Kristen Stewart has had enough of Hollywood’s rules. The 36-year-old actor and director wants to make strange, personal films with her friends and upload them directly to YouTube.
The Twilight star spoke openly about her frustration with the American film industry while promoting her new movie Full Phil at the Cannes Film Festival on May 16. Stewart did not hold back, criticizing studio leaders and the way money controls the business.
‘I’m Just So Sick of the System’
Stewart told Variety that the current Hollywood setup does not help artists. She said the system only makes rich people richer and leaves little room for creative risks.
“I’m just so sick of the rules and I’m so sick of the system. It is not designed for artists to express themselves. I just don’t think that it’s possible to create radical, vital work under capitalistic parameters.”
The Oscar-nominated actor pointed her anger at studio bosses. She called them “a bunch of bros that have come up under a bunch of other bros” who do not understand what she wants to say with her art.
Stewart added that the industry needs major changes.
“There needs to be more work, more output, more connection and less fear and less fucking bureaucracy and also less making billionaires more fucking billionaires. It’s driving me insane.”
She noted that shooting films in Los Angeles has become “absolutely impossible.” She believes the current model is broken beyond repair.
YouTube Plan: Making Films ‘for Really Nothing’
The actor, who made her directorial debut with The Chronology of Water at Cannes in 2025, already has two new projects in mind. She wants to shoot one by the end of 2026 and another by April 2027.
But she does not plan to wait for studio approval or big budgets.
“My goal is to make something for really nothing with my friends before the end of the year and put it on fucking YouTube. And seriously, whatever money we make from that will be what I spend on my next one and there will be a trickle-down effect. I just don’t want to talk to these bros anymore.”
Stewart made it clear she is not interested in Hollywood blockbusters. She knows what kind of films she wants to create.
“I want to make weird s***. And I’m fully OK doing that in a kind of insulated, bizarre way. But I don’t want to do the thing where I wait five years for someone to give me $1 million to make something. I’m going to make it fucking tomorrow.”
She questioned why she would keep doing the same work just to collect more money.
“I’ve been working for a long time – I’m just going to sit here doing the same thing over and over amassing wealth? No. It’s a ridiculous way to live your life.”
Why Stewart Feels Stuck in the US
Stewart’s anger comes from her own experience trying to get her films made in America. Her directorial debut The Chronology of Water faced a tough road to reach audiences. She compared waiting for studio distribution to chasing a “golden ticket.”
“And what, are we going to wait to be chosen like a fucking golden ticket? I got the golden ticket! I can make one fucking movie!”
She argued that only a handful of indie films break through at festivals like Cannes. Those get picked up by the same small group of studios. Stewart said that is “totally not enough” for artists who want to keep working.
Stewart admitted that she loves acting and respects the directors she works with. But she said she cannot keep putting her own projects on hold.
“This is what I want to do and it’s completely changed my life. I just can’t fucking do that anymore or I’m never going to make my own movies.”
‘Full Phil’ and Working With Woody Harrelson
Stewart is at Cannes for the premiere of Full Phil, a strange comedy from French director Quentin Dupieux. The film runs only 80 minutes and follows an American father and daughter trying to reconnect during a disastrous trip to Paris.
Woody Harrelson plays her father. Stewart said she agreed to do the movie before even reading the script because she loves Dupieux’s unusual style.
“I love his movies. They just don’t look or feel like anyone else’s. He holds the camera at all times. He’s beyond an auteur; he’s like a mastermind.”
Stewart and Harrelson had tried to work together for years. The actor said their chemistry came naturally.
“Sometimes you don’t have connections with people. But with him, it was such an easy fit. He reminds me of my dad in some ways.”
The film required Stewart to eat constantly during long takes. She called that the hardest part of the entire job.
“There were no cutting points. Every once in a while, I would be like, ‘I have to stop.’ The bites were never big enough. He would literally come over to me and make a certain sort of piggy face and I would realize I wasn’t eating enough.”
Dupieux, who has a young daughter, encouraged Stewart to act as “bratty” as possible. She said he was trying to create “his worst dream” about parenting.
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What’s Next for the Actor-Director
Stewart is currently shooting a vampire thriller called Flesh of the Gods with director Panos Cosmatos in the Canary Islands. She described the experience as getting “lost in his psychedelic dreamscape.”
But her focus remains on her own projects. She wants to finish one short film with friends by the end of 2026 and drop it on YouTube with no middlemen involved.
Stewart sees hope in the chaos. She told Variety that the industry is “utterly devastated,” and that might actually be a good thing for new voices.
“It’s OK, because guess what happens when things break or die? It’s good, I think. I see a horizon that doesn’t resemble anything that I’ve seen before. So there’s so much hope in that. We just have to grab it.”
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