Kristen Talks Ghosts, Technology, & Nudity During The “Personal Shopper” Cannes Press Conference -May 17th
Olivier Assayas‘ “Personal Shopper” starring an excellent Kristen Stewart had the dubious honor at this year’s Cannes to be first from the Competition to solicit loud boos and jeers after it screened last night for press . Assayas and his leading lady were on hand today at the film’s press conference and jovially answered questions about the boos and the film’s inspirations.
While the director had some very interesting thoughts, the highlight was listening to Stewart describe her acting process, the film, working with Assayas (with whom she’s collaborated with on “Clouds of Sils Maria,” in a role that won her the Cesar for Best Actress) and whether she believes in ghosts.
With hair dyed blonde as if to match her shimmering golden Cannes dress (not unlike one of the haute couture pieces her Maureen wears in the film), Stewart consistently broke her anywhere-but-here expressions with laughter and jokes; politely smiling and nodding at even the most ridiculous questions (“What’s better, Kristen? Vampires or ghosts?”).
On her character, Maureen:
“There’s a lot of self-hatred and conflicted desires that go along with her attraction to the fashion industry and shiny things, to be on the other side of that and feel so incapable. Maureen is socapable, she’s incredibly tactile and incredibly physical. It was fun to play someone who was just—”
“There’s a lot of self-hatred and conflicted desires that go along with her attraction to the fashion industry and shiny things, to be on the other side of that and feel so incapable. Maureen is socapable, she’s incredibly tactile and incredibly physical. It was fun to play someone who was just—”
At this point she broke off, turned to Assayas and asked, “What’s the word I’m looking for, dude?” A great moment that showed how comfortable the two are with each other, before the director answered, “Capable.”
On mobile phones and technology:
“It’s weird that you can engage with something that doesn’t exist. How you can project everything on a simple bit of punctuation, read into the fact that they wrote three dots and not one, and ‘there was a space between this one and that one!’ I’m absolutely guilty of constant stimuli that’s not actually stimulating at all. It’s just trippy,” Stewart said.
“It’s weird that you can engage with something that doesn’t exist. How you can project everything on a simple bit of punctuation, read into the fact that they wrote three dots and not one, and ‘there was a space between this one and that one!’ I’m absolutely guilty of constant stimuli that’s not actually stimulating at all. It’s just trippy,” Stewart said.
“Within the context of the movie, my character is utterly alone, can’t speak, like, literally (makes a choking/stuttering sound). The fact that she can sit behind this phone, and feel closer to being alive or something, it definitely says a lot how we interact with each other and technology. It’s a little terrifying,” she continued. “It’d be a lot easier for me to sit down and write you an email about what I’m talking about right now. But, it’s nice to engage too, which the movie definitely touches on.”
On believing in ghosts and something on the Other Side:
“Without any religious implication, I’m fairly agnostic on this. I genuinely don’t know, but I’m genuinely sensitive to energies. I truly believe that I’m driven by something that I can’t really define, I can’t necessarily take responsibility for it, which gives me a feeling that we’re not so alone,” she said. “To fall into the ambiguity of that provides a thought process that’s interesting for about five minutes but if you over-think it, it actually becomes debilitating and that’s why this movie is scary.”
“Without any religious implication, I’m fairly agnostic on this. I genuinely don’t know, but I’m genuinely sensitive to energies. I truly believe that I’m driven by something that I can’t really define, I can’t necessarily take responsibility for it, which gives me a feeling that we’re not so alone,” she said. “To fall into the ambiguity of that provides a thought process that’s interesting for about five minutes but if you over-think it, it actually becomes debilitating and that’s why this movie is scary.”
“But, do I believe in ghosts? I dunno, I guess, I believe in something. It’s not a very finite answer. And yeah, that’s the film,” she added.
Coincidentally, that response is a great way to describe the film’s perverse ambiguity.
On working with Olivier Assayas:
“He never answers my questions but there’s a communication that is undeniable. There’s a flame that he lights under my ass that is stronger than I have ever felt. I try to navigate my career by feel and I just feel him,” Stewart enthused. “The idea that he can be a catalyst of a thought process and really allow me to have it, really let it be mine. You feel like you’re creating something with someone and not just satisfying someone.”
“He never answers my questions but there’s a communication that is undeniable. There’s a flame that he lights under my ass that is stronger than I have ever felt. I try to navigate my career by feel and I just feel him,” Stewart enthused. “The idea that he can be a catalyst of a thought process and really allow me to have it, really let it be mine. You feel like you’re creating something with someone and not just satisfying someone.”
On being naked in the film:
“The only way to really show somebody who couldn’t connect the dots was to show extreme versions of a person that wouldn’t typically go together. It’s a movie about finding yourself, it’s an enormous identity crisis movie. I leaned into that, I wanted to be the most thoughtless, present, naked version of myself that I could possibly be,” she explained.
“The only way to really show somebody who couldn’t connect the dots was to show extreme versions of a person that wouldn’t typically go together. It’s a movie about finding yourself, it’s an enormous identity crisis movie. I leaned into that, I wanted to be the most thoughtless, present, naked version of myself that I could possibly be,” she explained.
Olivier Assayas on the boos:
“Movies have a life of their own. What is exciting about Cannes it’s that yesterday no one saw the film, but today it’s like the whole world saw it. It’s a very intense, very powerful moment. It’s like giving birth. People have expectations, and if it turn into something else, there’s this adaptation between film and reality, and in Cannes it’s the extreme version. When you come to Cannes you are prepared for anything. You just go with the flow.”
“Movies have a life of their own. What is exciting about Cannes it’s that yesterday no one saw the film, but today it’s like the whole world saw it. It’s a very intense, very powerful moment. It’s like giving birth. People have expectations, and if it turn into something else, there’s this adaptation between film and reality, and in Cannes it’s the extreme version. When you come to Cannes you are prepared for anything. You just go with the flow.”
“Imagine getting booed while giving birth?” the film’s co-star Lars Eidenger quipped, earning one of the biggest laughs of the presser.
Assasays on what inspired and influenced his film:
“When I am approaching the subject as a writer, I try to forget about movies. I was making a film about how to communicate with some kind of netherworld, so I went back to a very specific period in the 19th century, when people discovered photography, X-rays, and morse code. All of a sudden things that were unthinkable, were thinkable,” the director said. “Communicating with the dead was thought to be impossible, but it was as weird, as shocking, as transformative as any of those inventions. There was a short period of time in the mid-19th century, where it was something that was real and tangible. That was the inspiration for the images.”
“When I am approaching the subject as a writer, I try to forget about movies. I was making a film about how to communicate with some kind of netherworld, so I went back to a very specific period in the 19th century, when people discovered photography, X-rays, and morse code. All of a sudden things that were unthinkable, were thinkable,” the director said. “Communicating with the dead was thought to be impossible, but it was as weird, as shocking, as transformative as any of those inventions. There was a short period of time in the mid-19th century, where it was something that was real and tangible. That was the inspiration for the images.”
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