Kristen Stewart rails against Hollywood studio system: ‘Less making billionaires more billionaires’

Kristen Stewart used her platform at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday to take sharp aim at the U.S. studio system, saying it is rigged against artists and serves only to enrich the already wealthy.

Speaking to Variety ahead of the midnight premiere of “Full Phil” — her new collaboration with French absurdist director Quentin Dupieux — Ms. Stewart said the American film industry has become hostile to the kind of unconventional work she wants to make. “I’m just so sick of the rules and I’m so sick of the system,” she said. “It is not designed for artists to express themselves.”

The “Twilight” actress, who earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Princess Diana in 2021’s “Spencer,” said the culture of those in charge compounds the problem. She argued that most studio decision-makers are insular figures who are indifferent to artists outside the mainstream, adding that she does not believe it is possible to create “radical, vital work under capitalistic parameters.”

Ms. Stewart reserved particular frustration for the economics of the current model. “There needs to be more work, more output, more connection and less fear and less bureaucracy and also less making billionaires more billionaires,” she told the outlet. She said productions hemorrhage money inside a system that was not built for filmmakers like her, and lamented that shooting in Los Angeles — the birthplace of the American film industry — has become “absolutely impossible.”

Her remarks echo sentiments she expressed earlier this year. In January, Ms. Stewart told The Times of London that she would “probably not” remain in the United States, saying she could no longer work freely there.

The frustration has also extended to the distribution pipeline. Ms. Stewart noted that the few independent films that break through at Cannes tend to get absorbed by the same small circle of studios — a process she compared to waiting for a golden ticket. “And what, are we going to wait to be chosen?” she said. “I got the golden ticket! I can make one fucking movie!”

As an alternative, she floated a more radical path forward: releasing a film she plans to make with friends for little or no money directly on YouTube, then reinvesting whatever revenue it generates into future projects. “I just don’t want to talk to these bros anymore,” she said, while acknowledging that distribution through boutique labels like A24 or Neon would still be welcome.

The backdrop for her comments is “Full Phil,” which Mr. Dupieux has described as “Emily in Paris in hell.” The roughly 80-minute film, debuting in Cannes’ Midnight Screenings section, pairs Ms. Stewart with Woody Harrelson as an estranged American father and daughter whose Parisian reunion is derailed by street protests, an intrusive hotel employee, an obsession with a 1950s horror film and an endless procession of French food. The film was shot quickly and on a microbudget — the kind of production Ms. Stewart said the U.S. system makes nearly impossible.

Ms. Stewart is simultaneously shooting “Flesh of the Gods,” a vampire thriller directed by Panos Cosmatos, in the Canary Islands.