Monday, January 27, 2025

Kristen and Steven Yeun talk to Moviefone for 'Love Me'

Appears this could be a video interview we will update post when available.

Opening in theaters on January 31st is post-apocalyptic romance ‘Love Me’, which was written and directed by Sam and Andy Zuchero, and stars Kristen Stewart (‘Love Lies Bleeding’) and Steven Yeun (‘Beef’).

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun about their work on ‘Love Me’, their first reaction to the screenplay, how they approached playing their unusual characters, and the difficulties of the human relationship that they form.

Moviefone: To begin with, Kristen, can you talk about your first reaction to the screenplay and Sam and Andy Zuchero’s unusual vision for this project?

Kristen Stewart: I thought it was one of the most experimental, weird, ambitious, bizarre things that I had read. I thought the endeavor was a little cuckoo because it doesn't profess to answer any of these unanswerable existential questions, and it doesn’t. I don't think it's something that's like, “Oh, this is a movie that takes place in the future and therefore has all these conclusions”. It was like an invitation to do a really elaborate acting exercise that would reveal us to ourselves and each other daily. It was a diving board. The script felt like the most confronting thing about it wasn't its setting or its characters, it was just how unfixed identity is. It can be scary if you suddenly find yourself responsible for determining those things. It holds a mirror just like a centimeter away from your face, basically. I just also watched a short film that they made that was equally as daring and I wanted to hang out with them. I was drawn to their curiosity and their earnestness and that's it.

MF: Steven, can you talk about your approach to playing these characters, both in live-action and animation, what was that process like for you?

Steven Yeun: Mine was probably a different experience in that my characters were largely reflecting off Kristen's characters. He was wanting to be, in some ways defined by it, but then also struggled with that tension. I was following and reacting and playing that mirror consciously, in a way. So, it was fun. It was also revealing of the character's own tension with wanting his own control or its own control. It's an exercise in surrender and control. It's just that tension between those two things.

MF: Finally, Kristen, while this is a story about two machines, they end up having a very human connection and relationship. Can you talk about that and the message of the movie?

KS: I mean, I guess instead of doing a movie where you have two isolated people that can't be affected by affectation or own individual experiences, if you were to just all of a sudden be dropped into consciousness if you were a matured person who could potentially write the storybook of your life with an intellect that didn't need to be acquired and that was never shaped by individual experience, is genuinely just the knowable universe, I think that immediately renders a person. Well, these people don't exist, right? This is all a metaphor. Buoys don't talk to satellites. I mean, they do, but not in this way. I think maybe just the opportunity to allow something that you immediately diminish as something that couldn't be alive, you must stay open. I mean, it's so presumptuous. It's like you only know what's going on within yourself. I think, playing babies in adult bodies or the idea of bodies. This was just a movie about unfixed identity, defining that weird friction and contrast between reality, what real is compared to everyone's own unique experiences and how they differ, reality doesn't exist. So, we all must define it for ourselves, and it just felt like a base look at that. I was down to being in a vacuous space with Steven trying to figure out what all that means.

Source


Video: Directors Sam and Any Zuchero talk 'Love Me' with The Mary Sue

 

Video: Kristen talks 'The Chronology of Water' with Collider

 

Video: Kristen and Steve Yeun and directors talk 'Love Me' with MovieWeb

 



Video: Kristen mentions 'The Chronology of Water' and with Steve Yeun talk 'Love Me' with ET

 

Saturday, January 25, 2025

Video: Kristen and Steven Yeun talks 'Love Me' with Screen Rant


Kristen Stewart explains how her role in the sci-fi romance Love Me challenged her to explore new territory as an actor. The Love Lies Bleeding star revealed back in 2021 that she was soon set to appear in a quirky post-apocalyptic movie about a love story between a satellite and a buoy. Having premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Stewart’s Love Me is set to release in theaters on January 31, 2025.

Speaking exclusively to ScreenRant about her romantic turn as the lonely bouy Me, and the attention-seeking influencer Deja in Love Me, Stewart discussed the unique challenge of creating characters who are very different from anything she’s played before:

It was fun. It was defining itself every day. The script is such a diving board, and it's so astute in terms of how it offers itself to you. I hope that the movie does that as well, even though we've kind of peopled it.

Stewart then went deeper into what she found appealing in Me/Deja, and the questions the characters raised for her about identity:

But it just felt like anyone could have played that part, and so it felt like such an invitation to [say], "Well, okay, maybe it can be you." You're like, "Well, what does that mean? Who am I?" The whole movie is about trying to figure that out; reckoning with our sameness, our individuality, and finding ways to express that understanding. It changes all the time.

Stewart elaborated further on why she saw her Love Me role as a unique and interesting opportunity:

Really, in terms of character, I thought it was a nice, open-ended opportunity to allow that to become anything - which is kind of everything. You're kind of playing everyone. You're playing somebody who just wants to be seen.

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