Kristen Stewart talks her directorial debut, which explores sexuality and addiction

Kristen Stewart is in the process of directing her first film, and she is on a full on mission. 

Opening up at Cannes Film Festival about the project she got real about how passionate she feels about her latest project: “If I don’t make this movie before the end of the year, I’ll die,” she said in an interview with Indie Wire.

For the last few years, Kristen Stewart has been putting together her first directorial debut, which is an adaptation of author Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir The Chronology Of Water. The film will focus on a protagonist (Yuknavitch) coming to terms with bisexuality, addiction issues, as well as her involvement in a movement opposing Israeli oppression of Palestine.

The actress – who was nominated for an Oscar this year for playing Princess Diana in Pablo Larraín’s Spencer –  is reportedly looking to film this with a very small crew by the seaside in Oregon, USA, but is in the process of securing funding. She has, however, cast a lead – and it’s not going to be her.

“We just cast the lead role, which is monumentally relieving,” she revealed during an interview with Nicole Kidman for Variety. Stewart added to Kidman: “I think you would love it,” she said. “The writing is so physical and so fiercely, ragingly female.”

When describing her goals for The Chronology Of Water, the Twilight star is looking to create something that she would have wanted to star in during her early years, and we love the idea of putting forward a version of Hollywood that perhaps didn’t exist before. “It’s something I would have wanted to be cast in when I was younger,” she told Variety in a separate interview.

Helming this project has been a dream for Stewart for years, and we are buzzing to see her bring it to screens. Speaking at Cannes back in 2018, the actress talked passionately about Yuknavitch and how the novelist’s work had influenced her. 

“She’s in my blood,” Stewart said at the time, “and I knew that before I met her. As soon as I met her it was like we started this race without any sense of competition.”

Stewart came out as bisexual years ago, and is now engaged to screenwriter Dylan Meyer.

The actress added that she felt most strongly about writing “the best f*cking female role”. We are obsessed. “My only goal is just to finish the screenplay and hire a really spectacular actor: I’m going to write the best fucking female role,” she said. 

“I’m going to write a role that I want so badly but that I’m not going to play.”