Kristen Stewart recently graced the cover of Porter magazine and called out “phony” Hollywood for how it often self-congratulates itself for doing away with the patriarchy when in reality, Hollywood has just prioritized a select group of women to operate in the studio world. While progress is being made, Stewart rang the alarm by saying changes for women in Hollywood are not as broad as Hollywood might like to make it out to be.
“[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.’”
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“And I’m in awe of those women, I love those women, [but] it feels phony,” Stewart continued. “If we’re congratulating each other for broadening perspective, when we haven’t really done enough, then we stop broadening.”
Stewart has spent the last several years struggling to get financing for her feature directorial debut, “The Chronology of Water.” She told Variety earlier this year, ahead of the Sundance Film Festival, that she’s no longer interested in taking new acting projects until she gets her directorial effort off the ground.
“I’m going to make this movie before I ever work for someone else,” she said. “Yeah, I will quit the fucking business. 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 would later say on the ground at Sundance that part of why she was attending the 2024 festival was to look for financing for the movie, in addition to premiering new movies. “That’s why we’re here,” she said. “I’m going to make that fucking movie!”
Speaking to Porter magazine, Stewart had no new updates on when “Chronology of Water” will begin filming. The movie is an adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir of the same name and has had Imogen Poots attached to star in the lead role for a few years.
“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,” Stewart said. “I think people would want to see that, but then… I think maybe people wanna watch movies about, like, Jesus and dogs.”
Head over to Porter’s website to read Stewart’s cover story in its entirety.
