Kristen Stewart delivered a fiery keynote address at the Academy and Chanel's Women's Luncheon in Los Angeles on Tuesday, criticising Hollywood for failing to sustain progress for women filmmakers after the MeToo movement. The actress and director, whose feature directorial debut 'The Chronology of Water' is due next month, said the industry's backsliding has been 'devastating'.
'In a post-MeToo moment, it seemed possible that stories made by and for women were finally getting their due,' Stewart told the audience at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. 'But I can now attest to the bare-knuckle brawling that it takes every step of the way when the content is too dark, too taboo.' She argued that women's experiences deserve to be told with authenticity, despite frequent 'disgust and rejection'.
The actress, who joked about being in 'a severe state of PMS', expressed anger over the 'violence of silencing'. 'We can discuss wage gaps and taxes on tampons and measure inequality in lots of quantifiable ways, but the violence of silencing, it's like we're not even supposed to be angry,' she said. 'But I can eat this podium with a fork and fucking knife. I'm so angry.'
Stewart noted that 'such a pitiful number of films from the past year have been made by women', calling for more gatherings like the luncheon. 'We need to become ladies who lunch all the fucking time,' she said, adding that the industry is 'in a state of emergency'. She urged women not to be tokenised and to 'start printing our own currency'.
The event, hosted by Academy president Lynette Howell Taylor, also featured remarks from guests including Kate Hudson and Felicity Jones, and saw costume designer Ruth E. Carter present the Gold Fellowship for Women to Alina Simone and Marlén Viñayo.
