Forty years after actress Jean Seberg died, Kristin Stewart says she wants to show the world that the star of the French New Wave should be known for more than just her short haircut.
The 29-year-old plays the actress in a political thriller detailing how the FBI targeted Seberg in the late 1960s because of her personal and political links to African American civil rights activist Hakim Jamal.
Seberg began her career as a teenager, portraying Joan of Arc in Otto Premingerโs โSaint. Joanโ. But it was her role in Jean-Luc Godardโs โBreathlessโ in 1960 that turned her in a French New Wave star.
The film titled โSebergโ starts with her meeting Jamal, played by Anthony Mackie, on a plane. FBI agents, played by Jack OโConnell and Vince Vaughn, tap her home as they seek to expose the affair and discredit the actress.
The film, which premieres at the Venice Film Festival on Friday in an out-of-competition screening, follows Sebergโs realisation that she is being watched and the impact it has on her mental health and personal life.
โThis personโs story is so tragic for all the right reasons and we should definitely know her for more than the short haircut and the movies,โ Stewart told a news conference.
Director Benedict Andrews said viewers get to know Seberg โthrough the gaze of the FBIโ in the movie.
โTo see that private life then used by the FBI to destroy her for political purposes I found was a very particular and a very special story, but also one that was startlingly relevant in 2019,โ he said.
Seberg died on Aug. 30, 1979, aged 40.
Asked about actors being political today, Stewart she had no qualms in voicing her opinions.
โThereโs this really sort of polarised climate that weโre living in right now, itโs not hard for me to wear my politics,โ she said.
โIt shows up in the work that I do and the people I associate myself with and the conversations that I have with individual journalists, day in and day out. I like that interaction. Iโm so lucky to have it.โ
Stewart, who found global fame as a teenager when she starred in the โTwilightโ movies and will soon be seen in the โCharlieโs Angelsโ reboot, also said she now felt more comfortable living in the public eye.
โThereโs a difference, and for a minute a couple years ago I definitely felt like โugh, I have to like protect myselfโ, and Iโm so completely unguarded now,โ she said.
โItโs a beautiful feeling.โ
REUTERS
