Update: Kristen Stewart & Director Respond To Cannes Audience Boos

Michael Hafford
Matt Baron/REX/Shutterstock
Update: At a press conference on Tuesday, Kristen Stewart and Olivier Assayas responded to the poor reception of their film Personal Shopper at its Cannes premiere. Stewart laughed, "Hey, everyone did not boo,” Variety reports. Assayas, the director, wasn't upset by the audience reaction. “When you come to Cannes," he said, "you're prepared for anything." He added that audience expectations may be partly to blame. "[People] have expectations of a film and then the film is something else."
This story was originally published May 16 at 11 p.m.
Many people wish they could boo Kristen Stewart.

The actress has had a weird reputation despite or perhaps because of her starring role in Twilight. Though American audiences have had a bit of a sneering attitude towards Stewart outside of her Bella role, she’s become an indie darling. Stewart excelled in Adventureland and delivered a great performance in The Clouds of Sils Maria. For that performance, she won the Cannes César, the first-ever American woman to take home that award.

She’s back at Cannes this year, in a starring role in Woody Allen’s Café Society and in Personal Shopper, her latest collaboration with Sils Maria director Olivier Assayas.

Personal Shopper, in a screening for critics, was booed. The film is a ghost story about a personal shopper, played by Stewart. Variety notes the irony in the audience delivering boos to a ghost movie.

Critics came to the film’s defense on Twitter.
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So who, then, was booing? Maybe some ghosts sneaked into the theater because they hated what Bella Swan meant for the undead? That could be the only explanation, since apparently everyone that saw it was so wrapped up by its power. Or perhaps nobody wants to step up and kill a movie without being able to defend his or her opinion.

The film will officially screen at 11 a.m., Cannes time, Tuesday.
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