Michael Angarano talks about 'Sacramento' and mentions Kristen with Variety

When Michael Angarano was trying to get “Sacramento,” his indie buddy comedy about two friends who go on a road trip to a certain state capital off the ground, the question he’d get was always the same. Does it really need to be set in Sacramento?

“At one point we were ready to shoot the movie in Atlanta — we had the financing and everything,” remembers Angarano, who directed the film, as well as co-wrote it. “And this was for a movie called ‘Sacramento.’ But it’s like why try to cheat it? Maybe, we should we just call it ‘Athens’ or ‘Savannah’?”

And even though Angarano and his co-writer Chris Smith weren’t that familiar with the city that inspired their film, its appearance on a highway sign, informing them of the California city’s distance from Los Angeles, was foundational. For them, Sacramento wasn’t just a destination, it was a state of mind.

“We had just been to a batting cage and we were driving back and we saw the sign and we just played a game of chicken,” Angarano remembers. “It was like, ‘hey, want to go to Sacramento?’ ‘Yeah, sure. Why not?’ And it became sort of an inside joke. Like what if you just picked a random place and went there for no reason at all?”

That exchange plays out nearly verbatim in the film that Angarano and Smith finally, after many false starts and abrupt stops, finished. But the version that premieres at the Tribeca Festival this weekend has evolved just as the lives of the people involved with bringing it to the screen have changed in dramatic ways. In “Sacramento,” two estranged college buddies reconnect at a transitional moment in their lives. Michael Cera is Glenn, a soon-to-be father, stressed out by impending parenthood and facing a professional crisis. Angarano plays Ricky, his irresponsible friend whose happy-go-lucky persona masks some deeper personal issues. And though the two actors are longtime pals, they insist they are nothing like the people they play in the film.

“Our dynamic is not the same,” says Angarano. “Mike is not like the strait-laced one and I’m not the wild guy. We’re both pretty similar.”

But Cera notes the years it took to get the film off the ground meant that when cameras actually started rolling, the particulars of their lives had a lot in common with the parts they were playing.

“It’s a movie about these two guys on the precipice of fatherhood who are entering this new chapter,” says Cera. “And when this movie first started coming together that was a few years off for both of us. But it took so long to get started that by the time we were shooting, Mike and I had just entered into fatherhood. So it was very real and immediate to us.”

Making “Sacramento” changed Angarano’s life in other important ways. He met his future wife Maya Erskine after casting her in the film as Ricky’s ex-girlfriend. “Sacramento” ended up taking longer to get off the ground than anticipated, but she stuck with the project and with Angarano. The pair’s son was born in 2021 and they announced they were expecting their second child last April.

“This movie has this weird cosmic energy around it, where it’s life imitating art or art imitating life,” says Angarano. “Small little miracles happened around this film.”

To fill out the cast, Angarano approached Kristen Stewart, who he had dated in the early aughts, to play Rosie, the very pregnant wife of Cera’s character.

“I’ve known Kristen, since we were like 12 years old,” says Angarano. “We did not write it with Kristen in mind. But you get a list of stars when you make anything that the people who control the money are interested in having be in the film. Kristen was obviously on the very top tier of that list. We knew she’d be great in the role and she’s a person who has a history of doing smaller films like this.”

Stewart loved the script and wanted to work with Cera, so she agreed to join the project. That helped secure the financing, as well as a commitment from the movie’s backers to actually shoot the movie in Sacramento and not in an Atlanta suburb. But a few days before filming started, Cera gave Angarano a scare. The director had decided to take trip to Palm Springs by himself to decompress when he got a text message from his star that read, “I have an insane favor to ask.” But when Angarano wrote him back, Cera went silent. And that sent the filmmaker on a downward spiral.

“I texted everybody — the producers, everyone,” Angarano remembers. “I was like he’s pushing it. It’s falling apart.”

Eventually, Cera responded. He wanted to know if he could borrow one of Angarano’s guitars during the shoot. “He let me know that I had put him through hell,” Cera says sheepishly. “I think there was some non-psychotic reason why I didn’t respond. My phone had died or something.”

In the end, not only did the film get made, but Angarano lent Cera his guitar.

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Steven Yuen mentions Kristen and 'Love Me' in Empire Magazine

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Video: David Cronenberg talks about Kristen in 'Spencer' and "Crimes of the Future' with ET Canada

 

Tara Swennen talks about Kristen with W Magazine

Celebrity stylist Tara Swennen has worked with everyone from Gwen Stefani to Emily Ratakojwski, but has perhaps gotten the most attention for her collaboration with rule-breaking actress Kristen Stewart, who most recently was the reigning dare-devil of the Cannes red carpet. And that's exactly what Swennen loves about her. "One of my greatest goals as a stylist is to create a balance of what my clients would like to wear, what styles are trending, and how I envision their fashion evolution," she explains. Here, the stylist opens up about how she introduced Stewart to Chanel, what she thinks of the actress's new buzz cut, and why sustainability is more important now than ever.

How did you get started in the business?
I studied fashion design at Cornell University. Once I graduated, I moved to New York and worked in the studio services at Barneys NY, where I met my first stylist, Andrea Lieberman. I  started my styling career with her... and then rest is history. I moved to Los Angeles right after 9/11, and began working for Rachel Zoe. It was great as it was the during the Lindsey Lohan, Mischa Barton red-carpet era. After about five years I branched out on my own, and that’s when I began working with Kristen Stewart.

How did you first meet?
Her publicist of 15 years, Ruth Bernstein, put us together when she was only 14 years old for Into The Wild. We have remained tried and true ever since. Kristen was one of my first clients I got within the first year I started styling. It's funny because the first look I dressed her in happened to be Chanel.

Kristen Stewart has great personal style. How do you take that into consideration with your work?
One of my greatest goals as a stylist is to create a balance of what my clients would like to wear, what styles are trending, and how I envision their fashion evolution. It is paramount to me to showcase their personalities, so the end goal is to refine and elevate whatever their own tastes may be. Kristen's fashion sense has evolved as she has grown into an ever-expanding repertoire, so it makes it that much more fun for me!

How does a new beauty look, for example Kristen’s buzz cut, influences the styling of their look?
A new beauty look can have an enormous effect on the styling. I welcome this new bleached buzz cut on Kristen. It suits her perfectly and allows us to go in a new direction. I feel my part in it is to facilitate their evolution as its coming.

The Cannes Film Festival is known for having super strict dress codes. How have you been able to work with the rules and maintain a look that feels appropriate? 
Kristen simply happens to not really be a gown person, so we have adapted her unique style to the event by keeping her dressy yet with her own unique twist on it.

What is your day-to-day like as a stylist?
There is no set day to day in this business, which is one of the reasons I love it! Some days I am researching online, others I am pulling and fitting, and others I am on set... it's ever changing, but yes, I am always planning.

What are some of your goals? 
I would really like to become more of a spokesperson for ethical fashion. I became a vegan last year and feel that we need to be more conscious. Fashion is not a necessity. If you want a fur stole, you can achieve that look just in a more responsible way.

How does this more conscious way of styling work when you're dealing with a client?
Lately, I will just reach out to vegan brands I see on Instagram or hear about and will ask them to send me things to dress my clients in. Most of my clients share the same thinking, which is great. For example, Kristen won’t wear fur or wear snakeskin, but sometimes will wear leather – so we can be more responsible and shape the look. We are in an age where we need to become more responsible on all fronts and as a passionate fashionista- I think it's part of my job to help from within now.

What else are you working on now?
Tons of things! Kristen is launching a new project with Chanel, so tons of stuff for that. I also just picked up a few new clients like Ashley Benson and Bella Thorne!

Who is your dream client?
My girls are my dream clients. I am a very lucky woman.

Style icons:
The Hepburns - Katharine and Audrey.

Okay, let’s get personal. What are three words to describe your own style? 
Classic, elegant, and fun.

Favorite vintage stores in the world?
I love flea markets worldwide. That's where you can find the best and most unique treasures!

Style pet peeve:
Bad tailoring and not leaving anything to the imagination.

Best recent discovery:
PreHeels.

Last purchase: 
A pet pig named Sprinkles ;)

Any other plans down the line?
I would love to get back into men’s styling!

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Scans: Kristen's interview in Who magazine (Australia)

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'Personal Shopper' costar Sigrid Bouaziz mentions Kristen with W Magazine

Who are your style icons?

Chloé Sevigny, because she's modern and sensual. Or Kristen Stewart; boyish, ultra-feminine, and sensual all at the same time.

You just worked with Stewart, as well as directer Olivier Assayas in Personal Shopper. What was that experience like?

I loved it so much. Both of them were so caring; it was a deep, rare, and generous exchange between us.

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Olivier Assayas talks 'Personal Shopper' and Kristen with AM NY

What, to you, makes Kristen such a great screen presence?
I think she’s incredibly gifted. I think also she has this completely fascinating relationship with the camera. It’s something beyond her own talents. She has it. It’s something that’s obvious. It’s something that struck me the first time I saw her onscreen in Sean Penn’s film, “Into the Wild.” She stands out. There is something that happens when she’s onscreen that’s beyond analyzing. What’s exciting about her is the mixture she has of animal instinct and deep technical knowledge of what she’s doing.

Do you encounter that much?
It’s very rare to have a combination of the two. You have great, very technical actresses, you have intuitive actresses, but actresses who have both, who know how to use their instinct to control in very nuanced ways what they do, it’s pretty unique.

What about for “Personal Shopper,” specifically?
In terms of a movie like this one, which deals with the supernatural, with the invisible, I thought it was really important to have an actress that’s as grounded and real as Kristen. The thing is, Kristen brings everything back to something very human, simple, obvious, and she connects that with the audience.

Are you guys going to work together again?
I would make another film with her tomorrow. I just don’t have the subject yet, but I’m sure I will find it. I think there’s really space for us to make another film. I would love it to happen.

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Costume designer Jürgen Doering talks to Vogue magazine about 'Personal Shopper' and Kristen

Ask anyone who the biggest star at last year's Cannes Film Festival was, and the resounding answer would no doubt be Kristen Stewart. From her opening-night appearance in Woody Allen’s Café Society to her multitude of winning red carpet looks (including a controversial Vans moment), she was everywhere. The biggest news for Stewart, though, was her starring role in Personal Shopper, the psychological thriller written and directed by Olivier Assayas that premiered at Cannes and is now showing in U.S. theaters. As you may have inferred from the title, Stewart plays Maureen, an American in Paris hired to tend to the fashion needs of a famous model (they’re the same size, so she can easily shop for her). But that’s not really why Maureen is there; she’s also a medium and is trying to communicate with her deceased twin brother. Contrasted against her day job of Chanel fittings and trips to Christian Louboutin is a series of supernatural phenomena, confusing “signs” from the ghost of her brother, and a stalker who harasses Maureen via text.

Personal Shopper is Stewart’s second film with Assayas; she was the first American actress to win a Cesar Award for her role in his 2014 film, Clouds of Sils Maria. To say the stakes were high for Personal Shopper is an understatement. Many critics praised the movie and said it was Stewart’s best performance to date; at a Cannes press conference, she also admitted it was one of her toughest roles yet. That was likely the case for Jürgen Doering, the film’s costume designer, who also worked with Stewart on Clouds of Sils Maria. In both films, Stewart assists a high-wattage celebrity, so the wardrobes alternate between casual, everyday clothes and glamorous red carpet fare. In Personal Shopper, Stewart wears an old Fair Isle sweater in one scene and a metallic Chanel gown in another; we spoke to Doering about the challenges of pulling both, and what it’s like to work with one of the industry’s most-sought-after actresses.

“Kristen is amazing,” Doering says right off the bat. “She’s very cool in the clothes. For me, it’s really easy to work with her, now that I know her [from Clouds of Sils Maria], and she trusts me. She’s so chic—you can take her anywhere, and she really wants to understand [the clothes.]” Doering also acknowledged that Stewart has been a face of Chanel for more than two years, so one might expect her to want some control over the clothing choices—but the opposite was true. “She always asks what I think, what I might propose, and then we have a real talk about it,” he says. “She’s not high maintenance at all—she’s very sexy. She has this big contract [with Chanel] and dresses for her job on the red carpet, but in the film, she looks like a student in sweaters and jeans.”

Stewart wears Chanel in the film, too—but it’s not her Chanel. After picking up a silvery sequin-encrusted dress for her boss, she briefly slips into it, as if to temporarily forget her haunted journey and assume a glamorous, unencumbered life. “It’s that game of dreaming of being who you work for,” Doering says. Much of his research focused on those clothes Maureen shopped for, as those scenes were pivotal moments in the film. “Olivier would say, ‘Why Chanel?’ or ‘Why Vionnet?’ because we didn’t want it to feel too obvious.”

When she isn’t playing dress-up, Maureen wears a modest wardrobe of jeans, polos, and leather jackets, which plays a subliminal role in the film’s dark mood. “She doesn’t like her job,” Doering says. (“I spend my days doing bullshit that doesn’t interest me,” Maureen says at one point. “It’s driving me fucking crazy.”) “I took that into account,” he adds. “She’s feeling bad, and she’s missing her brother, so [those clothes] create a big contrast between the designer dresses she tries on.”

Designing costumes that look like someone’s normal, everyday wardrobe may seem easier than working on, say, a period piece or far-flung drama. But it speaks to the impact that clothing has on a film, particularly how “real” a film feels—and that’s likely why Assayas hired Doering. The director is notoriously detail oriented, so every sneaker, coat, and bag probably had to go through a scrupulous approval process. “Everything had to feel credible,” Doering says. Stewart is familiar with offhand, believable style, too; don’t forget, she slashed a Chanel T-shirt for her first appearance at Cannes at Cannes.

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Olivier Assayas talks to Vulture about "Personal Shopper" and Kristen

In real life, Kristen is an actress that fashion houses clamor to style, but there’s this interesting tension when she wears their expensive dresses because you know there’s a part of her that would rather put on a hoodie and tennis shoes.

Yeah, and you see it. You feel it, you sense it. The character is inspired by her because she has this androgyny, a masculine and feminine side, and she’s completely herself and comfortable on both sides. I think that’s part of what makes her fairly unique because, as you say, she’s this fashion muse but she’s also a rebel. There is something genuinely rebellious about Kristen. She has this kind of punk-rock energy to her.

Do you remember the very first time you met Kristen? 

I remember very vividly the first few times I met her. The first time I met her, I went to visit Robert Pattinson in London and they were together at the time. I just remember this girl who came in and out of the room where we were having a conversation, and I was looking at her, like, Who is that? And then she was friends with my producer Charles Gillibert who produced On the Road, the Walter Salles movie, and I saw her in social situations in Paris. It’s totally impossible to connect with anyone at parties like that, but just watching her move and how she functioned, I thought she had something that was just so raw, so authentic, and so cinematic. I always felt there was more to her than whatever I had seen in the movies. To me, that’s the key to really having the desire of working with an actress. I did not know her, but I had the fantasy of her.

The next time we really met was when she had read the screenplay for Clouds of Sils Maria and she wanted to do it. When I wrote Clouds of Sils Maria, I wrote it for Juliette Binoche, and she had this American assistant who was a no-nonsense, really grounded young girl. It could have been another actress — Kristen was certainly top of my list because I thought she was a great actress and I was curious to work with her — but I think I really discovered Kristen when we were making Clouds of Sils Maria. I realized that every single tiny thing I gave her to do, she would invent something: She would make it interesting, she would make it sexy, she would make it weird. It ended up being a bit frustrating because her character in Clouds of Sils Maria is written as less multilayered than Juliette Binoche’s character, and so to me the question stayed with me, “What would happen if I gave her a bigger part?”

Not every actor is the same in real life as they appear onscreen, but to know Kristen through her roles is to get a strong sense of what she’s actually like. She has a very grounded center, both as a character and as herself.

Yeah, that’s true, but that’s truth starting at a certain point. I think that for some reason, a lot of people had a very wrong notion of Kristen being distant and aloof, when in real life she’s the most simple, likeable, generous person. What I was happy about in Clouds of Sils Maria is that I kind of encouraged her to let this fun part of her come across, and Juliette was incredibly generous about that in many ways. There were a couple of scenes where Juliette would say, “You know what? Kristen, Olivier, why don’t we make this more funny? We don’t see these characters laughing enough.” I think a lot of people who love Kristen were really happy to see her laugh and be funny in those scenes in the same way that she can be funny in real life.

What has been fascinating in working with Kristen is that, in a way, it’s strangely similar to the way I functioned with Maggie Cheung. Like with Maggie, I wrote Irma Vep for her where she was playing an archetype, and then once I had done that, I had the desire to give her a part which was more layered, more like the real-life Maggie. I think it’s a bit similar with Kristen where I gave her this kind of one-dimensional part in Sils Maria and it generated the desire to write something more human, more complex, and closer to her in many ways with Personal Shopper. But the thing is that, even when I was making Personal Shopper, I had the feeling like I was experimenting: “Where are her limits? How far can she go?” The answer is, “I don’t know.” I haven’t really seen the limits yet and so I hope we have the opportunity of working again together.

Personal Shopper is terrific, yet it was booed at Cannes. Do you think that’s because you and Kristen had just come off this major moment with Clouds of Sils Maria, and the French press was trying to cut you down to size?

Yeah, you never know. Cannes can be tough, so you have to be psychologically prepared. Anything can happen in Cannes, especially with movies where you take risks. Cannes is not that risk-friendly, you know, and I like to take risks with my films — I never go for the obvious next step. I think that for some reason, the tension in Cannes can be a bit hysteric, a bit excessive. People overreact. I have a long history with that specific festival and it’s been very good to me, so I’m never going to say anything bad about Cannes, but Personal Shopper is not tailor-made for Cannes, I’ll put it that way.

The Cannes jury liked it, though.

For some reason, I was more surprised that the reaction to Clouds of Sils Maria there was a tiny bit more minimal than what I would’ve imagined. The film was very successful all over the world, but I thought the reaction in Cannes would’ve been stronger. I mean, in terms of getting a prize, I would have bet on Clouds of Sils Maria as opposed to Personal Shopper, but then the crazy thing is that we got a prize for Personal Shopper.

You were supposed to shoot a different movie right before this and it was shut down right before you began. I wonder if somehow you were able to channel that sense of interruption into the character of Maureen, who is shell-shocked after this important part of her, her brother, has been ripped away.

Yeah, I suppose I did. The mourning aspect of it maybe had to do with that. It was a very violent experience, because it kind of never happens, to have a movie shut down right before the shoot. The sets were built, the costumes were there, the actors were there, the trucks were loaded with the equipment. What can I say? The film was literally happening and then all of a sudden, the financier pulled the plug … which is crazy, because he had more money to lose by doing that than by actually making the film. So I was in shock and I came back to Paris and the question was, “What am I going to do? What’s my next move?”

And I decided that the only way to get over it was to start from scratch, not to try to revise the other project. I always have a couple notes scribbled here or there about movies I eventually would love to make, but here, I just wanted to start from the blank page. Yeah, that moment was kind of defined for me by mourning but I suppose that the energy I found was positive, and connected to Kristen. And I wrote it real fast. I came back to Paris in November and I had a finished screenplay by February and if I could have shot it by June, I would’ve been ultrahappy, but I had to wait until Kristen was done with the Woody Allen film [Café Society].

Does it give you pleasure to watch some of the most tense scenes of the film with an audience, to feel how they’re responding to it?

I think it’s more striking with comedy, actually. I’m not exactly a comedy director, but once in a while I make a movie that can have funny elements and it’s really great to hear the audience react — to have them actually laughing is thrilling, it’s exciting. With scenes that are scary, you can’t see the audience reacting so you don’t exactly have an instrument to measure it. Also, in terms of editing and making the film, it’s very difficult to fine-tune those shots, those things, because after a while you don’t react the same way yourself, you know? You’ve watched those shots a million times in the editing room and after a while, you don’t get the same thrill. So you have to assume how the audience will react. It’s a very good question that’s hard to answer.

Maureen is repulsed by this false world of celebrity, but at the same time, there’s a real allure to those clothes she puts on, almost as though she’s donning a new identity. Do you have the same push-pull relationship to fame?

I’m very ambivalent about a lot of things in the modern world. We live in an extremely materialistic world and that’s frustrating but at the same time, there is something very vital about it. I am not puritan in that sense, to put it that way. I set the story within the fashion world, which is like the most material version of whatever the material world is about, but simultaneously, there is something artistic about it. My mother was a fashion designer, so I suppose that whenever I’m dealing with the fashion industry, I have that influence. The art world is the same way: We can be freaked out by the art world and the way it has become spoiled by industry, but at the same time, we do see the beauty of it. We can be fascinated or excited by art beyond what is very superficial about it. I think I have, in that sense, a very dialectic form of mind. I’m always interested by the way that opposites blend.

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Kristen's interview w/ LA Guest List at the Elle Women in Hollywood Awards + Anna Kendrick, Lucy Hale, Kathy Bates and Helen Mirren mention Kristen

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Kelly Riechardt talks about 'Certain Women' and mentions Kristen with Zimbio

Zimbio: Thank you so much for speaking with me. I enjoyed Certain Women a lot. You always have such a honed sense of time and place in your movies.

Kelly Reichardt: Thanks.

...And also the performances you were able to get from these talentless, no-name actresses...

Thank you.

And any movie with a corgi... you got me.

(Laughs) There you go. You're all set then. That corgi came with the ranch.

Oh did it? Cool, a package deal.

Yeah.

I wanted to start off by asking you about the script. This was the first non-Jonathan Raymond story you've done in a while...

Awhile, yeah.

Yeah, so I just wondered if it was daunting adapting Maile Meloy's characters?

It was daunting, actually. Yeah, I guess working with Jon just because we're very close there's a constant back and forth to it, and this was just me alone in a room. But Maile was super generous in letting me decide which stories...I swapped out a story at a point and she just kind of rolled with it. It was just sort of that thing of letting things be bad for awhile while you make your way through and land on something that works.

Gotcha. Did you film in Montana?

Yeah in Livingston and areas around Livingston, an area called Clyde Park.

So the story dictated the location?

Yeah it did. It pretty much did. I was scouting around Boise for awhile and it was the stories that kept me going back to Montana. And Montana gave us a grant that made it pretty appealing to work there (laughs). So that helped.

Oh, that's great. So, the title of the movie I read as a generality, but the film is more specific. Did you mean for the title to be ironic?

The title I stole from one of my colleagues, Peggy Ahwesh at Bard. She has a film from the '90s that's the same title. I didn't mean it ironically, but, like you said, more in a general sense.

Like all your films, this one doesn't use a lot of music except for the beginning and the end. You use a lot of natural background sounds. Is your style an answer to the sensory bombardment of, you know, superhero movies and mainstream stuff?

I don't know if it's an answer to any of it. I'm not sure anyone's in question of it. But it's an option to all of that I guess. It's just more what works for me. I like using the sound of a location. Livingston is a super windy place so the wind was making all kinds of different sounds according to where you were. Sometimes musical almost. And then it's surrounded by a train depot so it's nice to work with the trains and have the sounds of the town and all. So that's been the approach I've taken for a couple of films. Trying to use those sounds in place of a score. And then there is some of a score from Jeff Grace. 

Could you talk about that scene when Lily Gladstone drives off the road. Why use music right then?

Allowing myself a little movie moment right then (laughs). We kept putting it in and taking it out. I just felt like, let's give over to a moment of emotion. I just kind went with it. It could've worked without it I think also, it was just different with it.

It is a powerful moment, the image of the car gliding by itself.

I know, it was actually, in the script and in my original design, it's gliding across the ice. In my image of the all white film, I hoped there would be so much snow, but there was, like, their least amount of snowfall in years... It just became this other thing which worked out nicely.

How about working with this ensemble, I guess it's not really an ensemble, but it's probably your most high profile cast, along with Night Moves. Did you find working with three separate stories challenging as far as directing the actors?

Well just that you're working on these individual stories and you want it work as a whole. You're just trying to get a handle on the tone that Laura's story will have and how that'll play on the rancher's story, so in that way it was challenging. And also, we were always at the beginning part of a movie, you know? You're always like, here we are back at wardrobe picking costumes with new actors coming in. You're constantly at the beginning point of something. That was challenging. How many people do you have to have for an ensemble?

(Laughs) Yeah I don't really know...

(Laughs) I guess it was a kind of an ensemble. I had Michelle in the middle and I had worked with her and (James) Le Gros before so that was a bit of a reprieve before going into the next section which had more logistical complexities to it. But yeah, I've been a fan of Rene Auberjonois for forever. He's fantastic. And Jared Harris, so that was great. And of course I've been a fan of Laura Dern's for a long time. With Kristen I did worry a little bit about her being too large for the role but she was able to really let it be her story. I just kept being impressed with her. But yeah, it just kept changing. There was nothing to ever settle into. 

Last time we spoke, we talked about subverting audience expectations and how that led to suspense in that film. And you do the same thing here, you subvert expectations, so I was wondering what you were going for.

Well, I'm trying to think of where you mean.

With the hostage situation and with Lily and Kristen also.

Oh, I see. I don't know, with Night Moves it was easy to see what the expectation would be. In this I never really knew where this fit in so I guess I didn't have it in mind so much. It seemed very much its own. 

It was more about just telling the stories?

Yeah, and I think figuring out the tone of the film was the most difficult thing.

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'Personal Shopper' costume designer, Jürgen Doering, talks about Kristen

Personal Shopper is Stewart’s second film with Assayas; she was the first American actress to win a Cesar Award for her role in his 2014 film, Clouds of Sils Maria. To say the stakes were high for Personal Shopper is an understatement. Many critics praised the movie and said it was Stewart’s best performance to date; at a Cannes press conference, she also admitted it was one of her toughest roles yet.

That was likely the case for Jürgen Doering, the film’s costume designer, who also worked with Stewart on Clouds of Sils Maria. In both films, Stewart assists a high-wattage celebrity, so the wardrobes alternate between casual, everyday clothes and glamorous red carpet fare.

In Personal Shopper, Stewart wears an old Fair Isle sweater in one scene and a metallic Chanel gown in another; we spoke to Doering about the challenges of pulling both, and what it’s like to work with one of the industry’s most-sought-after actresses. “Kristen is amazing,” Doering says right off the bat.

“She’s very cool in the clothes. For me, it’s really easy to work with her, now that I know her [from Clouds of Sils Maria], and she trusts me. She’s so chic—you can take her anywhere, and she really wants to understand [the clothes.]” Doering also acknowledged that Stewart has been a face of Chanel for more than two years, so one might expect her to want some control over the clothing choices—but the opposite was true.

“She always asks what I think, what I might propose, and then we have a real talk about it,” he says. “She’s not high maintenance at all—she’s very sexy. She has this big contract [with Chanel] and dresses for her job on the red carpet, but in the film, she looks like a student in sweaters and jeans.”

Stewart wears Chanel in the film, too—but it’s not her Chanel. After picking up a silvery sequin-encrusted dress for her boss, she briefly slips into it, as if to temporarily forget her haunted journey and assume a glamorous, unencumbered life. “It’s that game of dreaming of being who you work for,” Doering says.

Much of his research focused on those clothes Maureen shopped for, as those scenes were pivotal moments in the film. “Olivier would say, ‘Why Chanel?’ or ‘Why Vionnet?’ because we didn’t want it to feel too obvious.” When she isn’t playing dress-up, Maureen wears a modest wardrobe of jeans, polos, and leather jackets, which plays a subliminal role in the film’s dark mood. “She doesn’t like her job,” Doering says. (“I spend my days doing bullshit that doesn’t interest me,” Maureen says at one point. “It’s driving me fucking crazy.”) “I took that into account,” he adds. “She’s feeling bad, and she’s missing her brother, so [those clothes] create a big contrast between the designer dresses she tries on.” Designing costumes that look like someone’s normal, everyday wardrobe may seem easier than working on, say, a period piece or far-flung drama.

But it speaks to the impact that clothing has on a film, particularly how “real” a film feels—and that’s likely why Assayas hired Doering. The director is notoriously detail oriented, so every sneaker, coat, and bag probably had to go through a scrupulous approval process. “Everything had to feel credible,” Doering says. Stewart is familiar with offhand, believable style, too; don’t forget, she slashed a Chanel T-shirt for her first appearance at Cannes this year.

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Olivier Assayas talks about Kristen, 'Personal Shopper' & 'Clouds of Sils Maria' (Telerama)

Google translated:

While he is preparing the filming of Personal Shopper, with his new muse Kristen Stewart...

Have you taken advantage of the standardization of American cinema?

I'll talk more mechanization, industrialization of American cinema. Actors awareness Kristen Stewart are found in films where, even for a simple close-up, there are 18 trucks, fully blocked street types who bark in all directions into their walkie-talkies. It is logistically delusional and it deprives them of the time and space they once were leaving from time to time the majority cinema to rotate in an art film ... That freedom does not exist in American cinema. Even the report to the story is not the same: when Kristen Stewart saw Sils Maria , she was amazed to find all the scenes she had turned. "This is the first time!", she said. She was surprised that we have already filmed the whole scenario, and more that the scenario is found entirely in the image without eighteen mounting layers ... And three quarters of scenes in American films look green background, it is the advent of the world of special effects and, for the actors, it is clearly less and less fun, more and more restrictive.

A little curiosity "people": in Sils Maria , you direct two very young actresses of American cinema, Moretz and Kristen Stewart. What is the difference?

Almost everything except talent. I chose Moretz after conversations via Skype. Looking on Google, I realized she was only 16 years old. It did not make sense, I could not imagine talking to a 16 year old girl. I went to see her in Toronto where she was shooting, and I found an incredible maturity. Chloë is facetious, Kristen Stewart is dark. She has a surprising intensity, she is a samurai. Although she was already a star, American cinema has discovered her through Sils Maria. "So she knows how to play? "  But she was already great in previous films!

You will turn at year end a new film called Personal Shopper . What can you tell us?

I wish I was already filming! But I chose to wait Kristen Stewart, who added the films of Ang Lee and Woody Allen - proof that her American career has changed. It will be a movie very centered around her, and that its kind of ghost film. I'm still in a bizarre situation. My films fall into a blind spot of the funding system: although produced by a French producer as they are in English, they are not entitled to the tax credit, and only a smaller version of the support fund. While an American producer from turning an American film in France benefits from the tax credit. As Sils Maria , which has had to turn inland in Leipzig and Halle, in the former East Germany, it will turn the interiors of Personal shopper, happens entirely in Paris, Hungary or the Czech Republic according to the highest bidder...

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Stefano Tonchi, editor in chief of W Magazine, mentions Kristen

Kristen with Stefano Tonchi backstage at the Balenciaga Paris Fashion Week show on 1 March 2012.

Speaking from a Q&A at the Apple Store in Soho (NYC) on 12 February 2015:

"One of my favorite covers that I created was Kristen Stewart. We transformed her." - Stefano Tonchi with @ManRepeller at Apple Spho
— W magazine (@wmag) February 12, 2015

The W Magazine September 2010 Cover.

Juliette Binoche mentions Kristen at TIFF "I miss her!"

Juliette Binoche opted for a daring look for the afternoon event, held at the Thompson Hotel: A cut-to-there red Prada dress that revealed her bra. “I thought it was a joyful color and it’s good to be joyful after a long day’s work,” pointed out the actress, who stars in “Clouds of Sils Maria” alongside no-show Kristen Stewart. “I miss her!” she said. “I have to leave tomorrow morning at six, so it’s a little bit of a rush and I have to do my packing after three events tonight,” she said of her tight schedule.

Source Via

Johnny Flynn talks about 'Sils Maria'

What’s next after that?

We’re touring in Europe and the UK in the Autumn and I’ve got a small part in a film called Sils Maria in Olivier Assayas’s first English language film. This one has Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart and Chloë Grace Moretz in it so it’s pretty exciting.

Source via @SilsMariaMovie thank you.

Joss Whedon mentions Kristen

"Kristen Stewart is kind of captivating," he continues, "she can just stare at stuff and it works because I still want to watch it. But it does seem a bit passive. 'I don't know which beautiful boy to choose between!' is not exactly the struggle that every girl is going through."

Source via RobstenDreams via FierceBitchStew
Thank you.

'Breaking Dawn' choreographer, Paul Becker, talks about Kristen & Rob

Despite the fact that Kristen Stewart’s character in Twilight is supposed to be totally clumsy with two left feet, Breaking Dawn Part 1 & 2 choreographer Paul Becker says that’s far from the truth.

“At first it was actually Rob [Pattinson] that was stepping on Kristen’s toes and not the other way around,” Paul tells Hollyscoop exclusively.

Of course he’s referring to their now infamous wedding dance scene, confirming what we kind of already knew about Kristen--which is that KStew can probably do anything a dude can do, but do it better.

“In the movie she’s supposed to be a bad dancer, but Kristen took charge and let Rob know who is boss…they were supportive partners and quick learners,” the choreographer tells us.

Source via PattyStewBoneCity via RobstenDreams via fiercebitchstew thank you.