{"id":393319,"date":"2026-01-07T06:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T06:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/393319\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T06:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T06:18:08","slug":"kristen-stewart-jesse-eisenberg-on-directing-and-hollywood-opression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/393319\/","title":{"rendered":"Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg on Directing and Hollywood Opression"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cI swear to God. I\u2019m going to kill myself,\u201d Kristen Stewart<\/a> says, ribbing her longtime friend Jesse Eisenberg<\/a> for watching her directorial debut, \u201cThe Chronology of Water,\u201d on his laptop. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe \u201cTwilight\u201d star, who earned an Oscar nomination for portraying Princess Diana in \u201cSpencer,\u201d vowed to quit acting until she could adapt Lidia Yuknavitch\u2019s 2011 stream-of-conscious memoir about a young woman (played by Imogen Poots), sexually abused as a child, who eventually finds her voice through writing and swimming. Stewart didn\u2019t labor for nearly a decade to secure the film\u2019s financing only for someone to see her passion project on a computer screen. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s supposed to be a sonic experience,\u201d she sighs and keeps roasting Eisenberg. \u201cYou know about movies? Have you ever made a movie?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStewart and Eisenberg met on 2009\u2019s coming-of-age comedy \u201cAdventureland\u201d and reunited on 2015\u2019s stoner adventure \u201cAmerican Ultra\u201d and Woody Allen\u2019s 2016 romantic drama \u201cCafe Society.\u201d Since then, Eisenberg has directed two films, 2022\u2019s dramedy \u201cWhen You Finish Saving the World\u201d and 2024\u2019s Oscar-nominated \u201cA Real Pain.\u201d So yeah, he knows something about making movies, as well as a director\u2019s desire for audiences to see them on the big screen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m aware of that and was taking all of that into account,\u201d Eisenberg wryly retorts before complimenting his pal. \u201cI was astounded. I\u2019ve never seen something made like this by someone I know who is also funny.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStewart and Eisenberg continue to tease each other during their conversation, in which they discuss how directing has changed their perspective as actors and whether they care if their films make money. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tJesse Eisenberg: Are you OK?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tKristen Stewart: That should be the intro: \u201cAre you OK?\u201d I\u2019m not kidding. That\u2019s often how we greet each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: We\u2019ve known each other for a long time \u2014 15 years, right?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStewart: I was 17 when we met. I\u2019m 35.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: Oh my God, really? I saw your movie 24 hours ago. I was blown away. My first thought was \u201cWe can do that? I didn\u2019t know we could do that.\u201d It\u2019s unbelievably audacious. You read this book, but how did you convey it to other people? (I know these are junket questions.) What does the script look like? \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStewart: You and I are fairly shy people, but there\u2019s an innate, stifling invisibility that women have to grapple with, even if they weren\u2019t abused by their father. I didn\u2019t want to make statements, like, \u201cThis is what the movie\u2019s about.\u201d There was just something about the book that spoke to the universality of being a young girl trying to excavate a voice that\u2019s been told to shut up. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: You and I have the advantage of being known actors. It allows, or maybe gives, us the responsibility to make something that\u2019s harder to convey. Is that part of the reason you were able to do something so abstract? The result is astounding, but that\u2019s not guaranteed. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBenedict Evans for Variety<\/p>\n

\n\tStewart: It wasn\u2019t easy for me to make the movie. It took eight years. People that love me were genuinely sick and tired of hearing me be so upset about it. And then those things are baked into the plot of the movie. It\u2019s about the malleability of our realities. I had to continuously remind people that we were doing a poem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: What I was asking before, if I can ask it better, is \u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStewart: I can answer it better.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: This is my question: Did you feel a responsibility to make something unusual because you\u2019re a well-known actor, or is this just entirely your taste?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStewart: This is entirely my taste. I could never make something straightforward. I like associative, open-ended things that say something very particular but invite people to disagree. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: How did your taste develop?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStewart: I don\u2019t like being told what to do. I don\u2019t want to tell people what to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: I read something you said, which I thought was funny and reminded me of myself. Somebody asked you, \u201cDo you think of being an actor in a movie differently now?\u201d You\u2019re like, \u201cOf course. I\u2019ll go to the director and say, \u2018I\u2019ll do whatever you want me to do.\u2019\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStewart: I\u2019ll never question anything again. I\u2019m like, \u201cAnything you want.\u201d The idea of being like, \u201cYou should cast this person.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cExcuse me? You don\u2019t know anything.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: Isn\u2019t that fascinating? A lot of people in our position go the other way. They feel even more like they need control because they have an experience where they were controlling everything. The story I always tell about you \u2014 because I\u2019ve been asked about you for 18 years \u2014 is when we were doing \u201cAdventureland,\u201d there was a dramatic scene at night, and you were like, \u201cCut. I\u2019m lying.\u201d You were 17, and I was shocked. I felt like I was watching a master. Would you have done that now?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStewart: I get mad at people now for cutting, because I\u2019m like, \u201cI know you questioned yourself, but that moment of question was gold.\u201d I want to try and not do that. [As an actor] I don\u2019t want to be misinterpreted. When a director is like, \u201cIt seemed like you were feeling it.\u201d I always say, \u201cI don\u2019t care if it looks good; I want to do it again.\u201d I\u2019m selfish. I want to taste it. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBenedict Evans for Variety<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: \u201cI want the catharsis.\u201d One of the other stories I tell from \u201cAdventureland\u201d was a quick scene. I had my first panic attack on set; I was self-aware in the worst way, and I shut down. After the tape, I was mortified. Greg [Mottola, the director] goes, \u201cI didn\u2019t notice, but I\u2019m so sorry you felt that way.\u201d He said, \u201cI don\u2019t understand how actors aren\u2019t having panic attacks all the time. You\u2019re in front of strangers, and you have to be vulnerable.\u201d For years, I remember thinking, \u201cIt\u2019s a sweet thing he said, but he\u2019s pitying actors too much. We\u2019re lucky. We have an easy job. We memorize lines.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tNow I have respect for the job in a way I never did personally. Because I was so self-critical, I couldn\u2019t have a good feeling about it. It seemed like, \u201cYou\u2019re overpaying me.\u201d Then Julianne Moore was in my movie, and after her first scene, I turned to my producer and was like, \u201cCan we pay her more?\u201d Did you have that feeling with Imogen? I\u2019ve done three movies with her. But not in the same way I\u2019ve done three movies with you. How did you choose her? \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStewart: You\u2019re one of the reasons. I was like, \u201cI\u2019m sure we would be close because you guys are friends.\u201d She did an audition. She sent a tape and I was like, \u201cOh my God.\u201d There\u2019s something\u00a0 about her being 35 and me being 35. We should have been friends since we were younger. We just never met. Then we did, and it was the perfect time to go, \u201cWe need to shove everything we\u2019ve never said to each other into this movie.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: Do you feel you could have this style and use it going forward?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStewart: I\u2019m always asked if I would continue to work as an actor in studio films, or if feels like you\u2019re selling a homogenized idea that doesn\u2019t land on an individual, necessarily, but satisfies a group? I wouldn\u2019t be good at that job. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg What do you mean? To direct a more commercial thing?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStewart: More and more, commercial means standard and digestible. I want to be allowed to make movies that allow for time to figure out a structure and mission statement. The next movie I want to make utilizes different formats. Not because it\u2019s nerdy film stuff, but because it\u2019s more interesting to make movies about how you see something instead of what you see.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: Your movie is coming out soon. Do you think or care about it making money? \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStewart: It would be great if it did because then maybe it wouldn\u2019t be as difficult to make my next movie. But at the same time, the next movie I want to make functions outside of the business structure we\u2019re used to. People love to hear that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: \u201cThis doesn\u2019t even exist in your structure.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStewart: Well, it doesn\u2019t. You need to find new terms for all of this because, I\u2019m sorry, but the language and structure are oppressive. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: There\u2019s no English on this set. It doesn\u2019t apply to what we\u2019re doing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStewart: Actually, the title of the movie is in Spanish. I\u2019m not going to tell you what it is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: I wouldn\u2019t understand it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStewart: Yeah, you\u2019re just a dummy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: So you care insofar as it helps you make the next one. You care insofar as it pays the people back who paid for it. But you\u2019re not caring about what other people might think about it? People ask me too. I guess I don\u2019t care about it being a successful business thing. My mind doesn\u2019t go there, or I can\u2019t conceive of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStewart: For sure. I love the movie. I birthed it. I probably would have made this movie if I was never an actor. I didn\u2019t feel like I was graduating into like, \u201cNow I want to check that box.\u201d I think this thing needs to exist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: We\u2019re directing everything, but we\u2019re also desperate actors. So all I\u2019ll say is this: I can learn Spanish for your next project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStewart: You need to put yourself on tape.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI swear to God. I\u2019m going to kill myself,\u201d Kristen Stewart says, ribbing her longtime friend Jesse Eisenberg…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,166497,75,80945,57558],"class_list":{"0":"post-393319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-directors-on-directors","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-jesse-eisenberg","14":"tag-kristen-stewart"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393319","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=393319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}