Imogen Poots on Working With Rodarte, Kristen Stewart and Embracing ‘BTE'

Yahoo

20-05-2025

CANNES, France — The morning after a six-minute standing ovation for 'The Chronology of Water,' Imogen Poots sits calmly in the cooly cream-colored Chanel suite.
'It was the best time ever. Getting to share it with Kristen was so special,' she said. The Kristen in questions is Stewart, of 'Twilight' fame. The actress is now a first-time director, although she is no stranger to the Cannes Film Festival having presented several projects here.
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The film is in this year's Un Certain Regard section, and in competition for the Camera d'Or prize which recognizes best first film.
For the red carpet, Poots selected a black lace Rodarte gown. The British actress does not personally know the L.A.-based design duo Kate and Laura Mulleavy, but they remain a fashion favorite.
'They're my absolute favorite brand and always have been,' she said. 'I just think everything they do is so interesting and cool, and they don't follow any pattern or trends. What they make is artwork to me.'
The dress was chosen with her stylist Chloe Hartstein, whom she credits not just with fashion guidance but creative partnership. She finished the ensemble with a smoky eye look made with Inika products, a vegan, organic and cruelty-free Aussie brand.
Despite the glamour, Poots is quick to ground herself. 'I'm probably more of a T-shirt and jeans person,' she admits. 'But I really admire fashion. I love it. I mean, it's art. The turnaround is so fast, but it's a very kind of magical realm to me.'
Poots' respect for the creative process carries into her work on 'Water,' Stewart's bold and raw directorial debut. Aside from the standing ovation, the film has earned solid reviews.
'It was really great to finally birth the film,' said Poots of seeing it on the big screen at the Palais des Festivals for the first time. 'I was just so proud of Kristen and everybody who worked on the project. It was a pretty bold film that Kristen decided to make for her debut.'
The film pulls no punches from its intense, often disturbing and ultimately redemptive storytelling.
Based on Lidia Yuknavitch's memoir, the film's non-linear structure and raw story of abuse and overcoming addiction was immersive and emotionally demanding. '[The book] felt very much like a living document, like it was breathing,' Poots said. 'It's not linear in any sense, and yet it's a life that's contained in those pages.'
The story's themes hit home for Poots. '[Yuknavitch] was dealt cards that she had nothing to do with,' she said. 'She was subjected to things that she had nothing to do with and made choices off of that. And that can happen so often to women — the expectation on how we're supposed to be, how we're supposed to act, what we're supposed to hide, how we're supposed to be pitted against one another. These are really damaging. It's very much a disease that's kind of inoculated into your brain at birth by culture.'
Working with Stewart deepened the experience. 'She's absolutely incredible — instinctive, very precise, completely singular,' said Poots. The two formed a special bond as actor and director, in part due to the intimate nature of indie filmmaking and the intense nature of the subject.
As a result, they developed a rare creative shorthand on set. 'The kind of director-actor dynamic melted away,' she said. Everything about working with a director of the same age and same background of an actor that started young, created a close-knit atmosphere on set.
The 'Twilight' star's own experience as an actor played a key role. '[Kristen] understands what it is to have three thoughts at once, be saying one thing while you're thinking another,' said Poots. 'What's amazing is she's already there with you.'
The mental jump allowed Poots and Stewart to make physical jumps as well. Poots learned how to swim and dive from former child champions from Brazil and Ukraine.
Everything that followed was intense. Due to budget limits, the film was shot in Latvia on a shoestring. And besides budget limitations, the material created a sense of urgency and honesty with the two playing off of each other's knowledge.
Stewart's essence is putting all her cards on the table, and that ethos was equal on set.
'You're screaming at each other like sports coaches,' she said. 'But because of that, if you really respect someone, you owe them your honesty.'
To call Yuknavitch a character is dismissive, as Poots is playing a real person that is not the classic film heroine.
'The female experience has often been so reactive, and that's expected, and it's very confronting when that doesn't follow through. For me the rhythm [of Yuknavitch's story] is jolting. The way she has lived her life is like, there is a right thing and a wrong thing and I'm going to do the other thing,' said Poots. 'It always feels like she is peeling off a layer.'
The approach of working with a peer like Stewart, who had felt so passionate about the story that she reached out to the author before she even hit page 40 of the book, was to pursue all-out rawness on screen. There was no competition, Poots said, or proving someone is right or wrong — it was more about making sure the team could achieve the most honest emotion possible.
'That's what happened with the two of us — if it can be better, let's make it better. That doesn't need to make anybody feel insecure or defensive.'
Poots' spirit of collaboration goes beyond 'Water.' She recently wrapped the romantic drama 'All of You,' directed by William Bridges and costarring 'Ted Lasso''s Brett Goldstein.
The film was less intense than 'Water,' and is expected out in September. These days, Poots spends time on getting back to basics with swimming and life drawing as hobbies. She goes to a studio most days and spends other days swimming.
Following 'Water,' she finds the immersion meditative.
Both are pretty solo activities, she admitted. 'I should really, like, see people occasionally, right?' she joked.
Even though she learned quickly and intensely, swimming brought her more than just skill for the film. She's taken it back to real life.
And that is Poots' 'BTE' — a phrase coined by Stewart during a press conference during the festival.
'Imogen was just the only person that could play this part,' Stewart said. 'She doesn't have, like, big tits or anything, but she seems like she does. I'm like, she has 'big tit energy.' Like 'big dick energy' — BDE. She has BTE. I was like, you don't, but somehow, I feel like you have big tits, and you have to play this part.'
So how does Poots feel about such a description? It's 100 percent a compliment for the actress, especially coming from Stewart.
'If you have it, you don't know it, you just have it. You don't have to have big boobs because you've got the energy. I've got 'BTE,' watch out,' she joked. 'I would love that on a T-shirt.'
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