Kristen Stewart has never been one to shy away from a challenge. Over the past decade, she’s transformed from a global superstar in the Twilight franchise into one of Hollywood’s most enigmatic and daring artists. Now, with her directorial debut, The Chronology Of Water, Stewart dives headfirst into the deep end, crafting a film that’s as bold, fragmented, and emotionally raw as the memoir it adapts. But even as she steps behind the camera, the ghosts of her past roles linger—none more so than Princess Diana, whom Stewart portrayed in the 2021 biopic Spencer. In a candid admission reported by Daily Mail on February 10, 2026, Stewart revealed that she still feels “haunted” by the late princess’s spirit, especially when she finds herself in Britain or Paris, cities forever marked by Diana’s presence and tragic end.
The journey to The Chronology Of Water has been a long and winding one for Stewart. She first announced her intention to direct the adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s acclaimed memoir as early as 2018. By 2022, her passion for the project had reached fever pitch. As Stewart herself put it, she would “die” if she couldn’t make the film. That sense of urgency, of creative necessity, pulses through every frame of the finished product. According to a review published on February 10, 2026, the film is suffused—quite literally—with blood, sweat, and tears, capturing the chaotic, sensory-driven nature of Yuknavitch’s life story.
Starring Imogen Poots as Lidia, the film traces its protagonist’s journey from a teenage competitive swimmer tormented by an abusive father, through the tumult of adulthood, addiction, grief, and, ultimately, redemption through writing. But don’t expect a straightforward, linear narrative. Stewart’s adaptation eschews traditional storytelling in favor of a fragmented, memory-driven structure that mirrors the way trauma and sensation imprint themselves on the mind. As Empire notes, “If it were possible to crack open Yuknavitch’s brain and project all the thoughts and messy feelings inside, The Chronology Of Water is what it might look like: fragmented and divorced from linear time.”
The film’s editing, masterfully handled by Olivia Neergaard-Holm, weaves together rapid-fire close-ups and context-free vignettes, creating what’s been described as a “memory poem.” Past and present intermingle, with scenes echoing and rhyming across different periods of Lidia’s life. One moment, she’s receiving an invitation to perform a live reading of her writing; the next, she’s plunged back into memories of the college scholarships that slipped through her fingers after high school. Trauma, in Stewart’s hands, is a hidden thorn—always ready to puncture even the happiest of memories.
It’s not just the events that stick with Lidia, but the sensory details: the cacophony of the swimming pool, the smell of sex, the ache of skin against tile. Shot on 16mm film, The Chronology Of Water is a feast for the senses, awash in color and texture. Stewart’s eye for detail is evident from the opening frames—blood pooling on a bathroom floor, the criss-cross pattern of tile imprinted on a knee. It’s a world where memories aren’t just recalled; they’re felt, smelled, and heard.
For Stewart, this leap into directing feels like a natural, if daring, evolution. Having honed her craft with auteurs like Kelly Reichardt (Certain Women), Olivier Assayas (Clouds Of Sils Maria), Pablo Larraín (Spencer), and David Cronenberg (Crimes Of The Future), she was never likely to make a conventional debut. As Empire puts it, “As a director, you can either sink or swim, and Stewart readily takes to these waters.” The result is a film that’s as disorienting as it is lyrical—one that trusts its audience to make sense of its aquatic imagery and emotional tides.
But even as Stewart makes waves behind the camera, the shadow of Princess Diana continues to loom large in her life. In that same February 2026 interview, Stewart confessed that she remains “haunted” by her portrayal of the Princess of Wales—a role that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in 2022. “I can’t drive through London, or even Paris, without thinking about her,” Stewart shared. “All that love she carried within her... I could cry for her at any moment.”
Stewart’s connection to Diana runs deeper than mere performance. Initially, she thought director Pablo Larraín was “crazy” for offering her the part, but he saw a kindred spirit—a woman living under the relentless gaze of the public eye. Stewart, who became a global sensation as a teenager thanks to Twilight, knows all too well the exhausting scrutiny of paparazzi and the challenge of baring one’s soul when every move is dissected. “The constant paparazzi surveillance exhausts me,” she admitted. “As an actor, it’s hard to bare yourself emotionally when you know your every move is subject to public scrutiny.”
That sense of vulnerability and responsibility weighed heavily on Stewart. She even suggested that Larraín “hire someone else” at one point, doubting her ability to do justice to Diana’s legacy—not least because of their physical differences. “She was elegant, and I’m not. And the color of her eyes—I have green, and she had distinctive blue eyes that matched her ring. I even thought: ‘Should we make the ring green then?’” Stewart recalled. The obsession with such details threatened to overwhelm her until Larraín reminded her that what mattered was the “spirit” she shared with Diana, not the externals.
The film Spencer zeroes in on Diana’s psychological pain during her marriage to Prince Charles, focusing on the Christmas of 1991 at Sandringham, when Diana was grappling with her husband’s affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. Stewart described Diana as “drained to the core” by the paparazzi—rebellious, young, desperate, and extremely vulnerable. The costumes, she said, became part of Diana’s “armor,” helping her inhabit the princess’s physical space and convey the sense of being trapped “in a castle, dressed in opulent and beautiful pieces. That in itself is poetry.”
Half a decade after Spencer, Stewart admits the experience still lingers. “I was haunted by it while I was filming… and I still am,” she said. It’s a testament to the depth of her performance—and perhaps to the enduring power of Diana’s story—that the role continues to follow her, shaping her artistic journey in ways both seen and unseen.
With The Chronology Of Water, Kristen Stewart has proven herself not just as a fearless actor, but as a director unafraid to plunge into the murky waters of memory, trauma, and transformation. Yet, as she charts new creative territory, the ghosts of her past roles remind us that some performances—like Diana’s—never truly let go.