Kristen Stewart ‘so angry Hollywood has gone backwards’ for women after MeToo boost
US actress and director Kristen Stewart said she was “so angry” that the progress of female filmmakers in Hollywood was being reversed following the post-MeToo rise.
The Twilight star, who directed the upcoming film The Chronology of Water, gave an impassioned speech at a women’s dinner hosted by the organization behind the Oscars in Los Angeles.
“Regress from a brief moment of progress is statistically devastating,” he told the audience. “Last year very few films were made by women.”
Celluloid Ceiling, annual report tracks number of female filmmakersHe said 11 of the 100 highest-grossing films of 2024 were directed by women; this rate was 16 in 2020.
The MeToo movement in 2017 sparked a reckoning in Hollywood over men in power and the representation of women both in front of and behind the camera.
The following year, 2018, saw only four of the top 100 films directed by women, but that number rose to 16 in 2020 as the MeToo movement gained momentum. There are no figures available for 2025 yet.
During her speech, Stewart said: “In a post-MeToo era, it seemed possible that stories written by and for women would finally get their due. We might be allowed and even encouraged to express ourselves and our collective experiences, all of our experiences, without filters.”
“But I can now attest to the bare-knuckle fighting that takes place every step of the way when the content is so dark, so taboo, when it candidly presents observations about experiences women routinely go through that often provoke disgust and rejection.”
He added: “We can discuss pay differentials and taxes on buffers and take action [inequality] in many measurable ways. But the violence of silencing is as if we shouldn’t be angry. But I could eat this podium with a fork and [expletive] knife. I’m so angry.”
Guests who listened to Stewart’s speech included Sarah Paulson, Julia Louis Dreyfuss, Tessa Thompson, Riley Keough, Zoe Deutch, Claire Foy and Kate Hudson.
Stewart received multiple rounds of applause throughout his seven-minute speech. According to Hollywood trade publication VarietyThis was also available.
“I am grateful to you,” he said. “I’m not grateful for the boys’ club business model that pretends to want to hang out with us while draining our resources and belittling our real perspectives. Let’s try and not be tokenistic. Let’s start printing our own currency.”
The new films of Chloé Zhao, Kathryn Bigelow and Mona Fastvold are among the films that will compete in the upcoming Oscar race, but the best director category is expected to be made up of a majority of men once again.
