“I’m furious!” Kristen Stewart’s huge rant against Hollywood

The actress, who has just signed her first film, delivered a fiery speech in front of a prestigious audience of colleagues, denouncing the regression of women’s cinema in Hollywood.

At the annual Academy and Chanel luncheon in Los Angeles, Kristen Stewart delivered a fiery speech on the place of female directors and female narratives in Hollywood.

A few days after the theatrical release of The Chronology of Waterher first feature film as a director, the actress in Twilight denounced a system which, according to her, quickly betrayed the promises made in the post-#MeToo era.

“After #MeToo, we believed it was possible that the stories made by and for women would finally be recognized, that we would be allowed to express our experiences without filter,” she declared, before adding: “But I can now attest to the fierce struggle that must be waged at each stage, as soon as the subject is deemed too dark, too taboo, or the frankness of your statement provokes disgust and rejection.”

Kristen Stewart, 34, also attacked what she calls “the violence of silence”this more insidious way of silencing women’s anger:

“We can talk about wage gaps or taxes on tampons, but the real violence is to silence us. As if we no longer even have the right to be angry. But I could eat this desk with a fork, I’m so furious!”

Under the laughter and applause of the audience – which included Tessa Thompson, Patty Jenkins, Sarah Paulson, Riley Keough, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kate Hudson and Claire Foy – Stewart made a bitter observation:

“The decline, after a brief moment of progress, is statistically devastating. So few films have been directed by women this year… It’s pitiful.”

She continues: “There aren’t enough of us. Right now, we’re all gathered together, and it seems like there’s a lot, but hell, no, that’s not the case. And it’s not our fault. It’s our industry that’s in a state of emergency. The last thing I want is for this celebration to be buried under a pile of angry rubble. We have the right to be proud of ourselves, to allow ourselves to find real gratitude again – not the one we play mechanically, but the one we really feel, from the inside.”

Lucid but galvanizing, she ended on a note of hope:

“Our community is in a state of emergency, but we have the right to be proud of ourselves, to encourage ourselves, and above all to no longer be tokenized. I am not grateful to a boys’ club that pretends to want to hang out with us while siphoning off our resources. Let’s create our own currency.”