Kristen's interview with Detroit News for 'On the Road'

In "On the Road," Kristen Stewart turns into a wild child. Yes, there's nudity and drugs and much irresponsible behavior, but more importantly, Stewart, playing Mary Lou, who's based on the real-life LuAnne Henderson, has to bring a primal fierceness to her character.

"The most difficult part about flipping into the part was to just be able to do her justice in the way she moved people — to be that infectious, undeniable presence in the room," Stewart says on the phone from New York.

Stewart, 22, says she herself is more of an observer than a firebrand.

"I want to find people like that. I want to watch them. I'm definitely not the one people are chasing after — I do a bit more of the chasing," the former "Twilight" star says.

You wouldn't be able to tell that from the smoking dance scene in which Mary Lou dazzles everyone with her natural heat. It was the scene Stewart knew she had to nail — even though she's not a dancer and it involved no dialogue.

"I was very intimidated by that scene because it's the one opportunity that I had to show that she did represent IT, that IT people talk about when they reference 'On the Road,'" Stewart says. "It was important for that scene to completely illustrate exuberance."

"On the Road" was Jack Kerouac's thinly disguised memoir of his rowdy times in the '50s criss-crossing the country with a group of misfits and poets, and testing society's boundaries.

The Kerouac character is Sal (Sam Riley), who is caught in the spell of Dean Moriarity (Garrett Hedlund), based on the legendary party animal Neal Cassady. Mary Lou is Moriarity's runaway child bride, up for seemingly anything.

The book became the Bible of the Beat Generation and has inspired countless fans — including Stewart — over the years.

She thought it was important to get a good picture of the real LuAnne before tackling the part. Taped interviews with LuAnne gave her some perspective.

"She passed away right before we were going to get this thing together, but I sat down with her daughter for a couple of days, and these tapes that were hours and hours long kind of served to put a face on her," Stewart says.

"In the book, she jumps off the page; she's the kind of person who you're at a party with and you can't help looking at her," Stewart says. "But you're not on her ride with her, so you're not exactly sure where her head is, where her heart is, and these tapes offered that."

When it comes to acting, Stewart knows where her heart is.

"I can't imagine turning my back on something that fuels me this way," she says.

That will come as a relief to Hollywood. Stewart first gained notice playing Jodie Foster's diabetic daughter in 2002's "Panic Room." She quickly became an in-demand actress, working with Sean Penn on 2007's "Into the Wild" and starring alongside Meg Ryan that same year in "In the Land of Women."

But everything changed when she took on the role of Bella in the "Twilight" series, which has earned more than $3.5 billion worldwide since 2008. In 2012 alone, Stewart's films "Snow White and the Huntsman" and the "Twilight" finale "Breaking Dawn - Part 2" earned more than $1.2 billion worldwide.

It's enough to make a person want to keep their day job. But it's not about the money.

"I worked really hard in high school to keep options open and go to school if I wanted. And when that time came, I already felt so challenged," she says. "I feel the same way now. I can't imagine stepping out of this.

"It's definitely an odd inclination to have," Stewart says. "I just sort of want to tell stories. If I could just stay following that feeling, I'm very happy doing that."

Source Detroit News via @KstewAngel thank you.

Kristen's Interview w/Fanhattan

Kristen Stewart’s latest movie is based on a book with a much longer shelf life than Twilight, but you may not have heard of it recently. On the Road was written by Jack Kerouac and published in 1957. Based on Kerouac’s own experiences traveling with Neal Cassady, the book renames Kerouac Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty becomes the pseudonym for Cassady.

In the movie version, Stewart plays Marylou, based on one of Cassady’s girlfriends LuAnne Henderson. He would have others. Living Dean/Neal’s wanderlust lifestyle full of free love and drugs is a harrowing journey for Marylou. If the things Stewart has to say about her latest role intrigue you, add On the Road to your Fanhattan watchlist.

Kristen Stewart on her connection to Marylou in On the Road

“I really had to dig pretty deep to find it in me to actually play a person like that. It took a long time. Initially, I couldn’t say no. I would have done anything on the movie. I would have followed in a caravan had I not had a job on it. But I was 16 or 17 when I spoke to [director] Walter [Salles] for the first time and 14 or 15 when I read the book for the first time. It was easy to connect dots after having gotten to know the person behind the character, what you would need to pull off a lifestyle like that. That didn’t happen until deep into the rehearsal process. At first I was just attracted to the spirit of it. I’m the type of person that really needs to be pushed really hard to be able to really let it all hang. I think Marylou is the type of person that you can’t help but be yourself around because she’s so unabashedly there, present all the time, like this bottomless pit of really generous empathy and it’s a really rare quality to have. It makes you capable of living a really full, really rich life without it taking something from you. You couldn’t take from her. I don’t know she was always getting something back. So she was amazing.”

Kristen Stewart on the real LuAnne Henderson 

“I think Luanne would have been ahead of her time now. Generally peoples’ expectations for their lives in a personal way are not a whole lot different. It’s a really fundamental thing to want to be a part of a group. We are pack animals. In a way she had very conventional ideals as well. She had this capacity to live many lives that didn’t necessarily mess with the other. She was not above emotion. She was above jealousy but not above feeling hurt, but not slighted. Maybe if this movie was made back in the day as opposed to now, people would be so shocked and awed by the sex and the drugs that they would actually miss what the movie’s about. Whereas now we’ve just seen a little bit more of it so it’s not so shocking to stomach. It’s easier to take. Sure, times have changed but people don’t change. That’s why the book’s never been irrelevant. There will always be people that want to push a little bit harder and there are repercussions. It’s evident in the story as well. Even in that little glimpse, that moment in time. Knowing what happens to all the characters afterwards is interesting. She knew Neal to the end of his life, and they always shared what they had. It never left their hearts even though their lives changed monumentally.”

But should teenage Twi-hards go see the R-rated On the Road?

“I think the actual law is if you are with a parent you can go and see an R-rated movie, if you’re over the age of 13. I guess it depends on who your parents are, who you are. I read On the Road when I was fourteen, so I don’t know. My parents never wanted to shelter me from the world that we live in, so I think I’m probably not the right person to ask. I think if you have a desire to see it, and your parents don’t want you to see it, take that bull by the horns.”

Getting intellectual about books

“I don’t get to have very many involved conversations with Twilight fans. It’s really rare. Sometimes, the girls that run the fan sites will come in and do an interview and I absolutely love doing that. I find that a lot of people I talk to, most journalists I sit down with, are huge On the Road fans. I feel that they’re even assigned to those stories because they have an interest in it. I’ve got to talk to a lot of passionate On the Road fans. The difference is there’s a lot to feel in Twilight, and that’s the experience usually of having individual exchanges with fans, without even saying anything you know, you just feel it, but obviously with On the Road there’s a lot to talk about.”

Source via StrictlyRobsten

Official Cannes Press Kit: New OTR Stills

Kristen:

Rest of Cast:

Thank you KStewartNews :) 

Exercepts & Scans from 'One & Only: The Untold Story of On the Road''

Lu Anne Henderson

Anne Marie Santos & Sam Riley

Kristen & Walter Salles

Anne Marie on Kristen. "She's only a girl of 20 years, but when she's researching a part,she goes all the way into it."

Anne Marie Santos "She(Kristen) cooked dinner for me and my husband, Reuben, and I learned that Kristen likes to cook, and uses cooking to relax, just like my mother did." 

Kristen read OTR when she was maybe 13 or 14 and told Anne Marie, "I have the original book where I highlighted the parts of Marylou." 

This is sad. 'It is one further, sad irony of Lu Anne's life that she died so shortly before the film finally went into production.'

Sam and Garrett were like two kids together. They kept saying, "Can you believe we're in On the Road?"

Scans & exercepts via @KstewAngel -Thank You! :)