{"id":335035,"date":"2025-12-09T17:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T17:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/335035\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T17:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T17:58:09","slug":"imogen-poots-search-for-authenticity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/335035\/","title":{"rendered":"Imogen Poots\u2019 search for authenticity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imogen Poots has been thinking about a Sam Shepard<\/a> quote: \u201cPeople here have become the people they\u2019re pretending to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those 10 words, from a poem in his \u201cMotel Chronicles\u201d collection, are kind of about her character in \u201cHedda,\u201d<\/a> the quietly courageous Thea. But they\u2019re also kind of about everything. After 20 years of acting in movies, television and on the stage, Poots is having a clarifying moment. And Shepard\u2019s words somehow get to the heart of it all: the disorienting paradox of attempting to work as an artist in a big industry like Hollywood and preserving your soul in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always clear about what I wanted to do professionally, if only I could get there, in independent cinema and theater,\u201d Poots told The Associated Press in a recent interview. \u201cBut only in the last two years, something\u2019s clicked.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old English actor has always managed to elegantly navigate her way through the distracting noise of franchises and fame and find the types of interesting filmmakers, stories and projects she\u2019d always dreamed of, working with the likes of Peter Bogdanovich<\/a>, Terrence Malick, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Imelda Staunton along the way.<\/p>\n

But this year has been particularly special with three films that she\u2019s enormously proud to be part of: sharing the screen with the great Nina Hoss in Nia DaCosta\u2019s fiery<\/a>\u201cHedda\u201d<\/a> (streaming on Prime Video), delving into the throes of an affair, with Brett Goldstein,<\/a> in the romantic drama \u201cAll of You\u201d<\/a> (streaming on Apple TV) and giving herself over to what may just be remembered as a defining performance in Kristen Stewart\u2019s directorial debut<\/a>, \u201cThe Chronology of Water\u201d (in theaters in Los Angeles and New York, nationwide on Jan. 9).<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can make these films that simply don\u2019t find their home, or don\u2019t find the right home. And that can be quite devastating,\u201d Poots said. \u201cI feel really lucky that each of these projects found the place that understood what they had in their hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being in Kristen Stewart\u2019s gaze<\/p>\n

While all three films had independent spirits, it\u2019s \u201cThe Chronology of Water\u201d that was the biggest unknown \u2014 a daring and provocative adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch\u2019s memoir about escaping an abusive home, dashed dreams of competitive swimming and losing herself in sex, drugs and alcohol before finding her voice through writing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis person\u2019s life is so rich with inconsistencies and successes and sabotage. She\u2019s kind of like the weather,\u201d Poots said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very present film, despite the fact it\u2019s about memory and reframing that. It really is about being completely present, sometimes too present, like egregiously present in proximity to someone\u2019s life and someone\u2019s body.\u201d<\/p>\n

The intensity of it required total trust in Stewart, an artist she\u2019d only admired from a few degrees away until they decided to dive into the deep end together. Work didn\u2019t stop at wrap, she said. It was always spilling out over texts and calls and videos. And it all just felt right, a creative collaboration like she\u2019d never experienced before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two of us only know how to do it this way, which is to completely hurl yourself into it,\u201d Poots said. \u201cThe stakes were so high for one another. We didn\u2019t want to let the other one down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Someone said something recently to Stewart that she found very illuminating: They never bring the baggage of knowing that Poots has been in other movies when watching her in something. It\u2019s like they\u2019re always meeting her anew.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s because she\u2019s not like an \u2018actress,\u2019\u201d Stewart said. \u201cShe\u2019s like giving you her life, and it\u2019s full and it\u2019s so generous \u2026 you never really know where it\u2019s going to go because she\u2019s, she\u2019s not planning it. She\u2019s genuinely trust falling.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there had been any hesitation, Stewart said, there\u2019s no way it would have worked. On screen, Poots just feels alive. And that\u2019s exactly what Stewart needed: a person who knows how to live life, unselfconsciously.<\/p>\n

Poots finds it a little embarrassing, even pointless, to talk about the craft of acting. She winces when she hears words like \u201cbrave\u201d tossed around about her performance. Is it, she wonders?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my body, it\u2019s my voice. That does feel very exposing,\u201d Poots said. \u201cBut at the same time, what are you going to do? Like, you have this one life. And one day, if I make it that far, I\u2019ll be an old woman and I\u2019ll be like, \u2018It\u2019s good that you did something that mattered to you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

At the film\u2019s world premiere at Cannes earlier this year, both Stewart and Poots sat there shaking \u2014 vibrating for one another, wanting the other to soar.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really did something,\u201d Poots said. \u201cWe did it together with every cell in our body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staying authentic and finding her people<\/p>\n

Acting in the film business is hard for all its myriad contradictions, and projects like \u201cChronology\u201d and \u201cHedda\u201d and \u201cAll of You\u201d don\u2019t come along every day. It demands a patience and self-awareness to understand what\u2019s right for you and what\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s creative and it\u2019s arbitrary in the one sense, and other ways it\u2019s very, very specific and precise,\u201d Poots said. \u201cYou\u2019re fighting against this unknowable, very sort of shiftable force, which is trend. And you\u2019re trying to stay authentic in the face of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

She thinks of someone like her friend Jesse Eisenberg<\/a> appearing in a Superman film, and Stewart, who climbed out of \u201cTwilight\u201d and built a brilliant body of work despite that, and how good you have to be to go back to working with auteurs. <\/p>\n

In the beginning of her career, she was happy to take the work where she could, to try new things, to throw paint at the wall, so to speak, and figure out what felt right and what didn\u2019t. And she looks back on jobs that might not have been the best fit with empathy. It\u2019s important to learn what you\u2019re not happy doing, as well. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if everyone around you is like, \u2018But it should be fun,\u2019 like, \u2018Go to the party!\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to do that, I don\u2019t think. You don\u2019t have to be that uncomfortable. You can find people where you\u2019re on the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now she has a resolve that only comes with experience. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are such amazing actors working today and such incredible directors. It\u2019s very easy to just to sort of give in and be like, well, everyone else is doing that, so I guess I should. So you have to keep putting the gold into the other pot,\u201d Poots said. \u201cThere\u2019s too much potential not to be making original work. Underestimating audiences is a huge thing. They\u2019re so much smarter and more imaginative than the system knows what to do with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next up is a reunion with her \u201cGreen Room\u201d director Jeremy Saulnier for a new film with Chase Sui Wonders<\/a> and Cory Michael Smith<\/a>. It felt like coming home, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what the alternative is,\u201d she said. \u201cThe alternative is to do something where it\u2019s like, oh, they lit you and you look like a supermodel and you didn\u2019t eat for 10 weeks and you made a picture that\u2019s kind of innocuous but people will watch occasionally. That sounds like I\u2019d rather do something else for a living.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press reporter Sian Watson contributed from London.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Imogen Poots has been thinking about a Sam Shepard quote: \u201cPeople here have become the people they\u2019re pretending…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5534,87437,49,48,50692,147272,75,147270,71957,50693,80945,57558,147273,337,48081,71958,147274,112189,147269,147271],"class_list":{"0":"post-335035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-arts-and-entertainment","9":"tag-brett-goldstein","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-chase-sui-wonders","13":"tag-cory-michael-smith","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-imelda-staunton","16":"tag-imogen-poots","17":"tag-jeremy-saulnier","18":"tag-jesse-eisenberg","19":"tag-kristen-stewart","20":"tag-lidia-yuknavitch","21":"tag-movies","22":"tag-nia-dacosta","23":"tag-nina-hoss","24":"tag-peter-bogdanovich","25":"tag-philip-seymour-hoffman","26":"tag-sam-shepard","27":"tag-terrence-malick"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}