Hollywood star Kristen Stewart is doing her part to preserve the moviegoing industry and has bought a broken-down movie theatre in Los Angeles. Stewart explained that she’s “fascinated by broken-down old theaters. I always want to see what mysteries they hold.”
The theatre closed its doors in 2024, just short of its 100th anniversary. One of many 1920s Los Angeles cinemas designed by architect Lewis Arthur Smith, it opened with a screening of Lady of the Night on March 2, 1925. “I didn’t realize I was looking for a theater until this place came to my attention,” recalled Stewart, in an Architectural Digest profile, reports people.com.
She added: “Then it was like a gunshot went off and the race was on. I ran toward it with everything I had.” The Chronology of Water director sees the restoration project as “an opportunity to make a space to gather and scheme and dream together,” she said.
“We want to make it a family affair, something for the community. It's not just for pretentious Hollywood cinephiles,” she said. “I see it as an antidote to all the corporate…, a place that takes movie culture away from just buying and selling. I think there’s a huge desire and craving for what this kind of space can offer.”
The theater, Stewart said, contains “so many beautiful details that need to be restored. I think there’s a way to bring the building back to life in a way that embraces its history but also brings something new to the neighborhood and something new to the whole LA film community.”
The Oscar nominee is not alone in giving L.A. cinema a boost. Quentin Tarantino owns the New Beverly Cinema and the Vista Theatre. A team of filmmakers, including Jason Reitman, Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan and Bradley Cooper, purchased the historic Fox Village Theatre in Westwood.
“I absolutely love this city,” Stewart said of her hometown. “There’s a kind of unified dissonance because it’s not really a city as much as a cluster of neighborhoods, but there’s unity in that. I like the spaciousness. You can decide how you want to fill it.”
The Stewart-directed The Chronology of Water, starring Imogen Poots, is in theaters now. Among her upcoming projects is The Wrong Girls, which is directed by her wife, Dylan Meyer. Stewart stars in the film and co-wrote the script with Meyer.