Kristen Stewart Talks up Real Feelings in ‘Equals’ Emotion- Free Utopia

                  
TOKYO – “Twilight” star Kristen Stewart denied any romantic
attachment with “X-Men” hunk Nicholas Hoult, as the two appeared
in Tokyo ahead of production on indie sci-fi drama “Equals.”
Hot indie director Drake Doremus (“Breathe In”) and producers
Michael Pruss and Ann Ruark were also on hand to field questions
Saturday at a Tokyo hotel.
“I can’t stand him,” Stewart joked, when asked about her feelings
for her co-star. No mention was made of a sushi meal, widely
reported by online gossip sites, that a fellow diner had snapped
them sharing the night before.
“It’s always a weird position to be put in any film where the director
chooses two people and is saying ‘Hey, potentially in this world I’m
creating you two could fall in love,'” Hoult explained.
“Sometimes [this kind of situation] feels forced and tricky and
awkward, but the kind of environment Drake created was straight
forward and easy. Kirsten is a great actress and that just makes it
very relaxed and my job very easy,” Hoult added.
Based on a script by Nathan Parker, “Equals” is set in a near future
in which human emotions, from love to envy and hatred, have been
eliminated. The resulting humans, called Equals, are carrying on
peacefully, when a disease called SOS (Switch On Syndrome) begins
to free dangerous feelings — and the afflicted ones are exiled from
society. After the hero, Silas (Hoult), is infected he becomes close to
Nia (Stewart), who is also able to feel emotions, while maintaining a
safely unemotional exterior.  Thoughts of love and escape follow.
Queried about his own desire to live in an emotionless world, Hoult
said: “That obviously would be the easy way out, but no, I like to feel
everything, take the highs and the lows.”
“I’m definitely not afraid of ‘feels.’ My life revolves around it
actually,” Stewart said. “Finding the balance between the head and
the heart is important but I’ve always been very driven by the gut.
Every thought or articulated emotion starts in shapes and colors
and putting your finger on that is cool, but it’s not necessary.”
Doremus explained that the world he created with Parker has a
positive side. “There’s a beauty and poetry to this society,” Doremus
said. “Despite what they left out, a lot of things they did right and
that’s important to us.”
“The story has been compared to ‘1984,’ but it’s not that at all,”
producer Ann Ruark said. “It’s a love story –it’s not dystopian, it’s
Utopian.”
Thus the decision to shoot in Japan, whose minimal architecture,
Ruark explains, “expresses that Utopian vision.”
“It’s sexy — That’s all you need to know, really,” said Pruss when
quizzed about the wardrobe .
“Equals” will shoot from August 4 to 28 in Japan and then move to
Singapore for another three weeks.
Indian Paintbrush, Route One Films and Scott Free Productions are
producing, with sci-fi maestro Ridley Scott also serving as producer.
“Equals” is financed by UTA Independent Film Group, which also has
North American rights. Release is set for 2015.