[IMG:L]Wise beyond her years, teen thespian Kristen Stewart first splashed onto the silver screen at age 10, with an outstanding performance in Panic Room (2002), alongside Oscar-winning co-star Jodie Foster. But there’d be no need to worry about her career, as the pensive actress made a series of fine acting choices, thereafter.
Although her credits include a handful of smaller parts in films such as Cold Creek Manor (2003), Zathura (2005) and Fierce People (2006), it’s her upcoming performance in Sean Penn’s Into the Wild, which will inevitably command the attention of audiences and critics.
Stewart portrays Tracy, an innocent free-spirited Slab City native who falls for bohemian Chris McCandless, during his brief stay at a commune. Showcasing her vocal and instrumental talents, she also puts on a moving performance with her guitar and soothing voice.
The mature Stewart talks about her role opposite Emile Hirsch, her singing, and seduction scene in the upcoming adventure drama Into the Wild.
Hollywood.com: Are you a real singer and a musician?
Kirsten Stewart: I always played the guitar and I like sing to the radio, but I’ve never sung for anyone before.
HW: You’re quite blonde these days, did you change your natural hair color for Into the Wild?
KS: No I went blonde for something else. Kate Hudson just directed a short film and I play a younger version of Virginia Madsen, who’s bleached-out.
HW: So when stars direct shorts like that, where are they often seen? It must be special opportunity to work with a fellow actor in that capacity.
KS: In this case, I think the glamour magazine was doing something for women directors. They are doing a whole series of short films that have female directors in them. I was into that. I thought that was cool.
[IMG:R]HW: Can you talk about your seduction scene with Emile, who plays Chris McCandless?
KS: I play a girl who’s [sheltered] and has never been anywhere else. So there are probably not many guys her age…and then he [Chris] comes along. It’s not just that he’s accessible and her age–and a guy. But there is something about him. He has a certain effect on certain kinds of people and I think she’s that kind of person.
HW: Hence your character’s palpable desire of Chris?
KS: I think it’s so cool that they don’t ‘do it’. That that’s what she wants, and that’s what she thinks she wants because she’s never had it before. He wants to be better than that. I think to go up on stage and play a song for each other is [cool] especially after seeing her play the night before. You know he’s pretty in tune. He can see what’s going on.
HW: And watching Chris’ journey filled your character, Tracy, with a certain awe?
KS: I mean anyone who is human has to relate to what the instinct of it is…demanding your freedom–and a lot of people have lost that. We don’t really demand our freedom anymore. He [Chris] is so filled with that. It’s sort of inspiring. It takes you in. It just draws you in. It’s compelling, you know, because it’s so rare. You don’t see that kind of spirit from most people. You don’t meet very many people who, like, feel human–real concrete.
HW: We were talking to William Hurt earlier about young actors, training and the process of becoming an actor. Can you talk about that?
KS: I don’t want to study acting. I can’t think about it as logic. I can’t put too much sense on to it like that. If I ever think about something too hard I will leave the scene after we are done shooting and it’s like: ‘I didn’t go through that. That’s not real. I didn’t just go through that and I faked it.’ I used like these tools that I learned over the years that I’ve been able to fake it. And that feels horrible. You leave and it’s like, ‘okay that didn’t happen.’ It’s like the most unfulfilling, awful feeling. You beat yourself up about it. So I couldn’t do acting school just because I can’t think about it. It’s like if you are telling a story and you feel it, and you relate to this person, and you feel like you want to tell it in a certain way–it’s just going to happen. It’s been hard to philosophize about acting.
HW: Wouldn’t you want to get some kind of formal introduction to acting?
KS: I love Shakespeare, literature and I love to watch it but it’s sort of just in a different language. Just because people have done it a certain way for hundreds of years, doesn’t mean you have to keep doing it that way.
[IMG:L]HW: Can you talk to us about working with Sean Penn and what impression he left on you?
KS: Sean is not only an actor, but I completely idolize him as a filmmaker. As a person, he’s just great and has the most massive amount of integrity. He’s great, self assured and sure of his convictions and clear thinking. He didn’t just have the whole story in mind, he did it. To tell the story in the way that he did in life, I mean you have to live it.
HW: Which he did literally?
KS: He took the trip. He went and he took the whole trip that Chris [McCandless] took in making this movie with Emile. He is a strange combination of things because he’s that person who is really like a figure to look up to and then also like one of the most pensive, gentle, emotionally in tuned, cool people.
HW: How does David Fincher compare to working with Sean Penn?
KS: Sean has a different spirit. I mean he’s definitely encompassed something that was so warm. Like he took everyone that was in this movie–wanted so badly just to do it–to tell the story, and he really just took us all in. Fincher had a daughter my age so he was really good. I remember him being like a cool guy and at that point, I was ten years old and it [Panic Room] was sort of fun to do.
HW: Were you intimidated by Sean Penn?
KS: Yeah the thought of him was intimidating!
HW: Any examples? When was your first meeting with Sean?
KS: My agent called me and told me I had to call his cell phone. I called him up and he said he knows me and there’s a story…a script he’s been writing that he loves. He’d gotten to a certain point and didn’t know how to go any further. So he put together a ‘table read’ and the first time I met him was he came over to my house with Emile to show me some of the script.
HW: What did Sean think the script needed?
KS: Actually he needed a young girl to read these two parts because he didn’t know any actresses he liked.
HW: What do you remember learning from Jodie Foster?
KS: That she does what she believes. She doesn’t do anything that she doesn’t want to do. She does the stories she wants to do. She’s not going to compromise, and you do well when you do things you want to do.
[IMG:R]HW: Jena Malone described this organic process of creating her part in the movie. Did you have the same experience with Sean Penn with regard to the songs. Did you have any input or was it pre-written?
KS: Right, the song was chosen before. I think it was written in the script. But the song that was written, you see like a second of it in the movie. I wrote a song with the music director, who is really creatively amazing. It was very free, and also very organic. He said we needed a simple love song or something that a young girl would write. He said I should just go see where it takes me. [Re-living the moment] Okay, we have to write a song. So that’s kind of how we worked.
HW: So part organic, and part scripted?
KS: My first day of shooting I wasn’t supposed to work that day. We went out because I was coming in for a fitting or something, but that’s kind of the same way about not wanting to take a class I know I can’t. I never feel good about it if I think too much about it. When all of a sudden a scene takes place and you leave it and you don’t know where the hell that came from, but it’s right, that’s what you need to do. That’s what I have to do–or I can’t do anything well.
