'The Chronology of Water' Director and Cast Interview

Moviefone speaks with Kristen Stewart and Imogen Poots about 'The Chronology of Water'."The book felt like it could be everyone's story," Stewart said.

(L to R) Imogen Poots and director Kristen Stewart discuss 'The Chronology of Water'.

Opening in theaters on January 9th is the new film 'The Chronology of Water', which was written and directed by Kristen Stewart (‘Spencer’) and is based on the book of the same name by Lidia Yuknavitch. The film stars Imogen Poots (‘All of You’), Thora Birch (‘Ghost World’), and Jim Belushi (‘Song Sung Blue’).

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Kristen Stewart and Imogen Poots about their work on 'The Chronology of Water', the process of adapting the book into a screenplay, the themes Stewart wanted to explore, and Poots’ approach to playing her character.

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(L to R) Director Kristen Stewart and Imogen Poots on the set of 'The Chronology of Water'. Photo: The Forge .

Moviefone: To begin with, Kristen, can you talk about the process of developing the book into a screenplay, and the themes that you wanted to explore as a filmmaker?

Kristen Stewart: The reason that I loved the book so much is because it does unearth your own relationship to figuring out how to define yourself on your own terms and something about buried voice. Whether or not you have this specific kind of oppressive forces on your back the way that she did. There's a line in the book like, “You have to break the back of a word to actually make it yours.” I thought the whole non-linear style, it just felt like it really lent itself to the cinematic form. It just felt like it could be everyone's story, even though it is a memoir about one person. I wrote it over an eight-year period. At some point, every page of that book has been adapted, but the whole thing was like clay, just like your life is like clay. It's yours to shape and form, and the movie felt like flying a kite. It was just like we were caught up in this hurricane of intuition. Ultimately, I think I could edit this movie forever. I would like to go back and re-shoot it. I would like to go back and re-edit it. But at the same time, I find it to be absolutely itself. It has this snowflake fingerprint thing going on, and it's because we only have our instincts to go on, and we really followed them truthfully, because the book gives you that permission. I don't know, it was like the book allowed me to break it. It almost encouraged me to change the things that happened to her into things that happen to us all.

Imogen Poots in 'The Chronology of Water'. Photo: The Forge .

MF: Finally, Imogen, can you talk about your approach to playing Lydia and what was the biggest challenge for you and how did you overcome it?

Imogen Poots: I suppose my approach is, it's always the same, it's just to do the work and turn up and then you're just reacting, you're just present with the character you're playing and the people you're with in the scene. I think in terms of the preparation for it physically was interesting. I've never done that before. I've heard of people going on diets and lifting weights and being superheroes, but I wanted a triangle back. I wanted to look like I had the body of a swimmer, rather than, to use Kristen's term, “A dinky little actress.” So, that was really empowering. That was cool because my body changed, and so I did feel different going into the project. I felt like I had this strength, I could crush a can, but I didn't really know what to do with that. It's quite an interesting state to be in, and really cool when dealing with stuff in Lydia's life that was incredibly vulnerable, or the fragility of her juxtaposed with that body. That's kind of interesting stuff to grapple with. But in terms of what was challenging, every day you just want to get as close as you can to the truth of something, and I didn't want to let down Kristen. Kristen had been very loyal with me as her actress and waiting to do this film together, and the stakes of that are high. It mattered a lot to me that we could try our best to wrangle this beast that felt like it was slipping away from us every day, and that's the nature of making independent films. But this one especially, there was a lot to shoot. I think the pressure of that can get to you and there's some importance to that too. We were shooting on film and that delivers an urgency and that costs a lot of money to shoot on film. We had a great DP in Corey Waters, but sometimes there's a nonchalance that can occur on a film set where it's like, "We'll go again." We just didn't have that luxury, and it's probably a good thing because it felt vital and it felt like if that's the way it is, that's the way it is. It's like paint. It's just on there now and that's what you're going to work with.

Imogen Poots in 'The Chronology of Water'. Photo: The Forge .

What is the plot of 'The Chronology of Water'?

A young woman (Imogen Poots) finds her voice through the written word and her salvation as a swimmer – ultimately becoming a triumphant teacher, mother and a singular modern writer.