SAN FRANCISCO – To meet Kristen Stewart is to want to defend her.
A young-looking 22 , she's practically still a kid. Her features appear even more delicate than they do on screen, and she's devoid of swagger, despite the black leather jacket she wears for an interview about "On the Road." The film adapts the classic 1957 Jack Kerouac novel tracking the thrills- and truth-seeking experiences of Kerouac and his postwar Beat generation nonconformist pals.
Stewart is enthusiastic, conscientious even, in discussing her character, Marylou – fictional stand-in for Lu Anne Henderson, teenage wife of Kerouac's muse, Neal Cassady – in "On the Road," which today starts a three-day run at Sacramento's Crest Theatre and is available on video on demand.
"She was very much an equal part" of the road trips that inspired Kerouac's novel, she said of Henderson. "She was such a formidable partner for (Cassady). She was his counterpart in that sort of crazy life."
Stewart first attached herself to the project at 17, after she met with director Walter Salles ("The Motorcycle Diaries") to discuss playing Marylou. She had read the novel at 15. Its story of curious young people finding kindred spirits spoke to her, Stewart said.
"What I loved about the book is that (it chronicles) an age when you sort of get to look up and you get to choose your surroundings," she said. "You get to find those people who shock you and also make you aware of those things about yourself that also shock and surprise you."
As she discusses this passion project, Stewart never comes off as sullen, sulky or downcast, as she can in television interviews. It's hard to reconcile this pleasant young woman with the one who draws Lohan-esque levels of scorn in the blogosphere, even though her reputation isn't one of hard-partying excess or courtroom tears.
But she did star in five "Twilight" films, which earned more than $3 billion in worldwide box office and inspired a fandom that bests any other in obsession with its stars. She also made highly publicized mistakes big (the affair with her married "Snow White and the Huntsman" director) and small (those painfully awkward talk show appearances).
Intense scrutiny and criticism became inevitable, and rarely has a movie star been less suited for it. Stewart seems genuinely uncomfortable in the spotlight. When attention focused on her begins to encroach on her personal life, she cannot fake being OK with it, she said.
"I will never kowtow" to media intrusions, she declares. But she's smiling as she says it. And she's fine doing press "when it makes sense – when there is context," she said. "I have no problem sitting here and talking about 'On the Road,' or Walter (Salles) or 'Twilight.' "
But just in case, she has girded herself for today's interview with a pair of Allen Ginsberg-esque tortoise-shell eyeglasses. They are not prescription, Stewart acknowledged, grinning and a bit abashed.
"They are just kind of an extra layer, for when you feel tired," she said. "I envy people that actually need them, because I don't want people to think I am a poseur or something. It is just an extra layer of 'get out of my face.' "
As a stager of tiny, daily rebellions, Stewart can relate to Kerouac, Cassady, Ginsberg and especially to Henderson, the novel's and the film's female representative of the Beat generation's sex, drugs and jazz-baby-jazz ethos.
Stewart researched her character's life thoroughly, listening to recordings by Henderson and meeting with Henderson's daughter. Stewart said she would like to dispel any idea that Henderson was a vulnerable figure in the Beat boys' club. She was just as sexually adventurous and committed to counterculture pursuits as the famously voracious Cassady (fictionalized as Dean Moriarty and played by Garrett Hedlund in the movie).
"I didn't want to just be ambience," Stewart said of researching her character. "It was always, 'What is she getting? What is she giving up? Is she being taken from?' And I would have to say, having gotten to know her daughter and listened to those tapes … there was nothing you could take from her. She was offering it up, and she was getting so much in return."
Henderson was "ahead of her time by 20 or 30 years," said director Salles, in San Francisco with Stewart.
Yet some fascinations are timeless, and thousands of young Stewart fans who never heard of Kerouac no doubt will arrive at "On the Road" by Googling "Kristen Stewart nude."
Playing an exuberant libertine means the clothes came off.
"There aren't too many scripts or projects that you come across and go, 'It just can't be done without it,' " Stewart said. Remaining clothed in the scenes in question "would have been really dishonest and afraid. All of ('Road') needs to be unabashedly itself and sprawlingly impulsive, and it needs to celebrate life in every way, and that's not by covering up."
Salles said Stewart's acting also pushes boundaries.
"She is constantly trying to reach the best performance she can give in every single take, and that is something I find admirable," Salles said.
Salles met with Stewart after two friends – director Alejandro González Iñárritu and film composer Gustavo Santaolalla – raved about her after seeing an early screening of Sean Penn's 2007 film "Into the Wild." In "Wild," Stewart plays a teen who shares a bond with Emile Hirsch's wanderer.
"I understood completely why they had been so impacted by her, because there is something completely magnetic in Kristen's acting in 'Into the Wild,' " Salles said.
Salles settled on Stewart for the Marylou role then, but it took years to secure financing for "On the Road," the shoot for which traversed Montreal, New Orleans, San Francisco and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta town of Locke (see sidebar) in trying to capture its Beat characters' travels.
Stewart said she now appreciates the delay, since she was not ready at 17 or 18 for the role's racier aspects. As the project sat on the back burner, Stewart became a household name through the "Twilight" movies and also showed range by playing real-life rocker Joan Jett in "The Runaways."
"Her work in independent cinema is very much driven by characters who enter uncharted territories and trespass boundaries that are not immediately acceptable to the culture of the time," Salles said.
Stewart's vibrant, sun-kissed Marylou offers a stark visual and philosophical counterpoint to Bella, her dark-haired, pale Pacific Northwest virgin-until-married and human-until-vampired "Twilight" heroine. But no Stewart role is a reaction to any other, she said.
"I am drawn very naturally and very intuitively to everything I have done, including my commercial films," she said. "I think it is the same thing for those ('On the Road') characters and the people who inspired those characters. They weren't trying to make a statement necessarily. At one point they obviously saw that what they were doing was a statement. But initially, they were just being who they were."
Stewart's own personality remains in the development stage, as it does for anyone in his or her early 20s. But the public got a peek last summer after photos surfaced of the actress in clinches with her married, 41-year-old "Snow White and the Huntsman" director, Rupert Sanders.
Stewart long was rumored to be dating "Twilight" co-star Robert Pattinson but did not acknowledge the romance until after the Sanders photos went public. She issued a public apology to "the person I respect the most, Rob. I love him, I love him, I'm so sorry."
As if Twihards needed more reason to obsess. Already subjects of ardent curiosity, Stewart and Pattinson (who supposedly reunited after the scandal) became daily are-they-or-aren't-they gossip-site fodder after the Sanders incident. Each bowling and miniature-golf outing gets reported, though photos are rare.
With the "Twilight" films complete, and after so much focus on a private life also inextricably linked to that franchise, Stewart appears to be entering a new chapter.
Or at least she might be. Stewart will not kowtow to any narrative for herself.
"I guess if I stepped outside of my own life and looked at it, you might put a bookmark in, 'Oh, there's a good time to put Chapter 3,' " she said. "But when you are actually living it, no. I don't do things for impact. I have never been able to step outside my career, or especially my life – and you should never, ever mistake the two – and shape it like it is this malleable thing."
Historic Locke plays bit parts in filming of 'On the Road.'
In "On the Road," the historic Delta town of Locke doubles as 1949 Oakland and as someplace between Louisiana and Arizona.
Director Walter Salles and crew used San Francisco as a base during their final weeks of "On the Road," the new film adaptation of the 1957 Jack Kerouac novel in which San Francisco and the Bay Area figure prominently.
Salles shot in San Francisco, Oakland and Locke, a Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta community 25 miles south of Sacramento that was built by Chinese immigrants in 1915, when the movie was in production two years ago. Locke's original clapboard buildings still stand on Main Street, and the town is designated a national historic district.
"Locke is an extraordinary film set in the open air," Salles said. "The people who live there are so receptive and so extraordinarily generous that I wish I could shoot part of every single film in Locke."
Locke appears most clearly when Sal (Sam Riley) – the fictionalized Kerouac – steals food from a grocery store while traveling from Louisiana to San Francisco with cohorts Dean (Garrett Hedlund) and Marylou (Kristen Stewart). The shoplifting occurs somewhere east of Arizona.
The production revived a shuttered Locke grocery store for the scene, said Lisa Kirk, who runs Strange Cargo, a Main Street collectibles and book shop. She said her shop was enlisted for an Oakland-set scene in which Sal walks down a street past her shop window, through which people can be seen sitting on a couch.
For a scene in which Sal sits in a bar alone, the production used Al's bar and restaurant.
"It was fascinating to watch the set people – they are so detailed," Kirk said. "It was even more fascinating than to see the filming."
Set designers and crew spent several days painting interiors and otherwise temporarily transforming the town for a shoot that Kirk said lasted only hours on "a very cold December night" in 2010.
Kirk started selling books by Beat authors after the shoot. She's considering a window display devoted to the book and film.
The production paid well to use her shop, she said.
"It was a fun and profitable experience."
She and friends in Locke already have (sort of) watched the film, which opens today at the Crest but also has been showing on video on demand.
"We just fast-forwarded to see our scenes, so I haven't really seen the whole movie," Kirk said.
Follow her on Twitter @CarlaMeyerSB.
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SAN FRANCISCO - Conocer a Kristen Stewart es querer defenderla.
Una joven apariencia de 22 años, ella es prácticamente todavía una niña. Sus características parecen aún más delicadas de lo que son en la pantalla, y está desprovista de arrogancia, a pesar de la chaqueta de cuero negro que lleva para una entrevista sobre "On the Road". La película adapta la clásica novela de Jack Kerouac de 1957 rastreando la emoción y buscando la verdadera experiencia de Kerouac y sus compañeros inconformistas de la Generación Beat de postguerra.
Stewart está entusiasmada, consciente incluso, al hablar de su personaje, Marilou - suplente en la ficción de Lu Anne Henderson, esposa adolescente de la musa de Kerouac, Neal Cassady - en "On the Road", la cual hoy comienza una función de tres días en Sacramento's Crest Theatre y está disponible en vídeo On-demanda.
"Ella era mucho más que una parte equitativa" de los viajes por carretera que inspiraron la novela de Kerouac, dijo de Henderson. "Era una pareja formidable para (Cassady). Ella era su contraparte en esa clase de vida loca".
Stewart primero se unió al proyecto a los 17, después de que se reuniera con el director Walter Salles ("Diarios de Motocicleta") para discutir la interpretación de Marilou. Había leído la novela a los 15. Su historia de curiosos jóvenes buscando espíritus afines la habló, dijo Stewart.
"Lo que me encantó acerca de este libro es eso (esas crónicas) una época en la que tenias una clase de búsqueda y conseguías elegir tu entorno", dijo ella. "Tienes la oportunidad de encontrar a esas personas que te conmueven y también te hacen ser consciente de esas cosas sobre ti mismo que también te impactan y te sorprenden."
Mientras ella discute este apasionado proyecto, Stewart jamás sale huraña, malhumorada o abatida, como se dice de ella en entrevistas de televisión. Es difícil reconciliar con esta agradable mujer joven con la única que dibuja los niveles de escarnio al estilo de Lohan en la blogosfera, a pesar de que su reputación no es una fiestera en exceso o de las que lloran en salas de tribunales.
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Pero ella protagonizó en cinco películas de "Twilight", que ganaron más de $3 billones de dólares en taquilla en todo el mundo y ha inspirado a un fandom que supera a cualquier otro en la obsesión con sus estrellas. También hizo pequeños errores (esas dolorosamente incómodas apariciones en talk shows).
El intenso escrutinio y la crítica se convirtió en inevitable, y raramente una estrella de cine ha sido la menos adecuada para ello. Stewart parece realmente incómoda de ser el centro de atención. Cuando la atención enfocada en ella comienza a inmiscuirse en su vida personal, ella no puede simular estar bien con ello, dijo ella.
"Nunca voy a rendir pleitesía" a las intrusiones de los medios, declara ella. Pero está sonriendo mientras lo dice. Y está bien haciendo prensa "cuando tiene sentido - cuando hay contexto", dijo. "No tengo ningún problema de estar sentada aquí y hablar de 'On the Road', o Walter (Salles) o 'Twilight'. "
En otra cosa, ella se ha ceñido a si misma en la entrevista de hoy con unas gafas de Allen Ginsberg. No son recetadas, Stewart admitió con una sonrisa y un poco avergonzada.
"Son sólo una clase de capa extra, para cuando te sientes cansado," dijo ella. "Envidio a la gente que de verdad las necesitan, porque no quiero que la gente piense que soy una farsante o algo así. Es sólo una capa extra que consigo sacar de mi cara. "
Como una veterana de las pequeñas rebeliones, diarias, Stewart puede reflejarse en Kerouac, Cassady, Ginsberg y especialmente en Henderson, de la novela y la representante femenina de la película de la generación Beat, de sexo, drogas y el espíritu jazz-baby-jazz .
Stewart investigó la vida de su personaje a fondo, escuchando grabaciones de Henderson y reuniendose con la hija de Henderson. Stewart dijo que le gustaría disipar cualquier idea de que Henderson fue una figura vulnerable en el club de los muchachos beat. Ella era tan sexualmente aventurera y comprometida con la búsqueda de la contracultura como el famosamente voraz Cassady (ficionalizado como Dean Moriarty e interpretado por Garrett Hedlund en la película).
"No quiero ser sólo ambiente", dijo Stewart, investigando su personaje. "Fue siempre, '¿Qué está consiguiendo ella? ¿A qué está renunciando? ¿Qué está cogiendo? Y yo tendría que decir que, después de haber llegado a conocer a su hija y escuchado las cintas... no había nada que pudieras tomar de ella. Ella estaba ofreciéndolo, y estaba recibiendo mucho a cambio. "
Henderson estuvo "adelantada a su tiempo por 20 o 30 años", dijo el director Salles, en San Francisco con Stewart.
Sin embargo, algunos fascinaciones son intemporales, y miles de jóvenes fans de Stewart que nunca oyeron de Kerouac sin duda llegaran a "On the Road" buscando en Google "Kristen Stewart desnuda."
La interpretación de una libertina exuberante significa fuera la ropa .
"No hay muchos guiones o proyectos que encuentres y digas, 'Simplemente no se puede hacer sin ello'", dijo Stewart. Restando la ropa de las escenas en cuestión "habría sido muy deshonesto y temeroso. Todo de ('On the Road') tiene que ser descarado en si mismo y desmadejadamente impulsivo, y tiene que celebrar la vida en todas las maneras, y eso no es por cubrimiento."
Salles dijo que la actuación de Stewart también se empuja a los límites.
"Ella está constantemente tratando de alcanzar el mejor rendimiento que pueda dar en cada toma, y eso es algo que me resulta admirable", dijo Salles.
Salles se reunió con Stewart, después de que dos amigos - el director Alejandro González Iñárritu y el compositor de cine Gustavo Santaolalla - quedaran entusiasmados con ella después de ver un temprano screening de la película de 2007 de Sean Penn "Into the Wild". En "Wild", Stewart interpreta a una adolescente que comparte un vínculo con el viajero Emile Hirsch.
"He comprendido completamente por qué habían estado tan afectados por ella, porque hay ese algo completamente magnético en la actuación de Kristen en 'Into the Wild", dijo Salles.
Entonces Salles se decidió por Stewart para el rol de Marilou, pero tardó años en conseguir financiamiento para "On the Road", el rodaje para el cual atravesó Montreal, Nueva Orleans, San Francisco y la ciudad de Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta town of Locke para tratar de captar los viajes de sus personajes Beat '.
Stewart dijo que ahora aprecia el retraso, ya que no estaba lista a los 17 o 18 para los aspectos picantes del rol. A medida que el proyecto se sentó en un segundo plano, Stewart se convirtió en un nombre muy conocido a través de las películas de "Twilight" y también mostró rango interpretando la rockera en la vida real Joan Jett en "The Runaways".
"Su trabajo en el cine independiente está muy impulsado por personajes que entran en territorios desconocidos y traspasan fronteras que no son inmediatamente aceptables para la cultura de la época", dijo Salles.
La vibrante Marilou, bañada por el sol de Stewart ofrece un contrapunto visual crudo y filosófico a Bella, su cabello oscuro, pálida virgen-hasta-el-matrimonio del noroeste del pacifico y humana,
hasta-vampirazada heroína de "Twilight". Pero ningún rol de Stewart es una reacción a cualquier otro, dijo.
"Me siento muy natural e intuitivamente atraída a cada cosa que he realizado, incluso a mis películas comerciales", dijo. "Pienso que es la misma cosa para aquellos ('On the Road') personajes y personas que inspiraron los personajes. No estaban tratando de hacer necesariamente una declaración. En un punto, obviamente, vieron que lo que estaban haciendo era un declaración. Pero inicialmente, ellos sólo estaban siendo quienes eran".
La personalidad propia de Stewart se mantiene en etapa de desarrollo, como lo está para cualquier persona en sus 20 años. [...]
Con las películas de "Twilight" completadas, y después de tanto enfoque en su vida privada también inextricablemente ligada a la franquicia, Stewart parece estar entrando en un nuevo capítulo.
O al menos ella podría estarlo. Stewart no se doblegará por sí misma ante cualquier narrativa.
"Supongo que si salgo fuera de mi propia vida y miro en ello, podría poner un marcador , 'Oh, es un buen momento para poner el Capítulo 3" dijo. "Pero cuando estás actualmente viviendolo, no. No hago las cosas para impactar. Nunca he sido capaz de dar un paso fuera de mi carrera, o especialmente de mi vida. Y nunca deberías, jamás confundir los dos y formar eso como esta cosa maleable".
Traducción LaSagaRobsten
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