Kristen Stewart’s ‘Chronology of Water’: Reclaiming Shame, Pain, and Power

Kristen Stewart’s ‘Chronology of Water’: Reclaiming Shame, Pain, and Power

[Music] Kristen, tell me how it feels to be telling such a true story of womanhood, a visceral story. Tell me how it feels to be here telling this story. Um I think this not to speak in platitudes but like the truth will set you free. The thing is this movie doesn’t it sort of meditates on the fact that everyone’s truth is so different and that reality is so broken that um these stories that fuel your life. They must be designed from an internal place. Like uh you know we get shoved just like just prescribed stories just like shoved into our faces down our throats. Like whether or not you can relate to the explicit violation that that we depict in the film or or not having a female body in this day and age walking around with it. We’re stolen from the theory is like wild. I mean, even just like the image based the imagery, the imagery that we consume, the conversations that are not allowed, the fact that we can’t tell people when we’re bleeding because that’s like gross or something. Um, I don’t know. like uh it’s the reason that I wanted to make this was to screw with form because it really is so much in talking about the book in trying to talk about what it’s about and trying to talk about what the movie is about. It becomes immediately reductive because it’s not about what happened to Lydia Yuknovich. It’s what happens to us all and how we can sort of internalize that violence which is I know it sounds dramatic but it’s true. It’s incredibly violent to be a woman. It’s really visceral. To take the pain and make it feel good. The only way you can do that is to reframe it and like reward it. And uh you know the hairline fracture between pain and pleasure is just like I mean it it it’s it’s it’s really nice to be able to repossess shame and like own it and eat it and the out of it. Like that’s like that that’s what I wanted to make. If you get to talk about like stillborns and period blood and then also have like a really good time, I think you’ve accomplished something. Dude, tell me. We had a good time being disgusting and gross and almost half suicidal, but yeah, it was great. It was romp. So for me to when approaching Claudia, I was very confused at at first and then once I just had it wrapped in my mind that I was actually not really playing a person but just a memory. Um that like sort of opened it up for me and and and allowed me freedom to explore all the things and have like a running commentary as sort of like a third eye about just the situation period without embodying a person and making it so personal to Claudia. It’s more about the situation and the moment and the the heaviness the weight of that moment and what that is. And even though our characters who were prepared for that moment, there’s still this shock, it it’s actually happened and here it is and we have to deal with it and then try to forget about it. And so that was like just trying to absorb all of that and sit in the silence of it and just let it be was I think the that was the approach. So good. I mean, we really got like the like truth. Mother strength from a sister. That was like the one line in the book that it was like, “Well, it has to be.” I like hired my like ideal big sister and was like, “Come help us.” And that was our first That was your first day filming, wasn’t it? Was it? I think it was. That was your first scene. I know. I remember in the airport. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I remember. Let’s all like before we stepped up. Here’s the hospital. I’m like, “Okay.” And I was like, “Everyone get off the weird feeling set because there was one person that needed to go.” And and we like went downstairs and I was like, “Can we just like be together for one second?” And like I don’t know. I remember you read this passage out of the book on that day and I was like, “Oh, okay. Is this like a daily thing?” She’s like, “I don’t need this thing.” I’m like, “I’m down.” No, it was very, very rare. But it was like But it was called for and I think it worked. It was always around, but it was rare. Yeah. I mean, I had it all the time, but this one time she was like she was like um strapped to a cross beam. That’s right. And her legs were going numb and she was like the sweat under her knee in that scene. It’s real. We didn’t put liquid under there. I was like, “Oh my god, look at that. Can we get that? Can we show that?” She’s sweating. But I like I got underneath of her after like take one or two or whatever and I was like, “Let me just remind us.” And she’s like this. She’s like, “Okay, sure.” And I I’m like, “Well, you can’t get away from me cuz I strapped you to a glass.” And I was underneath of her reading a passage from the book and a tear fell out of her eye and onto the page and I literally looked at it and I was just like roll camera right now. Oh my god. Oh my god. Imagine. How did you tell me the story of how you actually came to to Lydia in the beginning? Well, I read Kristen’s script and you just don’t read things like that or if you do read scripts like that, they’re not getting made and so it was just this living breathing document. We’re finally doing the thing together. I know this is our first interview together and um and it was just such a miracle that we ended up making this film. It’s extraordinary. We met I have an email from Kristen. It was like the night before New Year’s Eve and I think it was like a couple years before uh a couple years after being cast that No, it was when I was cast in the film. It was when Yeah, this was the the casting and also can I just say real quick like how absurd it is that we think it’s awesome and amazing that we’ve accomplished this. This should be normal, you know? I mean the the fact that this is like isn’t it great we did this like no it’s we should just be doing this period that’s so true you know 8 years yeah I know that’s crazy yeah it yeah we broke the seal though hopefully we can start flooding gushing into into view but wait but tell her what the email said the email said dude do you want to make this movie with me and it was just the coolest thing just like one line no subject first and only email that I’d ever sent to her. And what happened was I have known this person like sort of peripherilally forever. And we have like so many mutual friends that are like kind of astoundingly um significant people in our lives that have crossover, but we’ve never really met. And uh I’ve just thought that she’s the best most standout thing in every movie that she’s ever been in. And then I got this tape and it was like Image and Puth is auditioning for my movie. I was like what? That’s I mean not that I love I you know not I’m not going to like criticize the process but it was just so shocking cuz I’ve loved her for so long and and then we did like a call back and as soon as we were talking I was just like this is really absurd. This like feels really silly. Stop it immediately. Like it was just like you’ll just come and and and I was also told before the call because I’m like uh just impulsive to a fault which is why the movie is what it is which is like a good thing but sometimes a bad thing. And they were like, “No matter how much you think that you know what you want right now, please don’t tell her that she has the job like on the phone because you really need to process. You always change your mind.” Like, do you know what I mean? It’s like I was like, “Okay, okay. I won’t. I won’t. I won’t.” And I don’t think I did. That was why the email had to come through. But I was like, “Bye. See you not. Maybe soon. Maybe. Maybe I’ll see you someday.” Uh to use the classic I’m sure we’ll talk again. Exactly. So, imagin tell me um let let me just take a snapshot of something that has really stayed with you that really lives in you from being Lydia. I think probably the swimming um I didn’t swim before this film and did swimming training and Lydia’s relationship to water is so specific and so personal. So, I wanted to to swim in the sense of obviously like the physical sides and results of that, but really was to have a relationship of my own with the water stacked. I did get stacked. I wanted a triangle back. Not a dinky little actress as you would say. But um I would say that but no no dinky. No dinky dinky. Don’t get dinky on me. But it was really that that stuck with me. I think the experience of making the film for all of us really I mean you were just you’re still in it. I feel like just you still Yeah. Hi. I know. I’m a bit of a problem. But that that doesn’t leave you like it doesn’t leave it didn’t leave my body. I haven’t had that ever happen before with a part. It was a It took a minute. I I was like, I’ve got to go away to sort of get this. Well, I didn’t know if I wanted to get that out of me, but it it’s something it’s like a blood chemistry thing. Something a little strange. Plus, it’s like some things take a while to leave. Yes. They can they can last for Yeah. And I just hadn’t had that before. Yeah. I mean, it’s a biopic, but it’s not about Lydia. You know what I mean? It’s it’s about Imagigen and it’s about you and me and us and all of us and like um Imagin did something that released some I think this experience cracked her open in a way that I’ve just not seen anyone else do. I’ve never been in the presence of that while filming. We made these memories that feel so personal. Yeah. We weren’t speaking for Lydia. We were speaking for ourselves and like we’ve been doing this for so long. All of us. We’ve been actresses since we were kids. And that is about often it’s about hiding. It’s not about revealing yourself. And watching her step out from behind every cover and then like kind of even further like even I would be like more. Yeah. Like more like it was like we like we’ll have that forever. We we’re the same. We looked at each other and we went, “It is absolutely time to look inside and externalize this thing that’s been hidden for so long.” And you don’t have to be making movies to do that. Like that’s something that happens at a certain age. I think at some point you sort of go like, “No, more.” Yeah. But that’s also a director to an actor. Like that’s not possible without an incredible director and sort of someone who doesn’t settle and keeps pushing and like fortifies you and like no one’s ever but we’re friends and so but that’s the thing is like if we weren’t filming something a conversation a trip that we would have taken we would have had an experience that felt similar to this. I know it like we needed to find each other in order to have a couple conversations and crack into something and be like wow I needed to get that out of my body. Yeah. All three of us can kind of communicate without really speaking too much to one another. Yeah, we were talking. We’ll just look a little We’re the queens of it. You are the queen. I don’t know about that. Salty. I’m like, wow. Good one. Like a story. Okay, go. I just have one quick before we have to wrap it up. Um, so we have some students who are doing our internships who from Savannah College of Art and Design. Yes, that’s a lot of my crew. Like my whole sound my whole sound crew is from SCADA. Oh, that’s wonderful. Well, so they asked they gave me a question to ask you guys. Cool. And it was what film would you suggest all budding actors or filmmakers would should watch to inform their education. One tough just one. You can say lots if you Okay, cool. Opening night. Oh, I was going to say, too. I think there’s a few husbands. I mean, obviously like Women Under the Influence, but but those two, opening night and husband’s like um and Faces. Um and I’m going to keep it chronology ccentric until Thora thinks of hers, which I’ve worked on. Yeah, I can feel it. Like one, come on. Uh Morvin Coller really informed this. Yes. Um let’s see. Um Wanda. Uh yeah, I came out yesterday. Uh yeah, I heard about that. And um per performance-wise, gosh, uh you know, there’s a movie called um a married couple and it’s actually a it’s an actuality drama by Alan King. He’s a Canadian documentarian, but those performance I’m air quoting everything because what’s real cuz reality is broken. um those performances, the way that that couple it’s it’s about a couple living um together uh during a sort of like period where they’re considering separating and the nuclear family is like kind of collapsing in on itself because this woman is realizing that she doesn’t want to play that role and the roles that we play for each other. I mean, she’s like a spectacular actress because the way that they film her, she can’t hide. And so when he looks away, she’s doing some other thing or like you can see her like sort of vying for space and attention and trying to sort of provoke and it’s it’s a movie that’s full of the best performances that I have ever seen and they’re not actors, but we are all acting all the time. Like when everyone’s like, “So, how do you do this?” I’m like, “I don’t know. I’m like just here.” Um, so yeah, like I would say a married couple performance-wise, it it’s a it’s astounding. And the way that they get the way that the camera interacts with with the with the life that’s going on in this intimate space is just like I I blows my mind. [Music]

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