Kristen Stewart wows on the Cannes carpet of her directorial debut 'The Chronology of Water'

Actress-turned-director Kristen Stewart has had a vast and varied career in the more than 20 years she’s been in Hollywood. She burst onto the scene in films like Panic Room and playing Bella Swan in the Twilightfranchise, since she starred in big blockbusters like 2019’s Charlie’s Angels, and took the indie film world by storm with Clouds of Sils Maria and Crimes of the Future.

Now, the 35-year-old is stepping behind the camera to make her directorial debut with an adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s 2011 memoir The Chronology of Water. In a new in-depth interview with The Hollywood Reporter amid her first film premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, Stewart is opening up about how the Trump administration is changing the film industry, when her dream of being a director started, why she wanted to helm The Chronology of Water as he first outing in the director’s chair, and her belief that making mistakes is “fucking hot.”

Stewart has wanted to direct for years and even started asking other actors what’s “the youngest director they could stomach working with” but hadn't found a project that spoke to her until she came across The Chronology of Water. “For some reason, psychotically, I’ve wanted to do it forever, because I do think the exchange between an actor and a director is a bridge between two very different positions.”

She may have waiting until her mid thirties to direct her first film, but she’s been thinking about it since she was a kid. “I think I was, like, 9 years old, but then I figured out how to actually fucking do it. And now I’m 35.”

On discovering the book that made her want to make a movie: “It was one of those books that felt like a choir that you wanted to join. It felt like permission.”

Making The Chronology of Water was like pulling the cork out of a champagne bottle, and now Stewart wants to make more movies. “It also felt like it was breaking a seal because now there’s 10 more movies I want to make fucking yesterday,” she explained. Stewart took a risk and filmed her debut feature on 16mm, and Indie Wire has described her foray into directing as bristling "with the raw energy of an artist who’s found the permission she needed to put her whole being into every frame, messy and shattered as that might be."

Imogen Poots, who Stewart described as a “sister,” stars in the film and both women felt like it was an opportunity to “make a really good movie that’s important, that girls need to have and eat and metabolize.” Boots isn’t the only talented actress Stewart cast, Thora Birch, Kim Gordon, and Susannah Flood are all starring in the upcoming drama.

On Poots’ talent: “It’s not that she’s not enough — it’s that it’s never enough for her. I’m like, ‘Give this girl more!’ I have just loved her for so long, and I felt connected to her before I met her.” Poots is starring as Lidia Yuknavitch, the author of the memoir the film is based on, who becomes a teacher, a mother, and a modern writer.

Stewart opened up about being queer back in 2017 while on Saturday Night Live and has been living out and proud ever since. When asked about casting Earl Cave, Stewart said she thinks there have been big changes in Hollywood in recent years when it comes to who we see in front of the camera. “I do think there have been some tectonic shifts in terms of who’s allowed to take up space and be heard, but at the same time, I don’t know what the filters are,” she admitted.

Stewart revealed that while times are changing and it’s easier to be “out there” now, the country is also backsliding. “But at the same time, we’re also living in a world that’s literally folding in on itself by the split second. So, who the fuck knows?”

The current political climate is terrifying for most queer people and Stewart isn’t immune. “The loss is so palpable. It’s an exciting time to be alive. And it’s cool that we all get to be loud together, but at the same time, is that going to do anything? What’s gonna happen? I think we’re all looking over our shoulders going, 'Holy shit.' The slippage is just terrifying.”

Stewart has been making her feelings clear about President Donald Trump for years, even slamming him in her monologue on SNL when she came out. “I’m a little nervous to be hosting because I know the president’s probably watching, and, um, I don’t think he likes me that much,” she joked at the time. “The president is not a huge fan of me, which is so OK, because Donald, if you didn’t like me then, you’re really probably not going to like me now. I’m, like, so gay, dude.”

Stewart also worries about the way President Donald Trump’s tariffs will impact the film industry. “[Trump’s] shadow is bleak and very dark,” she explained. “You could almost say opaque. And I think to try and work through that is what we’re going to do. But in terms of knowing anything, I think we should expect the worst and fight for the best. Stay vigilant. Look alive.” But the newbie director clearly hasn't let the presidency impact her life choices. Earlier this year, she married Dylan Meyer roughly two years after the sapphic couple made their relationship public.

She said her “head blew off” when she found out she would be premiering her film at Cannes, and called the attempt to get in a “Hail Mary." Stewart continued, “I am not being false humble — we’re all running on fumes. I was like, ‘We can do it.’ I was like an absolute basket case. I’m kind of happy to take on something vulnerable. I’m happy to take something with mistakes. Mistakes are fucking hot."