Kristen Stewart is coming back on the big screen with her new project, Love Lies Bleeding alongside The Mandalorian star, Katy O’Brian. Given that the movie earned an electrifying premiere at the Sundance Film Festival 2024, they have high hopes for the new project.
While promoting her new project, the actress reflected on her conversation with director, Rose Glass as latter talked about a strong female lead in her next movie.
Kristen Stewart’s Idea of Female Empowerment in Hollywood
While her acting received a mixed response from the critics, she continued to hone her skills working in movies like Clouds of Sils Maria (2014), Personal Shopper (2016) and made her directorial debut with the short film Come Swim (2017) and Spencer (2021).
Making her comeback on the big screen with Love Lies Bleeding, she recalled meeting Glass during her Spencer promotion in London. As they sipped tea, the duo connected on their frustration over the industry’s approach to featuring strong female lead characters. The filmmaker talked about how she was asked for a strong lead character. That led Stewart to express her opinions on the same. She shared with Rolling Stone,
“It’s bullsh-t. It means that we’re not actually letting women define themselves. It’s the assumption that we need to be empowered by the people deciding who gets to have perspective, that we have to provide something aspirational. It’s the lowest-hanging fruit there is.”
On the other hand, the film director understood the perspective literally as Stewart shared,
“She was like, ‘Strong girl? Bodybuilding. Got it.’ Simple as that.”
The movie eventually would dive into a more nuanced portrayal, deconstructing the ‘strong lead’ archetype. In the movie, Stewart plays the lead role of Lou, a gym manager who falls hard for bodybuilder, Jackie (played by Katy O’Brian). However, her queer love gets involved in Lou’s criminal family.
Rose Glass Wrote Lou’s Role in the Love Lies Bleeding Script With Kristen Stewart in Mind
The director told the outlet.
“I had some friends over for dinner when I got the message. I think I was a bit drunk already. I just remember there being lots of very jubilant shouting and excited jumping up and down.”
Whereas, the Twilight star had quite an interesting reaction after reading the script. Glass told Variety,
“She said to me, ‘Sometimes you get offered parts which are kind of like, I don’t know if I can do this one. When I read your script, I was like, Well, who the f–k else is she going to get to play this?’”
Stewart is bringing a new charm to the movie with the director sharing in the interview that the main characters’ steamy scenes are surely going to be a shocker for many.
Love Lies Bleeding will be released in the United States on March 8, 2024.
