Kristens intervju med Huffington Post
Kristen Stewart was not a global superstar when "Motorcycle Diaries" director Walter Salles cast her in his long-gestating adaptation of "On the Road." It was 2007 and she had just appeared in "Into the Wild," playing a trailer-park siren who almost but doesn't quite tame Emile Hirsch's wanderlust. It would be another year before she become known to millions of fans around the world as Bella Swan from "Twilight."
It would have been easy -- and maybe even prudent -- for Stewart to back out on Salles as her star inexorably rose, but she stayed on board and delivered a performance that is all the more powerful because it comes from a woman with so much to lose. Yes, Kristen takes off her clothes -- she talks about that below -- but that's not the half of it: her character, Marylou, the teenage bride of Beatnik hero Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund), may exist as a mere plot device in the testosterone-fueled novel, but at the hands of Salles and Stewart she becomes a symbol of unapologetic feminine self-gratification. As I wrote after seeing "On the Road" at the Toronto International Film Festival, "Stewart's Marylou is pure Id: she steals what she needs and she screws who she wants, when she wants." The point is not that she's admirable; it's that she comes alive, fully and indelibly, which is the only job an actor has.
The creative team behind the film wants the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize Stewart for her role by nominating her for an Oscar for best supporting actress, and although she doesn't appear on any of the short lists I've seen, I think she's earned a place in the conversation. "On the Road" has its slow and meandering moments, but it roars to life when Stewart appears on screen -- and if you don't believe me, take a look at these fan-produced animated gifs and tell me you're not at least intrigued. Stewart and I spoke on the phone for about 20 minutes on Saturday/
Michael Hogan: I remember reading On the Road as a teenager, and the women didn't register for me so much as characters. So I wonder, as a teenage girl reading it, how the women seemed to you when you first read the book?
Kristen Stewart: Yeah, it's funny, they didn't really register with me, either. People do love to say that this is a boy book and that the female characters tend to be treated as play things and are peripheral. When you read the book, they tend to seem as though they're almost like a tool for Kerouac to show that life's crazy, that things are wild and sexy. That's why, playing the part, we were privy to information that made this thing so different. I think getting to know the women behind the characters and getting to know Jack's relationships with them and Neal's relationships with them, it made it easier to play the character.
It would have been easy -- and maybe even prudent -- for Stewart to back out on Salles as her star inexorably rose, but she stayed on board and delivered a performance that is all the more powerful because it comes from a woman with so much to lose. Yes, Kristen takes off her clothes -- she talks about that below -- but that's not the half of it: her character, Marylou, the teenage bride of Beatnik hero Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund), may exist as a mere plot device in the testosterone-fueled novel, but at the hands of Salles and Stewart she becomes a symbol of unapologetic feminine self-gratification. As I wrote after seeing "On the Road" at the Toronto International Film Festival, "Stewart's Marylou is pure Id: she steals what she needs and she screws who she wants, when she wants." The point is not that she's admirable; it's that she comes alive, fully and indelibly, which is the only job an actor has.
The creative team behind the film wants the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize Stewart for her role by nominating her for an Oscar for best supporting actress, and although she doesn't appear on any of the short lists I've seen, I think she's earned a place in the conversation. "On the Road" has its slow and meandering moments, but it roars to life when Stewart appears on screen -- and if you don't believe me, take a look at these fan-produced animated gifs and tell me you're not at least intrigued. Stewart and I spoke on the phone for about 20 minutes on Saturday/
Michael Hogan: I remember reading On the Road as a teenager, and the women didn't register for me so much as characters. So I wonder, as a teenage girl reading it, how the women seemed to you when you first read the book?
Kristen Stewart: Yeah, it's funny, they didn't really register with me, either. People do love to say that this is a boy book and that the female characters tend to be treated as play things and are peripheral. When you read the book, they tend to seem as though they're almost like a tool for Kerouac to show that life's crazy, that things are wild and sexy. That's why, playing the part, we were privy to information that made this thing so different. I think getting to know the women behind the characters and getting to know Jack's relationships with them and Neal's relationships with them, it made it easier to play the character.
/Erica
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