Kristen Stewart was able to signal on to Quentin Dupieux’s “Full Phil” earlier than she even learn the script.
The Oscar-nominated actor and director had lengthy been a fan of the French filmmaker — identified for his absurd and surreal fashion — and was interested by his DIY strategy, usually taking pictures tasks shortly and on a microbudget.
“I love his movies. They just don’t look or feel like anyone else’s, and those are the types of directors that actors are so lucky to be able to follow,” Stewart tells Selection from an airport lounge within the Canary Islands — the place she’s at present taking pictures Panos Cosmatos’ vampire thriller “Flesh of the Gods” — earlier than heading to Cannes for the “Full Phil” premiere. “He holds the camera at all times. You are with him, connected completely. He knows how he’s going to edit it by the end of the day. If he’s missing a shot, he gets it. He’s beyond an auteur, he’s like a mastermind.”
Debuting within the Midnight Screenings part on Saturday evening, the hour-and-20-minute “Full Phil” follows an American father-daughter duo — performed by an on-form Woody Harrelson and Stewart — who make a journey to Paris in an try to reconnect. Their plans are shortly deterred by protests, a nosy resort worker, an obsession with a ’50s horror film and an limitless stream of French delicacies, with every impediment extra ridiculous than the subsequent.
“That’s the Quentin Dupieux special because he shoves a lot into that short period of time,” Stewart says. “His movies are kind of like sucker punches, but sweet ones.”
Under, Stewart speaks extra about lastly working with Harrelson, consuming an obscene quantity of meals whereas filming, her disdain for the U.S. studio system and extra.
You simply began filming “Flesh of the Gods,” a vampire thriller co-starring Wagner Moura. How’s it going?
We’re in week one, so we’re simply all palms on deck proper now. We’re similar to, fucking knee deep and having an unimaginable time. Panos is the shit. We’re similar to, misplaced in his psychedelic dreamscape.
Inform me about the way you first received concerned in “Full Phil” and what drew you to the challenge.
I heard [about Dupieux’s process] and I used to be similar to, “Oh my God, I’m dying to work with him.” And it’s form of new for me. His wheelhouse is grounded and tender, however positively surrealist and sometimes broad. Additionally I used to be like, completely in love with Woody and have been without end. As an actor, I simply admire him a lot and he’s such a pleasant man. It’s a very candy story, a father and daughter making an attempt to reconnect and doing all of the improper issues as a way to obtain that however in such an absurd and form of devastating, sardonic, fucked method. I used to be like, “Oh man, I really think that could be a great movie.” And I simply needed to work in Paris and I needed to satisfy that director. I’m fairly obsessive about him.
What was it like working with Harrelson and taking part in his daughter? Was this your first time assembly him?
We’ve been making an attempt to work collectively for years, and it simply by no means lined up. I had a reasonably out-of-the-blue dangle once I was a teen with him. We have been speaking about one other movie and he got here and took me to a vegan spot within the valley and we had a very nice time. Like, we simply turned associates even once I was form of a kiddo. Once I heard he was doing this film, I simply — generally you don’t have connections with individuals, generally you may’t fathom like, “Oh, I could be your kid” — however with him, it was such a straightforward match. And we drive one another form of loopy in actual [life], so it’s excellent. He jogs my memory of my dad in some methods. Typically I’m like, “OK, stop yelling at Woody” — I’ll notice I’m being like, “No! You don’t understand!”
Woody Harrelson and Kristen Stewart in “Full Phil.”
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You two are principally arguing all the movie. How a lot of that was within the script and the way did you identify that father-daughter banter?
All of it comes from Quentin. He has a younger daughter, and I feel he’s trying into the long run kind of petrified. I imply, he was gleefully encouraging me to be as bratty as I probably might as a result of I feel he was simply making an attempt to create his worst dream. Additionally, Woody’s character Phil, he’s actually simply received blinders on. And it’s so unhappy and endearing to see any individual so determined in reaching out for love, however doing it in all of the improper methods. He’s a complete fucking narcissist, however then on the similar time they nonetheless have this historical past that he desires to attract from. To have actual, clear conversations with your loved ones, particularly together with your mom and father, it’s simply robust. He wants to really see her as a human being that isn’t of him. That’s the factor, some narcissistic fathers — I don’t even imply this as disparaging, however it’s an epidemic actually — they love you in as far as they’ll form of declare you. It’s like their pleasure is said to the truth that they’ve created you. And also you’re like, no! I’m me! I’m not you.
You might be additionally continuous consuming meals all through the movie. Had been you really consuming and the way did you try this?
It was the toughest a part of all the job, as a result of we additionally by no means stopped speaking. I used to be working strains for weeks being like, “Oh cool, I can do this, this and this.” After which I used to be like, “I can’t get a word out of my fucking mouth, considering he wants me to never have it empty!” Logistically it was a battle additionally working with famend French cooks who actually didn’t perceive the filmmaking course of and needed it to style actually good. And I used to be like, “You guys are going to kill me! I need this to be like, cauliflower as fuck or I’ll die.” It’s actually an extremely grotesque and actually hilarious and really actual form of metaphor. I imply, we’re strolling across the streets of Paris consuming donuts and so they’re rioting and we’re like, “Where are we going for dinner?” So the meals actually mattered, and I walked uphill rather a lot and I simply ate rather a lot. There was no method round it. We solely did very lengthy takes, so there was no spit-bucketing. There have been no slicing factors. Each as soon as and some time, I’d be like, “I have to [stop].” The bites have been by no means sufficiently big. He would actually come over to me and make a sure kind of piggy face and I’d notice I wasn’t consuming sufficient and be like, “Oh God, OK, I’ll do more on this one.”
You’ve talked a bit earlier than about how troublesome it’s to make a movie within the U.S. now and your want to work extra internationally. How did your expertise on “Full Phil” underscore that feeling?
I’m simply so sick of the principles and I’m so sick of the system. It isn’t designed for artists to specific themselves. We’re simply actually underneath the thumb of various priorities that don’t align with actual dream-making. And I don’t imply to wax poetically as a result of I imply this so very actually, I simply don’t suppose that it’s potential to create kind of radical, very important work underneath capitalistic parameters. Particularly like, most people in cost are a bunch of bros which have come up underneath a bunch of different bros and people individuals don’t actually determine with the kind of issues that I personally need to say, that the individuals I align with need to say.
You realize, the three films that go to Cannes and do effectively, they get purchased by the studios that I considerably admire that do effectively at distributing them and successful fucking Oscars. And that’s cool. However it’s like, completely not sufficient. And what, are we going to love, wait to be chosen like a fucking golden ticket? Like, “I got the golden ticket! I can make one fucking movie!” We have to make extra work. There must be extra work, extra output, extra connection and fewer concern and fewer fucking paperwork and in addition much less making billionaires extra fucking billionaires. It’s driving me insane. We spend a lot cash, we similar to hemorrhage cash making stuff in a system that actually will not be designed for us. Like we will’t shoot in L.A., it’s completely not possible and it’s the place our fucking total enterprise was born. There’s no approach to play the sport anymore.
The studios aren’t actually even in Cannes this 12 months!
It’s OK, as a result of guess what occurs when issues break or die? It’s good, I feel. Particularly as a result of I’ve been working since I used to be 9, I see a horizon that doesn’t resemble something that I’ve seen earlier than. It’s so new as a result of our business is so totally devastated. And so I feel really, there’s a lot hope in that. We simply need to seize it.
Kristen Stewart and Quentin Dupieux throughout the “Full Phil” photocall at Cannes.
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You have been right here final 12 months together with your directorial debut “The Chronology of Water.” How do you mirror on that second now, particularly the expertise of making an attempt to get distribution for the movie?
Oh gosh, it’s been such a gauntlet, that one. I’ve simply designed the document artwork for releasing our soundtrack, and so it’s actually now the final artistic factor that I’ve to go away on the desk for that film and absolutely transfer on. The 2 subsequent movies that I need to make are very, very clear to me. I need to make one by the tip of the 12 months after I work on this Amazon present after which subsequent 12 months I’m going to be taking pictures in April this different factor that I take into consideration. That is what I need to do and it’s utterly modified my life realizing that specific challenge, actually simply pushing all of it the way in which. And so I really feel like I’ve misplaced a lot fucking time. I’m like, it’s been one 12 months and I’ve acted in three extra films. What?! I really like each director I’ve labored for, I completely love my job, it’s why I really like directing. However on the similar time, I simply can’t fucking try this anymore or I’m by no means going to make my [own movies].
Talking to the entire how do you get stuff seen and share it with individuals who really care, don’t maintain me to something … However my aim is to make one thing for actually nothing with my associates earlier than the tip of the 12 months and put it on fucking YouTube. And critically, no matter cash we make from that might be what I spend on my subsequent one and there might be a trickle-down impact. I simply don’t need to discuss to those bros anymore. And by the way in which, I’d be fortunate to have something I labored on be distributed by like, A24 or Neon — individuals who, by the way in which, I’m associates with. Like, these are my homies. It’s simply that I don’t need to make… I really like Hollywood, I really like massive films, [but] I don’t suppose I’d be excellent at making them. I need to make bizarre shit. And I’m absolutely OK doing that in a form of insulated, weird method. However I don’t need to do the factor the place I wait 5 years for somebody to offer me $1 million to make one thing. I’m going to make it fucking tomorrow. As a result of additionally like, what the fuck. I’ve been working for a very long time — I’m simply going to sit down right here doing the identical factor time and again amassing wealth? No. It’s a ridiculous approach to dwell your life.
I’ve to ask — at Cannes final 12 months, Kim Gordon instructed us that there was a biopic sequence you two have been engaged on collectively in some unspecified time in the future. Is that also within the works?
She wrote a memoir that’s considered one of my faves, it’s referred to as “Girl in a Band.” And I feel that they have been making an attempt to consider some stunning anthology strategy to doing her life story however form of in an episodic, elliptical method with completely different administrators. However I feel that modified and Kim’s engaged on conceiving the perfect strategy. They have been speaking to me about it for a second, and I feel that’s really how I met Kim just a few years in the past. She got here as much as me at a Chanel afterparty factor as soon as. She form of floated over just like the punk rock Joan Didion and stated, “Hey, sorry I can’t really hear in here, but it’s really nice to see you.” Identical to the warmest, coolest — she actually appears like energetically godmom stuff. I imply, I’d like to be part of that challenge, however I’m undecided really what they’re doing with it. I do know somebody’s caring for it although, which I’m actually trying ahead to.
This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.
