It can be easy for audiences to feel startled watching a movie where the gore and violence look so real. Actors, on the other hand, are not surprised by what is in their own movie after knowing what goes into making it. David Cronenberg’s new dystopian thriller Crimes of the Future did not sit well with some audience members at Cannes. Festival-goers may have walked out of the movie because of its grotesque scenes, but Kristen Stewart, one of the stars, stayed with a positive reaction while watching.
It should come as no surprise that Kristen Stewart didn’t have a problem with her Crimes of the Future‘s gory sequences. After all, she played Bella Swan in The Twilight Saga, who was no stranger to blood. According to Insider, the Spencer actress explained that she had no idea what the original plot of this dystopian thriller would be about, but everything came full circle as she was watching it:
We, the actors, spent every single day after work being like, ‘What the fuck are we doing?’ But then I watched the movie last night and it was so crystal clear to me. It’s so exposing, and it does feel like you’re hacking up organs when you’re making something, and if it doesn’t feel that way it’s not worth it.
David Cronenberg’s upcoming film is about a performance artist who publicly exposes his organs in a pseudo-sexual ritual. Kristen Stewart played an investigative surgeon who becomes fascinated and obsessed with this artist’s body. The walkouts that occurred at Cannes were because of the film’s gory sequences, like the autopsy of a child. Stewart, however, went on to say how she was not repulsed by what she saw, but that she wanted to “lean in toward it.” This proves that art really is subjective and everyone has their own take on it.
Kristen Stewart really has come a long way since playing the lovestruck human who falls in love with a vampire and eventually turns into one in The Twilight Saga. She recently played Princess Diana in Spencer and scored an Oscar nomination for the biographical film. The Happiest Season actress will also be in A24’s new bodybuilding drama about the female bodybuilding world, and is also on the brink of making her directorial debut in the adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir The Chronology of Water.
Despite the walkouts that Crimes of the Future endured, the Cannes film still received a seven-minute standing ovation. That must mean that while certain films may be hard to stomach, it might be worth it to stay in your seat until the end. Unless, of course, we’re talking about a certain comedy like Holmes & Watson making you walk out because it’s not funny; then you can ask for a refund.
See if you can hold your stomach and stay seated when you watch Crimes of the Future on June 3rd.