Kristen Stewart opens up about what pushed her behind the camera

Kristen Stewart has spoken candidly about what pushed her to step behind the camera, saying years of being dismissed and underestimated in Hollywood reshaped how she wanted to work in film.

Ahead of her directorial debut The Chronology of Water, the 35-year-old actor said she feels taken far more seriously as a director than she ever did as an actress, describing a stark difference in how she is treated within the industry.

“Actresses get treated like s**t,” Stewart told The Sunday Times in an interview published on January 24. “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.’”

Stewart said the reverence often afforded to directors, particularly male directors, exposes a deeper imbalance in Hollywood.

“There’s this idea that directors have otherworldly abilities, which is not true,” she said. “It’s an idea perpetuated by men. It’s worse for female actors than male ones. They get treated like puppets, but they are not.”

The Twilight star also criticised how so-called Method acting is discussed in the industry, arguing that it is often used to elevate male performances while diminishing women’s work.

“There are no female Method actors because Method acting is an acrobatic performance to make acting seem like a feat that it is not,” she said. “Acting is just playing pretend. You don’t have to do 50 press-ups before a take.”

Stewart said age and experience have changed how she responds to dismissive attitudes. Recalling a conversation with a male industry figure, she said she was struck by how casually derogatory comments about actresses were expressed.

“He said he had never met an actress that wasn’t crazy,” she said. “A couple of years ago, a comment like that would have made me turn red in the face. Instead, I just continued and got to the end of my thought. Getting older is great because you can achieve a calm.”

Now firmly in the director’s chair, Stewart is preparing to release The Chronology of Water, adapted from Lidia Yuknavitch’s 2011 memoir. The film stars Imogen Poots, Michael Epp, Thora Birch and Earl Cave, and explores themes of trauma, bodily autonomy and female expression.

“If I was a man, I wouldn’t have made this movie,” Stewart said. “We have to deny our physicality every single day. There is so much, like birth, that is painful and also quite beautiful, but we don’t share it because it’s uncomfortable.”

She added that women’s experiences have long been marginalised in cinema.

“We’ve been pushed out of the canon in terms of expression,” she said. “I wanted to speak to a world designed to silence women. We have to push people out of the way to get our experience seen, and that p*sses people off.”

For Stewart, moving behind the camera is not about leaving acting entirely, but about reclaiming authority, authorship and creative voice in an industry she says has rarely offered women full respect.