Kristen Stewart slammed Hollywood for being “phony” by sticking to a select number of women filmmakers.
The “Love Lies Bleeding” star, who is set to make her feature directorial debut with “The Chronology of Water,” responded in a recent cover story for Porter magazine to efforts that make it “easy for” the film industry to involve women.
“[There’s a] thinking that we can check these little boxes, and then do away with the patriarchy, and how we’re all made of it,” she said.
She continued, “It’s easy for them to be like, ‘Look what we’re doing. We’re making Maggie Gyllenhaal’s movie! We’re making Margot Robbie’s movie!’ And you’re like, OK, cool. You’ve chosen four ….”
Stewart added that she’s in awe of Gyllenhaal and Robbie although “it feels phony.”
“If we’re congratulating each other for broadening perspective, when we haven’t really done enough, then we stop broadening,” Stewart said.
Stewart revealed that she’s in “soft prep” for “The Chronology of Water,” her film adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir, following years of her making what she calls a “living document” (a screenplay) and pushing to finance the project.
She told Variety in January that she would make “The Chronology of Water” before she ever works for someone else.
“Yeah, I will quit the fucking business,” said Stewart of the film that’s set to star Imogen Poots.
“I won’t make a-fucking-nother movie until I make this movie. I will tell you that, for sure. I think that will get things going.”
Stewart told Porter that the film, which she describes as a movie about “incest and periods and a woman violently repossessing her voice and body,” is a “fucking thrill ride” that’s difficult to watch at times.
She’s also set to direct the film in Latvia, which she noted has a “fledgling film culture.”
“Look, I’m all about the way we make movies here [in the U.S.], but I needed a sort of radical detachment,” Stewart said.
“I am not a director yet. I need to make a student film. I can’t do that here.”