I kept wondering if this would happen. Several years ago, Kristen Stewart and James Gandolfini worked together on a little film called Welcome to the Rileys. It was one of the first films Kristen did when she was on hiatus from filming Twilight sequels, and everyone was like, “Oh, Kristen is so hardcore, she does gritty independent films!” I never saw Rileys, and I don’t really remember it being a critical darling or anything, but Kristen and James Gandolfini dutifully promoted it and now it’s part of Hollywood history. Still, Kristen didn’t issue any statements about Gandolfini’s passing in the days immediately following the news. So I kind of thought she was grieving privately. But now she’s issued a statement/story to Entertainment Weekly:
They were mismatched from the get-go. James Gandolfini was hulking, fearsome, and bristling with submerged rage and grief. Kristen Stewart was tiny, fragile and fronting false confidence as she spiraled into self-destruction.
At least, those were their characters in Welcome to the Rileys, a 2010 indie drama starring her as a teenage stripper/prostitute and him as the well-meaning but misguided father of a deceased child who thought he could try and save her instead.
Stewart has been silent since Gandolfini’s unexpected death last week from a heart attack at age 51, but with his funeral set for Thursday in New York, she is opening up about the loss of a friend and colleague:
“When I heard of James’ passing I was in New Orleans, where we met shooting, and every memory flooded back and gutted me,” she tells EW in a statement. “I’ll hold that time near to me forever. He was immeasurably great. My heart goes out to his beloved family.”
In real life, the pair had a bond forged by their mutual introversion. Neither one was a big talker, and each was famous for a character that created obsessive, sometimes intrusive fans. He was the Emmy-winning star of The Sopranos, she was the lead of the teen-girl-crazed Twilight saga.
When I interviewed her in 2009 for a USA Today profile, she had just finished shooting Welcome to the Rileys and talked about her low-key friendship with Gandolfini. “Jim was … the sh-t,” she said with a laugh after struggling for a moment to find the right word. “He’s quiet. We got along well because we let it happen the way it’s supposed to. It was very organic, very cool.”
Each actor was also trying something new with the indie found-family drama: Gandolfini wanted to show he was more than Tony Soprano; she wanted to prove she was more than Bella — not that those roles were easy to escape.
Everywhere Stewart went, Twilight fans tended to gather and freak out. She felt she wasn’t great at handling it at the time, though she admired the slow-burn of her Welcome to the Rileys co-star when boisterous Sopranos fans showed up.
“He has that. It’s so annoying,” Stewart said in 2009. “Everybody is like ‘Tonyyy! Yo, Tonnyy!’ I’m sitting there going, ‘Don’t do that … He will f–king deck you.’”
The admiration was mutual. Last year, Gandolfini wrote this piece for Variety about Stewart’s performance in On the Road. “Kristen Stewart is one of the mad ones. But mad in a beautiful way,” he wrote. “And she is determined to make people mad. To show them she is more than Bella in Twilight. To show them she does burn, and smolder, and wants more out of her career and life. And smolder she does.”
That’s cute about how they bonded. James was probably like, “Yeah, she bites her lip and rolls her eyes, but she’s okay.” And that’s nice that he wrote something about her performance in On the Road. I still haven’t seen that either. I like that Kristen made a public statement and I like that she kept it brief. That’s nice.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, stills from ‘Rileys’.
In this movie she made with him there’s a scene where her character curses at his character and he’s all “Stop using those words. They make you sound immature and uneducated. I know that’s the case, but why advertise it?” and I wonder why she never took that advice for herself so she’d sound better on interviews. Like, why advertise that you don’t have a very sophisticated vocabulary? Speak like that among friends, not when you’re working.
Well said.
Uh…. she isn’t her movie character ?
Yeah, thanks for the observation, Mia, you know I thought there was an actual camera crew following them around and they weren’t acting, but they called each other different names and such, and for some reason they just called it a movie eventhough it was real.
Jeez.
You did say she should follow the film plotline! Ha!
Well there is such a thing as working towards betterment of oneself. That is what Annie meant.
We all know KS is so “true” to herself and so “real”. I guess she can’t be bothered. 🙄
Every statement and interview I read that touches Gandolfini’s passing makes me sadder and sadder.
Ahhhhhh…
I’m sure she’s very sad. I’m sure everyone that’s worked with him and knew him is. I’m sad, and I never knew him personally. He was a very charismatic and likeable guy.
I saw Welcome the the Riley’s too and thought I was great. They both did a great job. James Gandolfini had an amazining ability to express many emotions with his eyes.
+1
“James Gandolfini had an amazining ability to express many emotions with his eyes.”
… and his voice!
The campaign to humanize KStew rolls on.
It would be more belevable if she weren’t paraphrasing Brad Pitt’s statement.
Oh give it a rest! She’s expressing her sadness over the passing of a former costar. Do u think you could just shut up and not make this about your dislike for her? GOD.
Hey Twilight,
Maybe she can try expressing her sadness with her own words. That shouldn’t be too hard if his passing affected her tjat much. All the other celebs and fans seemed to manage.
And the articles with her statement are all about how great and talented she is, not about James’s passing actually. PR all the way.
I’m with you, Shade.
And Ginger – the statement she gave to EW WAS purely about Gandolfini. The writer of the article has fleshed it out by recounting their working relationship, and recalling statements made about each in the past. The writer, not Kristen Stewart.
I’m fairly ambiguous towards Kristen Stewart, but I think this was a nice thing she has said about a former co-star/friend, and it’s sad that people are going to turn it into something negative due to their dislike for her.
Right, because she isn’t human. She doesn’t have feelings. Of course she isn’t sad that a colleague is dead at 51. Of course, she didn’t feel it appropriate to pay tribute to him, especially after the lovely write up he did about her for On The Road. Jeez!
Honestly, i know she isn’t perfect (who is?) but some of you really treat her as an evil human being. It gets a bit ridiculous, ya know!?
It never stops to amaze me how much some people love to hate this girl.
Agree.
They were her own words… wth? Does Brad Pitt have a monopoly on the word ‘immeasurably’ now? Sorry Kristen, you should have crossed checked every celeb tribute and made sure you didn’t use the same word!
Get a life!
It took her publicist this long to write a statement for her? Ruth Bernstein is falling down on the job. Kstew must have been late paying her this month.
Sigh, surely this is scraping the bottom of the Kristen-Stewart-sucks barrel, is it not? And my comment above stands.
Well, if she released a statement the next day, you’d have complained that she was taking advantage of the situation to call attention to herself. She can’t win with some of you people.
I’m not her biggest supporter by a long shot, but I think the need to demonize her has gotten a bit ridiculous. Even a fairly innocent post about her draws rabid reaction from some of her detractors.
In this case, she merely expressed remorse for the passing of an actor she knew and admired. Really not sure how people can find fault with that.
+1. Spot on, Another Ann.
@Another Ann,
I agree with you. I cannot understand why so many people seem to hate Kristen Stewart. I can’t even begin to see what is gained. It’s a little creepy and a whole lotta sad.
Kirsten, sometimes, on rare occasions, does good acting. I quite liked her in On the Road. It was…not a favourite movie. But she does the lip-biting thing/girl you love to hate thing well. Close to reality?
It was interesting that they were both in similar phases of their careers when they worked together. Both forever linked to famous characters yet striving to do something different. James had his own issues with the paparazzi (how many times did he attack them lol), middle finger flipping, cursing, being uncomfortable in the glaring spotlight etc.
No. They were not at similar at all. James was a talented and experience actor at this time with many many fine credits on his resume. Sheesh!!!
I saw the movie, pretty forgettable. I think her statement is a nice tribute to an amazing talent.
It was a good movie!! Haven’t seen on the road, but I want to. I like Kristen and will watch any movie she’s in :).
I think she handled this very well. She didn’t make a huge public show of her sadness over Gandolfini’s death, her statement was brief, and it was focused on him and his family. It was classy. (Admittedly, it’s a refreshing change from her.)
Let’s be honest – I’m not Stewart’s biggest fan, but she’s getting slammed here for releasing a statement now, and if she’d done it when he first passed away, she’d have been slammed for using his death for her own PR. She couldn’t win in some people’s eyes.
I agree. She wasn’t even in L.A., so I get why it took a few days. He wrote in Variety about her a few years later, so they obviously kept in touch which was sweet. I haven’t seen anyone slam her, except a handful of comments on this website and EW where I read it and on EW it was pretty obvious they were extreme RPattz stans (mentioned him). Interestingly enough, people called them out for being inappropriate on EW.
James was so young. My Uncle basically has the same body type and is James’s age, and it inspired him to get healthy.
I think the lip-biting thing comes directly from the character Bella as written by Stephanie Myers. It’s not a Kristin thing. Everyone goes on about it.
I was shocked when I heard that Gandolfini died. He was so young, I don’t think anyone expected it. Sometimes it takes people longer to process things and react, especially if you were close to the person. I don’t see how people can react negatively to Stewart for this post, you are really reaching if you are.
I really liked Welcome to the Rileys. I recommend it.
I admire the sentiment, but “immensely great”. What an awkward phrase. I wish “celebrities”, particularly the younger ones like Kristen focused more on getting an education and/or becoming more proficient at speaking and writing. It seems so underrated in Hollywood.
James Gandolfini R.I.P.
Welcome to the Riley’s was stupid. Typical actress trying to do the stripper/bad girl/druggie movie. Trying to change. Kristen did her job but the direction, script, music awful.