Kristen Stewart opens up about her directorial debut at Cannes 2025

Kristen Stewart opens up about her directorial debut at Cannes 2025

Being a woman is a really violent experience. We are walking secrets. Sh. Don’t like We want to see you. We don’t want to hear you. She’s got big tit energy. I kept thinking she’s got these big boobs and she’s got these big blue eyes and this long hair. God, I’ve wanted to get in there for my whole just my whole life. I’m like more closer. Get in the mouth. That’s right. Yeah. Like I know. Why do you think you have such a special connection as an artist with this international film festival, but very French at the end of the day? Um, it’s the perfect environment to relate dreams to cinema. It’s uh not something that lands as hard when I promote films in the United States. Um, I think obviously there’s just a steeped a steeped history and um historical faith in the ephemeral and I think there’s no reason I don’t really hope to like I think my movie is entertaining but I definitely don’t consider myself a part of the entertainment industry. Um, I I think I think this movie needs to feel like a figment of your imagination and that’s something that only really relates to dreaming and that is the French way. We’ve been waiting so long for this movie, The Chronology of Water. You started talking about it like 8 years ago. It’s a very very painful story um about grief also about about abuse, physical and sexual abuse, about how you deal with violence. Why did you choose such a story? Because being a woman is a really violent experience, even if you don’t have the sort of extreme experience that we depict in the film or that Lydia endured and came out of beautififically. I mean, she to be able to take really ugly things, metabolize them, process them, and put out something that you can live with, something that actually has joy. Pain and pleasure. It’s just that that’s a there’s a hairline fracture there. I mean there’s they’re so tied. Women are, you know, not to be dramatic, it’s just these are facts. We are secrets. We are walking secrets. Sh don’t like we want to see you. We don’t want to hear you. Don’t tell us how you feel. Makes us uncomfortable. The thing is we’re like harboring a lot of violence all of the time. And it’s even in the imagery that we consume. It’s like even if you haven’t bounced off of somebody who has violated you in a specific way, we are incredibly violated constantly. And so I I think that this movie resonates with anyone who is open and bleeding, which is 50% of the population. Now, what’s interesting is that the way she finds to heal is actually through art and storytelling. What does it say about you? I mean, it’s I’m a human. We must connect through commonly shared beliefs. Whether or not those beliefs are mythical or man-made or womanade, it’s the only thing that connects us that keeps us going. I mean, I I um the stories we tell ourselves are very very very important and finding your fellows and being able to allow that story to evolve constantly and that you can change every day and that there’s not a fixed state. That’s what keeps us working, keeps us thriving, moving forward, everything. I I um I’m not alone in that. It’s that’s everyone. That’s how we stay alive. You chose the wonderful imagin for the lead um role and he’s exactly your age. Yeah. Of course. You’re wondering, do you think you could have played this part? I guess I could have. I just didn’t think that I fit the tonal range. I I There’s something about Imagigen that is like so lush. She’s so beautiful and she’s so cracked open in this and she’s an actress who’s been working for like as long as me. And so we have protective walls up and so to watch to to to to disassemble that wall brick by brick and just be left with this pumping broken blood vessel. It’s just she’s the most beautiful. I I keep saying that I think I couldn’t have played this part because she has you know big dick energy. She has like, this is going to sound funny, but I I I cast her because she’s the best actress of our generation. And also because um she has a big energy. She has big energy, but she also what I was I love that more than what I was going to say. I was going to say cuz she’s we’re both pretty flat chested. She’s got big tit energy. I kept thinking, well, she’s got these big boobs and she’s got these big blue eyes and this long hair. She’s she is blood and water. She’s perfect. She is the walking motif. And then I saw her and I was like, “Wait a second, you have no tits.” I was like, “That’s so funny. You just have big tit energy.” What makes a good actor for you? What are you looking for as a director? Someone who’s alive. Like, I I can’t handle too much preparation. I I I love commitment. I I I love learning and I love um the time that it takes to really immerse yourself in something. But when people come with plans, discovery stops, learning stops, sharing stops. I I love people that seem to be on their mark. Overstepping it, falling short, accidentally falling right on the mark. I I I think that people that want to come to work to learn something are the people that I want to work with. You started your career as a child actor, Christian. To what extent would you say you’re also filming actors the way you would have liked to be filmed? God, I’ve wanted to get in there for my whole just my whole life. I’m like, more closer. Get in the mouth. That’s right. Yeah. Like I her skin. I mean, this movie is about her skin. The movie’s pink. The movie is a pink muscle that is like throbbing. So, if you lost that pink, you lost the performance. It really struck me the the physicality and the sensitivity of your film making. And and I’m wondering is there something political here in new stories to tell in new ways of filming? I think having a female body is an overtly political act if you can get out of bed in the morning and not hate yourself. It is it’s hard and it’s a secret. Like I said, we’re just not supposed to say that because it sounds so woe is me. It sounds like it’s also a really beautiful experience to have this sort of gushing openness. It’s where life comes from. It’s also where a lot dies. It’s like, you know, can you hold life and death in the same sentence is one of the coolest lines in the book. That’s actually not in the movie, but I think the movie says it without saying it. And um I think that yeah, if I’m allowed to continue making movies, like I think in making this first one, I just want to earn the right to make one more. And then after that, one more. And I think if I’m allowed to, I would like to do the most fun thing in the entire world, which is like tell secrets. Just tell everyone everything that we’re not supposed to tell people. And I don’t know, kind of like, and I don’t mean this in a crude way. I mean this in a really beautiful way, but just sort of disrobe in public like we we should be allowed to. You’re very close to for instance. Are there other directors or actors, French actors that you like to to film? Maybe. I think I don’t think I’m like allowed to say this yet, but I am about to work with one of my favorite French filmmakers of all time. Um, I don’t think that I’m allowed to say that because it’s like not Oh, but I am about to work with someone that I have like just totally looked up to my whole life and is very connected to Olivier as well. Um, uh, Vicky Creeps is in it. I I’m obsessed with Vicki. I think she has a part in the movie as well and that we’re going to kind of play off each other. I’m not allowed to say these things. There are so many people that I want to look at, stare at, consume, metabolize, put on screen. Uh, yeah. I know everyone wants to know all the all my like whether or not you have like French loves or favorites, and of course I do, but I’m not very good at like listing them off. What about Kim Gordon? Sonic Youth, you’re a huge fan. You talked about dreams at the beginning of this interview. Would you say making a movie is also a way to accomplish some dreams and some fantasies working with her? Yeah. No, it’s like you get to design a dream and live it. Um, Kim had to play this part because she is like ultimate mama. I mean, she is like mommy as hell and she inhabits a dissonance and and such a committed radical kind of anti-formm. Um, that uh there was just it’s it’s like I hired Jim Belalushi to pat us on the back and I hired Kim Gordon to tell us that she was proud of us and that we were good girls. Thank you so much, Kristen. Thank you so much.

“Being a woman is a truly violent experience,” Kristen Stewart said as she spoke about her directorial debut, “The Chronology of Water.” She also reveals why she chose to tell the difficult story about physical and sexual violence faced by women. #Cannes2025 #cannesfilmfestival

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