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[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for The Chronology of Water.]
Summary
- Kristen Stewart’s feature directorial debut 'The Chronology of Water' turns Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir into a collage-like, emotionally raw film.
- Imogen Poots gives a heartbreakingly beautiful performance of a woman finding her voice through art.
- The story moves from abuse and addiction to healing while transforming trauma into writing and survival.
From first-time feature director Kristen Stewart, who also wrote the screenplay, The Chronology of Water follows Lidia (Imogen Poots) on her journey from abusive childhood through love and loss, to finding healing by discovering her voice through writing. Turning to competitive swimming as a young woman in the 1980s, life takes Lidia on a different path when her athletic dreams are derailed. Throughout the years, Lidia explores her sexuality, pushes the boundaries of addiction, and finds a way to express herself that is less destructive as she turns what feels trapped inside her into art.
During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Poots, who delivers a raw and heartbreakingly beautiful portrait of a woman who finds strength despite her self-destructive impulses, discussed why this was such an appealing project to her, forming a collaborative relationship with Stewart, the intense experience of seeing the film with an audience for the first time, the challenges that she went through every day on set, the journey she took with the character, her desire to keep taking risks, and the hope that she and Stewart will work together again.
Imogen Poots Was Drawn to ‘The Chronology of Water’ Because of How Unique the Writing Was
"The fabric of it was just deeply emotionally intelligent."
Collider: This film is going to sit with me for a while, which I would imagine is partly the point. And this movie feels very much like it would have been something very different in another filmmaker’s hands. It has a real vibe to it. When this came your way, did it start with reading the script? Did it start with a conversation with Kristen Stewart? How did you get a sense of how she wanted to approach this?
IMOGEN POOTS: Well, I got sent the script. I heard Kristen was directing her first film, and then I read the script and I made a tape for it because it was the most unique piece of writing. And to choose this material to adapt for your first feature, now knowing her as well as I do, makes complete sense. But the fabric of it was just deeply emotionally intelligent. It was really compelling. And as you say, in terms of vibe and tone, you just knew if this is what someone was choosing to make, that person had to be put together in a certain way, in order to want to pull it off. It really exists as its own thing. It was really cool. I’m so proud of her. She’s a unique, standalone artist, and we need more of that.
When you read the script for the first time, was it pretty close to what we see now or was this something that kept evolving and developing as you guys went throughout this journey together?
POOTS: It would be hard to say. I read the book quite a few times and I read the screenplay and we worked through it. There was a lot of stuff in the screenplay that didn’t make it into the film. We shot everything. We have a lot of footage that simply just didn’t make it in, I’m sure because film is a different medium. There were things that didn’t necessarily add to the story. Because the book itself is quite elliptical and repetitive, perhaps there were moments where, visually, you didn’t need to have that story told in the same way. But in terms of the sense of it, Kristen has referred to it very much as like a scrapbook or a collage of a life. I think those elements carried through. They exist as different, complementary art pieces of the same story. But there was no drastic change. In terms of seeing the final film for the first time, it was very close to what I always hoped and dreamed it would be, for the both of us.
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Stewart also discusses her directorial debut 'The Chronology of Water,' Imogen Poots’ performance, and her future directing plans.
It feels like it might have been kind of out of body to see this for the first time. Did it feel that way in a sense? It seems like you must have just gone through so much, emotionally, making this.
POOTS: Yeah, this is a specific one, for sure, because the stakes are so high emotionally. I care so much about Kristen and this for her, and I know she feels the same way about me. We’re both carrying each other’s stuff. I’d seen snippets, but we watched it for the first time together at Cannes and we were just little bodies in this auditorium. It was very intense. It’s hard to watch yourself, but the pleasure was watching this movie, which I am in awe of. I think she’s made something really spectacular. It’s hard when you’re in it because you have to confront that, but what are you going to do?
I read that this material scared you and that that was the draw. What most scared you about it? How did you push through that and embrace it, when it came to actually tackling it?
POOTS: Well, I think if I used that word, scared, I probably meant in the sense of wanting to get it right with everything, and of course you can’t get it right, so what does that even mean? So, you just want to deliver. I wanted to have the physicality of a swimmer. I wanted to be there every day. It’s this unreliable, mystic thing that we’re there to do. You just hope that everything turns up on the day when it’s supposed to. Every day was hard. Every day had trials and things we had to overcome, but that’s just the nature of making independent film. I’d much rather take those challenges then I would turn up and sleepwalk through a day at work because you can just do whatever you want and get away with it. I think that this really mattered to both of us. I hope that I’m always really charged by stuff, in every element of life. I don’t want to live a passive life.
Director Kristen Stewart Helped Keep Imogen Poots Grounded While They Were Shooting ‘The Chronology of Water’
"The entire project was a flying by the seat of our pants experience."
Image via Les Films du LosangeWatching you in this film, it feels like, at any time, you might just get swept away by what she’s going through and how she’s dealing with everything. What grounded you in this character and with her world? As you were playing her, did it feel more challenging to stay grounded with her before she really finds her voice and steps into her own strength?
POOTS: She’s such a present person. Even though the film is about memory and reframing and nostalgia, and what a disease that is and how misleading it is sometimes, the grounding elements are always looking into someone else’s eyes. The scenes with Thora Birch were incredibly grounding to me. Kristen was incredibly grounding to me. It’s the consistencies amidst the chaos that give you permission to pause. But really, the entire project was a flying by the seat of our pants experience. It was always going to be thus. In terms of grounding, that probably came months after we’d wrapped. There’s just something molecular that happens when you’re trying to achieve something in a short span of time that relies on these mystical things.
What was it like to find that collaboration alongside Kristen Stewart? It’s kind of usual that you do a project like this, as actor and director, as peers. You guys are the same age, you’re doing this deep exploration of this character, and she’s also a woman. How did all of that enrich the experience and your performance?
POOTS: It was the honor of my creative life to do this with her. We are the same age, and I think we both feel, in our own ways, in terms of the life we’ve been living and being alive right now, that things are changing rapidly for the both of us, with how we interpret the world, what we’re letting in, what we’re resistant to. To share that with someone is an incredible thing. To share that with someone creatively and therefore professionally was huge. It was a huge thing to experience together and to discover together. It almost felt like being in a band, or something. It was that kind of rush and that kind of unspoken agreement that you were there to do something together and make something with this one life that you have.
It was a really, really special experience. And Kristen is such a huge part of my life now. That comes from going into the depths with somebody and all the time spent and all the honesty and all the ability to just be with each other. It was really cool. It’s really exciting, as well, to be able to talk about this film and talk with her and try to not speak in platitudes and just really be honest about the fact that it’s all messy and it’s all inconsistent. When you let go of the performative nature of being alive or being an actress or being a director, it feels good just to try and be as honest as we can about what it is to collaborate and what it is to make something and how hard that was, but how valuable.
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While this seems like it would have been a really challenging journey to take with a character, what do you love about her and who she ultimately ended up becoming?
POOTS: I loved her from reading her memoir. There’s such grace to owning up to your own life. There were moments when Lidia takes responsibility for the things that she’s done. There are also things that have happened to her. There are a lot of words bandied around, like strength and vulnerability and fragility and victim. Really, this is just a person who, in the face of events that occurred in their childhood and that also happened to their sibling, is attempting to live a different life. That's so noble and it's so impressive.
In reaction to the things that have happened to you and have been taken from you, she’s trying to survive. The way that she transforms that, because some of it still lives within you and never disappears but transforms, is just really impressive to me and miraculous. Because of her mentor, Ken Kesey, she read all the beatniks, as we all did. You go through that phase of Burroughs and Kerouac, and you read all these guys. Lidia’s prose is just quite stunning. The way that she understands nature is very authentic, and how she sees nature. I really connected to that. It’s great. She’s a true artist. It’s not even corny because it’s just who she is. I think that both Kristen and I were just deeply excited by that.
Imogen Poots Would Love to Work With Kristen Stewart Again
"That's the dream plan."
Image via Les Films du LosangeHave you and Kristen already talked about reuniting and doing another project together, whether it’s the two of you acting together or just being directed by her again?
POOTS: I think if we could, we would just do that forever now. That’s our dream. That’s the dream plan.
I’m sure when you have a great experience, you want to work with the people that made that happen again?
POOTS: She’s just amazing. She’s incredible. She’s one of the greatest directors I’ve ever worked with in my life. She’s going to go on to make so many features and so many things. She can make whatever she wants. As an actress, I’ve admired her my whole life. People underestimate that this person is a movie star, and to go make your first feature with the exposure and the pressure of that, it’s a huge thing to go do and for it to be this piece of material as well. And also, just in the way that, where Kristen started out and then went to work with these auteurs, post being part of such a huge franchise, that’s someone who’s really doing stuff their way. I think that’s really cool.
Does it inspire you to try directing yourself, or does it make you realize that you want to concentrate on acting?
POOTS: I think everyone should try something if they want to. I think that’s really, really important. But it’s uncomfortable to talk about it, in the sense of, I just worked with someone who’s an emotional athlete and has made this incredible film, shot on film. It would feel inappropriate to be like, “Yeah, I want to do that.” I don’t even know what it is, what she’s just pulled off. But I want to make things. I think that’s the only way I understand how to live life, more and more. That’s what I mean about us both meeting at the age we are. We just need to make things. And of course, part of the path of making things is failure too and the sting of that. And then, you can overcome that and that’s interesting.
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I love that you’ve had Hedda and this film (The Chronology of Water) come out in the same year because they are such diverse projects. How do you follow that up? Does your last project always affect what interests you in the next project?
POOTS: It depends. You can end up sometimes playing similar roles. Often you play one part and then everyone’s like, “She played a red teapot in that. Let’s send her all the red teapots.” Sometimes there’s another really good red teapot, and you’ve got to go do it because it’s one of your favorite filmmakers. I think it just comes down to the person making the project. I always used to be led by who I got to do it with. I think that always really matters. That’s always really exciting to me. That’s the whole point of acting. Sometimes you don’t get that chance to play as many different things as you want to, or you could. There’s such a disease of a lack of imagination where people panic because they can only understand something by comparing it to something else. It’s always alarming if someone attempts something different. It’s like, “You can’t do that. You’re this.” It’s very important to break that down.
Release Date January 9, 2025
Runtime 128 minutes
Producers Charles Gillibert, Michael A. Pruss, Dylan Meyer, Yulia Zayceva, Max Pavlov, Maggie Mclean, Svetlana Punte, Christian Vesper, Andy Mingo
The Chronology of Water is now playing in theaters. Check out the trailer:
English (US) ·