Kristen Stewart Has Deep Thoughts About Death and Text Messages
“I can’t imagine going back and knowing that my entire text thread with this person is still there and they’re not.”
While promoting her latest film Personal Shopper, actress Kristen Stewart has managed to drop some deep and dark thoughts about our modern habits of communications though text messaging and emojis.
The Twilight-star turned art house cinema superstar has already compared text messaging to something like a shadow of yourself, telling V magazine, “When you speak to someone on the phone, that is a decipherable, understandable exchange, but with text and social media, it’s essentially a dialogue with yourself and your interpretation of a shadow. It’s not invalid; it’s a new language.”
In her latest sit-down with IndieWire, conducted as a joint interview with Shopper‘s director Olivier Assayas, Stewart goes even deeper and darker on the subject. Though the actress says she’s never experienced the death of anyone close to her, she can’t quite imagine how she’d deal with the fact that though someone is gone so much of them is left forever through their social media presence, text message backlogs and other digital artifacts.
“People feel so entitled to communication in the digital age,” Stewart told the website. “I think mourning has probably changed because we’re so in each other’s faces no matter where we are geographically. Now imagine someone passes away and you’re like, ‘What do you mean I can’t talk to them? I can always talk to them.’”
“I can’t imagine going back and knowing that my entire text thread with this person is still there and they’re not,” she continues. “People’s Facebooks become memorial-type things. I think having this data in our hands all the time, depending on how you approach it, can be really scary because it’s a rabbit hole. It gives you an opportunity to know more than you could remember without it. Is it better to let things go and be affected by them, or always have it there to dwell on?”
Stewart’s recent musings on the nature of digital communications are not completely unexpected, especially when considering the context of this film. Though the title of the film is derived from the fact that Stewart’s character works in Paris as a fashion shopper for a rich French woman, the film is actually about the character’s attempts to communicate with her deceased twin brother from behind the grave. Yes, it’s a ghost story, but one with a modern twist. Her character starts to receive mysterious texts from unknown numbers that could be nothing more than pranks or the result of a wrong number or could end up being something spookier.
The character also maintains a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend back in the States, one that is almost completely conducted through digital communications. In fact, Stewart compared Skype to basically a seance.
So being asked to deliver deep thoughts about texts is to be expected for a film that asks its audience similar questions.
Stewart, of course, notoriously does not maintain a public social media presence online (she told V that she thinks people can get addicted to the quick hits of validation inherent in our like-button culture and she’s still a bit skeeved-out by President Donald Trump’s onetime Twitter obsession with her), but she does text. She’s just not sure how she feels about it, even when it doesn’t involve death.
“You start texting with someone and you’re just like, ‘Okay, that was the perfect thing to say,’ and then you look at it after and you read all of your texts together as a whole, as a visual thing, and it’s just…”
She didn’t finish the thought, and, yet, by the time the press tour for Personal Shopper is over we’re pretty sure we’ll end up knowing more than we every thought about Stewart’s theories about texting.
From Jeans and Tees to Chanel Couture, Kristen Stewart’s Best Looks in 2016
Kristen Stewart started 2016 right wearing a sexy leather and lace ensemble for the New York Film Critics Circle Awards.
Stewart wore the same shoe again at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s annual luncheon.
Wearing the shoe of the year, the Chanel mule, Stewart cut a chic look at the National Review Board Gala.
Kristen Stewart arrives in Park City, Utah, for the Sundance Film Festival, wearing her go-to distressed denim and hat.
In Paris after fashion week, Stewart steps out with then-girlfriend Soko, wearing a classic moto and dark denim, and her favorite Vans.
Kristen Stewart glows in Chanel at the Met Gala.
Stewart continues her laid-back look by pairing a t-shirt with her silk skirt and personal silver jewelry, on the red carpet at Cannes.
Kristen Stewart at the premiere of ‘Personal Shopper’ at the Cannes Film Festival.
A smart tailored look is paired down with Stewart’s signature sneaker, a pair of Vans, at Cannes.
Airport style with then-girlfriend Alicia Cargile at LAX.
All black and blonde for a Chanel event in London.
Wearing all white, Kristen Stewart walks to Good Morning America for her appearance on July 11th in New York.
Kristen Stewart goes sheer for the premier of A24’s ‘Equals’ in Hollywood.
In a look that references her Met Gala dress, Stewart wears a midriff baring Chanel number at the Cinema Society Screening of ‘Cafe Society’ in New York.
Kristen Stewart at the 54th Annual New York Film Festival.
Kristen Stewart brings new girlfriend St. Vincent to the CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund Show in Los Angeles.
Watch Kristen Stewart Take W’s Screen Test:
