Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun Had a Complete “180” While Filming ‘Love Me’

In a world so intimately connected through the internet, life can feel isolating at times. With the ability to see into someone else’s life at our fingertips, the notion of “just being yourself” is enough to give you an existential crisis. In the sci-fi drama Love Me, from first-time writer-directors Andrew and Sam Zuchero, co-stars Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun examine these concepts — self identity, purpose, love — through the curious AI minds of a buoy and satellite on a post-apocalyptic Earth.

“In the not-too-distant future,” according to the movie’s trailer, a lonely buoy bobs in the ocean while a satellite floats aimlessly in space, simply existing after mankind has ceased to do so. When they find each other, they explore the internet, excavating humanity and searching for the meaning of life and a sense of self.

Ahead of the movie’s release, Collider’s Steve Weintraub had the opportunity to speak with Stewart and Yeun about their initial thoughts on the script and how their points of view changed throughout filming. The duo discuss the ambitious plot, what it has to say about life on Earth, and how they tackle social media and the influencer lifestyle as Me/Déja (Stewart) and Iam/Liam (Yeun). They also share updates on their other projects, Yeun’s Bubble & Squeak and Stewart’s feature directorial debut, The Chronology of Water.

Steven Yeun Teases a “Freeing” World in ‘Bubble & Squeak’

The drama premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

COLLIDER: Before we get into the film, which I have a lot of questions on, Steven, I want to start with you. I’ve seen Bubble & Squeak, which is premiering at Sundance in a few days, so I just have to ask, how much fun did you have in that role and finding that accent?

STEVEN YEUN: I had a lot of fun. I feel that I was really fun. And just playing in a world where there wasn’t a defined, specific reality, but it was kind of open to collective understanding of it was freeing, so we just kind of messed around.

It’s a lot of fun. I think people are going to enjoy it.

Imogen Poots Is “Incredible” in Kristen Stewart’s “Ephemeral” Directorial Debut

“We will continue making movies forever,” she says of her The Chonology of Water star.

Kristen, I have an individual question for you. For a long time, you’ve talked about directing a feature, and you finally got to make it. I’m just curious, when will people be able to see it, and what do you want to tell people about it?

KRISTEN STEWART: Oh, I didn’t actually film it. It was just sort of something that I wanted to try out. [Laughs] No, I’m kidding. We did roll. We rolled when we made it. I’m finishing it right now. It’s been a long process. It’s an incredibly ephemeral film. It’s a movie about memory. It’s something that is taking a moment, but I have footage that you could eat with a fork and knife. Imogen Poots is better– when I say “better,” she’s more alive than I have seen anyone be alive in a movie. If I was ever going to make a movie as an actor who just loves actors, loves performance, loves watching people do unexpected things… I’ve just never had that experience. I’ve never been around it. She’s so incredible. She’s like family to me now. That’s what you want a movie to do to you. I have made family members doing this, and we will continue making movies forever. It was such a good first step.

When can you see it? My goodness. I don’t know. It’s a festival movie. It’s a total arthouse film, and so kind of wherever we get lucky enough to be accepted or welcomed, that’s where we’ll go, but we don’t know what that is yet.

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Kristen Stewart’s Directorial Debut ‘The Chronology of Water’ Just Got a Huge Update

The film stars Imogen Poots.

So there’s a decent chance of Toronto later this year.

STEWART: By the way, we’ve been talking for so long, I’m like, “I mean, let’s talk about it.” But we’re doing an interview right now. [Laughs] I’m not sure yet. It’s important. Wherever it winds up… Not sure yet.

YEUN: Tight. I’m excited.

I really mean this, I’m so happy for you, and I really can’t wait to see it.

‘Love Me’ Is About the Constructs of “Authenticity and Inviduality”

“It was an opportunity to sit in a vacuous space and consider what ‘being yourself’ really is.”

Jumping into why I get to talk to you guys. You both read a lot of scripts, so what the hell was it like reading this script and seeing what they were trying to pull off? Because it’s really ambitious.

YEUN: When I read it, I loved the swing of the totality of it, but also how earnest it was, which I think, in a time when a lot of things feel more about telling people who you are, this one felt like it was revealing yourself a little bit. It was the exercise of going into that, so that felt courageous to me from Sam and Andy [Zuchero]. That was what was exciting for me with the script.

STEWART: Yeah, I think it’s easy to look at the ambition and the maybe presumed mission statement, like, “Oh, okay. It’s a future world. We’re maybe making a couple of presumptions about how it’s going to go, maybe making statements about the effect of our presence on the earth, the internet at large.” For me, it was so about the question of authenticity and individuality and how those are constructs, ones that allow us to survive, but also, actually, if you boil them down, they go right back to connecting us and making less distinction between us all, that we actually really share so much and are not that different to each other. Having said that, in order for us to sustain, we have to accept the small differences that actually can link us.

It just felt so human to me. It was like this cool invitation to do an acting exercise that would totally strip you down. It was like a relationship movie about people with only our affectations because the characters didn’t exist. It was like an opportunity to sit in a sort of vacuous space and consider what “being yourself” really is. Because we’re pretty obsessed with that. The internet’s pretty obsessed with it. Just fake versus real. As reality is breaking more and more every day, I thought that with this movie the most confronting thing about it was its acknowledgment of that and its earnestness in acknowledging that identity isn’t fixed, and it’s absolutely in our wheelhouse to define it.

‘Love Me’ Challenges Perceptions of Curating an Online Presence

“No, this person’s an inspiration.”

You are both not what I would call social media sharers, so what was it like filming that social media stuff? Did you watch any people who are online and say, “Yeah, I can copy that?”

YEUN: There were certainly people to watch, and there’s a wide range of so many different people. There are people where their whole thing is to be, like, raw and authentic, and then there are other people who feel more artifice and like they’re trying to present a different type of life. You don’t know what’s real and what’s fake. You don’t know any of that stuff. So it didn’t feel like I was judging what was going on on social media. For me, it was more just realizing… and more so now; we made this film, what, three years ago?

STEWART: It’s funny that you say that. As you were talking, I was like, the internet changes with the wind. I mean, like in split-second periods, and this movie was written years ago.

YEUN: Yeah.

STEWART: So the idea of influencers was a little bit more surfacey, superficial, sort of presentational. Nowadays, it is all about really letting it all hang out in a kind of more raw way.

YEUN: Totally. But then, what’s interesting, too, is now I go to the comments, and I actually feel like…

STEWART: Stay out of there.

YEUN: [Laughs] Yeah! But you know what I mean? I feel like people don’t even look at the thing for what it is as much anymore.

STEWART: You want to know what other people think about the thing without even looking at the thing. Yes.

YEUN: You know what I mean? It almost feels like that’s where the people are meeting. It’s like we all kind of know that maybe this is a slight performance, which is also revealing and authentic in its own way. “Let’s see what the conversation is about that,” which is also weird. We’re in a weird reality right now.

STEWART: Yeah. The influencers that I was looking at, ultimately when we did Déja and Liam, I was judgmental, and I guess a little shitty at first, being like, “Oh, I’m gonna play some influencer. I need long blond hair then. I need to get extensions, and it needs to be straight, and I need to have eyelashes.” It was like I started off really aesthetically, going, “Yeah, she needs to look a certain way because all these people need to be so plastic seeming.”

Then, ultimately, when me and Sam, half of the directing team, were talking about this young person, it was like, “No, this person’s an inspiration. Even if some of the things feel a little bit forced or inauthentic, there’s such earnestness behind it that, actually, it would be cool if she was just really well-intentioned. Just genuinely genuine.” And so, I did a 180 on what I thought we were going to do with those characters, because I thought at first it was going to be kind of nonsense, like bullshit, and then ultimately, I was like, “I don’t know. She’s sweet. She just wants to spread positivity.” There’s probably more going on off-camera or whatever, but what she’s trying to leave, like her mark… I don’t know, not so bad.

YEUN: There were also things that it revealed over time, too. Like Liam’s journey for me, I was playing a guy that probably had chosen to just kind of do what Déja wants, in the same way that Iam is kind of like, “Tell me what you need me to be.” Liam’s artifice is kind of predicated on something else, which is like, “I just want to be with this person, and maybe these are the things I need to do to be with this person,” until it gets to this boiling point, and he’s like, “I can’t.”

STEWART: “Where am I?”

YEUN: Yeah, “Where am I?” And so, Sam and Andy, they went there. They really went there.

Love Me is now playing in select theaters.

Love Me

Release Date

January 31, 2025

Runtime

92 Minutes

Director

Sam Zuchero, Andy Zuchero

Writers

Sam Zuchero, Andy Zuchero

Producers

Julie Goldstein, Ben Howe, Luca Borghese, Shivani Rawat, Kevin Rowe, Connor Flanagan, Christine D’Souza Gelb

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