Kristen Stewart’s directorial confidence

Kristen Stewart was on Late Night with Seth Meyers last night to promote her directorial debut, The Chronology of Water, in select theatres now. One of the things I clocked that she said during the interview was when they were talking about the holidays and New Year’s Eve and how she spent it and she mentioned that she was doing as much press as possible ahead of the break and then basically just had to do nothing when everything shut down for Christmas – which wasn’t exactly what she wanted, that’s how eager she was to be outside talking about her film. And it’s totally understandable, when you spend eight years working on a project, and put so much energy and passion into it, you do what you can to get people to see it, to support not just you but the work of the crew and the talent, even during the holidays. 

The Chronology of Water has generally been well-received by critics, currently 92% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes. And, remember, this is her first feature film. Not all actors should be directors – and it happens even less when the actors are women. The consensus, though, seems to be that Kristen Stewart has a clear point of view behind the camera and has guided Imogen Poots, not exactly an amateur, to the finest performance of her career. I know we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves but I can’t wait to see how Kristen develops this skill, and what her next directing project might be – although she joked recently that she’d be open to directing a Twilight reboot. I don’t hate the idea but if KStew’s open to adapting fantasy books to screen, a more current option would be, for example, Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing series. Bella Swan and Violet Sorrengail aren’t that far apart.

Let’s stay in the present though, and Kristen’s general energy on this press tour. As you can see from this interview with Seth, she’s confident in her work – it’s evident coming out of the clip that is played for the audience, as she watches a scene from the movie she directed, and compliments how good it looks. No false modesty and no pretention. Her vibe connected me with David Rooney’s review of The Chronology of Water for The Hollywood Reporter in which he wrote that “Stewart also appears to have found her voice, announcing the seriousness of her intentions not with auteurist self-importance but with unimpeachable commitment to honoring her subject’s story”.

She’s been exploring this idea in some of her interviews on this press tour, particularly with the New York Times when she “blows up the myth of the brilliant male actor”. Basically actors get to be assholes in the name of art – and this luxury is rarely offered to actresses, but also women don’t have to be assholes get the f-cking job done either. On the other side of the camera, female directors can achieve excellence, inspire masterful performances, without slapping their genius in people’s faces. How often does a woman get called an “auteur director”? Why aren’t we calling Chloe Zhao an “auteur director”?

But then again, reading between the lines of how Kristen’s been approaching her directorial debut, those kinds of titles betray the humanity and sensitivity that’s required to direct a film, or a TV show – any story that has something to say about the human condition. And maybe the women just aren’t interested in those kinds of labels.