As featured in the print version of Variety December 2025.
Transcript / Excerpt of the scans above:
“I swear to God. I’m going to kill myself,” Kristen Stewart says, ribbing her longtime friend Jesse Eisenberg for watching her directorial debut, “The Chronology of Water,” on his laptop.
The “Twilight” star, who earned an Oscar nomination for portraying Princess Diana in “Spencer,” vowed to quit acting until she could adapt Lidia Yuknavitch’s 2011 stream-of-conscious memoir about a young woman (played by Imogen Poots), sexually abused as a child, who eventually finds her voice through writing and swimming. Stewart didn’t labor for nearly a decade to secure the film’s financing only for someone to see her passion project on a computer screen.
“It’s supposed to be a sonic experience,” she sighs and keeps roasting Eisenberg. “You know about movies? Have you ever made a movie?”
Stewart and Eisenberg met on 2009’s coming-of-age comedy “Adventureland” and reunited on 2015’s stoner adventure “American Ultra” and Woody Allen’s 2016 romantic drama “Cafe Society.” Since then, Eisenberg has directed two films, 2022’s dramedy “When You Finish Saving the World” and 2024’s Oscar-nominated “A Real Pain.” So yeah, he knows something about making movies, as well as a director’s desire for audiences to see them on the big screen.
“I’m aware of that and was taking all of that into account,” Eisenberg wryly retorts before complimenting his pal. “I was astounded. I’ve never seen something made like this by someone I know who is also funny.”
Stewart and Eisenberg continue to tease each other during their conversation, in which they discuss how directing has changed their perspective as actors and whether they care if their films make money.
Jesse Eisenberg: Are you OK?
Kristen Stewart: That should be the intro: “Are you OK?” I’m not kidding. That’s often how we greet each other.
Eisenberg: We’ve known each other for a long time — 15 years, right?
Stewart: I was 17 when we met. I’m 35.
Eisenberg: Oh my God, really? I saw your movie 24 hours ago. I was blown away. My first thought was “We can do that? I didn’t know we could do that.” It’s unbelievably audacious. You read this book, but how did you convey it to other people? (I know these are junket questions.) What does the script look like?
Stewart: You and I are fairly shy people, but there’s an innate, stifling invisibility that women have to grapple with, even if they weren’t abused by their father. I didn’t want to make statements, like, “This is what the movie’s about.” There was just something about the book that spoke to the universality of being a young girl trying to excavate a voice that’s been told to shut up.
Eisenberg: You and I have the advantage of being known actors. It allows, or maybe gives, us the responsibility to make something that’s harder to convey. Is that part of the reason you were able to do something so abstract? The result is astounding, but that’s not guaranteed.
Stewart: It wasn’t easy for me to make the movie. It took eight years. People that love me were genuinely sick and tired of hearing me be so upset about it. And then those things are baked into the plot of the movie. It’s about the malleability of our realities. I had to continuously remind people that we were doing a poem.
Eisenberg: What I was asking before, if I can ask it better, is —
Stewart: I can answer it better.
Eisenberg: This is my question: Did you feel a responsibility to make something unusual because you’re a well-known actor, or is this just entirely your taste?
Stewart: This is entirely my taste. I could never make something straightforward. I like associative, open-ended things that say something very particular but invite people to disagree.
Eisenberg: How did your taste develop?
Stewart: I don’t like being told what to do. I don’t want to tell people what to do.
Eisenberg: I read something you said, which I thought was funny and reminded me of myself. Somebody asked you, “Do you think of being an actor in a movie differently now?” You’re like, “Of course. I’ll go to the director and say, ‘I’ll do whatever you want me to do.’”
Stewart: I’ll never question anything again. I’m like, “Anything you want.” The idea of being like, “You should cast this person.” I’m like, “Excuse me? You don’t know anything.”
Eisenberg: Isn’t that fascinating? A lot of people in our position go the other way. They feel even more like they need control because they have an experience where they were controlling everything. The story I always tell about you — because I’ve been asked about you for 18 years — is when we were doing “Adventureland,” there was a dramatic scene at night, and you were like, “Cut. I’m lying.” You were 17, and I was shocked. I felt like I was watching a master. Would you have done that now?
Stewart: I get mad at people now for cutting, because I’m like, “I know you questioned yourself, but that moment of question was gold.” I want to try and not do that. [As an actor] I don’t want to be misinterpreted. When a director is like, “It seemed like you were feeling it.” I always say, “I don’t care if it looks good; I want to do it again.” I’m selfish. I want to taste it.
Eisenberg: “I want the catharsis.” One of the other stories I tell from “Adventureland” was a quick scene. I had my first panic attack on set; I was self-aware in the worst way, and I shut down. After the tape, I was mortified. Greg [Mottola, the director] goes, “I didn’t notice, but I’m so sorry you felt that way.” He said, “I don’t understand how actors aren’t having panic attacks all the time. You’re in front of strangers, and you have to be vulnerable.” For years, I remember thinking, “It’s a sweet thing he said, but he’s pitying actors too much. We’re lucky. We have an easy job. We memorize lines.”
Now I have respect for the job in a way I never did personally. Because I was so self-critical, I couldn’t have a good feeling about it. It seemed like, “You’re overpaying me.” Then Julianne Moore was in my movie, and after her first scene, I turned to my producer and was like, “Can we pay her more?” Did you have that feeling with Imogen? I’ve done three movies with her. But not in the same way I’ve done three movies with you. How did you choose her?
Stewart: You’re one of the reasons. I was like, “I’m sure we would be close because you guys are friends.” She did an audition. She sent a tape and I was like, “Oh my God.” There’s something about her being 35 and me being 35. We should have been friends since we were younger. We just never met. Then we did, and it was the perfect time to go, “We need to shove everything we’ve never said to each other into this movie.”
Eisenberg: Do you feel you could have this style and use it going forward?
Stewart: I’m always asked if I would continue to work as an actor in studio films, or if feels like you’re selling a homogenized idea that doesn’t land on an individual, necessarily, but satisfies a group? I wouldn’t be good at that job.
Eisenberg What do you mean? To direct a more commercial thing?
Stewart: More and more, commercial means standard and digestible. I want to be allowed to make movies that allow for time to figure out a structure and mission statement. The next movie I want to make utilizes different formats. Not because it’s nerdy film stuff, but because it’s more interesting to make movies about how you see something instead of what you see.
Eisenberg: Your movie is coming out soon. Do you think or care about it making money?
Stewart: It would be great if it did because then maybe it wouldn’t be as difficult to make my next movie. But at the same time, the next movie I want to make functions outside of the business structure we’re used to. People love to hear that.
Eisenberg: “This doesn’t even exist in your structure.”
Stewart: Well, it doesn’t. You need to find new terms for all of this because, I’m sorry, but the language and structure are oppressive.
Eisenberg: There’s no English on this set. It doesn’t apply to what we’re doing.
Stewart: Actually, the title of the movie is in Spanish. I’m not going to tell you what it is.
Eisenberg: I wouldn’t understand it.
Stewart: Yeah, you’re just a dummy.
Eisenberg: So you care insofar as it helps you make the next one. You care insofar as it pays the people back who paid for it. But you’re not caring about what other people might think about it? People ask me too. I guess I don’t care about it being a successful business thing. My mind doesn’t go there, or I can’t conceive of it.
Stewart: For sure. I love the movie. I birthed it. I probably would have made this movie if I was never an actor. I didn’t feel like I was graduating into like, “Now I want to check that box.” I think this thing needs to exist.
Eisenberg: We’re directing everything, but we’re also desperate actors. So all I’ll say is this: I can learn Spanish for your next project.
The Love Lies Bleeding star joins fellow actor-turned-director Riley Keough in conversation for our March cover.
For the better part of two decades, Kristen Stewart has moved through Hollywood like a chameleon, slipping into a mélange of characters and subverting expectations at every turn. Traversing seamlessly from a fantasy world of vampires and werewolves to that of a legendary 1970s rock frontwoman and jumping from a queer home-for-the-holidays rom-com to an Oscar-nominated turn as the people's princess is Stewart's speciality. You can't pinpoint any kind of project-picking philosophy (by choice, I imagine) other than maybe a desire to play multifaceted women who defy societal norms. Her ability to keep audiences guessing with every project, much like with her unquestionably cool beauty and fashion transformations, is what makes Stewart one of the most impressive actors of our generation.
In Rose Glass's sophomore film Love Lies Bleeding, Stewart's performance is as liberated as they come. The heart-pounding romantic noir thriller is a roided-up, sweaty, violent fever dream set against the backdrop of 1989 rural New Mexico. Stewart plays Lou, a reclusive gym manager with a shaggy mullet and a dodgy family led by her gun-toting father (Ed Harris). Lou seems to be going nowhere fast in her seedy small town until Jackie (Katy O'Brian), an aspiring bodybuilder, shows up from Oklahoma and irrevocably shakes things up. The pair quickly become an item with big plans of getting out of town when a terrible decision, spawned by a growing steroid habit, leads to murder.
Love Lies Bleeding first premiered to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival in January, where Stewart was honored with a Visionary Award and declared she wouldn't act in another film until her own directorial debut, an adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch's memoir The Chronology of Water, got financing. After shopping the project around for nearly three years—"too fucking long," she shouts—Stewart finally found her funding. And not a moment too soon. On the verge of a life-changing career milestone, she jumped on the phone with her good friend and fellow actor-turned-director Riley Keough to talk about going bombastic for Love Lies Bleeding, the divine timing of directing her first film, and coming up in a different era of Hollywood.
Riley Keough: Hi!
Kristen Stewart: Hey, what's up?
RK: Oh my gosh. I'm so happy to see you. Where are you?
KS: I'm in my house.
RK: Very cool.
KS: To leave the responsibility of conducting something readable in our hands is just funny. I thought twice about that. … I was like, "Cool, I get to hang out with Ri for 50 minutes. That sounds nice." But then I was like, "Wait, do we want other people to be privy to the swill?" There's nothing good that will be had.
RK: It's okay because I have prompts, so I'm going to stick to the page. Well firstly, … I got to see this incredible movie when I was in bed with COVID, which was really a trippy experience because when I had COVID—I'm in England—I had this crazy dream that a demon took over my body. I went to bed, and I woke up and called my energy healer because I was like, "I literally just had a dream that a demon took my body over and started wanting to kill people." I got your movie sent to me that day.
KS: Was the desire to kill something you knew as a fact, like in the reality of the dream, or did you actually experience that need to murder?
RK: I can't believe I'm saying this in an interview. I've never told anyone this but my therapist, but it was like a demon took over my body, and it was like, "Rawrrr!" It was threatening people, and I was like, "What is taking over?" It was so crazy. I felt like there was another entity in my body.
KS: Like you were out of control.
RK: I was totally out of control.
KS: Like Being John Malkovich style—going, "Oh shit!"
RK: I woke up with COVID, so maybe that was the COVID aggressively entering my body in my dreams. And then I had to watch Love Lies Bleeding. It was just so intense, but it was actually amazing. I was like, "This is great. At least, I'm not alone."
KS: I was going to say that's a trippy alone watch. That is a movie that you'd like to get caught up in a bit of a raucous time with others versus sitting still and alone with.
RK: It's so great, but also, you're so good in it.
KS: Thanks, dude.
RK: Maybe this doesn't feel right to you, but when I was watching you, you felt so free and so liberated in your performance. I don't know if it felt that way when you were performing it, but it felt very … alive and free.
KS: It's weird because the character is also kind of paralyzed, so at the same time, she's not somebody who is free, or I don't think you would necessarily pin "liberated" on her.
RK: No, she's not, and that's what is so weird. … If I read that on the page, I would have played her much more restrained. I can't describe it, but it was really special. It was just so interesting, and I would just like you to speak to that.
KS: It was good timing, in that getting older and choosing the right things for you plays into it because I had so much fucking fun. I didn't want to stop doing it ever. I wanted us to go over schedule. We were lucky because we got the chance to take a step back and return to it and do "reshoots," which really just felt like an extension of the process. The script was precise, but the whole thing felt malleable the whole time. … [Rose Glass] really allowed people to come in and inhabit this space in a way that is rare, and I really did relish the opportunity and was obsessed with Lou. She was someone that I really needed to get behind the whole time. … She's a protagonist that is so satisfying because we all have this demon and this monster in there that is like, "Maybe I could be awful. Maybe I scare the shit out of myself."
Also tonally, this person is someone who is not used to being looked at, so there's this weird, tongue-in-cheek, rye, smirky thing that happens in this movie for me. I'm so aware of the fact that this is usually not the main character. Every time the camera is all about me—and Lou I guess—I'm always like, "Wait, are you fucking kidding me?" I'm literally having a ball, and that's probably what you sensed. She's definitely locked up and weird and in a million ways unprocessed and needs so much therapy, but it was so fun to play the good, affable guy that … doesn't have to be morally upstanding or go through some journey, process thing that makes everyone feel better about the movies and stories that we choose to tell about women. I was so stoked about how different and fun and also just [how] 'fuck off' sexy it was. I was like, "Rose, who the fuck are you?!"
KS: Was the desire to kill something you knew as a fact, like in the reality of the dream, or did you actually experience that need to murder?
RK: I can't believe I'm saying this in an interview. I've never told anyone this but my therapist, but it was like a demon took over my body, and it was like, "Rawrrr!" It was threatening people, and I was like, "What is taking over?" It was so crazy. I felt like there was another entity in my body.
KS: Like you were out of control.
RK: I was totally out of control.
KS: Like Being John Malkovich style—going, "Oh shit!"
RK: I woke up with COVID, so maybe that was the COVID aggressively entering my body in my dreams. And then I had to watch Love Lies Bleeding. It was just so intense, but it was actually amazing. I was like, "This is great. At least, I'm not alone."
KS: I was going to say that's a trippy alone watch. That is a movie that you'd like to get caught up in a bit of a raucous time with others versus sitting still and alone with.
RK: It's so great, but also, you're so good in it.
KS: Thanks, dude.
I was so stoked about how different and fun and also just [how] 'fuck off' sexy it was.
RK: Maybe this doesn't feel right to you, but when I was watching you, you felt so free and so liberated in your performance. I don't know if it felt that way when you were performing it, but it felt very … alive and free.
KS: It's weird because the character is also kind of paralyzed, so at the same time, she's not somebody who is free, or I don't think you would necessarily pin "liberated" on her.
RK: No, she's not, and that's what is so weird. … If I read that on the page, I would have played her much more restrained. I can't describe it, but it was really special. It was just so interesting, and I would just like you to speak to that.
KS: It was good timing, in that getting older and choosing the right things for you plays into it because I had so much fucking fun. I didn't want to stop doing it ever. I wanted us to go over schedule. We were lucky because we got the chance to take a step back and return to it and do "reshoots," which really just felt like an extension of the process. The script was precise, but the whole thing felt malleable the whole time. … [Rose Glass] really allowed people to come in and inhabit this space in a way that is rare, and I really did relish the opportunity and was obsessed with Lou. She was someone that I really needed to get behind the whole time. … She's a protagonist that is so satisfying because we all have this demon and this monster in there that is like, "Maybe I could be awful. Maybe I scare the shit out of myself."
Also tonally, this person is someone who is not used to being looked at, so there's this weird, tongue-in-cheek, rye, smirky thing that happens in this movie for me. I'm so aware of the fact that this is usually not the main character. Every time the camera is all about me—and Lou I guess—I'm always like, "Wait, are you fucking kidding me?" I'm literally having a ball, and that's probably what you sensed. She's definitely locked up and weird and in a million ways unprocessed and needs so much therapy, but it was so fun to play the good, affable guy that … doesn't have to be morally upstanding or go through some journey, process thing that makes everyone feel better about the movies and stories that we choose to tell about women. I was so stoked about how different and fun and also just [how] 'fuck off' sexy it was. I was like, "Rose, who the fuck are you?!"
RK: I was just constantly surprised with this film and also your character. I was like, "Okay, it's this thing. This is the character," and then it was different. You brought so much texture to it. You know when you watch something and you're like, "Oh, I wouldn't have thought of that. I wouldn't have done that"? I love when I watch performances like that. There are moments where you're so funny.
KS: I feel that way about you constantly. It's not nonsense. It's true reciprocation. I genuinely feel that way every time I watch you in a movie.
RK: Thanks! It was … not what I would have expected or done or chose, so I really loved watching you.
KS: Rose had to consistently remind me of tone because I would always go under, and she'd be like, "No, no." She'd push us toward ballistic, like bombastic. How good is Anna Baryshnikov [in the movie]?
RK: Oh my gosh, I was like, "This girl is so crazy." The acting was so great. Everyone was psychotic.
KS: I was so impressed with her in person, in real time. I tend to be probably so annoying to directors. I'll take things so literal in the moment for some reason, and then give me a couple days, and I'm like, "I don't know why I was hung up on that. I'm so sorry. That was such an irrelevant detail."
RK: Sometimes, acting is like you're drunk or something because you're not totally yourself. I'll behave in ways I don't normally behave and get total tunnel vision. It's like, "I'm sorry for my behavior."
KS: Yeah, you go to bed at night and wake up and go, "Oh" the same way you might if you were being an idiot while drunk.
RK: What was the prep [for the film] like?
KS: Ours was really standard. We read the script a couple of times together and probably had different conversations about the script at once. We were all talking at each other about different things and not really coming to any enlightening conclusions. … I actually had to reverse—I had quit smoking [prior to shooting the film], so it really sucked having to [go back].
RK: I was curious. I was like, "Are you smoking fake cigs in this movie?"
KS: No, they were real.
RK: I was like, "There's no way she's smoking fake cigs."
KS: Yucky. You can't do that.
RK: They are so gross.
KS: They are fucking awful, and also, they don't smoke. You know what I mean? They smolder, and they get in your eyes, and you look like a loser. But that sucked. That was a part of the prep.
RK: Why did you quit smoking?
KS: I think it's something [we] should all do at some point in our lives.
RK: Did you quit quit?
KS: Yeah, I don't like making promises or whatever, but I don't like smoking cigarettes anymore. [Lou] smokes a fucking lot of cigarettes in the beginning of this movie, and Rose does takes. We don't do things three times. It was fun. We always really pushed things. I took a couple years off my life on this one. It was worth it. I love this movie, but it was not good.
Chanel shirt, shorts, and bag; Hue socks; Piaget bracelet
Kristen Stewart Is Calling the Shots
The Love Lies Bleeding star joins fellow actor-turned-director Riley Keough in conversation for our March cover.
For the better part of two decades, Kristen Stewart has moved through Hollywood like a chameleon, slipping into a mélange of characters and subverting expectations at every turn. Traversing seamlessly from a fantasy world of vampires and werewolves to that of a legendary 1970s rock frontwoman and jumping from a queer home-for-the-holidays rom-com to an Oscar-nominated turn as the people's princess is Stewart's speciality. You can't pinpoint any kind of project-picking philosophy (by choice, I imagine) other than maybe a desire to play multifaceted women who defy societal norms. Her ability to keep audiences guessing with every project, much like with her unquestionably cool beauty and fashion transformations, is what makes Stewart one of the most impressive actors of our generation.
In Rose Glass's sophomore film Love Lies Bleeding, Stewart's performance is as liberated as they come. The heart-pounding romantic noir thriller is a roided-up, sweaty, violent fever dream set against the backdrop of 1989 rural New Mexico. Stewart plays Lou, a reclusive gym manager with a shaggy mullet and a dodgy family led by her gun-toting father (Ed Harris). Lou seems to be going nowhere fast in her seedy small town until Jackie (Katy O'Brian), an aspiring bodybuilder, shows up from Oklahoma and irrevocably shakes things up. The pair quickly become an item with big plans of getting out of town when a terrible decision, spawned by a growing steroid habit, leads to murder.
Love Lies Bleeding first premiered to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival in January, where Stewart was honored with a Visionary Award and declared she wouldn't act in another film until her own directorial debut, an adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch's memoir The Chronology of Water, got financing. After shopping the project around for nearly three years—"too fucking long," she shouts—Stewart finally found her funding. And not a moment too soon. On the verge of a life-changing career milestone, she jumped on the phone with her good friend and fellow actor-turned-director Riley Keough to talk about going bombastic for Love Lies Bleeding, the divine timing of directing her first film, and coming up in a different era of Hollywood.
Riley Keough: Hi!
Kristen Stewart: Hey, what's up?
RK: Oh my gosh. I'm so happy to see you. Where are you?
KS: I'm in my house.
RK: Very cool.
KS: To leave the responsibility of conducting something readable in our hands is just funny. I thought twice about that. … I was like, "Cool, I get to hang out with Ri for 50 minutes. That sounds nice." But then I was like, "Wait, do we want other people to be privy to the swill?" There's nothing good that will be had.
RK: It's okay because I have prompts, so I'm going to stick to the page. Well firstly, … I got to see this incredible movie when I was in bed with COVID, which was really a trippy experience because when I had COVID—I'm in England—I had this crazy dream that a demon took over my body. I went to bed, and I woke up and called my energy healer because I was like, "I literally just had a dream that a demon took my body over and started wanting to kill people." I got your movie sent to me that day.
KS: Was the desire to kill something you knew as a fact, like in the reality of the dream, or did you actually experience that need to murder?
RK: I can't believe I'm saying this in an interview. I've never told anyone this but my therapist, but it was like a demon took over my body, and it was like, "Rawrrr!" It was threatening people, and I was like, "What is taking over?" It was so crazy. I felt like there was another entity in my body.
KS: Like you were out of control.
RK: I was totally out of control.
KS: Like Being John Malkovich style—going, "Oh shit!"
RK: I woke up with COVID, so maybe that was the COVID aggressively entering my body in my dreams. And then I had to watch Love Lies Bleeding. It was just so intense, but it was actually amazing. I was like, "This is great. At least, I'm not alone."
KS: I was going to say that's a trippy alone watch. That is a movie that you'd like to get caught up in a bit of a raucous time with others versus sitting still and alone with.
RK: It's so great, but also, you're so good in it.
KS: Thanks, dude.
I was so stoked about how different and fun and also just [how] 'fuck off' sexy it was.
RK: Maybe this doesn't feel right to you, but when I was watching you, you felt so free and so liberated in your performance. I don't know if it felt that way when you were performing it, but it felt very … alive and free.
KS: It's weird because the character is also kind of paralyzed, so at the same time, she's not somebody who is free, or I don't think you would necessarily pin "liberated" on her.
RK: No, she's not, and that's what is so weird. … If I read that on the page, I would have played her much more restrained. I can't describe it, but it was really special. It was just so interesting, and I would just like you to speak to that.
KS: It was good timing, in that getting older and choosing the right things for you plays into it because I had so much fucking fun. I didn't want to stop doing it ever. I wanted us to go over schedule. We were lucky because we got the chance to take a step back and return to it and do "reshoots," which really just felt like an extension of the process. The script was precise, but the whole thing felt malleable the whole time. … [Rose Glass] really allowed people to come in and inhabit this space in a way that is rare, and I really did relish the opportunity and was obsessed with Lou. She was someone that I really needed to get behind the whole time. … She's a protagonist that is so satisfying because we all have this demon and this monster in there that is like, "Maybe I could be awful. Maybe I scare the shit out of myself."
Also tonally, this person is someone who is not used to being looked at, so there's this weird, tongue-in-cheek, rye, smirky thing that happens in this movie for me. I'm so aware of the fact that this is usually not the main character. Every time the camera is all about me—and Lou I guess—I'm always like, "Wait, are you fucking kidding me?" I'm literally having a ball, and that's probably what you sensed. She's definitely locked up and weird and in a million ways unprocessed and needs so much therapy, but it was so fun to play the good, affable guy that … doesn't have to be morally upstanding or go through some journey, process thing that makes everyone feel better about the movies and stories that we choose to tell about women. I was so stoked about how different and fun and also just [how] 'fuck off' sexy it was. I was like, "Rose, who the fuck are you?!"
RK: I was just constantly surprised with this film and also your character. I was like, "Okay, it's this thing. This is the character," and then it was different. You brought so much texture to it. You know when you watch something and you're like, "Oh, I wouldn't have thought of that. I wouldn't have done that"? I love when I watch performances like that. There are moments where you're so funny.
KS: I feel that way about you constantly. It's not nonsense. It's true reciprocation. I genuinely feel that way every time I watch you in a movie.
RK: Thanks! It was … not what I would have expected or done or chose, so I really loved watching you.
KS: Rose had to consistently remind me of tone because I would always go under, and she'd be like, "No, no." She'd push us toward ballistic, like bombastic. How good is Anna Baryshnikov [in the movie]?
RK: Oh my gosh, I was like, "This girl is so crazy." The acting was so great. Everyone was psychotic.
KS: I was so impressed with her in person, in real time. I tend to be probably so annoying to directors. I'll take things so literal in the moment for some reason, and then give me a couple days, and I'm like, "I don't know why I was hung up on that. I'm so sorry. That was such an irrelevant detail."
RK: Sometimes, acting is like you're drunk or something because you're not totally yourself. I'll behave in ways I don't normally behave and get total tunnel vision. It's like, "I'm sorry for my behavior."
KS: Yeah, you go to bed at night and wake up and go, "Oh" the same way you might if you were being an idiot while drunk.
RK: What was the prep [for the film] like?
KS: Ours was really standard. We read the script a couple of times together and probably had different conversations about the script at once. We were all talking at each other about different things and not really coming to any enlightening conclusions. … I actually had to reverse—I had quit smoking [prior to shooting the film], so it really sucked having to [go back].
RK: I was curious. I was like, "Are you smoking fake cigs in this movie?"
KS: No, they were real.
RK: I was like, "There's no way she's smoking fake cigs."
KS: Yucky. You can't do that.
RK: They are so gross.
KS: They are fucking awful, and also, they don't smoke. You know what I mean? They smolder, and they get in your eyes, and you look like a loser. But that sucked. That was a part of the prep.
RK: Why did you quit smoking?
KS: I think it's something [we] should all do at some point in our lives.
RK: Did you quit quit?
KS: Yeah, I don't like making promises or whatever, but I don't like smoking cigarettes anymore. [Lou] smokes a fucking lot of cigarettes in the beginning of this movie, and Rose does takes. We don't do things three times. It was fun. We always really pushed things. I took a couple years off my life on this one. It was worth it. I love this movie, but it was not good.
RK: Okay, I'm going to go to my list so I can do some of the questions…
KS: What are you working on right now?
RK: I'm working on a movie in London. I'm rehearsing.
KS: That's nice. That's such a nice, comfy, cozy rehearsal schedule. That's so luxurious.
RK: Yeah, I only work like eight days in total, so I have some chill time.
KS: Except it's not chill to only work eight days on a movie because then you're like, "Okay, I better fucking slaughter this."
RK: I don't know what it is, but taking [a supporting role] is so much more stressful for me. Do you feel that?
KS: Yeah, you are signing up for torture because you just put so much pressure on your limited time to get something across. I recently had to let a part go in a movie that I know is going to be spectacular. It's one of those ones where the script is so prosaic. It's basically like a novella. You could publish the screenplay. The two actors are two of my favorite working actors, young too. [They're] exciting people who are just so fucking amazing. … All details aside, my movie [The Chronology of Water] just got funded.
RK: I just heard! We should talk about that. That's so exciting. After how long of trying to get financed?
KS: I was trying to get financed for like three years. … But I've been holding this close, and it's been an idea for six years. That's when the adaptation process started. I've been in Latvia. Dude, spatially and environmentally, these areas of the Earth are opening themselves up to us and the story in a way that just feels so alive, and it is so official for me because it's been so long. I'll see the correct doorway and just lose it. Just knowing the people there that are helping us make it, the way that we've crewed up, the current cast, the way it's evolving… All of it, like how committed [the lead] Imogen [Poots] has been for so long, it feels more personal. I feel like I created a living body outside of my body. It's such a cliché, but it does feel like this little animal is very unruly, and I'm proud of it and scared of it—like full Frankenstein.
I'm scared of where it might take us, but then I'm also encouraging it to take us fully over every edge. I think Imogen can take it. I think she's strong enough physically. She's in the perfect place in her life. I'm so glad it's taken this long because things have opened up in a way that's going to create a better film. I think it's … perfect, exact fucking timing, and I'm so excited. It's going to be done in a flash. Three months and it's fucking done.
RK: It will be over, so just enjoy every stressful moment. The couple things in life that I really have experienced divine timing in, thus far, have been the birth of my child and then directing a film. It really comes together exactly when it's supposed to, and it's so weird. … It's a really magical thing that I haven't experienced in other parts of this job as much, like acting or whatever.
KS: Yeah, because you're harvesting something. … It is other people who generated the thing. You can find areas in which to plug in your person and your personal and your interior life, but it's exterior. You are going through something outside. It's such a different self-generative, womb-like push.
RK: It sounds so simple, but it is so magical to see something come from your creative imagination and then get realized. … Look, there are so many drafts that we did. I'll forget what we took in or left out sometimes. You're doing your job, whatever you're doing as a director, and then somebody walks in with a yellow pen because you wrote, "She's holding a yellow pen," and you're like, "Whoa."
KS: Whoa, I wrote that like six years ago. Thank you for noticing that detail, person.
RK: This whole thing takes on a life, and it's like, "Wow, all of these people are bringing my idea into reality, and it's so trippy." It's like magic.
KS: It's so fun to talk to you about [this] because you don't necessarily get to talk about this stuff while you're doing it, and it's so trippy to just put it in basic terms like that, where you're like, "How did I do that?" And then it was taken and made into something that is living and breathing. I know that that's just a given, but to actually witness… This actually is a quote from the book: "Witness the will of it." … It takes so much fucking will and willing. The whole thing about directing a thing is looking for the right people who want it as much as you do, and maybe you want something different, but to funnel all of that wanting [and] all of the desire is so overwhelming. Are you guys going to make a new movie soon? What's the next movie that you're going to direct?
RK: We're writing like three movies because we're confused. I'll sit down and write 10 pages and be like, "This is the one," and then I'm so uninspired to keep writing for a month, and then I'll go back to the other one. I'm allowing myself to be lyrical and emotional in my writing process because I find that to be the most successful way for me to write.
KS: Honestly, there are so many ways into story. For me, it's always a detail versus anything overarching, and that's probably also my weakness and a strength, which makes sense because you're an actor. I think that's something not to avoid, especially when you work with writers or you're around people who are a little more practical in their approach. It's easy to be jealous of that, but it's also the coolest thing to be like, "Yeah, but my moments, they fucking shine."
RK: I'm a self-taught writer like you are. I didn't go to school to screenwrite, and it's taken me a minute to learn—well, a minute has been like 10 years. [Laughs]
KS: You're like, "Sorry, why am I self-effacing?"
RK: [Laughs] "Actually, I'm a professional." It's taken me a long time to find the balance of what works for me and structure. I can't write with structure in mind. I have to write the way I write, and then I'll…
KS: Find a skeleton to support. Those moments that you are attracted to dreaming up, they're all connected. They are not disconnected. Let them be free, and then you can find a way to put them together.
RK: Totally. I'm a little dyslexic, and often, I'll write the end first, and that's how it works for me. I just follow where it takes me. I don't just sit down and go, "Okay, I'm working from 3 to 4, and I'm going to just write." I can't really do that.
KS: My brain is better in the morning. I would love to live that romanticized 'writing into the night' life, but I really wake up in the morning and commit and don't say a word until [I'm] done.
RK: I have a funny thing where I'm a beast on the airplane.
KS: Me too! I just did that. I read the book cover to cover and did a whole revision and wrote like three love letters to actors.
RK: I need to fly like once a week because I write so much on the airplane. I don't know. Maybe it's that we're just closer to God.
KS: [Laughs] Wow. Anyway, I can't wait to find the right fucking thing for us to do together. Also, I think our companies being sisters is really cute. We're like, "Let's read all of your shit." And it's like, "Well, can you read mine?" I feel like we're these fledgling—not in a self-effacing way, but in a way that I just think we're both going to go places with these things. I can't wait to grow together.
RK: Aw.
KS: I imagine two houses, and I'm like, "What are they having for dinner?" I have to run over and be like, "Wait, what's in the kitchen?" I am so curious to know what you're fucking cooking, man.
RK: It's really inspiring to watch your friends work and do great work. That brings us back to Love Lies Bleeding, where I was like, "I love my friends. They're so talented!"
KS: Isn't it the best feeling? It's so lucky.
RK: I just love that I feel that way, too, because this industry can be so competitive, especially when I think back to being 20 years old and auditioning against all of these girls and what that felt like—how it felt to be compared to [them].
KS: The verbiage surrounding actresses was much gnarlier in that era.
RK: It was a crazy era. It was also an era where you were actually so radical. Every side I would get, I'm like, "I'm not this person." It was the girl next door for every character. Every role was the blonde girl next door. They were all the same, and I was like, "I can't play that. I can't do it. It's not in my wheelhouse." I would be so defeated because I'm like, "I'm never going to be this type of girl."
KS: Well, that type of girl doesn't exist. That is an archetype that makes people feel comfortable, and some people in real life play that girl. At some point, that is really hard on a body. I don't think it's sustainable.
RK: I think that's why you were so exciting. … You were playing the leads and the girl, but in your own way. Now, it's so much more common. The roles for us are much more complex, but that's what was so powerful about all of your performances and why they connected so much—girls were seeing a girl that wasn't the thing they see in everything.
KS: I tried to play that too. I did try to do that when I was supposed to do that.
RK: Yeah, but there's just not part of that in you. Anyways, I'm glad that we have more opportunities these days. … When are you going to shoot your movie?
KS: The fact that we are even on the phone right now is so… It's going to make me vomit because I am busy, and I need to be doing other things right now. I'm waiting for snow. In my dream world, I can cast four integral parts really quickly, and we're going to do a snow dance and fucking hope for a storm that will occur before we go into full prep so I can get a preshoot. Proof of concept, I only need 15 fuckers standing on my set. We can do everything so tiny. We are shooting on [16-millimeter film]. I want to be able to do a little set piece before we start shooting. I want to set a vibe and be like, "Believe me—this is all we need moving forward unless we have larger days." So pray for fucking snow. … The scope of everything, those two sequences are going to make us look like a big, huge movie, and if we don't get it, we'll start April 1.
RK: Well, that is so exciting. I'm so happy for you.
KS: I know! I'm really scared and exhilarated, and I feel like I'm living in a simulation. It's not really real, and nothing matters. Also, it feels really different depending on the hour of the day. In the morning, I wake up, and I'm literally like, "Follow me into hell, motherfuckers. I can do anything." At night, if I'm alone in a hotel room, I'm spiraling about why I told everyone we should be doing this.
RK: I think that's the spectrum of directing. It's so intense. Well, I don't have any advice for you because I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm so excited for you because it's just a wild ride.
KS: I kind of wish you were going to be there. I don't want to tell you about it. I just want you to be there. It's going to be so fucking fun. We need to make a movie together.
RK: Okay, let's do it. I literally said this morning to Gina [Gammell], "We need to find something for me and Kristen to do because it would be so much fun."
KS: Yes! Okay, well, let's get off the phone. I think we're done, right?
RK: Yeah.
Beauty
From diffused, soft-focused makeup to freshly snipped micro bangs, Kristen Stewart’s March cover look is what springtime makeup and hair dreams are made of. Inspired by the actor’s signature effortless approach, Stewart’s longtime hairstylist, Adir Abergel, describes the aesthetic as one part Audrey Hepburn, one part early ’80s. (See her choppy bangs which were re-cut the morning of our shoot.) To accentuate, Chanel makeup artist Kate Lee was influenced by Sarah Moon and early ’90s Paolo Roversi photography, creating an overall finish that’s both “mysterious” and “out of focus.” The result? A melding of retro inspiration that feels timeless yet unique.
“Kristen is a chameleon,” Abergel tells me when I ask about the star’s hair evolution. “It’s not a linear evolution—it’s her, always. She’s really timeless. Right now, we’re letting all of the layers grow, and we’re only focused on trimming the bangs as a focal point.” Lee echoes Abergel’s sentiment, sharing that regardless of Stewart's makeup look—be it “nude and clean” or “strong and defiant,” the finish is always bold and inspiring, which makes for the ultimate collaborative process.
“We really don't come to a shoot with any pre-concepts,” explains Abergel. “We see the clothes, we understand who the photographer is, and we decide what we want to feel that day in terms of storytelling. I always bring ideas to the table, and so does Kristen. Then, we meet at the exact spot that feels honest to us."
Despite the many hair renditions Stewart and Abergel have conceptualized in the past, here, the focus would be her new, very blunt, choppy micro bangs. (If you’re the type of brave soul who cuts their bangs at home, Abergel recommends always erring on the longer side and cutting at an angle—never straight across—to give them a cool, broken edge.)
“When styling, Kristen and I always use Virtue’s Damage Reverse Hair Serum ($60), which is a leave-in treatment for the hair,” says Abergel. “Then, I mixed the brand’s Hydrating Healing Hair Oil ($45) with the Correct Un-Frizz Hair Styling & Smoothing Cream ($44) to get a grunge vibe. You actually have to apply a lot more product than you think you do in order to get that undone, piecey finish.” After that, Abergel used a diffuser to enhance Stewart’s natural texture, explaining that it’s essential to allow the hair’s natural formations (like, say, a cowlick) to lead the way as you style. As the last step, Abergel focused on the micro bangs, making sure the choppy details were set to his liking.
Poised with her head tilted and Chanel lipstick in hand (Rouge Coco Flash Lip Colour in Moment, $48, in case you’re wondering), Stewart’s ethereal makeup looks as if it came courtesy of hazy, early morning sunlight, and not a host of products. Her blurry, diffused lips, in particular, are a point of fixation. “Use a soft, fluffy brush to build up the color of your lips in a gradual way, taking care to keep things gentle towards the lip line and more intense toward the center of the lip,” directs Lee. To make the lip line “melt away,” she recommends using a transparent loose powder on a clean brush to enhance the blur. To create darker iterations of the lip throughout the shoot, Lee used additional lip shades like Chanel’s beloved Rouge Coco Baumes ($45) in Chilling Pink, Keep Cool, and Cocoon.
The actor has played an eco-warrior in Night Moves, a sleight-of-hand expert in Now You See Me, a zombie-killer in Zombieland, and – most famously – Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network (for which he was nominated for an Oscar). He has co-starred with Kristen Stewart three times (in Café Society, American Ultra and Adventureland), been in two Woody Allen films, and starred in one movie directed by Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst.
He would love to collaborate with Kristen Stewart again. “We’re talking about this movie we did – Adventureland,” he says. “We all had friends working on it, and [director] Greg Mottola, he’s just brilliant and he holds that movie in a special place ... So we’ve been talking about maybe making it into a series on Amazon…”
BamCinematekpresents a retrospective on Kristen in September (Brooklyn, NYC). Bad Reputation: Spotlight on Kristen Stewart
Already a show business veteran before the age of 30, Kristen Stewart has emerged as one of the most fascinating, risk-taking actresses of her generation. In a career that continues to surprise, she’s been a child star, anchored a blockbuster franchise, and, most recently, dedicated herself to a host of adventurous, auteur-driven projects (this year alone sees her starring in films by Olivier Assayas, Kelly Reichardt, and Woody Allen). Her combination of quiet intensity, innate intelligence, and fierce commitment to craft makes for a uniquely compelling screen presence.
1. Panic Room
Directed by David Fincher | 2002 With Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam, Jared Leto.
“Panic Room is scary enough to do for downtown living what Jaws did for beaches.”
—A.V. Club
Stewart’s breakthrough role was opposite Jodie Foster in David Fincher’s typically stylish, cat-and-mouse thriller. They’re a mother and daughter who move into a New York brownstone with one unusual feature: a steel-doored panic room that comes in handy when they’re targeted in a terrifying home invasion. The relentlessly roving camerawork and sleek, noir look heighten the sense of claustrophobic dread.
Directed by Catherine Hardwicke | 2008
With Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli
“The calling card isn’t blood and fangs, but the exquisite, shimmering quiver of unconsummated first love. By that measure, the movie gives really good swoon.”
—The Village Voice
The first installment in the franchise that made the actress a household name stars Stewart as Bella Swan, the new girl in school who is drawn into a will-they-won’t-they romance with a seductive vampire (Pattinson). Suffused with a gothic moodiness and swooning romanticism, Twilight is a true rarity: a character-driven blockbuster with a focus on female desire.
Directed by Greg Mottola | 2009
With Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds, Martin Starr
“Here, Kristen Stewart is an actress ready to do important things.”
—Roger Ebert
This heartfelt coming-of-age comedy perfectly captures the wilderness years of young adulthood: the crappy jobs, first loves, and life-changing summers. It’s 1987, and recent college grad James (Eisenberg) sees his dreams of traveling abroad for the summer crumble when he’s forced to take a job at a dilapidated amusement park. One consolation: his smart, cool coworker Em, who’s lent real emotional depth by Stewart.
4. The Runaways
Directed by Floria Sigismondi | 2010
With Dakota Fanning, Kristen Stewart, Michael Shannon “Stewart, watchful and unassuming, gives the movie its spine and soul.”
—A. O. Scott, The New York Times
Stewart brings a fierce, punkish intensity to the role of rock icon Joan Jett in this down and dirty showbiz saga about the rise and fall of proto-riot grrrl group The Runaways. Director Floria Sigismondi convincingly recreates the glammy, sex- and drug-fuelled energy of the 1970s rock scene, while Michael Shannon is a blast as the band’s sleazy Svengali.
5. Clouds of Sils Maria
Directed by Olivier Assayas | 2014
With Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, Chloë Grace Moretz
“The movie's true center, the meteorological phenomenon that makes it so pleasurable to watch, is the half-prickly, half-affectionate interplay between Binoche and Stewart.”
—The Village Voice
Stewart became the first American actress to win a César Award for her performance in this gripping backstage drama. She plays the personal—perhaps too personal—assistant to a famous actress (Binoche) undergoing a crisis as she comes to terms with the fact that she has aged out of the ingénue roles that made her a star. The scintillating interplay between Binoche and Stewart keeps the psychosexual tension simmering.
Just wanted to know what it was like for him working with Kristen Stewart for the 2nd time in American Ultra?
Kristen and I have similar style of working and a similar sensibility I think. She's obviously a wonderful actress and is also very funny in both films we did, which are comedic in tone but unusually so.
Can you tell us a little bit more about American Ultra?
We just finished filming this movie so it is a bit early to digest, but it was a wonderful experience playing this role, which is a guy who has no direction in life who discovers he was brainwashed to be a fighter in a government program based on the MK-Ultra program in the States. It turns from a very personal and intimate story of my character and his girlfriend, played by Kristen Stewart, into a stylized and kinetic movie about this guy being hunted.
Josh mentions how Jesse is currently filming "American Ultra" and re-teaming with Kristen. He asks Jesse to give Kristen his regards, she's awesome.
Jesse: "She's great. She's great. She's a really great actress. Yeah, shes just wonderful. She is a good example of somebody who really immerses themselves. When we were doing Adventureland, she was 17 years old and she would literally stop takes in the middle of a take if she felt like she wasn't being honest. She would say "cut,cut,cut, I'm lying".
Josh: "Oh totally, she has no BS filter"
Jesse: "Exactly, how'd you know that?"
Josh: "Well, Ive just talked to her a ton of times over the years, thanks to twilight"
Jesse: "you can tell"
Josh: "Yeah, shes very real'
Jesse: "Yeah, its really wonderful, it may look sometimes as though like, she is, because shes been in those movies, for example, which i don't know, and this movie which is kind of bigger than adventureland. Its an interesting acting style for these kinds of movies because, these kinds of movies occasionally require- its not something I can do well, but it occasionally requires being big, so to speak, and she does that I guess, but shes so realistic.
As a journalist, you’ve interviewed a lot of creative people. Is there anything an interview subject has said to you about the creative process that stuck with you while you were writing?
Strangely enough, I had a cool interview with Kristen Stewart a few years ago when she was in a movie called Adventureland. It’s one of my favorite coming-of-age films, set at an amusement park in the late 1980s, and Brutal Youth begins in 1991. She would have been a baby then, but we talked a lot about the differences between growing up these days, and the kind of self-surveillance that goes on, with every aspect of your life monitored or shared, and growing up back then, which is the last time kids could truly lead secret lives. We didn’t talk about my book, but that conversation made me realize I was writing about a bygone era. There’s something magical about that, like an animal that has gone extinct and now seems mythological.
Anthony Breznican's book 'Brutal Youth' comes out on June 10.
He talks good humouredly about giving Kristen Stewart career advice on Adventureland: "I remember her telling me that she was going to audition for Twilight. I just said ' Vampires… that'll flop. Don't walk - run the other way Kristen!'"
Who? Stewart’s name will always be synonymous with Twilight,2008’s surprise monster hit, which spawned four sequels.
Why So Hot? Stewart achieved years of critical acclaim in indie films like Speak and Into The Wild, but Twlight pushed her into the big time. She's since stuck to her roots with smaller productions – taking a role opposite Jesse Eisenberg in Adventureland, with fellow Twilight alumni Dakota Fanning in The Runaways, and then as MaryLou in the controversial novel adaptation On The Road.
Having paid her dues, she's now heading back into studio fare, taking the lead in Universal’s Snow White And The Huntsman, due out next June.
What’s Next? The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1, the penultimate film in the series, is due out this November.
