Showing posts with label Sundance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sundance. Show all posts
'Welcome To The Rileys' Is A 'Really, Really Good Story' For 'Twilight' Fans, Kristen Stewart Says
FROM MTV.COM: To hear Kristen Stewart talk about her role as an underage stripper in "Welcome to the Rileys" is to understand the way in which the character continues to live in the actress' mind and affect her emotionally. For all the attention she's garnered for the "Twilight" series, the 19-year-old actress maintains that her experience on "Rileys" stands out as both the most personal and most natural of her career.
"This ... was different from any movie that I've done," she told MTV News at the Sundance Film Festival. "How do you describe a feeling? I don't know. It just felt so completely right to be telling this story with [director Jake Scott] and [Melissa Leo] and Jim [Gandolfini], and that's different to any acting I've ever done."
Posted by Rosebellas
"This ... was different from any movie that I've done," she told MTV News at the Sundance Film Festival. "How do you describe a feeling? I don't know. It just felt so completely right to be telling this story with [director Jake Scott] and [Melissa Leo] and Jim [Gandolfini], and that's different to any acting I've ever done."
Posted by Rosebellas
For Kristen Stewart, this is her dawn
Call it a casting fluke, call it kismet. In both of her movies premiering at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Kristen Stewart portrays a 16-year-old runaway.
For the gritty family drama "Welcome to the Rileys," the "Twilight Saga" star inhabits a role quite unlike Bella Swan, the long-suffering vampire-lover character that made Stewart an international icon. She plays Mallory, a stripper-hooker with a porn star's wardrobe and a mascara-tarred visage whose sexual frankness could make a trucker blush.
In the high-octane coming-of-age drama "The Runaways," meanwhile, Stewart portrays real-life proto-punk Joan Jett, who co-founded the all-girl teenage rock band called -- you guessed it -- the Runaways at age 16. In the film, Stewart's character snorts cocaine, makes out with costar Dakota Fanning and drunkenly urinates on an electric guitar.
Although both characters' shock quotient would be hard to deny even if the actress inhabiting them was not a household name synonymous with exquisite romantic longing (and vampires), neither of her new roles can match Stewart's real-life influence on this year's festival. As has been widely reported, she's 2010's unofficial "Ms. Sundance": the high profile leading lady who appears in at least two of the fest's buzzworthiest films.
But what many media types -- and by extension, their audiences -- have been discussing in the wake of Stewart's trudge across Sundance's red carpets and press junkets could be fairly called the central paradox of K-Stew.
That is, her continuing hostility toward the celebrity limelight vis-à-vis an unending impulse to self-promote, a predicament that was thrown into stark relief as a reporter trailed the actress over the course of two days.
Indie allegiance
Sundance has historically been a place where actors have come to reboot their careers by appearing in gritty, challenging fare for little or no money. As the thinking goes, a festival appearance reestablishes a performer's bona fides as a "Serious Thespian" -- not a movie star -- opening the door to choice parts down the line, of course.
An appearance in a movie here amounts to a declaration of purpose for an actress with Stewart's Q rating, to say nothing of two edgy movie roles. And judging by her "Rileys" red carpet commentary, Stewart was intent on publicly declaring her allegiance to scrappy indie upstarts like the Jake Scott-directed "Welcome to the Rileys" -- in which she appears opposite James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo, who play a married couple struggling to come to grips with the death of their teenage daughter -- while implicitly damning her work in the world-conquering "Twilight" films that have grossed more than $1 billion worldwide.
"I had the most truthful, like, beginning-to-end experience," said Stewart said at the first screening of "Rileys," which is still looking for a distribution deal. "This was the best experience I've had on a movie in years. I really love this movie."
On Saturday afternoon, the 19-year-old actress slipped quietly into Park City's Racquet Club Theatre unnoticed by paparazzi or salivating fans -- at least two of whom had paid $2,000 for tickets on EBay -- into its premiere. So low-key was the "New Moon" phenom (or "incognito" as a movie publicist put it), she passed from her SUV to the movie's red carpet line without raising the suspicion of a mob desperate for any vestige of her. Until, that is, the precise moment Stewart came to face reporters and photographers. (The performer declined to do a one-on-one interview for this story.)
Flashbulbs popped, a few cameramen did the requisite jostling and the questions came at Stewart furious and fast. Does she have a Sundance "ritual" after having premiered films here four times in the past? Does she think Twi-hards will be surprised to see her portray a stripper-hooker?
"No," Stewart curtly replied, rolling her eyes with contempt.
To get ready for the flesh- and soul-bearing part, the diminutive Stewart -- dressed in Sundance's regalia of military parka, distressed denim and sneakers -- explained that she hadn't done any "prep" per se, although she studied some pole dancing for the sake of greater realism and spoke to a few strippers.
"I'm not playing a stripper," Stewart said with snarling emphasis before the film's first screening Saturday. "My character -- basically nothing belongs to her. She's an open sore."
Stewart knitted her brow. "It's really not a stripper movie at all. It sort of just opens your eyes about people that don't have options." She paused. "I know I'm speaking really vaguely about it."
These are strange days for the world's most reticent teen movie icon who seemed to take to heart the festival's signage about this year's Sundance being "the re-charged fight against the establishment of the expected."
Sunday evening's premiere of the Stewart-costarring "Runaways" was a media-saturated environment thick with spotlights, shouting reporters, elbowing paparazzi and camera crews standing on ladders. And the moment Stewart stepped into the building -- the culmination of her and Fanning's all-day media marathon -- everybody knew it.
The "Twilight" star appeared visibly repulsed by the red-carpet action at Sundance's most prestigious venue, the Eccles Theater, answering no more than two questions per camera crew (and addressing the print reporter scrum for only a meager four minutes). As usual, Stewart emanated her signature ambivalence toward stardom, biting her lip and running her hands through her hair in the face of many questions about getting in character.
Asked at the "Runaways" premiere how much she consulted with Jett to prepare for the role, Stewart appeared perplexed. "I always feel weird talking about my friends," she said, surrounded by reporters. "So, ahh . . . yeah . . . if you understand the character . . . I don't really prepare. You just do it. You just know it and you do it."
Another reporter prodded Stewart about whether she "liked getting naughty with Dakota" for the movie's infamous kissing scenes, Stewart replied with surprisingly blithe aplomb.
"In the story it's so not like a romantic thing. It's something they just do," she explained. "We had so many other really crazy, really heavy things that we were intimidated by scene-wise. So when that came up on the schedule, we were like, 'Whoa! All right, whatever.' "
And a third interviewer commented on Stewart's resemblance to Jett, one of rock's foremost female titans, provoking an emotional outburst from the actress: "It's, like, crazy. I can't even accept it!"
Disgruntled media
Her remarks having been doled out in discrete (if somewhat oblique) increments and her artistic integrity bolstered (by appearing in a "hard R"-rated film that her tween following will require a parent or adult guardian's in order to see), Stewart was hustled into the bowels of the theater by handlers, leaving a cluster of disgruntled media rabble in her wake.
Some reporters couldn't help but take the actress' lack of enthusiasm personally.
"[She] absolutely hated me," Australian celebrity journalist Brad Blanks commented of Stewart into his video camera before turning it off.
Others felt shortchanged. "That was total chaos," groused a producer for a prominent national media outlet who asked not to be named.
Still, by revealing so little about herself, Stewart exposed certain balder truths about her personality, youth and her priorities that no interview segment or photograph could ever capture. And with that, the actress had achieved what few movie ingenues in today's Twitter-crazy-culture-of-confession have been able to do -- she left her audience wanting more.
Chris Lee at latimes.com
From rosebellas
Q & A "The Runaways"
Q: What do you love most about your art?
Sigismondi: Doing it, I think. The process, just sitting there and coming up with ideas. And seeing those ideas come into the physical, physical world is the most exciting thing.
Q: Dakota, had you done any singing before making this movie?
Fanning: I had done some singing before this, but nothing this iconic and these songs, I really felt the need to really do them justice. There are so many Runaways fans out there that want them to be exactly the way Cherie sang them, but I thought it was important for me to actually sing them, so I hope I did as good a job as Cherie did.
Q: Kristen and Dakota, how much time did you spend with Joan and Cherie to create these roles?
Stewart: Everybody knows Joan Jett, right, but nobody knows how hard it was to become her. We were pretty lucky to have grown up as girls being told we can do whatever we want and that wasn’t the case for them. So considering how important it was for Joan and Cherie I’m surprised how open they were and they didn’t even know who we were. It’s weird to talk about your friend when they’re standing right there.
Audience member: We can’t hear you.
Stewart: Good. She has such an undeniable presence. It’s not like it takes a really perceptive person to get to know somebody like that. She’s pretty much … you know, whatever, yeah.
Fanning: Okay, um, for me, when I first met Cherie, she has such a big personality and when I met her, she kind of wore her emotions and her feeling and her thoughts on her sleeve and was very open and honest with me about how she felt during this whole experience and to have her there for me was unbelievable and that was the only reason I was able to do what I was able to do.
Q: How did Joan and Cherie feel the first time you saw the movie?
Jett: Very surreal, but in a good way. We were just talking about these two becoming us and it was really incredible and I have to give them such credit for their work ethic, because it wasn’t like it was just a gig. They were deadly serious about it and you can see that in all their preparation. I wanted to be there for Kristen to get whatever she needed from me, and I was also willing to get out of her face, if that’s what she needed.
Currie: Wow. I’m actually shaking right now. First of all, Dakota Fanning is my favorite actress of all time. And I keep saying that I’m going to wake up from this dream, but you know what? I don’t wake up. And I truly believe that I’m the most blessed human being on the planet. And Joan, I knew from the minute I met her that she was going to be the godmother of rock and roll. And I was right. Michael Shannon was incredible – you scared me.
Jett: It’s a really personal thing for us, and this was our dream, so it was very emotional to see this happen because we really believed in what we were doing. We thought we were doing great rock & roll. We weren’t hurting anybody, we were just trying to have fun and people took offense to that, and so it became the principle about following your dreams and not letting other people dictate what you’re gonna do in life.
SOURCE
Kristen Stewart Dishes On Baring Skin In 'Runaways'
Kristen Stewart : 'I was wearing really, really, really unattractive nude moleskin,' actress reveals of bathtub scene.
Kristen Stewart has been everywhere at this year's Sundance Film Festival: on red carpets, in extensive sit-down interviews and on the screen in two movies, "Welcome to the Rileys" and "The Runaways." Both films showcase the actress in her most mature roles to date, and in each one she shows more than a bit of skin (beware of spoilers below).
In the last shot of "Runaways," in which she plays real-life rocker Joan Jett, Stewart is seen floating underwater without any clothes on. Was that really her?
"Yeah," she confirmed to MTV News. "But you can't see anything."
As Stewart explained, you can achieve things on a movie set that you might not be able to under ordinary circumstances. "There are things you are capable of doing under the guise [of acting]," she said. "You're so safe. Plus I was not naked. I was wearing stuff. I was wearing really, really, really unattractive nude moleskin or something. Really, really, really gross. In the movie, it's like, 'Oh, it's cool, this looks objective. She's submerged. She's lost in this world, this ocean.' "
In "Rileys," too, Stewart appears onscreen both in skimpy outfits and, once or twice, without clothes on, though the images remain decidedly in the PG-13 realm. She plays a teenage stripper and prostitute, and the scenes in which Stewart bares her skin are played less like sexy moments and more as melancholy examples of the degradation her character encounters. In other words, the scenes make sense for the story line.
The actress, however, wasn't so sure that her oceanic nude scene in "Runways" made sense. But under the direction of Floria Sigismondi, Stewart went for it.
"I was like, 'What is this? I'm in a bathtub and suddenly I'm in an ocean. I don't understand. OK, I'll lay in the water and look like a tool,' " she said.
MTv
Kristen Stewart has been everywhere at this year's Sundance Film Festival: on red carpets, in extensive sit-down interviews and on the screen in two movies, "Welcome to the Rileys" and "The Runaways." Both films showcase the actress in her most mature roles to date, and in each one she shows more than a bit of skin (beware of spoilers below).
In the last shot of "Runaways," in which she plays real-life rocker Joan Jett, Stewart is seen floating underwater without any clothes on. Was that really her?
"Yeah," she confirmed to MTV News. "But you can't see anything."
As Stewart explained, you can achieve things on a movie set that you might not be able to under ordinary circumstances. "There are things you are capable of doing under the guise [of acting]," she said. "You're so safe. Plus I was not naked. I was wearing stuff. I was wearing really, really, really unattractive nude moleskin or something. Really, really, really gross. In the movie, it's like, 'Oh, it's cool, this looks objective. She's submerged. She's lost in this world, this ocean.' "
In "Rileys," too, Stewart appears onscreen both in skimpy outfits and, once or twice, without clothes on, though the images remain decidedly in the PG-13 realm. She plays a teenage stripper and prostitute, and the scenes in which Stewart bares her skin are played less like sexy moments and more as melancholy examples of the degradation her character encounters. In other words, the scenes make sense for the story line.
The actress, however, wasn't so sure that her oceanic nude scene in "Runways" made sense. But under the direction of Floria Sigismondi, Stewart went for it.
"I was like, 'What is this? I'm in a bathtub and suddenly I'm in an ocean. I don't understand. OK, I'll lay in the water and look like a tool,' " she said.
MTv
Kiss With Dakota Fanning Didn't Faze Kristen Stewart
At the Sundance screening of The Runaways, Kristen Stewart was asked about her on screen kiss with Dakota Fanning, as I'm sure she will be another eleventy billion times. "It's just something we did" said Stewart, which sounds like an equivalent to "meh."
She goes on to say that it was not nearly intimidating as the other things they did that day like performing (the actresses learned to play and sing The Runaway's songs for the movie) in front of Joan Jett. That experience was "Horrible!" The Twilight star explains "She was actually kind of getting upset with me. She was like 'Ya gotta relax.' [But] I kept telling her 'I can't do it until we shoot it. Like I literally can't." Here's the two stars posing with director Floria Sigismond for The Runaway portraits at Sundance. Check out the interview with Access Hollywood video after the jump, where the two talk about the kiss and working with the Jett and Cherie Currie. Well, really Stewart talks while Fanning stays mostly mum, which is not at all what I would have imagined.
Socialite Life
Sundance Review: "The Runaways"
The movie focuses on the often turbulent and protective relationship between guitarist/vocalist Joan Jett and lead vocalist Cherie Currie as they navigate a rocky road of touring and record-label dramas. The film beautifully chronicles the band's formation as well as their meteoric rise under the pervasive eye of an abusive manager.
"The Runaways" marks the feature directorial debut of video artist Floria Sigismondi who directs this riveting and hypnotic work from her own script, one that is both a sharply observed study of character, epoch and the purity of rock ‘n’ roil. Visually the film is strikingly gorgeous, one that cinematically explores the contrasts between the often hazy world of drug-induced fame and trailer park poverty. But far from being merely a film of visual ideas, director Sigismondi cast her film perfectly and elicited some flawless work from her lead actresses.
Breaking free from the shackles of Bella, Kristen Stewart finally breaks loose delivering a stunning performance that covers a wide range of the acting spectrum yet achieved in a way that is far from self-conscious. Her Jett is ferociously angry, anti-establishment, fragile, sexual and exquisitely vulnerable as a girl desperately running away from a life that is conservative at a time when America was undergoing such pivotal change and not necessarily for the better. Stewart is phenomenal, a powerhouse proving how incredibly talented and multi faceted she is.
Fanning is an utter revelation as this tragic character drawn into a world that ultimately consumes her. Sexy, fragile, luminous and simply magnificent, with this role, she is raw and glorious, well and truly adrift from that childlike persona of a not-so-distant past. This is one of those singular performances that will be spoken of well and truly after the film closes.
The Runaways is a provocative and powerful film about the tragedy of celebrity and fame, media manipulation and the need to regain independence. It’s the perfect film for today’s celebrity-obsessed America, and sadly shows that little has changed in three decades.
The film’s soundtrack is a reminder of what great era the seventies was, and the music superbly enhances the film’s themes. It’s a remarkable achievement for this first-time director and one has high hopes for its commercial success once it opens in late March.
darkhorizons
Trailer:
Joan Jett Rocks Sundance, but Where Were K.Stew and Dakota?
Courtesy of Splash News/Harry O's
Joan Jett performed at Harry O's bar on Park City's Main Street over the weekend, to an incredibly packed crowd of Sundancers.
While many people in the audience were eager to see Joan (who still has it, btw) rock out in her sparkly see-through number, we think a lot of concertgoers were there hoping to catch a glimpse of The Runaways stars Kristen Stewart (who plays Jett) and Dakota Fanning.But the two girls were nowhere to be found! Did they blow off their real-life inspiration?
"Kristen and Dakota are not 21, so they couldn't be inside in the venue," a PR spokeswoman tells us of the gals' absence. "They were there practically the entire time to support Joan and Cherie [Currie, whom Fanning plays] and watched on from behind the stage."
At one point Joan brought Cherie, Kristen and Dakota out on stage to thank them publicly. And the crowd went wild.
K.Stew, looking quite shy with her standard hooded sweatshirt over her head, gave a fist-pump thank-you to the audience and quickly exited with Cherie and her new BFF Fanning.
Reps for Harry O's also tell us Kristen and the gang "couldn't have been more pleasant."
We're told the teen cuties completely understood why it wouldn't be the best thing to be seen underage in a 21 and over bar and were more than fine hanging backstage.
Def no drama between Joan, Cherie and the gals who play them.
eonline
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