14 DAY TRIAL // Kristen Stewart, though only 19 years of age, already has about 20 movies under her belt belonging to various genres. Though her performances are often described as heavily layered and deep, most of her fame comes from her role as Bella Swan in “The Twilight Saga.” At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Stewart presented two new films, both of which are equally controversial and harrowing, as the actress herself says in an interview with MTV and E! Online.
Undoubtedly, once “Welcome to the Rileys” and “The Runaways” hit the silver screen, the world will cease to constantly associate Stewart to Bella Swan, but that’s not to say that the films are not suitable for younger audiences, the very audiences that make up for the impressive “Twilight” fanbase, the actress insists. On the contrary, the story of each, but especially that in “Rileys,” is meant to show that there are solutions even at those times when none seems to be apparent.
In “Rileys,” Kristen plays the part of a 16-year-old “working girl,” as she puts it, living in an abandoned house and bent on self-destruction. She is rescued by a married couple (James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo), who see in her the daughter whose life they could not save, and who decide she is worth the shot to a decent life. Playing the part of such a damaged girl had to come from the outside, Stewart said during the Q&A after the screening because she had never been in such a situation herself. Therefore, the challenge while making this film was twice as big than with any other project she’s ever done.
“Umm, Jake [Scott, the director] had a lot to do with my preparation and understanding of the type of person I was playing, and his serious regard of sensitivity towards those people. I play a girl who has sort of been stripped of any choice and really stripped of any normal upbringing. Like she couldn’t establish who she was because of things that have happened to her and she became a ‘working girl,’ if you want to call it that,” the star tells E! after the screening.
“The thing is my character is so, like, she just doesn’t care. Basically nothing belongs to her. She’ll give it to you like it doesn’t bother [her]. So I had to drop that. She literally walks around with an open sore. Literally! She’s just constantly like, ‘Ugh, I’m fine, whatever’,” Stewart adds for the same publication.
Below is a brief interview MTV conducted with the actress also during the Q&A for the “Rileys.” Details of whether the film has been picked up for distribution at the festival have not yet emerged, but keep an eye on this space for when they do.