Actresses are “treated like shit,” and it wasn’t until she was recognized as a filmmaker that people began “talking to me like I’m somebody with a brain,” Kristen Stewart said in an interview with The Times of London on her feature film debut, “The Chronology of Water.”
“Actresses get treated like shit, I’ve got to tell you,” she said. “People think anyone could be an actress, but the first time I sat down to talk about my movie as a director, I thought, wow, this is a different experience; they are talking to me like I’m somebody with a brain.”
She continued, “There’s this idea that directors have otherworldly abilities, which is not true. It’s an idea perpetuated by men. Not to sound like I’m complaining all the time, but it’s worse for female actors than male ones — they get treated like puppets, but they are not. Imogen [Poots] put her whole body and soul into this movie.”
While establishing an influence in the contemporary scene and appearing in movies like “Seberg,” “Underwater,” “Spencer,” and “Love Lies Bleeding,” Stewart reportedly got her footing as the lead in the “Twilight” saga. With the release of “The Chronology of Water,” which debuted at Cannes 2025 and opened in theaters on January 9, Stewart made the transition to filmmaking.
