Kristen Stewart: “we’re living in the most reactive, emotionally whiplashed time”
Speaking at the competition jury press conference for the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, American actor Kristen Stewart said that “we’re living in the most reactive, emotionally whiplashed time”. Stewart was responding to a question about the festival’s reputation for bold political statements and whether this affected her decision to take on the Head of Jury role. “It’s such a rare indulgence,” she began, “to be able to talk about the thing you’re obsessed with, which in my case is movies, when you’re not promoting it or making one”.
“It wasn’t my decision to be here,” Stewart went on to clarify. “I was shocked that they called me; it’s an enormous opportunity to have a hand in highlighting beautiful things in a time where that’s hard to hold.“It’s the job of an artist to take a disgusting and ugly thing and transmute it, put it through your body and pop out something more beautiful and more helpful. Something considered and not something knee-jerk reactive.”
The actor added: “We’re living in the most reactive, emotionally whiplashed time. To sit and have a moment to digress and see what people have pumped out of their own bodies – that was an opportunity I couldn’t say no to”.
Also present at the opening press conference were Stewart’s fellow jurors, the actor Golshifteh Farahani, the casting director Francine Maisler, and directors Valeska Grisebach, Radu Jude, Carla Simon and Johnnie To. During the conference, Farahani discussed the ongoing struggle for female freedom in Iran, where 22-year-old protestor Mahsa Amini died in custody last September.
“It’s very symbolic to be in Berlin, a city that broke the wall towards equality, freedom and brought so many people together,” he said. “This year with Ukraine, Iran and the earthquake, it feels like the whole world is disintegrating – especially now with Iran.”
Stewart and the other jurors will judge 20 films in the Berlinale’s official competition section before handing out the Gold and Silver bear trophies on February 25th. Asked about what she was looking for in this year’s movies, Stewart told The Hollywood Reporter that she’s hoping for something “confrontational and political” in a “positive” way.
“I think it’s very important for us to deprogram and be fully open to newness,” she went on. “I think that the diversity and the breadth of perspectives [among this year’s competition films] is going to is going to provide us with some new material that might be challenging and strange to adapt to [but] if we all if we all can’t agree [on a film] that’s probably because it’s pretty good.”
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