Kristen Stewart, the star of Charlie’s Angels, recently said that Hollywood does the bare minimum to support female filmmakers, except for a small handful.
Stewart, who will make her directorial debut by adapting the novel The Chronology of Water, told Porter magazine there is a “phony” performative way the industry pretends to elevate women directors without doing enough.
“They think we can check these little boxes, and then get rid of the patriarchy,” Stewart said. “It’s easy for them to say ‘Look, we’re making Maggie Gyllenhaal’s movie! Margot Robbie’s movie!’ And you’re like, OK, cool. You’ve chosen four.”
Stewart said she admires those few women directors, but “it feels phony. If we’re congratulating ourselves for broadening perspective, when we haven’t really done enough, then we stop broadening.”
The actress compared today’s gender discrimination to the past, calling it more “passive aggressive” now instead of overtly discriminatory.
Stewart opened up about struggles getting funding for her directorial debut, calling it a “self-conscious thing” because non-mainstream films are hard to get made.
“My movie is about incest and periods and a woman violently repossessing her voice and body, and it is, at times, hard to watch…but it’s gonna be a fucking thrill ride,” she said.
However, Stewart believes her film has commercial appeal, saying “I think people would want to see that, but then…I think maybe people wanna watch movies about, like, Jesus and dogs.”