In a recent profile in The New Yorker, our very own Kristen Stewart revealed that in addition to her work adapting bisexual author Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir “The Chronology of Water” for the cinema, she’s also writing a TV show with her fiancee Dylan Meyer and, in a move that will undoubtedly delight the 25% of LGBTQ+ people who have seen a ghost, developing a gay ghost-hunting reality show with a friend. Kristen Stewart told New Yorker writer Emily Witt that the ghost program will be “a paranormal romp in a queer space” with “elevated aesthetics.” She also told the writer that “gay people love pretty things” and therefore the show is “aiming for a richness.”
As noted in the paragraph that preceded the paragraph we are now in, ghosts are of particular interest to the queer population. Our research found that LGBTQ+ women and non-binary people are certifiably more haunted and more likely to believe in ghosts than the population at large, and last year our writer Ro made a passionate and 100% convincing case that ALL ghosts are gay. This hypothesis likely rings true to the creators of the Queer Ghost Hunters, a YouTube series based in Ohio that produced two seasons of gay hauntings in the mid-to-late ’10s.
Stewart’s filmography is pretty haunted, too. In 2007, she appeared in very bad film The Messengers as the daughter of a family that moved to a farm in North Dakota only to find themselves under constant peril from ghosts only visible to Stewart’s character and her brother. She sought out the ghost of her dead twin brother, a medium, in 2016’s Personal Shopper. And she is visited by the ghost of Anne Boleyn in 2021’s Spencer, in theaters now!
This New Yorker profile has more in store for you than simply the gay ghosting news: at one point, Stewart shows Witt her lookbook for “The Chronology of Water” and tells her, “I want to fuck with a split screen. Like, genuinely shredded memories. I want seasons. I want the movie to have scope.” Early in the article, it is confirmed that Kristen Stewart and Dylan Meyer have been engaged since this past summer.
In conclusion, there has never been a better time to be a gay ghost!!!!
feature image credit: American actress Kristen Stewart at the 78 Venice International Film Festival 2021. Spencer red carpet. Venice (Italy), September 3rd, 2021 (Photo by Marilla Sicilia/Archivio Marilla Sicilia/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)
I am so easy. I will watch anything she’s in.
“Opportunity to be ghosted by Kristen Stewart” was my knee-jerk dad joke response.
OMG, she needs to go to Nicole’s haunted house.
This is the Kristen-Autrostraddle crossover I’ve been waiting for.
I AGREE
Although I have reason to suspect at least one of my ghosts is straight, unfortch.
Straight ghosts? Booooo.
Ugh, I’ll see myself out.
A show involving gays and ghosts sound perfect.
I am 100% here for a creative scope that spans adapting “The Chronology of Water” to “gay ghost-hunting with elevated aesthetics.” This New Yorker profile was a highlight of my media consumption this week.
I am curious to see who gets cast in Lidia’s role for “Chronology.” In the recesses of my memory I recall seeing Jacqueline Toboni post a photo awhile back with a copy of the book in it (a memory I admittedly can’t substantiate), and I’m not going to lie that I’m holding out hope for the a Stewart/Toboni project. Anyone else read the book/think Jacqueline would be well-suited for the role, if not an obvious choice?
yes i did read the book and i agree i think she’d be amazing in that part I WOULD LOVE TO SEE IT
Thank you for validating my intuitive impulses, Riese. It might admittedly be like a real life fan fic crossover if Stewart directed Toboni in this adaptation, but I can fully justify my position upon request.
And also: the heart wants what it wants!
PS. I’m glad to know I’m not alone in suffering through “The Messengers” out of a sense of tender commitment to the KS filmography. I spent my quarantine winter of 2020-21 doing that deep dive. The beginning of my enchantment was “Clouds of Sils Maria,” which I saw when it was first released in Europe, while I was living there for a time (and I wrote about the queer subtext, if not in those terms, in LA Review of Books back in 2015) – I’d seen her in other things before, but “Clouds” cemented the deal. Watching someone’s filmography feels a little like committing to a long-term partnership: you accept that you’re going to have to come to terms with/recognize/let go of the bad decisions, awkward moments, etc. to commit. I feel that way about a lot of her movies, and I still think she is a phenomenal actor who captures my imagination in a way that the films can’t really account for. Somehow this comment turned into a Kristen Stewart testimonial.
Where do we sign up i amthe