Kristen Stewart’s decision to shoot The Chronology of Water in Latvia instead of the United States is more than a logistical choice; it’s a quiet act of protest. She describes Trump’s floated tariffs on foreign-made films as “terrifying,” not just for their economic impact but for the chilling effect they cast over creative risk. For her, the uncertainty alone is enough to make independent filmmaking at home feel “impossible.”
Now balancing her life between Los Angeles and New York, Stewart admits she may not stay in the U.S. if the climate continues to harden. She doesn’t want to abandon American audiences, but she increasingly sees Europe as the only place she can create without looking over her shoulder. The irony is sharp: an American actress, shaped by Hollywood, feeling pushed abroad by an American president who once tweeted about her love life and now, she believes, threatens her work.