The movie, in which Stewart plays foul-mouthed, pot-smoking, over-sexed prostitute, was just screened at the Berlin Film Festival.
The movie received only a luke-warm reception from critics, but the three main stars Stewart, Melissa Leo and James Gandolfini have been praised for their performances.
For her part, Stewart is protective of the film and the character.
“I’m not playing a stripper,” she told reporters before the film’s first screening Saturday. “My character — basically nothing belongs to her. She’s an open sore.”
“It’s really not a stripper movie at all. It sort of just opens your eyes about people that don’t have options.”
For the record, Director Jake Scott, son of famed Director Ridley Scott, is making it clear that he wanted Stewart for the role before she appeared in “Twilight.”
Scott is best known for directing music videos for bands like the Smashing Pumpkins, R.E.M. and U2. Screenwriter Ken Hixon previously worked with Robert de Niro and James Franco on “City by the Sea.”
Scott said Sean Penn had recommended Stewart on her performance in his movie “Into the Wild,” a film Penn wrote and directed.
In fact, the low budget Rileys was already shot and in the can before Stewart appeared in “Twilight” in October 2008.
“We shot this in 2008, so ‘Twilight’ came out when we’d wrapped,” Scott told reporters in Berlin on Monday (Feb. 16). “I saw her in ‘Into the Wild’. We got lucky.”
Without a doubt. Stewart’s turn in “Twilight and sequel “New Moon” has made her an international star with a huge fan base, which follows her every move.
Her Rileys character, Mallory, however, will be the antithesis of the shy, soft spoken Bella Swan in “Twilight.”
Doug Riley (Gandolfini), finds Mallory in the New Orleans brothel he runs, and hopes she can fill the gap in his life created by the loss of his own daughter.
Riley sees her as a surrogate for his own daughter, who died in a car crash aged 15. Riley’s wife, (Leo) overcomes her grief and paranoia and agrees to take Mallory in.
Melding the chain-smoking, foul-mouthed Mallory into his family, drives the movie.
“Rileys” is Stewart’s other indie projects include “Adventureland” in 2009, “What Just Happened” and “The Yellow Hankerchief” in 2008.
source: improper.com via Twilightish
