Kristen Stewart‘s directorial debut The Chronology of Water has been lauded as a feat of filmmaking since its release on the festival circuit, and the actress-turned-filmmaker has been vocal about the struggles of making an indie project centering the female gaze.
The Twilight alumna, who has long been vocal about politics and President Donald Trump, said in a new profile with The Times U.K. that she isn’t sure whether she can continue her ambitions as a director in the United States.
“It would have been impossible [to make The Chronology of Water] in the States,” she says of the Imogen Poots-starring drama, which was shot in Latvia. While Trump’s proposed 100% tariff on foreign films has been somewhat forgotten by the administration, Stewart said such threats are “terrifying” for the film industry.
“Reality is breaking completely under Trump,” she told the outlet. “But we should take a page out of his book and create the reality we want to live in.”
About her future residing in the U.S., Stewart posited she might move abroad, similar to other outspoken filmmakers like James Cameron, who recently relocated to New Zealand. “I can’t work freely [in the U.S.], but I don’t want to give up completely. I’d like to make movies in Europe and then shove them down the throat of the American people.”
Of showcasing a woman’s perspective in her adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir, she said, “History really matters. It tells you you are either allowed to be here or not. The rewriting of history is happening because equality is becoming closer to a reality.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Stewart noted the difference in treatment she received as an actress versus helmer: “Actresses get treated like shit, I’ve got to tell you. People think anyone could be an actress, but the first time I sat down to talk about my movie as a director, I thought, ‘Wow, this is a different experience, they are talking to me like I’m somebody with a brain.’”
She concluded, “There’s this idea that directors have otherworldly abilities, which is not true. It’s an idea perpetuated by men. Not to sound like I’m complaining all the time, but it’s worse for female actors than male ones — they get treated like puppets, but they are not. Imogen put her whole body and soul into this movie.”
