Kristen Stewart threatens to quit acting

Kristen Stewart arrived at the Sundance Film Festival with two goals in mind. One: accept the Sundance Institute’s Visionary Award. Two: secure the funding for her directorial debut or die trying.

On the Sundance red carpet, Stewart told Variety about what it means to receive the award, especially as an actor.

“When I saw that I was being given the Visionary Award I was like, ‘What a word!’” Stewart said. “As an actor, you’re not often glorified for your vision. You fit into other people’s visions and service their efforts and their endeavors and the messages they want to get across.”

“Actors feel like little soldiers for other people’s causes,” she continued. “Coming to this festival and continuing that march … it’s the apex of where you want to get. If you make an indie movie in America and you get to go to Sundance, you’ve arrived. That’s the goal.”

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But Stewart also said that she’s done with acting for the time being. Instead, she’s focusing on a years-long dream of directing an adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir, The Chronology of Water. 

When asked on the red carpet if she’d gotten funding for the film yet, Stewart replied, “That’s why we’re here! … I wish I had more to say on that. I’m going to make that f*cking movie!”

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Stewart was doubling down on a statement she made in a different Variety interview earlier this month: until she can get Chronology of Water made, she won’t be acting in any other films. Period.

“I’m going to make this movie before I ever work for someone else,” she said. “Yeah, I will quit the f*cking business. I won’t make a-f*cking-nother movie until I make this movie. I will tell you that, for sure. I think that will get things going.”

Before her threatened hiatus, Stewart will appear in three movies she’s already filmed: sapphic thriller Love Lies Bleeding, sci-fi romance Love Me, and road trip comedy Sacramento. After that, though, Stewart swears it’s Chronology or bust.

“I’ve never made a movie before, and so I lack experience — and therefore, I lack credibility,” Stewart said, explaining why she’s struggled to get the movie made. “They’re like, ‘I don’t know if she’s right.’ I’m like, ‘Well, I am! I’ve done this forever.’”

She is, however, making progress on the movie, Stewart said. For the first time, she’s not being told no at every turn. With any luck, we’ll see The Chronology of Water in theaters sooner than later.

“I just scouted this movie, and I saw places, and people, and faces, and locations that opened themselves up to me and didn’t have big ‘no’s on them, and I was just bawling the entire time,” Stewart said. “I can’t wait to go to f*cking Sundance. I can’t wait to make my movie.”