Take Me To The South

Kristen Stewart recently opened up about her upcoming directorial debut. The young starlet directed the upcoming music video for country-rock band Sage + the Saints’ new song, “Take Me To The South”. Highlights from the interview are below.

On wanting to be a director: “I’ve been saying I want to direct movies since I was 10 years old. And then I started making movies and working with such incredible people that I realized what I was up against. So it was like, no way, now I’m gonna get more attention than I ever should just because of who I am. Basically, I’m grateful to Sage, because she was like, ‘I have this little thing, no one could tell the story better than you. . .just do it and stop being such a p***y.'”

On the challenge she faced while directing: “It’s such a different pressure than the one that I’m used to when I act. It’s this very consistent strain that never lets up. Whereas with acting, there’s small bursts. . .you alleviate bits of tension for the camera and then you go off and, I don’t know, wait to stress out again. But there wasn’t one second that I wasn’t sitting with my head in my hands. It’s your responsibility to hold this thing together, and I was always concerned I was missing something. Missed opportunities are the most gut-wrenching, painful, nauseating thing. As an actor, your job is to lose yourself in the moment. Losing yourself is the last thing you want to do as a director, so it goes against my instinct. I had to harness my energy rather than let it explode all over the set.”

On any future directing projects: “I have been working an insane amount recently. I definitely need to take a break and reorient my mind, because if I’m going to put that much time in, it needs to be something I’d die for. There’s a couple of shorts that I’ve written that I want to do really badly.”

Kristen’s final product will be released on May 28. You can check out a bit more from her interview here.