Kristen Stewart on Power, Orifices, and Directing Debut

In a series of searingly honest interviews following the early 2026 wide release of her directorial debut, The Chronology of Water, Kristen Stewart has dismantled the traditional Hollywood press tour with a "loud mouth" and an unapologetic focus on the visceral reality of the female body.

Speaking with The Guardian on January 30, 2026, Stewart unpacked the provocative themes of her adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s experimental memoir. The headline-grabbing quote—"Women hold our power in our orifices"—serves as the core thesis for a film that Stewart describes not as a standard biopic, but as an "impressionistic collage of fluids and fragments."

Reclaiming the "Screaming" Body

For Stewart, the film is an act of rebellion against the "clinical" way Hollywood often portrays female trauma. She argues that the body’s openings—our orifices—are the sites of both our greatest vulnerability and our most potent strength.

• The Birthplace of Power: "As a woman, we have these seeping birthplaces that are our orifices," Stewart told The Guardian. "It’s where we hold our power, but it’s also where we’re taken advantage of."

• Breaking the Muzzle: She described the directing process as a liberating escape from the "muzzle" of acting. "The movie is so welcome to be loved or hated... it’s got a big, wide-open mouth."

• Fluid Storytelling: The film intentionally focuses on "blood, sweat, tears, spit, and vomit," treating the body’s releases as a language of survival.

Slamming the "Puppet" Culture

Stewart has used her 2026 press tour to criticize the "authoritarianism" of the director's chair and the industry's treatment of actresses as "puppets."

"Actresses get treated like shit... they get treated like puppets, but they are not. Imogen Poots put her whole body and soul into this movie," she told Variety.

She noted the jarring shift in how she was treated once she moved behind the camera: "The first time I sat down to talk about my movie as a director, I thought, 'Wow, they are talking to me like I’m somebody with a brain.'"

"The Chronology of Water": A Hard-Won Debut

The film’s journey to the screen was a nearly decade-long "public temper tantrum," as Stewart famously had to "stamp her feet" to secure funding for a project the studio system deemed too "experimental" and "harsh."

• The Cast: Imogen Poots delivers a career-defining performance as Lidia, alongside Thora Birch and Jim Belushi.

• The Production: To maintain her vision, Stewart shot the film in Latvia and Malta over 32 days, utilizing 16mm film to capture an intimate, grainy texture.

• The Reception: After its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, the film opened wide in US theaters on January 9, 2026, and is set for a UK and Irish release on February 6, 2026.

Beyond the Three-Act Structure

Stewart’s "audacity" extends to the film’s very form. She explicitly stated her "disinterest" in pedantic, three-act morality plays. The Chronology of Water moves back and forth in time, mirroring the "tidal waves" of memory.

"I hate the morality of the three-act structure," she told W Magazine. "I want to make a big, huge experimental film, but I want it to be hyper-commercial."

Source - https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/30/kristen-stewart-imogen-poots-thora-birch-chronology-of-water

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