Kristen Stewart interview in UK GQ

Click here for a lengthy article in the UK version of Gentlemen's Quarterly in which Kristen Stewart discusses her role as Marylou in the upcoming movie version of Jack Kerouac's On The Road.

"It's a pretty big deal for me," she explains. "Of course, all the actors took the responsibility of bringing such a work to visual fruition incredibly seriously. But we knew our stuff; Walter [Salles, the movie's director] demanded it. We had a four-week rehearsal period where we did a sort of beatnik boot camp - sounds a little corny, but it was awesome. There was dancing and listening to music, and he had us watching Shadows a bunch of times. We had Kerouac biographers come over and give us talks, and Marylou's daughter - or rather the daughter of Luanne [sic] Henderson [who Marylou is based on] - came to spend time with us all and that gave us such brilliant insight." Was Kristen already a fan of the book? "It was my first-ever favourite book."

The article states that the movie is now slated for a January release, which is news to me. One Kerouac biographer she refers to is Gerald Nicosia, who wrote the definitive Kerouac biography, Memory Babe, as well as recent books about Lu Anne Henderson (One and Only, reviewed here) and Jack's daughter, Jan (Jan: A Life in Memory, to be reviewed here soon). I feel compelled to point out that if Kristen were really knowledgeable about the beats, she would not have used the word beatnik. You can read why here. It's a forgivable mistake, but one that annoys me because Jack considered the word a pejorative (and it was intended that way by its creator, Herb Caen). I've never seen Shadows, but now I want to. I assume that someone knowledgeable suggested it as part of their boot camp training, in which case it must have some redeeming value. It won the Critics Award in 1960 at the Venice Film Festival.


You learn something every day . . . .