Kristen Stewart's "Chronology of Water" Challenges Film Industry Structures

Key Quotes

"The idea of selfhood just the idea of um diaristic writing by women feeling and being criticized for being like selfish and narcissistic it's like oh sorry I was being selfish I wanted a self it's like anytime you start talking about yourself it becomes kind of this tired pathetic messy thing and I wanted to make something tired pathetic and messy that felt exuberant and achieved and you know encouraging."

Kristen Stewart explains that the memoir she adapted for her film was compelling not just for its difficult subject matter, but for its exploration of how women's self-expression is often policed. Stewart aimed to create a work that embraced messiness and exuberance, challenging the notion that women talking about themselves is inherently narcissistic.

"as soon as you start making those things specific you'd fully and completely dilute the point you know in the beginning of the movie we show a series of images of a woman bleeding at various times in her life there's a way that that blood sticks to the grout before it runs down the drain that indicates that that did not come from a laceration or a cut it came from an orifice that is a very very specific experience but it is also general enough for everyone to kind of insert their own lives into the movie if you are a woman or if you might have ever loved a woman or heard her speak about what it feels like to bleed from the place that hurts the most but that creates life you know"

Stewart discusses how specific details in her film, like the imagery of a woman bleeding, are intended to be both precise and universally relatable. She argues that this specificity allows viewers, particularly women, to connect with the material on a personal level by inserting their own experiences. Stewart believes this approach avoids diluting the film's core message.

"I think that there's like a large difference in terms of performance and generosity and giving and we are made to give we are literally designed to give you what you want and we're really good at it and we really love it and men are designed to give like in a very different way and to take you know what I mean so I think um yeah that's a really we could talk about that for like five hours"

Kristen Stewart suggests a fundamental difference in how male and female actors approach performance, framing female actors as inherently designed for generosity and giving to the audience. Stewart implies that men, conversely, are designed to give in a different manner, which includes taking, and that this distinction significantly impacts their performances.

"I think that a movie comes from someone's singularity and their perspective and their soul and um I I hate signing on to something and seeing something with potential life be destroyed and uh I've just you know I'm not saying that Charlie's Angels was destroyed it's more the day to day I like that movie I I I like I don't think it's impossible to make a film that speaks to people that's valuable that um feels good and that's worth paying for under those circumstances but uh I don't have to do it and so I don't want to"

Stewart explains her philosophical opposition to the collaborative, "committee process" in filmmaking, believing that true cinematic art stems from an individual's unique vision. She expresses a strong aversion to seeing creative potential diminished through such processes, even if she acknowledges that films made within those structures can still be valuable. Stewart states she chooses not to participate in such projects if she doesn't have to.

"it's like uh yeah day to day you watch something with kind of detail and color become really gray and uh it's dispiriting it's dispiriting it's demoralizing and it's also entirely misogynistic and schadenfreude and it's like just not the realm that really creates an environment for me to want to be vulnerable in and that's like my whole job as an actor it's why it's why guys get embarrassed about being embarrassed you know what I mean so my job is to be embarrassed but to feel safe doing it and so in environments like that with people like that I don't feel safe nor should I"

Stewart describes the dispiriting and demoralizing daily experience of studio filmmaking, where creative detail is lost and the environment becomes hostile. She characterizes this process as misogynistic and not conducive to the vulnerability required for her acting work. Stewart asserts that feeling unsafe in such environments prevents her from performing her job effectively.

"I think we need to start sort of stealing our movies I'm so appreciative of every union uh trust me uh we would not survive without them but some of the terms and some of the rules and some of the structures we've set up have created unbelievable barriers for artists to express themselves and I think that without being unfaithful ungrateful I think we need a little work around I I I think having it be so impossible for people to tell stories and having it be such an exclusive and rarefied novel position to be in to find yourself doing so is capitalist hell and it hates women and it hates marginalized voices and it's racist and I think that we need to figure out a way to make it easier to speak to each other through cinema"

Stewart advocates for a fundamental shift in the film industry, suggesting that current structures, despite the necessity of unions, create significant barriers to artistic expression. She describes the current system as "capitalist hell" that is exclusionary and harmful to women, marginalized voices, and people of color. Stewart believes it is crucial to find ways to make filmmaking more accessible and to facilitate easier communication through cinema.