Kristen Stewart seems to have quite taken a liking to the bureaucracy and capitalism in Hollywood. While promoting his new film Full Fill at the Cannes Film Festival, the 36-year-old actor sharply criticized the studio system and the way the American film industry operates. Stewart spoke openly about his growing frustration with how films are financed and produced in the United States, and argued that the current system often stifles creativity and artistic freedom.
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Speaking with Variety ahead of Full Fill’s midnight screening premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, Kristen opened up about her frustrations with an industry system that places immense capitalist pressure and commercial expectations on creators. The actor explained that these limitations have increasingly led him to collaborate with international filmmakers, where he feels there is often more room for creative freedom. Reflecting on his directorial debut, The Chronology of Water, Stewart also shared why he loves directing, while admitting that their artistic visions don’t always match up. Hollywood’s profit-driven approach to film production and strict distribution constraints.
Kristen Stewart on making “Stranger Things***” and putting them on YouTube
Reflecting on his directorial debut The Chronology of Water, which premiered exactly a year ago Kristen Stewart revealed at the Cannes Film Festival that she already has two more movies she’s committed to directing on her own terms. The actor shared that he hopes to complete one project by the end of this year, while the shooting of the other project is expected to be completed by next April. Stewart explained that his goal with these films is not focused on commercial success, but to create work for audiences who truly care about the art. While she stated that she would prefer her projects to be distributed by indie studios such as A24 or Neon, she admitted that she does not see herself making large-scale Hollywood blockbusters, believing that such projects would ultimately compromise her artistic freedom.
Talking about his directorial plans, the Twilight actor revealed, “My goal is to make something with my friends for nothing before the end of the year and put it on YouTube. And seriously, whatever money we make from that I’ll spend on my next one and it’ll have less of an impact. I don’t want to talk to these brothers anymore. And by the way, I’ll be lucky if whatever I work on will be distributed by people like A24 or Neon. By the way, who am I talking about? Like, these are my friends, I don’t want to do this… I like Hollywood, I like big movies. [but] I don’t think I’d be very good at making them. I wanna do weird shit. And I’m totally fine with doing it in a kind of raw, quirky way. But I don’t want to do that thing where I wait for five years for someone to give me $1 million to make something. I’m going to fuck it tomorrow. Because it’s also like, what the hell. I have been working for a long time – will I just sit here and keep collecting money again and again? No, that’s a ridiculous way to live your life.
“I’m very upset with the system”
Speaking about the challenges of making films in the United States, Kristen Stewart told Variety that the current system is not designed to allow artists to express themselves freely. He points out that filmmakers are constantly restricted by commercial and bureaucratic parameters that often stand in direct opposition to genuine creative freedom. Stewart further argued that it becomes almost impossible to create anything truly radical or unconventional under the scrutiny of officials and bureaucrats whose priorities and ideals do not align with what artists like him try to communicate through their work.
Kristen said, “I’m very fed up with the rules and also very fed up with the system. It’s not designed for artists to express themselves. We’re really subject to different priorities that don’t align with real dream-making. I don’t think it’s possible to create any kind of radical, critical work under capitalist parameters. In particular, most of the people in charge are a bunch of brothers who came up under a bunch of other brothers and those guys don’t really identify as such. The things I personally want to say, the people I associate with, need to be more work, more output, less fear and less bureaucracy to make more billionaires. We spend so much money, we love making money in a system that’s not built for us, honestly.