People Talking about Kristen

Charles Gillibert

Olivier Assayas Talks About Kristen with LA Times

Franchise actors these days often will tackle the small and the quirky in an attempt to get us to see them differently, or just to shake things up.

Few have done that lately with the diligence of Kristen Stewart. As the “Twilight” series began to wind down several years ago, Stewart began using her leverage to try on all sorts of on-screen guises, including the teenage Marylou in Walter Salles' adaptation of “On the Road,” a tough-minded soldier in the military drama “Camp X-Ray” and, as of its Cannes premiere a few days ago, a personal assistant to a famous actress in “Sils Maria,” a drama about the performing life from the French polymath Olivier Assayas.

According to the director, at least, it is a role that will change radically the actress' public standing. “I think people will have a completely different notion of Kristen after this movie,” Assayas said in an interview. “They'll see all the places she can go."

Stewart actually was given the choice by Assayas to play Jo-Ann, in what would have been a sly, if somewhat gimmicky, riff on her own career. But she turned it down, a decision the director hails as one of several bold choices Stewart has made.

“To me it shows how brilliant Kristen is,” Assayas said. “It shows how she understands the need to eradicate any confusion between her public persona and the characters she plays.”

Assayas initially believed he would have a hard time persuading Stewart to star in the film. “I really thought she wouldn’t do it, that it would be too scary for her. (He also allowed her to have some fun with her off-screen fame, giving Val a line in which she wonders why so many modern movies must contain werewolves.)

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New 'Clouds of Sils Maria' Trailer + Olivier Assayas Talks about Kristen and Idol's Eye

THR How did Kristen join the project?

Kristen was it was a fairly long story because originally she couldn’t do it because of scheduling conflicts. She loved the screenplay but the timing wasn’t right so we moved on and had Mia Wasikowska, but then she had a contract with Disney for the Alice sequel and the minute the movie got moving she was not allowed to be in any other projects during that time period. By then Kristen’s schedule had cleared and so instantly we sent it back and she was able to do it. That’s the technical side of it but the more exciting and human part of it is that she’s amazing. I hope everybody will share my enthusiasm of what she did with the part, the freedom she found in her acting and a humor that we hadn’t seen much of just came out, I don’t know how or why. It’s really very exciting when you are filming a young actress and see her respond to your material and grow right before your eyes.

What was it like working with two very strong actresses on set?

It’s really a danger zone and in the end I was just amazed. Kristen was very much a fan of Juliette. She loves her work and she felt that she had something to learn from her, and I think Juliette loved that position of being able to pass on something to another actress. Juliette has invented a style and her own way of transforming into a character that is spontaneously part of her language. Kristen watched her a lot and learned a lot from her and used it. It was absolutely not competitive, it was something symbiotic.

Having said that, any ambitions to get out of France and shoot a big U.S. or someday make a Hollywood film?

Actually, well I can’t really discuss it much because it’s not locked or finalized, but my next film will be in the US. We are shooting in Chicago and it’s a genre movie based on a real story, called Idol’s Eye, the name of a famous diamond. If everything goes according to plan it should be shooting by late fall.

ICYMI: Rob is set to star in Olivier's upcoming project - Idol's Eye

AP CANNES, France — Olivier Assayas says moviegoers will see Kristen Stewart like they've never seen her before in his Cannes entry "Clouds of Sils Maria."

"It's really something that you have not seen her in," says Assayas. "She's warm, funny, witty."

The film, which debuts Friday at Cannes, stars Juliette Binoche as a popular actress who's shattered by the competition of a young rival (Chloe Grace Moretz). She and her assistant (played by Stewart) withdraw to Sils Maria, Switzerland. For both Assayas, the French director of the Carlos the Jackal miniseries "Carlos" and the family drama "Summer Hours," and Stewart, it's an atypical collaboration connecting European art house and Hollywood.

"Actors are actors," says Assayas. "They are more or less the same in any culture."

Stewart was first suggested by "Sils Maria" producer Charles Gillibert, who produced the Jack Kerouac adaptation "On the Road" — which brought Stewart to Cannes two years ago. The "Twilight" star was unavailable, so Assayas and producers then cast Mia Wasikowska. But Wasikowska had to drop out, at which point Stewart's schedule opened up.

"Kristen, whatever image one has of her, ultimately she's just a great actress by any standard," says Assayas. "I was just completely amazed by the range of Kristen. I'm so honored to be working with her at this moment when she's blossoming."

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Lea Michele Mentions Kristen

Around 10:45 - "I was just recently at the MET ball and Kristen Stewart was walking through the MET barefoot and I was like 'You are my- like I worship the ground that you walk on and you're awesome right now'"

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Olivier Assays Talks about 'Clouds of Sils Maria' and Kristen + Mentions New Project with Rob

From Les Inrockuptibles Magazine:

In Sils Maria, Olivier Assays organizes a few confrontations between two characters in particular: an internationally renowned actress and her young American assistant, both isolated, in the outback of Tyrol to prepare a play. But it is also a confrontation between two real actresses: Juliette Binoche in a mirror role that she interpreted in her early stages in ‘Rendez-Vous’ (1985), by André Téchiné (Written by Assayas), and Kristen Stewart, the star of Twilight (2008, etc…), reinvented here as an American student a little tomboy-ish with an incredible intellectual subtlety and comical nature. The director explains in detail some facets of this magnificent portrait of actresses, sensual, wily and kaleidoscopic. 

DANGER
“I wrote the movie thinking only of Juliette (Binoche). The film is constructed around her. Next to this character of a French actress with an international career, I imagined the character of an assistant and I instantly wanted for the role an Anglo-Saxon actress. The character had to have this pragmatism that Anglo-Saxon people possess, a woman of her time, to the point of having some some sort of toughness. And it was important to me for the dialogue to be in English. Because I wanted to go search into Juliette something different than what she can do in French. I was looking for an actress who could put her in danger and to shake her up.”

Nicolas Ghesquiere Talks about Kristen

Q: Kristen Stewart just said, you like swimming in rough waters, but Louis Vuitton seems more like a luxurious ocean..

NG: (laughs) Oh LV is an ocean! A beautiful ocean. I like Kristen so much, she is very special and so brave. We share the same attitude, we like taking risks and doing nice stuff at the same time

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Chloe Moretz Mentions Kristen & Clouds of Sils Maria (Sundance)

Any friends you have been looking forward to running into?

I was talking to Kristen [Stewart] because I want to see her film “Camp X-Ray”. I wanted to see her but she’s leaving today! I just did “Clouds of Sils Maria” with her that is coming out later this year. She literally came in, did press all day and now she’s out. It’s crazy.

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Author Anthony Breznican Talks about Adventureland & Interviewing Kristen

As a journalist, you’ve interviewed a lot of creative people. Is there anything an interview subject has said to you about the creative process that stuck with you while you were writing?

Strangely enough, I had a cool interview with Kristen Stewart a few years ago when she was in a movie called Adventureland. It’s one of my favorite coming-of-age films, set at an amusement park in the late 1980s, and Brutal Youth begins in 1991. She would have been a baby then, but we talked a lot about the differences between growing up these days, and the kind of self-surveillance that goes on, with every aspect of your life monitored or shared, and growing up back then, which is the last time kids could truly lead secret lives. We didn’t talk about my book, but that conversation made me realize I was writing about a bygone era. There’s something magical about that, like an animal that has gone extinct and now seems mythological.

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New Quote from Kristen in Allure Magazine + Jillian Dempsey Mentions Kristen

 

Q: How big was your biggest styling team?

But Kristen Stewart who gets "claustrophobic if I'm crammed into a bunch of people," would like prefer the size of Goldie Hawn's team. "Me," she said with pride.

Jillian: "One of my busiest days was the Oscars in 2010. I did Kate Winslet and Kristen Stewart. I ran late with Kate, so Kristen's time got cut short. I had to whip up a quick makeup look, deciding on smudgy navy eyeliner."

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Hairstylist Adir Abergel Talks about Kristen in Marie Claire

From March 2014 Issue:

Hairstylist Adir Abergel @hairbyadir

To find inspiration for Kristen Stewart's '70s-glam-meets-grunge hair, Los Angeles resident Abergel looked inward. "Kristen is one of those girls who enhances her beauty with her inner confidence. Her look is undone, but in a very self-assured way," observes Abergel, who has worked with the actress since her Twilight days.

Scans of Kristen on the cover of Marie Claire's March 2014 Issue Here

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Peter Sattler Talks about Kristen

Last spring filmmaker Peter Sattler drove to Kristen Stewart's Los Angeles home with a box of books and documentaries about Guantanamo Bay. A few days earlier she'd agreed to star as a U.S. soldier in "Camp X-Ray," named for a real War on Terror encampment, and Sattler wanted to share some of his research.

"I handed Kristen the box and she picked through it and said, 'I already have all these and, actually, I have some for you to look at,' " Sattler recalls. "From the very beginning, Kristen was really into this character. She had not made a movie in two years and, when I talked to her about that, Kristen said she needed to do something that matters, something that demands she make it."

(...)

Sattler shot "Camp X-Ray" in 21 days over the summer at an abandoned facility for delinquent boys in Whittier (Los Angeles County). Besides bearing considerable resemblance to the actual prison compound in Cuba, the location offered an additional benefit, Sattler explains.

"It's on 70 acres and all fenced off, so it was great for Kristen. She could walk around and focus on the work without having to worry about some paparazzi guy with a telephoto lens trying to take her picture."

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Nicholas Hoult Talks about Kristen and Equals

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Bill Hader Mentions Kristen

 Around 1:48: Talks about being at Sundance with Kristen when Twilight just came out

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'Camp X-Ray' Press Kit: Q&A with Director Peter Sattler

Q: In your own words can you describe what this film is about? 

At its most basic level, CAMP X-RAY is a story about two people trapped in a very strange place that manage to find a connection with each other.  But of course, it’s about a lot of other things too. It’s about a young woman who leaves her home for the first time. A woman who joins the army to find purpose, only to end up in a place where that purpose couldn’t be less pure. It’s about a man desperate to reach out beyond his world as well. To experience something outside the routine of his tiny cell.

Q: What was the inspiration for CAMP X-RAY?

It all started with the book cart. I saw some documentary footage of a guard and a detainee arguing about the different books on the library cart. Their exchange was so mundane, so idiosyncratic, so utterly ridiculous given the context of where they were. And in that exact moment, I could see an entire film. One hallway, two people, and the utterly absurd relationship that they are forced to have. And that’s what I was drawn to. I just wanted to put those two characters in a room and see what they said to each other, which is very much the way I started writing. Having no direction at all. Just dropping them in a test tube and seeing what words came out of their mouths. And the more banal their conversation, the more interested I was in it, because it was the absurdity of these moments that most perfectly captured my feelings on Guantanamo Bay. I very much wanted to paint our portrayal of this place in stark absurdist colors.

Q: Why did you decide to set the film at Guantanamo?

Guantanamo is a fascinating place to me, and it’s a place I knew very little about before I started researching it. So part of my attraction was to explore untrodden territory. To make a movie about something you haven’t seen before. But at its core, this movie isn’t really about Guantanamo as much as it is about the PEOPLE who are down there. It’s not a political film; it’s a deeply human one.

The setting of Gitmo really serves as the pressure cooker that amplifies and complicates a very personal relationship between two strangers who are forced to find a way to live together.

Ser’Darius Blain Talks about Kristen & Camp X-Ray

How would you describe the story of 'Camp X-Ray'?
It tells the story of a soldier who comes to a really rough prison and is taught how to stand up for what she believes is right at any cost. Along the way, she gains some friends and also makes a few enemies, but the story itself sheds light on everyone’s humanity and the notion that we as humans all need the same thing.

What was it like working with Kristen Stewart in the film?
Getting the chance to work with Kristen one on one was an amazing experience. She’s one of those people who really knows everything about her character. She’s always prepared, very down to Earth and the consummate professional. She’s so easy to work with.


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Lane Garrison Talks about Camp X-Ray & Kristen

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Lane Garrison says Camp X-Ray will premiere at Sundance on Jan. 17th!
Starts at 3:27


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Lane Garrison Talks about Kristen & Camp X-Ray

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Catherine Hardwicke Talks about Casting Kristen and Rob

 

You've said that Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson were perfect for their roles. What did you see in them that made you cast them?

I thought Kristen was just amazing in Into the Wild. When I read the novel Twilight, I kept picturing her in that scene, where she’s sitting in the trailer, hoping to seduce Emile Hirsch. Her yearning was palpable, real, and intense. I thought, "This girl would be wonderful." So Summit flew me out to Pittsburgh, where she was shooting Adventureland. We took an actor with us and improvised a lot of scenes. To find Edward was tricky, because how he was written, he was perfect, with these cheekbones, and he was also wise beyond his years. We whittled it down from hundreds of actors to four. I'd only talked to Rob on the phone when he was much younger. He flew out on his own dime and stayed on his agent's couch. The four actors came over to my house and we workshopped all the "chemistry" scenes. With Rob and Kristen, it was apparent that those two just connected and had a magnetism for each other that was electric, right there on the spot.

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Chloe Moretz Mentions Kristen

Chloë Grace Moretz revealed to E! News at the red carpet of her latest flick, Carrie, that she and Kristen Stewart are good pals.

"I love Kristen," she shared. "She's actually a friend of mine. She's absolutely the greatest girl."

Unlikely friends? Not entirely. The two actresses play lead roles in the upcoming flick Sils Maria, which is currently filming overseas.

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Sam Claflin Mentions Rob and Kristen in Elle UK

Next, Claflin starred opposite Kristen Stewart in Snow White and the Huntsman, playing William, Snow White's childhood friend. During filming, he got a bird's-eye view of the downside of fame: 'Kristen, bless her heart, is the most looked-at person of anyone I've worked with. She felt she had to hide herself away. I feel sorry for her, knowing how she and Rob [Pattinson] must've had to live.'

Speaking of Pattinson, how does Claflin feel about that comparison? The actor has enjoyed - or perhaps that should be endured - the heartthrob status that came with playing Edward Cullen in the Twilight films, and Claflin's turn as Finnick Odair looks set to propel him into the same orbit. Claflin is circumspect: 'He's a better actor! I don't know what to expect. I'm open to change but I don't want to sound to expectant.' 

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