Kristen Stewart has 25 years worth of roles to her name now, earning her first acting credit at the age of 10. Her latest movie, The Chronology of Water, had her stepping behind the camera as a movie director for the first time, and as she told CinemaBlend, it was a challenging process to flex different muscles on a movie set.
The Chronology of Water has been a passion project for the Oscar-nominated actress for the past eight years (talking before about struggles to get it financed) before finding its place on the 2026 movie schedule ever since she read the memoir of the same name by Lidia Yuknavitch. Here’s what Stewart told us about the particular challenge she faced while realizing her vision:
A movie set… it's like controlled chaos. I set up a sort of structure for Imogen to really inhabit and put her life into the movie. And I followed her, and, I had to put a straightjacket on to not sort of try and control it too much. I had to kind of trust the fact that because of the years that I spent with the movie, that it was going to just seep. It was just going to seep into the results. But for me, it was about, journey and process and experience.
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When it comes to realizing any creative vision, there’s a difference between what’s in one’s head and what is accomplished in real time. Per Stewart’s comments, she really had to go on a “journey” where she had to trust the process, and her leading actress Imogen Poots. She likened the experience to putting on a “straightjacket” because she simply had to restrain herself.
The Chronology of Water is a drama that follows a young woman who is grappling with an upbringing where her father was abusive to her, her sister and her mother in verbal, physical and sexual ways. The movie takes audiences on her journey as she goes into competitive swimming and becomes a writer as she deals with the effects of her abuse, including drug and alcohol abuse.
Years ago, Kristen Stewart shared that she wouldn’t be starring in her directorial debut, but she recruited the very talented Imogen Poots to portray Lidia Yuknavitch. Stewart said this to us about how her many years of experiences with directors influenced how she defined becoming one herself:
My favorite exchanges with directors are always emotional and articulate. They're scene partners.They're actors just as much as actors are directors. I mean, like, she led, she led the charge. And, her whole soul, body, mind is the movie. Her skin is our palette. So I don't know that I've ever worked like that. I've never worked for someone who put me on a path like that.
As Stewart explained, her leading actor was really a huge part of the process of making the independent movie in Latvia and Malta over a period of six weeks last summer. CinemaBlend also got to talk to one of the film’s other stars, Jim Belushi, who said this about Stewart as a director:
She had the mind of a writer, the heart of an actress, and the soul of a director. She is the Holy Trinity, all in one.
Belushi, who plays Ken Kesey, a novelist Lidia works with in the movie, also called Stewart a “shaman” who he hopes will direct more in the future. Thora Birch, who plays Lidia’s sister Claudia shared that Kristen Stewart has “got so much energy” and he doesn’t think she “ever saw her sit down once” during the making of the movie.
You can see Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut in theaters this Friday, January 9. Don't forget to check out what other movies directed by women are next.
