Kristen Talks About What Drew Her To “Certain Women” -January 24

“She has the patience and the interest in things that people don’t normally look at,” says Stewart of director Kelly Reichardt during the Sundance premiere.

Director Kelly Reichardt’s latest movie, Certain Women, had its Sundance premiere Sunday night, and while two of its leading actresses — Laura Dern and Michelle Williams — were unable to attend the festival, the third, Kristen Stewart, took the stage along with Reichardt and several members of the cast to speak about the film after its premiere.

Certain Women, based on short stories by Maile Meloy, follows three women’s stories in a small town in Montana. Stewart plays a new lawyer who has gotten stuck teaching a night class that requires her to drive four hours each direction. There, she meets a young rancher (Lily Gladstone), who is also looking for meaning in her life.

“I’m a Reichardt fan,” said Stewart. “I think particularly for our story, Kelly is somehow fixated on things that most people miss. She’s really good at highlighting the unspoken and the invisible.”

Stewart said the interactions — and mostly lack of real interaction — between her character and Gladstone’s was of special interest to her. “There’s little conversations that are completely separate — you think you’re having an exchange with someone … but sometimes you’re just so alone. I thought it was so perfect and sad, sad sad.”

Reichardt said she first stumbled upon Maile Meloy’s short stories in a Portland bookstore.

“I knew right away that I wanted to make a film of her stories,” she said. “They were right up my alley — landscapes, people in landscapes, a lot of chores — all my favorite things.”

She spent a year trying out different stories to see which would work well together. Then, once the script was done, she said the focus became on the script and shooting in Montana. “Once I got my feet on the ground, I didn’t look back to the stories,” she said.

“Her movies are super thoughtful in their approach, and slow and steady,” added Stewart of Reichardt’s pacing. “The fact that she has the patience and the interest in things that people don’t normally look at is what paces her movies. It’s the comfortability of watching nothing — because there’s always something in there.”

She added: “She’s really letting people live — it’s rare.”

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“It’s a really, really unique thing actually to have [a director with] any bit of comfort sitting and watching [instead of trying to] package up and deliver you this specific notion,” Stewart said. “It doesn’t happen. Her movies are so composed. . . .she is super thoughtful in her approach. It is slow and steady, and the fact that she has the patience and the interest in things that people don’t normally look at is what paces her movies—the comfort of watching nothing because there is always something in there.”

Stewart has previously talked about how she picks projects, saying, “I’m genuinely very much blown with the wind, I follow the gut.” She also explained how she is isn’t concerned about the direction of her career as much as she is collecting experiences that inspire her.

“I’m fully willing to hop on something if I’m interested in one person who’s involved in it, or one line that my character says that I’ve always been dying to say,”Stewart said last year. And even if signing onto a project for one alluring aspect leads to a critical bust, Stewart is unconcerned. “It’s like, I will make a bad movie,” she said, adding that she is completely fine with that inevitability. “I’m like, whatever. . .I didn’t make [the movie] myself!”

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