Kristen Stewart says Hollywood does the bare minimum when it comes to supporting female filmmakers. Well, more than four of them.
Stewart, who is set to make her directorial debut with an adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch memoir “The Chronology of Water,” told Porter magazine that there is a “phony” performative structure to which women filmmakers find success in the film industry.
“[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,” Stewart said. “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 continued, “And I’m in awe of those women, I love those women [but] it feels phony. If we’re congratulating each other for broadening perspective, when we haven’t really done enough, then we stop broadening.”
The Oscar-nominated actress and “Twilight” alum compared modern gender discrimination to the past, calling today’s approach a more “passive aggressive” one that can slide under the radar.
“Even if we’re still emotionally violent towards women right now, it’s so much more passive aggressive,” Stewart said. “[Before] it was just so fucking straight up.”
Stewart has been vocal about the struggle to find financing to get “The Chronology of Water” made. Stewart has been attached to direct the film since 2018 and co-wrote the script with Andy Mingo.
“It’s kind of a self-conscious thing to talk about, because it’s hard to get anything made,” she said of the feature. “You know, [a film] that’s not regurgitating something that’s pretty standardized. My movie is about incest and periods and a woman violently repossessing her voice and body, and it is, at times, hard to watch…but it’s gonna be a fucking thrill ride.”
But that doesn’t mean “The Chronology of Water” is too niche to find an audience.
“I think that’s commercial,” Stewart said, “but I don’t think that I have any gauge on what that means. I think people would want to see that, but then…I think maybe people wanna watch movies about, like, Jesus and dogs.”
