Adapting a memoir as creatively narrated as Lidia Yuknavitch’s The Chronology of Water is no small feat, but Kristen Stewart proved herself more than capable with her recent directorial debut. The film version stars English actress Imogen Poots as Lidia, a traumatized young woman finding herself through swimming and writing, and she is stunning in it, using Yuknavitch’s real story to inform a character that feels all Poots’s own.
Vogue spoke to Poots about diving deep into Yuknavitch’s body of work, bonding with Stewart because they’re “both sort of nerds,” embracing the juxtaposition inherent in her craft, and her fabulously floral plans for the holiday season.
Vogue: How did this project come to you?
Imogen Poots: Well, it came as a script, and then I made a tape. I met with Kristen and then I read the book after we spoke, and I just absolutely loved it. I’m always very happy when I’m reading, and it reminded me of some of my favorite writers; the lyricism of it felt very, very poetic, but also really accessible. Lidia’s not pretentious. She couldn’t be pretentious if she tried. I think that’s because she is authentically awestruck by the elements of humanity and nature. Her writing reminded me of Beatnik writers I’d loved, and then I read her other stuff, and the screenplay and that together were such complements to one another. Kristen was the perfect person to do it, you know? I mean, it’s funny, because Kristen actually hates getting wet—she’s like a cat. So the idea of her getting to do this film and sort of maintaining a dry state of being was a challenge for her, probably.
What was it like working with Kristen on her directorial debut?
It was so exciting. I was the most embarrassing level of awestruck at the idea of working together. I just adore her as a person. We have a real, easy, deep and pure friendship at this point, and I love her so much. It’s amazing to do something with someone where you’re just both really honest, and we’re both sort of nerds, and we both care a lot, and we goof around a lot, and that’s sort of the perfect person to go and make something with and do something hard with, as well, because the stakes are high. It was a very big experience for the both of us, and I think it’s impacted us since, which is cool.
How did you approach getting into character as Lidia?
When I was leaving my apartment in Brooklyn to go do the shoot, I remember looking at my place, and I was like, Next time I come back here, I’ll have done the project. I knew that it was going to be hard. I kind of made a promise to myself where I was like, Just go for it. Just be as open as you possibly can be. I trusted Kristen so much that I just wanted to do that. And I don’t mean broad, I don’t mean big. I mean just available—and in order to do that, you kind of have to exist in that atmospheric plane for a while. After the fact, I realized what that had done to me on a cellular level. But at the time, you have to just completely commit to this beast of a character and all of her heartbreaks that are so often shared by other characters. I think about this with death all the time. Death isn’t bad for the person who’s dying; it’s bad for the people who are losing them, right? And Lidia, as a character, is someone who unfortunately lets a lot of people down because she’s been so egregiously let down, which is a lot to carry and process.
What was it like seeing the film get so much acclaim at Cannes?
Oh, we were so giddy. I’d seen a version of the film before, and I was so proud. It felt like an album we’d made in many ways, one that wasn’t speaking to any trend and that we were just excited to show to people. Of course, it’s scary as well, but I had a quiet, very steely notion inside of myself that we had made something that mattered to both of us, and therefore, because that was quite authentic, it would hopefully matter to other people. You know, you’re in these, like, puddles together, covered in mud, under-slept, eating shitty food, on your period, making a movie together, and then six months later, there you are, wearing clothes that you don’t own, trying not to crease them in the back of a car on the way to this very grand and ornate screening. I love the juxtaposition. This job is so strange. People think it’s glamorous, and there are snippets where it is, but it costs you, and I think we’re all here for it. I think we always find the fun in everything, and we’ve been going to lots of things recently where it’s always fun because we’re together, but it’s really important to enjoy all of this stuff. We were nervous, but there was no way we weren’t going to have the time of our lives.
I know you’ve had a busy year, between Hedda and The Chronology of Water; what’s next for you, work-wise?
There’s something I’m going to do that hasn’t been announced yet. I want to keep working with filmmakers that I’m obsessed with. I also think what’s really beautiful about getting older and wiser is you get softer, and that’s not to say that you’re going to go make something that you don’t think is good enough, but I think having fun is a really, really important thing. There’s an art to having fun that’s really important to master, and I think with acting, you really want the work to be recognized, and you want the work to be seen, and that can lead to a seriousness. I’m intrigued by what it means to turn that on its head, I suppose, and do something different.
What do you have planned for the holidays?
I’m going to see my family and my friends in London, which is going to be really wonderful. I’ll see my friend Milli. She’s called Milli Proust, which is not her birth name, but she’s an incredible natural florist, and she has a flower farm in Sussex. She runs a flower business, so it’s always really fun to visit her and see what she’s growing.
This conversation has been edited and condensed.
