Q: Kristen, how big a leap does On The Road represent for you?
STEWART: I loved being part of the film and having had the chance to
throw myself into my character. I thought of MaryLou as this fun-loving,
adventurous woman who is enjoying this time in her life and just being
herself. It was so beautiful for me to be able to express her wildness
and try to capture that free-spirited side of her.
Q: You seem so natural in the role?
STEWART: Thank you. I don’t know any other way to play a part but to
try to live my character and want to feel every emotion that my
character experiences. I’ve grown up and spent most of my life playing
characters that are specific instances in my own life. There’s this
strange interplay between me and the movies I make that I can’t really
explain but it’s something that drives me.
Q: So it goes beyond acting in some way?
STEWART: I think acting is about feeling the emotions of your
character. To be able to play somebody else, to capture their essence,
you need to become that person and get carried away in their world. I
love the feeling that I have when I’m on the set, doing a scene, and
throwing myself into the emotions and energy of my character. With
MaryLou, I don’t know any other way I could have managed to portray her
without losing myself in those kinds of emotions.
Q: Your portrait of MaryLou in the film seems more vivid that how Jack Kerouac describes her in the novel…?
STEWART: I think it’s a lot to do with realizing who she was in
reality. There was this really great story that she‘d always tell when
she first read the book. And Jack Kerouac was so worried about all the
details, LuAnne was like, “I’m just happy to be in it!” I think that
says everything about her. I think we were privy to so much untapped
information about LuAnne that to ignore it….it somehow had to find its
way in. I mean, I think we stay very true to the scroll, but all of the
history, all of the truths of who she really was and why she did what
she did, we don’t know from reading the book. But because we knew (more
about her real life), I think it found its way in somehow.
Q: One of the most interesting scenes in the film comes when you and Gareth are dancing and getting all hot and sweaty…
STEWART: That was one of my favorite moments in the film. I think we
all love it when we can just let loose and have fun in that way and
feel so alive and uninhibited. That was one of those scenes where you
see how vivid and happy MaryLou could be and how being around her could
be intoxicating.
Q: You were already a huge fan of the book when Walter Salles
the director first approached you about the role several years ago?
STEWART: Yes. I didn’t really love reading until I had read On the
Road when I was 16. Now I read constantly and something about the
characters and the way they lived and their limits and priorities in
life. I wanted to keep up. They keep pushing each other. They love each
other so much and I want to find relationships like that in my own life
that are so challenging. I want to live vicariously through them and
learn from the music and the books they talk about and the artists they
discuss.
Q: Was it empowering or enriching in many ways to play MaryLou?
STEWART: When I was there doing the scenes it involved a major
transformation for me…MaryLou was so far and away a different
personality from mine. I’m a follower and she was running ahead of
everyone and to play her I had to lose all inhibition. I’m always
fascinated by a character like her who is so self-aware and so
unselfconscious at the same time and therefore so unlike me in real
life! (Laughs) So it was great for me to be able to let it all hang out
like her. When I was there I felt so comfortable on the set. Walter
(Salles) makes you feel that you can do no wrong. He’s led you to this
place where you can be very creative and free but you feel as if you’ve
arrived there on your own. There are so many aspects of On the Road that
you can learn from. It’s the spirit that you can learn so much from
following their journey and how they discover the world. This movie
really opened so many doors for me creatively.
Q: You’ve turned 22 last month. Did you celebrate in any special way?
STEWART: It was nothing big… It was kind of a relief not to have a
party or a milestone. I liked it because it was a non-event birthday
celebration. I went bowling with some friends. I’m a terrible bowler.
(Laughs)
Q: A lot of celebrities feel like they live in a bubble. Is that your perspective?
STEWART: I’ve had that feeling but lately I’m not as bothered by the
attention. I have a pretty easy life and I think I should be doing more
to get out in the world sometimes. That’s mainly why I love my work
because I get to experience how other people live and have to struggle
in life. My life is very boring by comparison and when I’m acting I feel
I’m learning more about the real world or at least different kinds of
people who have very intense experiences. I love living in those
different realities. It’s changed my life.
Q: Your parents are both involved in the film and TV business. What was that like for you while your were growing up?
STEWART: She works very close with the director, so I would get
special treatment when I would visit her on set. I knew about the
process (of filmmaking) before I ever made a movie. I was just
comfortable on a set. It is a very foreign place to be if you’re not
used to it.
Q: Did that make it inevitable that you would become an actress one day?
STEWART: I didn’t know for sure that I would be an actress. I was
always hanging around film sets and I wanted to be part of that world in
some way. But then I saw how directors worked with actors to create a
scene and I just knew I wanted to do that.
Q: How did you first get into acting?
STEWART: I sang in a school play and some agent happened to be
sitting in the audience because his own daughter was in the play. So he
called my parents about my coming in to audition.
My parents were nice enough to actually run it by me, I mean instead of
just, like, hanging up. They were, like, ‘Do you want to do this?’ They
were not very enthusiastic. They are realistic about the business. It is
not a normal thing to be successful at it.
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