Kristen Stewart is considering a move out of the United States due to the current political climate under President Donald Trump. The "Twilight" actress revealed in an interview with The Times that she's been nurturing her directorial career with the goal of creating films in Europe because she feels "unable to work freely" in America. Her directorial debut, "The Chronology of Water," was filmed in Latvia as "it would have been impossible to do in the States."
Stewart added that Trump's threat of tariffs on movies made outside the country is "terrifying" for the film industry. "Reality is breaking completely under Trump," she said. "But we should take a page out of his book and create the reality we want to live in."
The bi-coastal actress, who splits her time between Los Angeles and New York, admitted that she's "probably not" going to live in the states for much longer. "I can’t work freely there," Stewart said. "But I don’t want to give up completely. I’d like to make movies in Europe and then showcase them to the American people."
In September, four months after initially musing the idea, Trump proposed a 100% tariff on films made outside the United States. "Our movie-making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing 'candy from a baby,'" Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time. "Therefore, in order to solve this long-standing, never-ending problem, I will be imposing a 100% Tariff on any and all movies that are made outside of the United States."
Governor Gavin Newsom's press office responded with a statement: "The Governor tried to explain this to Trump months ago — when this was initially proposed — that his actions will cause irreparable damage to the U.S. film industry. Today’s move is 100% stupid."
Trump's proposal has not yet gained further momentum. Stewart struggled to get the film made since she first announced the project in 2018 at the Cannes Film Festival, but told Porter Magazine in 2024 that she planned to shoot in Latvia. "It’s a fledgling film culture there. Look, I’m all about the way we make movies here [in the U.S.], but I needed a sort of radical detachment," she explained at the time.
Stewart's history with the president goes back more than a decade. While dating "Twilight" co-star Robert Pattinson, Stewart was involved in a cheating scandal with her then-married "Snow White and the Huntsman" director, Rupert Sanders. Trump posted a string of tweets at the time, including: "Robert Pattinson should not take back Kristen Stewart. She cheated on him like a dog & will do it again — just watch. He can do much better!"
Trump followed up days later with another post on the platform: "Everyone knows I am right that Robert Pattinson should dump Kristen Stewart. In a couple of years, he will thank me. Be smart, Robert."
Last month, the "Adventureland" actress slammed the entertainment industry as a "capitalist hell" that hated women and "marginalized voices." "We’re in a pivotal nexus, because I think we’re ready for a full system break," Stewart said in a sit-down with The New York Times's "The Interview." "We need to start sort of stealing our movies. I’m so appreciative of every union. Trust me, we would not survive without them. But some of the terms and some of the rules and some of the structures we’ve set up have created unbelievable barriers for artists to express themselves."
She argued: "It's just so difficult to make movies, it just doesn't need to be. I'm just trying to think of some sort of weird, like Marxist, Communist-like situation that other people can definitely think—of course this psycho is saying that—but I think it's possible, especially in these kind of narrow and exclusive environments. I'm not talking about the world at large, but for us, the system has barred people and made it too difficult to be honest."
