‘The Chronology of Water’ Author Lidia Yuknavitch on Having Her Memoir Adapted by Kristen Stewart
Lidia Yuknavitch: It’s pretty mind-blowing. I don’t really think of it the way that maybe other people do; I think Kristen made her own autonomous, rebel-yell art and my book was sort of a launching pad, or a kind of artistic inspiration, but what she made is all hers. It’s her art, and I could not be happier for her. I’m over the moon.
What was it like collaborating with Kristen?
Well, I wasn’t collaborating all that much. At the very beginning, she asked me a bunch of questions about people’s reactions or emotional intensities, and I would answer them, and she’d be like, “Cool,” and then I wouldn’t hear from her for a while. [Laughs.] I’d get another set of questions, and I’d answer them, and she’d be like, “Got it.” I think the collaboration was more of the heart and of a kind of sensibility that we share as unapologetic mammals who have something in their hearts and something in their guts and bodies that they have to find a form for. Maybe our deepest, most intimate collaboration just happens because we’re two women artists who found each other in the world, and if we don’t help each other, nobody else will.
What was your experience of seeing the film for the first time like?
You might not like this answer, but I actually haven’t seen it yet! It’s literally killing me that I have not seen it, so hopefully I’m not going to die. I’ve read interviews with Kristen and reviews and things like that, and people I know and love have seen it and eagerly sent me their impressions; plus, I kind of get her vibe, so I feel like I’ve seen it even though I haven’t. It’s still killing me, though, so the day I see it, everyone check on me and make sure I’m still alive.
Had you ever thought about who might play you in a movie prior to this experience?
Not really, because I’m an introvert. I’m wired non-neurotypically, so I don’t think about things like that, but when I see clips or images of Imogen, all the hairs on my body stand up; not because we can look like each other or anything like that, but just because I can see that she has an extraordinary ability to inhabit emotional intensity and a whole range. I can already tell that about her, and I suspect she’s an extraordinary person and clearly an extraordinary actress. I mean, she’s not playing me; she’s stepping into a story that, yeah, sure, it’s my version, because this stuff happened to me personally, but all women step into these stories. Our stories aren’t all the same, but the parts we’re supposed to keep clean and pretty and quiet have stuff underneath them, and she was willing to step into that. I don’t think about who would play me in a movie, but what I do think is, you know, Holy fuck, there’s a woman who is willing to step into the underneath-story and play it out.