especially with the way that you choose your bosses and the people that you’re going to follow. But once you’re following someone, you’re following them into singularity, and that is not yours at all. And I love that. I love being in service of something that I believe in, but then also feeling the risk of not knowing what that ultimately is until they figure it out. Because making a movie is predetermined to a certain extent, but absolutely ephemeral.

I’m not trying to show anyone anything. I am trying to learn some stuff. I’m just trying to move toward the things that feel vital to me with my own eyeballs and my own two hands. That’s directing, that’s not acting. But I think being an actor has been the thing that has led me here in the first place. There’s just something forensically connected about positions. It’s just about finding voice. I’m just uniquely primed at this stage in my life to listen to myself, so therefore I think I need to step behind the camera but not ignore the fact that what put me here was being in front of it.

How do you feel about arriving in Cannes as a filmmaker, rather than an actor?

I cannot believe it. There’s not a more eloquent way [to say it]. We barely finished this movie. It’s not even done. I need to come home and literally have two more weeks in color and sound. This is my fucking first draft. Like, we are picture perfect. But when I tell you, we slid a very thin piece of paper under a closed door and they were like, “Sure.” My head blew off. This was such a fucking Hail Mary, because [Cannes] is the place that you would like to go have conversations. So I was like, “Fuck it. We might as well try it.” I am not being false humble — we’re all running on fumes. I was like, “We can do it.” I was like an absolute basket case. I’m kind of happy to take on something vulnerable. I’m happy to take something with mistakes. Mistakes are fucking hot. I love stories about movies and filmmakers that have taken their films to Cannes and had to come back and fix a few things and release a different movie. It’s all about revealing yourself. So it’s very meta that we’re running in here half-dressed. But I’m into it.

How do you hope audiences react to The Chronology of Water?

I’ve said this, but people can interact with all of my work however they see fit. I really invite all of it. And that’s not like a self-preservation thing to say. I mean it. I’m like, this was the best we could do. This is what we meant to say. It might not land on everyone the same. In fact, when I say it absolutely won’t land on everyone the same. That’s not the point of — and I say this in a French accent — cinéma. We’re supposed to have relationships with the art that’s put into the world. And they’re not all good ones. I guess as long as you do something that feels authentic in the very present moment. I can feel differently about it tomorrow. I can regret everything tomorrow. Right now, I don’t, so I’m very, very, very grateful to be in the place that I’ve always wanted to be. I’ve always looked up to [Cannes] with such reverence. Even if it’s messy, and honestly, my movie should be messy. This fucking thing should sprawl. It sounds so dramatic, I mean this in a way that is incredibly celebratory — it should be a woman limping and bleeding.

These 10 films that you want to make in the next five years. Can you talk about any of them?

Definitely not. This is something I do, I always tease too early.

But the nuggets are there?

Oh, yeah. I mean, we’ve started a production company, which is an insane thing to say, because I really never thought I would be that person. But then I just felt like I suddenly graduated to a place where I was like, “Okay. Mine. M, I, N, E.” So we’re cooking. We are voracious.

I hope everything goes smoothly in Cannes…

Hopefully not smooth! Hopefully, we crash and burn, but in a way that feels correct.