MovieChat Forums > American Ultra (2015) Discussion > Why? Why does KStew continue to get hire...

Why? Why does KStew continue to get hired?


This poor mislead young lady thinks herself an actress.
With an open mouth and a frozen face as her universal tool to express every emotion I cannot understand why she was hired for this project or any other? Couldn't be her unchanged hair and looping it behind her ear that EVERY single character she portrays? Couldnt be her constant slumped and frumpy demeanor? Couldn't be her dark and tiny eyes? Couldn't be her slight, "Nine year old boy" body?

There are SO many talented, graceful, beautiful young actresses who demonstrate RANGE AND DIVERSITY!

For the love of Cinima, please stop hiring this person and delight us all with an actress who will add to the tapestry of the story!

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She was quite good in this movie.

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Because people like her work. I like her work.

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I'm not her biggest fan either, but I give her credit for the last couple of performances she's turned in. She has potential, but she desperately needs a better acting coach. Her use of nervous titches and mannerisms seem to be a motif in every movie and they need to stop. She was pretty terrific in American Ultra though, I believed her character and I think this and Adventureland her her two stand-out roles thus far. Still Alice could've been her chance to really show another side of her acting, but I feel she totally blew that opportunity and basically just played Bella from Twilight again.

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She was pretty terrific in American Ultra though, I believed her character and I think this and Adventureland her her two stand-out roles thus far.


I became a fan of Kristen after watching her in Adventureland. I became convinced that she is one of the best young actresses working in Hollywood today after watching her in Clouds of Sils Maria.

As far as American Ultra goes, it's somewhere just outside my top ten Kristen performances--after Clouds of Sils Maria, Adventureland, The Runaways, Speak, The Cake Eaters, Still Alice, Into the Wild, Panic Room, Welcome to the Rileys, and Camp X-Ray.


Her use of nervous titches and mannerisms seem to be a motif in every movie and they need to stop.


Still Alice could've been her chance to really show another side of her acting, but I feel she totally blew the opportunity and basically just played Bella from Twilight again.


Kristen in Twilight:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBm0MoVdACI

Kristen in Still Alice:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tIyccc0kjI


While I would definitely agree that Kristen exhibited a plethora of nervous idiosyncrasies in Twilight, partly due to what her role as Bella called for, her nervous mannerisms were keep to a bare minimum in Still Alice and were virtually nonexistent in Clouds of Sils Maria.

If you want to watch a Kristen film performance that is virtually devoid of Bella-esque jittery quirks and eccentricities, I highly recommend Sils Maria:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUG42M4Jnk8

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You are absolutely delusional.

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I totally agree with you, i am huge Dakota Fanning so i tried to see the Twilight but after 5 minutes i gave up, she ruined it, if the new great stars are ppl like her cinema is doomed

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I'm really replying to everyone in this thread. So first off, as an actress, I rate her very highly. Camp X-Ray brought me to tears at the end. I've never seen Twilight, the movie that I guess launched her career but I can understand that movie has a reputation now as serving a younger teen audience. Massively successful yes, but not very respected as a movie. I wouldn't know, haven't seen it and the subject isn't my cup of tea so no plans to.

With all that said, I can get onto what I want to say, everyone knowing where I stand as far as her acting abilities go. I have this working theory now that people who attack Kristen for being a cardboard actress are themselves the problem. It's easy to see great leaps in acting abilities when an actor goes from an insane person to a grieving depressive but Kristens greatest strength is that she uses subtlety to tell a story about her characters and that can be just as powerful as directors are able to use that in all kinds of scenes, not just dramatic highs. Directors seem to get this as they keep hiring her for what is a pretty fine back catalogue of movies she's not just been in, but been in a starring role.

So next time you want to have a pop at any actor because you think they aren't acting enough, check your own ability to discern what acting is for movies rather than just what YOU think acting is for yourself. You might be right about an actor that starred in one movie and then died a death career wise but an actress who has been in so many highly rated movies at such a young age, maybe you are the one missing something if you continue to see cardboard.

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@threedbomb

Subtle and nuanced may perhaps be the best way to describe Kristen's acting. Thus, for me, she comes across as highly believable and realistic in her portrayals of characters. For this reason, she rarely, if ever, gets accused of being contrived in her acting simply because she refuses to resort to over-the-top, sensationalism, which in my opinion, is all too pervasive among most young actresses working in Hollywood today. But then again, what else would we come to expect from her pundits who agree with everything the tabloids promulgate about her, since these tabloid journalists make a living from sensationalism. Thus I believe such ones misinterpret subtle and nuanced as two-dimensional/cardboard cutout acting.

The theory I share with many of her fans, is that much of the hate stems from, what some refer to as Robsten shippers, Twihards who would want nothing more than have Robert Pattinson and Kristen stay together forever as a couple, not just onscreen but off screen as well. However, interestingly, they always seemed to have a love/hate perception of Kristen. For example, I recall that when I began perusing IMDb boards back in 2009, even when Rob and Kristen were still dating, many claimed that Kristen would never be good enough for Rob and that he deserved better. So as you can imagine, all hell broke lose and Pandora's Box opened when the two parted ways. Thus it's a bit ironic that some Robsteners accuse Kristen's fans of being delusional when they are the ones who fail to come to grips with reality.

Like you mentioned, I too question whether her detractors in general possess the ability of recognizing acting talent when most do little more than spew the same generalizations of her acting in Twilight (i.e., nervous tics, mannerisms). While judging acting talent, as is true with judging most art forms, is subjective, we can still be objective when it comes to certain aspects of Kristen's acting. For example, Kristen has the ability to nail her lines on the first try, with little or no rehearsing. Sometimes all it takes is for her to read the screenplay once and she knows what to say and how to say it. The vast majority of actors do not possess such talent. Another example is her onscreen presence--her ability to work the camera and move in space so effortlessly. Yet another example is the way she interacts with her costars--namely the chemistry she has with her onscreen love interest in films such as Adventureland, The Runaways, The Cake Eaters, Clouds of Sils Maria and American Ultra. And lastly her ability to get into character. This is most readily apparent in a biopic such as The Runaways where she portrays a real-life individual and in this instance, an individual who is a household name. She also was required to get into character when she portrayed a young teen suffering from a neuromuscular disorder. So how could one accuse her of playing herself?



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Completely agree. If people prefer acting with more exaggerated facial expressions and gestures, that's one school of acting and takes skill to pull off, but acting that consists of realism of expression, subtly expressing a whole range of emotions with minute details of action and using even only the eyes, is an art-form to say the least and as far from emotionless as can be. Critics have been convinced of her being a very talented actress and many of them even singing her praises, and so are the people she has worked with (and people she hasn't worked with in the film industry).

As for people slamming Kristen and calling her the worst actress of her generation, I guess it can be expected from those who mindlessly ape what the tabloid press has repeated over and over about Kristen especially a few years back when they made her a target. Her name became synonymous with terrible actress for the general American. Some people dislike her because of her person, which is one thing, but to dismiss her acting without specifying why or mindlessly repeating the same old clichés, expect to be called out on it and don't automatically assume that just because it's been endlessly repeated by people, many of them having absolutely no knowledge about film whatsoever, that it makes it true.

As for the person who saw Twilight for five minutes and said that she ruined it, really? Five minutes? I didn't watch more than the first, but I'm pretty sure that if you had changed Kristen for a different actress, Twilight would not have become a masterpiece. For some reason Kristen gets all the blame for a series that people who weren't even the target audience hate. She didn't write the books, the script, direct it and she wasn't the only actor in it either.

By the way, how do you even become the worst actress?

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I didn't watch more than the first, but I'm pretty sure that if you had changed Kristen for a different actress, Twilight would not have become a masterpiece.

Miuhr, you are entirely correct. The primary Twilight Saga producers and directors, especially Wyck Godfrey and Bill Condon, have stated multiple times that Kristen Stewart was the unequivocal anchor of all of the Twilight Saga motion pictures. Her work ethic, preparedness, realism and enthusiasm significantly helped pull credible performances out of many of the Saga's other actors. Upon seeing her performances in the first Twilight Saga movies, Bill Condon stated being able to work with her was primary in his decision to come on-board to direct the Saga's final two movies. And he was not disappointed, stating how he was absolutely "blown away" by her portrayal of a very pregnant Bella (and the delivery) -- take after take after take -- each unbelievably solidly performed. He and the producers couldn't believe she could keep it up indefinitely, but she did.

I agree with you the Twilight Saga Franchise would not have been the spectacular success it was without her.

Rest in peace, Roger Ebert. You were the best.

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I am a fan of Kristen Stewart; not her biggest fan at all, but I liked her work in the Twilight saga (she was perfect for it, and she did a good job, hence why she has quite a few fans) and in Camp X-Ray (in which she shows more talent, evolves even more and gains more fans).

She is not a great actress, but she is young and very willing to evolve, which is very noticeable in every aspect of her personal and professional life.

In regard to your comments, it is noticeable that you are very angry at something. Are you angry with Kristen Stewart herself? Are you an actress? Did you lose a character to her? Do you feel inferior (inferiority complex) to Kristen Stewart? This is what your angry comments sound like.

"Dying is what mortals do for a living." - Marco Avila

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i thought she can not act, until i watched welcome to the riley's, she has done an excellent job on that one, few films she has been in i thought she was terrible than redeem herself on next movie, i have seen thousands of movies since 70s and can tell for a fact she is not a great actress but keep in mind she is still young and not getting big budget movies like jennifer lawrance than there is the fact JW made some terrible movies to, getting back to the question why is she getting hired ??? it can be said about Jennifer Lopez, Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Will Ferrell, Jayden Smith, Russel Brand, Hugh Grant, Alex Pettyfer, Milla Jovovich, Nicole Kidman, Brendan Fraser, Tom Cruise........................ so on and so on these people heve not done a decent movie in years????????????? when you found the answer to them you got your answer.

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the movie is a comedy, they were never trying for i nomination... op is being intentionally insulting.

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