At the Academy and Chanel’s Women’s Luncheon in Los Angeles this week, Twilight actress Kristen Stewart made sure everyone in the room heard her loud and clear. The 34-year-old actress, who’s about to release her directorial debut The Chronology of Water next month, took the stage to express her disappointment with Hollywood.
“In a post-MeToo moment, it seemed possible that stories made by and for women were finally getting their due,” she said. “That we might be allowed or even encouraged to express ourselves and our shared experiences, all of our experiences without filter.”
Then Stewart called out the industry for backpedaling on its promises to uplift female voices, especially when it comes to stories that don’t fit neatly into Hollywood’s comfort zone. “Too dark, too taboo,” she said, describing the kinds of stories that still get dismissed.
The mood lightened briefly when Stewart admitted, “I am in a severe state of PMS today… But I relish being able to say that my nerves are close to the surface of my skin, and it is a great day for that.” The crowd laughed and applauded, but her honesty wasn’t just for laughs.
She didn’t sugarcoat her anger. “We can discuss wage gaps and taxes on tampons and measure [inequality] in lots of quantifiable ways, but the violence of silencing—it’s like we’re not even supposed to be angry. But I can eat this podium with a fork and f***ing knife. I’m so angry.”
Stewart wanted accountability. “There are too few of us,” she said. “We’re all here together now, and it seems like there’s a lot. Jesus Christ, there’s not. It’s not our fault. Sure, our business is in a state of emergency, man, and you know the last thing that I wanna do here is lose the celebration under a pile of pissed off rubble.”
Stewart knows the system’s broken, but she’s also urging people not to lose sight of progress. “We are allowed to be proud of ourselves and maybe to allow each other to reclaim the gratitude we’ve all become talented at performing and really taste it from the inside out.”
It’s no secret that Hollywood still struggles to give women directors a fair shot. Statistics from recent years show that only a small fraction of major studio films are directed by women, even after the supposed reckoning of the MeToo era. Kristen Stewart’s frustration is shared by many who thought the industry was ready to change for good.
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