Late last year, Kristen Stewart made a late campaign push for an Oscar nomination for her work in Clouds Of Sils Maria. As I wrote in January, I liked the move. I liked the strategy. I liked that she was being led by ambition instead of being carried away, airy fairy, on the winds of creativity.
Ahead of the Cannes Film Festival, where she’ll be supporting two films, Kristen covers the new issue of Variety with one of the most candid interviews she’s given in a long time. When the piece is about her, it’s a good read. She still tries to front like she doesn’t consider the direction of her career (“I didn’t carve out some path,” Stewart says of her post-“Twilight” years. “I didn’t fight hard to be taken seriously. As much as the ‘Twilight’ series shaped and defined me for other people in a grand way, for me it wasn’t something I had to get away from. It was just a long experience on a movie that I liked.”) but she also balances that by delightfully refreshing statements like this:
“I’m a kid from the Valley. I love big movies that everyone sees, and I can’t wait for the opportunity to f-cking nail that. It has to be the right people and the right time.”
I also enjoy the sass in her attitude about The Huntsman: Winter’s War. Without her, the movie and the box office was sh-t. She’s allowed to be a little happy about that, non? Most people wouldn’t show it though. Because it’s bad form or would result in bad karma, or whatever. She doesn’t seem to have concerns about that. And I’d like to believe it’s not just because she speaks her mind but also because she’s considered, thoughtfully, when and how to speak her mind and has decided that this was a good time. Not unlike the way she reveals here that she knows when she’s been papped – with another woman – and the conclusions that are being made from those photos, and that she’s OK with those conclusions so as to normalise her sexual identity, especially to her young fans.
Like I said, when the profile is about Kristen Stewart, it’s a good read. Unfortunately, my takeaway from this piece is, well, f-cking Woody Allen. How much did you hate Woody Allen after reading the article? For me, a lot. So much that I can see my hate, like a tangible thing, sitting on my desk, beside my laptop, angry and pulsing with revulsion.
Woody tells Variety that he would mock Kristen on set – and it’s offered like it should be taken as some kind of charming anecdote: this is what happens when you work with the great Woody Allen! F-ck you.
Kristen then tells Variety about how he would give his direction. How? By playing mind games. Leaving notes that read “That felt fake” or “Speed it up, I’m falling asleep”. But not really meaning it because he chose the slow takes for the finished film. Duana calls it “negging”. And it’s creepy as f-ck. Because think about it. Would he ever pull that sh-t with Cate Blanchett? Please. No. But Kristen Stewart? Rachel McAdams? Scarlett Johansson? Emma Stone? Of course. And they’re young enough to mistake that for generosity and genius. And he’s old and narcissistic enough to believe that to be benevolent favour. F-ck you.
Click here to read the full profile at Variety.
