How to see 'Camp X-Ray' - Theaters, VOD & Non-US residents

Find a theater near you and buy tickets at 'Move Tickets'.

Theaters in the US

Click on each link for the venue details, sessions and times + tickets:

October 17

IFC Center - New York City, NY

October 24

Sundance Cinemas - Los Angeles, CA

Regency Theatres South Coast Village, Santa Ana/Costa Mesa, CA (Tickets)

Gables Cinema Coral Cables, FL

October 31

PFS Theater at the Roxy Philadelphia, PA

November 7

Siskel Film Center  Chicago, IL

Wilmette Theatres - Wilmette, IL

Digital Gym - San Diego, CA

Carolina Asheville - Asheville, NC

Raleigh Grande 16 - Raleigh, NC

Zinema 2 - Duluth, MN

Cinema Detroit - Detroit, MI

Shea 14 - Scottsdale, AZ

November 12

Michigan Theater - Ann Arbor, MI

November 14

Sundance Cinemas Seattle, WA

Alamo Mason Park - Katy, TX

November 21

Liberty Theatre - Camas, WA

November 25

Bear Tooth Theatre - Anchorage, AK

November 28

SIE Film Center - Denver, CO

Source: IFC Films

VOD/Cable

AT&T U-verse

iTunes Canada

iTunes USA

GoWatchIt

XFinityTV/Comcast

Amazon on Demand

COX

DirectTV

Time Warner Cable

YouTube Rentals

Non-US Resident via iTunes 
(Thanks to @Uchiland)

We will keep updating this list as information comes to us.

Please don't hesitate to add any theaters near you that might be showing 'Camp X-Ray' in our comment section. Thank you.

Via Via Via

Payman Maadi talks about 'Camp X-Ray' & Kristen **some spoilers**

Interview contains SPOILERS we have marked them in our post in italics - so keep reading past them if you don't want to be spoiled.

Also in the press notes, he says he cast you because he saw the chemistry between you and Kristen Stewart when the two of you Skyped.

The next night the three of us met on Skype for about forty-five minutes because Kristen wanted to meet me. Then she said she wanted to see A Separation. She got a DVD and watched it and said she loved it.

So she hadn’t seen your films yet?

To be honest, I had never seen Twilight or any of her movies before. I knew of her because I know actors, but then she wasn’t making my kind of films. Now she is. I assumed those other films were good for other fans and had no prejudgment about her. I saw her the first time at Peter’s home in Los Angeles and she was more than friendly. She came to me and said, “I’m very happy to work with you.” I asked Peter if Cole’s hair color will be blond or dark because in the movie, Ali always calls her “Blondie.” He said dark, like Kristen’s natural color. He asked me what I thought about that. I said I loved it. To Ali, all American girls are “Blondie.” That’s funny.

What’s great is that Cole accepts being called “Blondie.” You and Kristen come from two different parts of the world, you have made different kinds of movies, her acting is very low-key while you are expressive and verbal. I do think it paid off for creating two different characters that you were so different as actors.

Kristen said, “Let’s rehearse and talk. Tell me about your style of working or let’s create something together.” People come to me and ask, “How is she on the set? Is she friendly at all?” And she is. She was very thoughtful, very hard-working, full of energy, very eager to do something great. She was never satisfied with whatever she did, she was always asking for another take, saying “Let’s do it the other way.” I liked that very much. It was very, very important to me because most of my performance was dependent on my partner. It was all dialogue between Kristen and me, it was like ping pong. I couldn’t be a good actor unless I had a good partner in this film. So I was glad we rehearsed a lot trying different versions.

Did you talk to Kristen about what her character’s reactions were supposed to be in response to Ali’s imprisonment at Guantanamo and all the different ways he communicates with Cole?

I asked her what she was thinking about. She was thinking a lot about these issues and about her character every day and she would tell Peter and me if she thought her character should react differently from what we had planned. And Peter would say, “That’s true.” And I’d say, “Kristen, can you do it for me because I need to know what I must do if you change your reaction like that.” I’d say, “If you change something here, then we have to also change that other action.” Peter would say, “Payman is a screenwriter and he remembers everything.”

So was Peter accepting changes from each of you?

More than other directors I’ve worked with here, he’s like Ashar Farhadi in that he leaves you to do whatever you want to do, minimize it or maximize it, and observes you to see what worked and what didn’t work. He didn’t talk to us and say for us to do this or that, which happens a lot in America. For him, performance comes first, then the camera.

Did you rehearse in the same place you shot the film?

We rehearsed and filmed at a former juvenile detention center [in Whittier, Ca.] that looked almost exactly like Guantanamo. We did this because sometimes you get surprised when you move from one location to another. At the prison we rehearsed for two or three days with closed doors. We wanted to determine what we could hear if the doors were closed between us. I didn’t have much space and Kristen didn’t have much space so there weren’t so many things we could do.

Even during, I imagine you sat close to each other.

We found some rooms and we tried to stay very close, to get used to the small space. I wanted to watch Kristen very closely to make sure nothing was exaggerated. When you are close, you use your eyes to see all parts of a face. There’s big meaning in how the eyes go up or down or to the sides. We asked Peter to watch these things through the camera lens during the final days of rehearsal.

Were you told you would watch dailies?

I never developed the habit of seeing dailies, but for this film we had to do it because of the close shots. We needed to see when we moved our eyes how big the movement was. When I made my own film I didn’t let any of the actors watch dailies. And the result was good. But after this experience, when I make another film I will definitely show some dailies and rushes to my actors.

What were those last days of preproduction like?

In the mornings we rehearsed or did a table reading and then we were through as actors. Peter was going to the set to make sure everything was ready and I would go with him whenever I had a chance. He was working on other things and I had nothing else to do, so I asked him, “Can I stay in the prison by myself.” One cell was ready and I decided to go inside and stay there for hours. He said, “Yes, but do you want me to leave the door open?’ I said, “No, close the door.” Peter said, “We’ll be working over there, so whenever you want to come out let us know.” I stayed in there over a few days and it was very helpful. Peter also asked Kristen to walk around the hallway outside the cells and she would do it for hours, as Cole would. It helped me a lot, knowing she was outside. I was in a very small room, all Ali has in this world. There were no other tools I had as an actor, but no matter how small the room was you find a variety of things around me.

There was just a small window looking out into the hall, so if I moved my head to the left or right while filming, I was out of the frame. So I’m in there thinking, what can I do? If I go to the back of the cell and shout it sounds low but if I walk toward the door shouting it’s totally different.

It will surprise many people to see Kristen Stewart starring in a low-budget film against the inhumane treatment of Muslims at Guantanamo Bay. Do you think it is important that Cole is a female, to contrast her even more with Ali?

It makes it more interesting. I think it separates them more. Cole could be a male and I think Peter wrote that character as a male. I like that it’s a female and man and their relationship isn’t sexual. It’s not about opposites attracting. Before we were shooting we received a book two-inches thick, DVDs, photos, and links for Internet research. I saw documentaries on Guatanamo and trials with lawyers talking about the prison and the issues. I spent hours doing research and saw that the movie is very precise and correct about everything. Everything in the movie is similar to how it really is in Guantanamo Bay. And there are female guards.

A lot of this film has to do with how Americans, the guards in this case, are naive about politics and who the detainees really are. All these soldiers are young and Ali is more educated than any of them. The danger Peter surely wanted to avoid was having it seem to viewers that Cole is just a naive prison guard who attracted to a smarter, more worldly prisoner, whether it’s in Guantanamo or any prison, and he manipulates her. But we don’t think that because Cole gets closer to Ali as she becomes less naive about the situation. There’s a learning process with her, while none of the other soldiers want to learn anything and stay naive about the detainees.

We are watching only American soldiers, not American citizens. They are young and maybe that’s why they are so naive. They aren’t interested in books. Soldiers have a lot of things to do so maybe they don’t have time to read. Ali has nothing to do but read. He says, “Each time the new guards arrive, they treat us like bad guys.” She says a good thing to him, that the other guards “will learn.” Like she has. That is not a small thing for him. Earlier he asked her, “What did you learn?”

When he says that to her he’s skeptical that she’s learned anything.

Very skeptical. He asks her what she learned from such things as the hunger strikes?

She does learn and opens up to him. I would think you shot this film chronologically because of how they both change and their relationship evolves.

We had to. It was very helpful for Ali and Cole to gradually become connected to each other. Indoor and outdoor scenes could be filmed chronologically because everything was shot at the juvenile facility. The outdoor shower scene and the scene where I kick the soccer ball were dependent on how the weather was. Doing it chronologically was very beneficial.

Do you think your two characters start reacting positively toward each other at the same time?

I can’t say that. From the beginning, Ali is studying her. I don’t know when exactly he realizes she is not a bad person. After she says, “I’ll try,” and he says, “I’ll try, too,” he tries not to be bad toward her. In the first days Peter and I were talking about my character, and he said that what is very important for you to understand is that this guy can be the nicest character on the earth, with a soft voice, and ten seconds later he can be acting like an animal. They treat him like an animal there, making him act like a mad man. They want to dehumanize him. In some scenes, you can see that he’s trying to make a connection to Cole and tries to be nice but when she doesn’t respond, he starts shouting and cursing.

Is he really that mad at her or is he just trying to get a reaction from her?

No, he’s not trying to get a reaction. He is disappointed that she is the same as the other guards, like the other Americans. He is mad at her. He says, “You think we’re the terrorists but you are the bad people. You are trying to show yourself to the world as good people by putting us here, torturing us, and doing all these things to us. But you know what? You are the bad people.”

In such scenes Ali is extremely frustrated and angry, and Cole is trying not to lose him and trying to make him understand, without saying it, that she cares and is listening. They seem like hard scenes to play.

Again, Peter cared about our performances and trusted us completely but he knew what he didn’t want. He’d explain to us what wasn’t right because of this or that. He’d say, “Don’t use that word,” or “Don’t shout when you want to say this.” I remember his reluctance when we filmed a very intense scene in which Ali says that the detainees are being treated like animals. I started shouting and making sounds of tigers and dogs. Peter came to me the second day and said, “You know what? Do it a little bit lower.” I thought back to when we first Skyped and said, “I told you I’m loud!”

Talk about the emotions you were having as filming was coming to an end.

The ending scenes were the last scenes we shot. It was very hard and very dependent on the situation that they prepared for us on the set. I was very happy with the situation but I asked something from Peter as well. I asked for two minutes before every scene was shot, to just be by myself. When they said, “We’re ready,” I needed two or three minutes in total silence in the cell to focus. I even told Peter before one or two scenes not to ask me if I was ready but to see through the lens if I looked ready. The circumstances on the set were very important for such emotional scenes.

Did you or Kristen cry during the making of this movie?

A lot. That’s a good thing that you ask. The final days I cried for 48 hours. In every take I was crying. Kristen was standing behind the camera and she was crying every time. That’s why I can tell you that she was a lovely partner. She was helping me a lot. Whenever I was standing behind the camera watching her, I was crying for her, too.

Were you both crying for the same reasons?

Yes. We didn’t talk about it with each other. When the shot was done, each of us found our corners. We didn’t go to each other say, “That was good, that was great.” Never.

That’s interesting because I would have thought that when playing roles that take such a toll on you that you’d want your costar to come over and comfort you.

No, no, we didn’t do that at all. Sometimes I’d see Peter from afar and his facial expressions told me his reaction. Sometimes I want to see reactions, but I usually don’t want to watch people after takes, I don’t want to see the reaction of the crew. I don’t want to see the camera, I don’t want to see anybody. I just want to be the lone person on the planet. If you want to play a detainee at Guantanamo you have to delete everyone else around from your mind. You can’t go to anyone and ask, “How was it? How did I do?” Kristen was like that too.

At one point, Cole starts being punished by her superiors for associating with Ali, just as Ali is being punished by them as well for being insubordinate. Did you, Kristen, and Peter talk about the parallels?

We were aware what was happening but we didn’t talk about it that much. Kristen and I tried to stay as close as we could to the characters we were playing and they don’t speak to each other about such issues. Amy Cole and Ali don’t talk about what is happening with Amy. She doesn’t tell him. We tried to avoid talking about what was happening in the scenes we weren’t in. I do remember asking Kristen, “How did it go yesterday when you shot the scene with Cole’s superior officer?” She told me that John Carroll Lynch was brilliant in that scene. That’s about the level we went to, talking about those scenes. We didn’t go through them and discuss their meanings. We didn’t have to.

There are usually not a lot of words being said between Cole and Ali, so was there telepathy?

What comes to mind is when he says, “I just want to know how all these things end,” and she asks, “The book?” And he says, “Yes, the book.” Then he says, “You know what I mean.” They were definitely talking about something else. In the rehearsal, we did a lot of improvisations for some scenes. And for that scene we talked for about five minutes about the book, but both Kristen and I, like our characters, were talking about something else. It would be impossible for Ali to say all that is in his mind, so there are metaphors.

In an interview about Melbourne, you were asked about what happens after the movie ends. And you answered that you didn’t think about what happens, that you wanted to play in the moment. But in Camp X-Ray, your character wants to know how things will end. Is it healthy for your character to think about endings, or does he have to go day by day so he won’t go crazy?

No, he doesn’t. All these years he has been going day by day but also thinking what’s going to happen at the end. That’s very logical and reasonable thing for a detainee there.

He even wants to know the ending of the last Harry Potter book, which he can’t get a copy of.

That’s a beautiful metaphor for that. It’s funny and meaningful. I say funny because the whole situation is funny. It’s not only that he reads the final book and knows how it ends, it’s also that he becomes hopeful for his future. He sees the light at the end of the tunnel, I think. He’s now happy to know that there are good people in this world, not all Americans are bad guys and they don’t consider them bad guys. The best thing in the world for him is what she says, not the freedom. She’s an American and probably the last person on the planet who would say that he’s a good guy. But she says, “You’re a good guy.”

You may not have thought of this but the reason he wants to read the end of the book is to find out if Snape is a good guy or bad guy.

Yeah, the twist of the character. I didn’t see any of the Harry Potter movies but I was told that Snape turns from a bad guy to a good guy.

Your character and Snape are seen wrongly until the end. Peter snuck in that clever idea.

I believe that. One reason Peter and I get along and communicate so well is that we are both film buffs. I’m sure he has seen all the Harry Potter movies.

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

I get teary-eyed thinking about when he opens the newly-arrived library book, the final Harry Potter book that he has waited two years to read, and there is an inscription from Cole ending with “Love, Blondie.” The shot of the book is an insert, but when you looked at that in your hand, what was your reaction?

I cried. When I saw Camp X-Ray at Sundance I expected to see me crying. Because we did about ten shots and in eight of them I was crying. Each time we did that scene, it was like a emotional faucet being turned on and off. If there were twenty more takes it would have been the same, crying at the very same moment. But I like the version Peter used.

When you first read the script, did you have a big reaction to reading, “Love, Blondie?”

Payman: Yes, I did. I was surprised. That was one of those moments when I thought I’d like to share the movie with people. That was a very lovely thing. She tells him her real first name but still signs the book that way. “I don’t know if Snape is a good guy, but I know you are. Love, Blondie.” Amazing.

It’s a movie moment I won’t forget. I get choked up talking about it.

The same here. Peter is very kind, thoughtful, giving, supportive, and emotional. He cares a lot about these issues, he loves people, he cares about the relationships between people. A line like that would have to come out of a person such as Peter.

Another huge scene late in the movie is when Ali considers suicide. In the conversations you had with Peter and Kristen, I would think you had to convince yourself that Ali shouldn’t kill himself.

Yeah. We knew about it from the script but we didn’t talk about the suicide scene more than a day before we shot it. We did a lot of rehearsing for the movie but we didn’t rehearse that scene and did it in the moment. We didn’t want to be self-conscious of what we were doing, we wanted it to be natural. There’s a scene in A Separation, when my character is showering his father who has Alzheimer’s and he starts crying. We didn’t rehearse or talk about that scene either. We were filming another scene but lost the light so we figured out what scene we could without light. The shower scene. Everyone expected me to say hell no because I didn’t have any preparation. I said to give it a try. And we did it on the first take.

So you think it was a good idea not to prepare for the suicide scene?

Very much. I told Peter, “Just tell me what you want and where the camera will be.” We did several takes and each time we changed something. We didn’t rehearse or talk about the way he’d do it that much. The first time I saw the tool was when they gave it to me during the scene. The knife came out of the Koran and I said, “Oh, my god.”

He’s been in Guantanamo for eight years. Do you think he’d done this before?

Trying to kill himself, no. I don’t think so. There was a line in the script that isn’t in the film. I’m happy it’s not in the film but it was very interesting. He tells Cole that if she calls the medics with her radio it will take them three minutes to arrive. Because he went to the university and is smart, he can calculate that it will take him two minutes to die. So don’t even think of making the call. That’s why she puts the radio down. That was logical.

Talk about when she puts her hand through the window in his door, takes the blade, and touches his arm. It’s not just two people touching. It’s an American woman touching a Muslim from the Mideast. It’s a major thing for Ali to allow himself to be touched by a her.

We did it in totally different ways. Peter, who is a very talented director, decided to do something minimal, not showing my face or Kristen’s face that much. I’m not in the shot. Only my hand is in the shot, and I love that shot. He didn’t want to do it this way but this was a shot that was supposed to be mixed with other shots. But he looked at dailies and just used that. That’s the magic of movies.

Were you staying in character?

Very much.

What was Ali thinking of at that moment?

Trust. That’s extreme trust. She puts her hand through the hole in the door and the knife is in his hand, it’s a really big thing. He puts the tool in her hand, then she grabs his hand. It’s a really beautiful scene and it’s the ultimate way of showing that two people can connect and trust each other by communicating and listening to each other.

That’s the reason for the movie.

That’s true.

You shot that scene a long time ago, but when you think of it now, do you get watery-eyed?

I do. Everything starts with throwing out prejudgments that this is a bad guy and Americans are bad guys and that Americans and Middle Easterners have nothing in common to talk about. When you start talking you see that you’re that different and can learn from each other. That’s what happens at the end of the movie. It’s very beautiful when she brings up the story of her seeing a lion in the zoo. The result was that she though the zoo people must let the lion decide whether to stay or be let loose in the unfamiliar wild. If you want to kill yourself I will give you the space to do it. At the beginning of the film, the chief guard tells the new guards that they are not there to prevent the detainees from living, the walls do that. They are there to prevent the detainees from dying because that would cause a big scandal. So they want to prevent them from killing themselves. When she leaves, she gives the right to Ali to decide to kill himself or not.

I agree with that. But is there something more? Because he talks about how no country will take him if he were released.

Yes, because he was in Guantanamo as a terrorist.

I’m thinking that she is saying release Ali even if he doesn’t have ideal options on the outside.

I don’t know. In her own way, she tries to stop him. She proves she isn’t naive when she asks him he wants to kill himself to become a martyr and go to heaven. She asks smart questions. She hopes she has had enough impact on him that he won’t kill himself. And she did.

The reason that it is better that he doesn’t kill himself is that she truly believes things will change and he’ll get out. If she believed that he’d forever be imprisoned I’m not sure she’d be so motivated to keep him alive.

That’s true. When you think about it, that makes sense.

So the shooting ends, the movie wrap, and it’s all over.

Those last few days were very tough and amazing. Then Peter spent a couple of days on extra shots without the actors. And two or three days after the crew had finished, there was a wrap party. I came shaved and in a suit. I wasn’t aware that I looked different because that was myself. Every person was, “Oh, my good, look at you. You don’t look like a detainee anymore!” I surprised everyone.

** END SPOILER ALERT **

You filmed this a year ago, so what’s it like getting together with everyone now to promote the film?

I avoid talking about the film. I believe that whatever I wanted to say I said in the film. And the worst part, especially for a director, is to attach explanation to what you did. If fans ask for explanations I don’t get irritated because we made the film for an audience. Once the film is done, it’s not in your hands anymore.

I know you want people to ask you, as I ask you, Do you still think of Ali sitting in that cell?

Nobody has asked that yet. As the credits run at the end of the film, you see the guards walking in the small hall between the cells for about five minutes. It’s telling you that the prisoners are still there and life goes on there.

In the production notes, Peter Sattler says, “It’s not a political film; it’s a deeply human one.” I don’t agree. Often filmmakers will say their very political films aren’t political because they don’t want to scare away American moviegoers. But if we look at the human element and we start identifying with the people who are imprisoned at Guantanamo, then we start asking what can be done for them, including closing the facility–and at that point it becomes political.

That’s 100% true. That’s good to hear. I agree with you. You cannot say it’s not a political film. When you say “Guantanamo Bay,” you’re talking about politics. When you say “terrorist” or “suspected terrorist,” you’re talking about politics. The focus is not on the political issues and that’s what Peter was trying to get across. But we can’t escape from the fact that there are political things in the movie and after you leave the theater you will think about the situation in the United States that has kept Guantanamo from closing.

Were you surprised that in the United States you could make Camp X-Ray?

I was surprised. You couldn’t make such a film in Iran. I’m very happy to see that’s it’s possible to make films like Camp X-Ray today.

Source Via

New/old rehearsal photo of Kristen at the Oscars 2013 + old ones in better quality

New/Old Rehearsal Photo

Better Quality

Click on each pic for a larger view.

Thanks to kstewartfans

Audio: Kristen and Peter Sattler radio interview with 'The Leonard Lopate Show'

OR listen to the interview here at the source.

Download it here.

Source via @Gossipgyal YT/Via

Kristen on the 'Tavis Smiley' TV show (20 October 2014)

TS: Kristen Stewart [October 20, 2014] by korita05

Or watch the FULL INTERVIEW HERE on Youtube.

   

Click on pics for HQ

Transcript

Tavis Smiley: Good evening from Los Angeles. I’m Tavis Smiley.

Tonight, a conversation with actress Kristen Stewart who’s put the “Twilight Saga” in her rear view mirror for now at least. She’s currently getting critical acclaim and a little pushback for her new movie titled “Camp X-Ray” in which she plays a young inexperienced MP assigned to Gitmo whose interactions with a detainee prompts her to rethink her political views.

We’re glad you’ve joined us. A conversation with Kristen Stewart coming up right now.

Tavis: Kristen Stewart’s been acting since she was nine. Her first major costarring role was opposite Jodie Foster in that film, “Panic Room,” which I loved. I just saw it the other night. Since then, she’s become a worldwide phenomenon for her role as Bella in the “Twilight Saga,” of course.

But she’s also used her fame to help get a series of interesting independent films off the ground, thankfully. She currently has three films that are getting acclaim on the festival circuit. Yes, I said three, including upcoming movies with Juliette Binoche and Julianne Moore.

But right now, she can be seen in a new release called “Camp X-Ray” in which she plays a young MP assigned to Gitmo who becomes emotionally involved with a detainee. We’ll start by taking a look at a scene from the movie which is also available now on VOD.

Tavis: All right. I’m going to start by going right inside your head. So the clip comes up. We both turn our head. I’m staring at it and you kind of looked away [laugh]. What were you seeing that you didn’t want to see?

Kristen Stewart: It’s difficult to take any scene out of context for me. Obviously, just looking at especially that moment when she’s so tongue-tied, you know, I feel for that moment. I remember it so clearly. The director told me to toss the lines and just try to maneuver this, you know, in the best way that I learned to address to an officer and just deal with the situation.

Yeah, a lot of times, standard operating procedure doesn’t always catch you. Sometimes it’s like but there are thoughts that I cannot communicate based on your standard way of communicating. Do you know what I mean?

Tavis: Yeah [laugh].

Stewart: It like I can’t talk soldier right now and that happens to people.

Tavis: That means you’re a great actress ’cause that was supposed to happen in that scene. I mean, she’s being put on the spot and she’s trying to figure out how to navigate her way through this situation and answer his question.

Stewart: Yes. Yes, she’s definitely fallen into something that is hard to categorize and, you know, was probably harboring some guilt. And she really, all beyond anything, wants to be a good soldier.

She doesn’t have clear answers for him yet, still feels like she’s doing her job to the best of her ability and sees sort of what she sees as injustices that she can’t communicate. It becomes like so much bigger than her. She’s a small-town girl that’s just not equipped at this point to be dealing with that kind of stuff.

Tavis: It occurs to me that we jumped so fast because of that clip that the people at home are like, okay, Tavis, back that thing up. Back it up and tell me what the film is about because we jumped so quick to your point about a scene out of context.

So why don’t you – without giving the storyline away, why don’t you tell us what the film is about and the character you play?

Stewart: Awesome. I play a girl named Amy Cole that joins the military wanting to do something greater than herself, and wants to be saved by something. She’s a bit lost. She doesn’t necessarily want to address some of the demons that she’s got and figures, by joining the army, it takes sort of the individual aspect out of her life.

She doesn’t have to consider herself as one person. She can be a part of a whole and do something good, essentially good. You know, she gets stationed in Guantanamo Bay. She finds that the job – basically just like straight to the point, she befriends a detainee.

So all of these sort of mantras that people say down there to keep themselves going, like “They did 9/11, they’re the bad guys, this is really the only way to deal with them and treat them and blah, blah, blah,” they start to not really feel so easy coming out of her mouth. You know, she just finds that getting to know this man and seeing that you can take two people that couldn’t be further apart in every sense of the word.

You know, it’s like their background is different, their political upbringing is entirely different, their religious upbringing and culturally just on completely different sides of the planet. Yet they find this through-line and they sort of see that this forced polarization that’s happening isn’t something that their hearts can actually really get behind.

So they start to feel like they’re both betraying their side in some way when really they’re kind of just opening their hearts to the nature of being human and the fact that things aren’t so clear sometimes.

Tavis: So I’m glad you said that because, to me, the film is – and I guess any good project ultimately gets to this point for those of us who are film buffs. But you got to get to the humanity of the character and this film, for me, if it’s about anything; it’s about respecting and maybe even reveling in the humanity of another person.

Stewart: Definitely.

Tavis: What made this really fascinating for me is that you come to this point of respecting and reveling in each other’s humanity, but it starts with him doing something pretty funky to you, pretty foul, yeah.

Stewart: Oh, yeah.

Tavis: You got to get past that first.

Stewart: Absolutely. You know, he says it very clearly. We are at war. It’s not an easy friendship, which makes it so impactful in the end. You know, it’s her very desire to be able to view him as an animal because it would make her job so much easier.

It would be so much easier to look at the bars that separate them and see them as definite, you know, differences. Yet those don’t always pull through for her. So I just thought that that little disintegration of somebody who wanted a clear answer that found something more complex and then couldn’t stomach it was just cool.

Tavis: So at this point in your career, is that what’s exciting you and turning you on with regard to the roles that you choose? Complexity of character? I mean, I suspect every actor wants something that is complex, but this character is complex.

Stewart: Yeah, she’s different. I really appreciated the fact that, you know, I’ve said this before, but just that you can see girls like that walking around. You know, I grew up with girls that sort of have this like little chip on their shoulder because of who knows what happened in their upbringing. Like there’s something inside them that they can’t really acknowledge.

So I just wanted to play somebody who could have gone to high school with any one of us. It’s such an essentially American story like, you know, just a girl that aspires to think a little bit deeper and the challenges that come along with that basically. I thought it was sort of perfectly timed and a personal story.

Tavis: You say perfectly timed. What do you mean by that?

Stewart: Just like in this – you know, it’s difficult for our generation to sort of own any – we don’t challenge a whole lot. We don’t think – not to make, you know, incredibly vast generalizations, but we’re not the ones standing up and protesting. You know, we’re not the ones that are the most outspoken.

So I thought it was cool to find someone so voiceless and somebody who really did shy away from thinking big picture, sort of have it shoved in her face and undeniably kind of stood up to her own feelings and thoughts, especially in such a heightened environment and situation.

Tavis: How does one go about – how did you go about researching? How do you prepare to play a role like this beyond knowing some people who were something like the character?

Stewart: Right. Well, what I meant by that, she just felt familiar to me in this way that I could identify a few people and sort of just draw from knowing them. But Pete Sattler, who wrote the script, and I worked in a very – we had a bit of time before we actually started rehearsing with Peyman Moaddi, who plays the detainee, to think about her foundation and what led her to this place.

We had some – it’s weird to talk about because it’s very personal. You assign these backstories to these people and then it’s sort of like, well, how much do I say about her? You know, we exchanged a ton of reference material. Obviously, there’s a lot of information about just the technical aspects of being a soldier and being at Gitmo.

And then also just emotionally like exchange – he calls them word clouds because I think he’s trying to make me feel better about owning my poetry. But we would just like write things and muse on, you know, what was it like for her in high school, like what was that first dance like, what was that first kiss like, what’s her relationship with her father, what is she running from, what is she trying to find?

Like where is her ambition and why is she struggling with it so much? You know, what is her self-worth and why is she trying to erase herself? Why is she trying to put on a uniform so she can forget that she’s actually a person? All of that.

Tavis: When you decided to work with – you mentioned Pete Sattler, the director of the film, who has done, obviously, other stuff before. But this is like a major sort of breakout, as I see his work at least, sort of a major breakout piece for him.

Stewart: Definitely.

Tavis: I’m glad you agree. I was about to say I hope she agrees with me [laugh].

Stewart: Oh, he is definitely – he jumped in with serious creds.

Tavis: I’m glad you acknowledged that because I was thinking to ask, and so I will, when you have – even though you’re young, obviously, you’ve established yourself as an actress in this town who can open a film and make money and all that good stuff.

How do you go about making a decision to put your life – and that’s an overstatement, but you get my point – put your life, put your career, in the hands of a first-time novice really, with all due respect to Mr. Sattler?

Stewart: I think I’m a feeler.

Tavis: I like that. I’m a feeler.

Stewart: I’m a feeler, yeah.

Tavis: That’s like a t-shirt. I’m a feeler [laugh].

Stewart: Sounds like little antennae.

Tavis: I like that, yeah. I’m a feeler. Okay.

Stewart: So I’m really not restricted by being too pragmatic. You know, I don’t need – a lot of actors definitely, especially ones in sort of supreme positions to make choices, as I am lucky enough to do, are really concerned about every element being spot-on perfect, you know, to fit into an equation for success.

And it’s also just about the experience. It takes a lot. You know, it may sound silly, but you do have to give sort of so much of yourself and it is taxing to tell a story that is, you know, important to you.

So when you don’t come out of the other side feeling like taken care of and like there was an honor to it, like we were supporting characters in a story that were so much greater than us, it feels awful. It’s a horrible experience and then usually you don’t wind up with a very good film either. But as an actor, for me, it’s also very much about risk and being able to jump into something with a faith. I don’t know.

You know, Pete was not a sure shot, but he did such a good job and I had such a beautiful experience with him that, even if he didn’t do a good job in the movie, who knows how the movie really is? It’s so subjective anyway. But like if it turned out absolute just bosh [laugh], I still would have had a great time with him. I still would have learned. You know what I mean?

Tavis: Yeah.

Stewart: So like, for me, I’m not so precious about like the mark I’m going to leave on my industry. If I make a few bad movies, it’s worth sifting through the work and drawing from that experience that attracted you to it in the first place.

Tavis: So I can see and hear in that response a certain sort of freedom and liberation that many actors don’t have because, to your point, everything is – they try to calculate everything.

Stewart: Oh, yeah.

Tavis: But the flip side of that argument, though, Kristen, is that you talk about taking risks and I love people who are willing to take risks. But even risk, particularly at your level in this industry, I think have to be calculated risks. So, obviously, you must have calculated that you thought you could pull this off.

Stewart: Oh, yeah. Oh, there’s always something. I never go into something thinking – I’m always thinking that we’re going to make the most brilliant movie that’s ever been made.

Tavis: Right.

Stewart: And if you don’t have that feeling going into it, then I just can’t relate to that. You know, it’s silly, but you have to feel like – especially considering we’re talking about making movies. You know, taken out of context, it can sound very ridiculous to someone who’s not involved in it.

But, yeah, if you’re not thinking that you’re doing just the most important thing, then it just feels like you’re making products to sell and you’re not doing it for the right reasons, you know.

Tavis: When you do a film that is set in Gitmo in 2014 in this country, it raises all sorts of… [laugh]. I love the chuckle. It raises all sorts of very serious questions that people might have about the film. It opens up conversation that people might have about the issue of humanity and how we treat people at Gitmo, etc., etc. You prepared for all that? That conversation that may come as a result of the film?

Stewart: Yeah, absolutely.

Tavis: You welcome that?

Stewart: Yeah, of course. I think, you know, it’s very coincidentally timed. We’re lucky that it’s like, you know, coming out in the time that it is, that it was able to find its legs, that it was even allowed to be. You know, thanks for mentioning that it is like a very – it’s strange because it is a political subject that is so human.

It’s so revolving around like the fact that there are people involved that are so far away that it’s easy to forget that there are people walking that line right now. That walk is being walked and there are people in those cells.

You know, it’s cool that it’s being brought back up again. This was a bit of a – not to, you know, sound so self-important, but this movie was an exciting prospect because it was a bit of a reminder and it was an opportunity to explore characters in this interesting place.

So, yeah, I mean, like we’ve all said, it’s tricky to release a Gitmo movie at a time like this, but we’re not claiming to have any of the answers. My God, if we did, I would like be on the phone right now being, “I’ve got the solution!”

Tavis: You’d call Obama and tell him, huh?

Stewart: Yeah, exactly. Dude, I’ve got it! Buddy, I’ve figured it out [laugh].

Tavis: I only raise that, Kristen, because when I saw it, I immediately thought about that. I said I wonder – you know, I’ve never known you to an overtly political person. You may be and I just don’t know that.

But I’m thinking this is an interesting choice for her because there will be, again, conversation and questions, which I think is a good thing, given my own political point of view on this. I think it’s a good thing for this country to have a conversation about whether we’re going to be who we say we are in the world. That’s my own assessment. I’m not trying to pull you into that.

But the point is, when you look at a film like this, one thinks – and certainly I thought looking at it – I’m thinking I wonder how – and you made this point a moment ago – how many people, how many military personnel are in situations like this every day where they literally – this is a film. This is entertainment. I love it – but people who literally have to make choices every day about how they’re going to engage, how they’re going to relate, how they’re going to respect and not contest the humanity of people behind bars and not see themselves as better than?

And that’s a Gitmo question, but it’s a question writ large. It’s a question about our entire prison industrial complex and how those who are in authority relate to and treat or decide to maltreat persons behind bars. It’s a big question.

Stewart: It is. Well asked [laugh].

Tavis: Yeah. Anyway, moving on. So I asked earlier how you’re making choices about the kind of roles you want to play. How are you making choices about the kind of projects you want to put your name on and your company stamp on?

Because it’s my assessment and I’m no critic, but it’s just my assessment as a Kristen Stewart fan, that you’re doing, I think, a pretty good job of balancing out the blockbuster, big budget stuff with the indie stuff. How are you making that work?

Stewart: Again, I’m really sort of just sliding through and…

Tavis: Now you’re doing more than sliding through. Come on, you’re being modest. You ain’t sliding through. You’re making deliberate choices. This stuff isn’t just happening. You’re making smart choices. You’re not just sliding through.

Stewart: Yeah, no. But I’m very instinctual and I haven’t done an overtly commercial movie in a while. I haven’t done a big movie in a while. I made like seven movies in the last two years that are all, you know, fairly small, a few of which can be considered commercial. A few of them, I think, have a chance to be, you know, something bigger.

Tavis: But why that choice over the last few years?

Stewart: It was literally it’s project by project. If something along the lines of “Twilight” or “Snow White,” which are the two sort of big movies that I have done, came up that I felt the same way about, that would be what I was doing.

Yeah, it’s funny. I hate harping on this. It’s not my favorite question is like, you know, the roles for women compared to men in the industry is just like less interesting and full and rounded. But the good roles stick out just so jarringly that it’s never hard for me to make a decision.

I’m always so clear – the movie that I should be doing is always so clear to me that, yeah, I’ve recently worked with really great people. Lucky. The ones that are not categorically like what you see constantly stick out so clearly that that’s what I do or try to do.

Tavis: If you were to put a percentage on the stuff that comes across your desk that is the same old, same old versus the stuff that you just pointed out that stands out, how would you handicap that for me? What percentage?

Stewart: I would love to know – I would ask my agent the same question because I read less of the stuff that’s so obviously not, you know, good material [laugh].

Tavis: That was charitable, yeah, yeah.

Stewart: Yeah, exactly. No, but I think – God, it’s different for every person as well. There are times where I’ll read scripts that are fantastic, but it’s not in me at that time. I’m not the type of – you know, some actors really revel in the fact that they hide behind – you know, that they can really transform themselves and step outside of themselves.

I always feel very much like my job does the opposite, like it puts me somewhere where I can reveal myself. So when a character introduces me to an aspect of myself that I was sort of like less aware of, it’s always so sort of – it affects me so greatly that it’s like, oh, wow, that is it. I’m always trying to, you know, just trying to find the truth of it all, you know [laugh].

Tavis: I’m sitting here almost transfixed because I never thought about it in the way you just flipped it. But as I think about the way you’ve just described it, there’s a certain – again, my word here.

There’s a certain courage in being willing to be that transparent, which is my way of saying that, if you’re going to do what you just said which is to take on characters that allow you to expose and reveal a part of yourself, that means over time we’re going to see more and more and more of you come through the characters you play and, one day, we’re going to see all of you.

You’re going to be completely transparent, which may be why people want to find roles that allow them to step outside of themselves because they have the right to self-determination. They just don’t want to be exposed in that way. But I guess you’re comfortable with that, though, or getting comfortable with it, being more transparent, that is.

Stewart: I’ve always been very comfortable with it in my work and I’ve always been able to own the fact that what’s out there is – you know, I’m not denying the fact that we play characters and that I can put myself in an entirely different situation and sort of be someone else. I love exploring things that are outside of my immediate realm.

But at the same time, I think it’s a little psychotic to claim that you can be something other than who you are based on every experience that’s led you to this point now that you’re at.

Tavis: I take that.

Stewart: So, yeah. The most transformative and profound work that I’ve done, not the result, but just for the experience doing that work, has always been the stuff that feels scary because it feels real and it feels like I’ve put my finger on something that I can then communicate to people and go, gosh, have you guys ever done this? You know, this is really real for me and I think that’s the kind of work that I get off on most.

But who knows? I love being an actor and I love film in general. Like there could be the one day I’ll play, you know, like I don’t know, like a penguin or something and just really wow everyone and step outside myself [laugh].

Tavis: I’m sure if you played a penguin, you would wow all of us. I got 30 seconds to go. Speaking of stuff that we haven’t seen that’s coming out, we got “Camp X-Ray” which we’re talking about now.

By the way, I love that title. When you see the film, I’m curious as to what you’re going to take “Camp X-Ray” to mean. It has so many multiple meanings for me on a film like this, but that’s another conversation for another time.

Stewart: It’s very meta.

Tavis: It is, very meta. I love the title. So tell me the other stuff that you have working on. I mentioned like the Juliette Binoche project, Julianne Moore?

Stewart: Yeah. That’s “Clouds of Sils Maria,” that’s “Still Alice.” Did a movie called “Equals” recently with Drake Doremus, this amazing, really young, great director, and a movie with Jesse Eisenberg called “American Ultra” that was fun. That was fun [laugh]. That was actually funny. It’s like a sort of ultra-violent comedy, broad comedy that he’s amazing in.

Tavis: Sounds fun.

Stewart: Yeah, it’s fun [laugh].

Tavis: An ultra-violent comedy. That sounds fun. Anyway, I think the point is that you’re going to be seeing a whole lot of Miss Stewart in the coming months and years. And that’s a good thing ’cause I love seeing you up on the screen. The new one is called “Camp X-Ray.” Kristen, always happy to have you on this program. Thanks for coming back to see us.

Stewart: No, man. Thanks for having me.

Tavis: Good to see you. That’s our show tonight. Thanks for watching and, as always, keep the faith.

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Peter Sattler talks about casting Kristen in ' Camp X-Ray'

How did you end up casting Kristen as the lead?

It worked out for me.  I was asked what my ultimate dream cast was, as I didn't really have anyone in mind while I wrote it.  I assumed it would be micro-budget so I didn't expect the star to be the biggest star in the universe!  I chose Kristen as my dream casting choice, and thankfully once asked she agreed.  I think she's phenomenal and I was obsessed by her performance in The Runaways.  She is a very open actress and so dedicated to creating a real and honest moment in her scene.  She wants her character to be authentic and it was a dream to have her in this role.

Read Peter's full interview at the source: London Film Girl

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'Camp X-Ray' extended clip - "Do You Like It Here"

Shorter videos were posted here previously.

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New 'Camp X-Ray' Stills

 
 
 
 

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New photo of Kristen with Adir Abergel and Jillian Dempsey

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Got to spend the day with my tribe @jilliandempsey and #kristenstewart and #ruthbernstein. #friendsforlife

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