Based on the groundbreaking novel by Jack Kerouac, Kristen Stewart, Garrett Headland and Sam Riley break become part of the Beat Generation in On The Road.
On the Road is probably the “coolest” film at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Why? It’s based on the book by Jack Kerouac, which is a coming-of-age story based on the years Kerouac spent travelling the United States in the 1940s with his friend Neal Cassady and several other figures who would go on to fame in their own right, including William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. It was groundbreaking when it was released in 1957 due to its risqué content, including sexual exploits between the characters.
But after her traumatic public breakup with Robert Pattinson, will the premiere at the Toronto festival – which will mark Stewart’s first public appearance since she admitted to cheating with married director Rupert Sanders – put a damper on the film? According to TIFF co-director Cameron Baily, the film will speak for itself and not her personal life.
“The thing we always want to do when something like this happens is to keep the focus on the film,” Bailey told press. “I think she does great work, and it’s really a break-out role for her, so we hope whoever’s in the theater that night recognizes that.”
In On The Road, directed by Walter Salles, Sal Paradise (Sam Riley), an aspiring writer joins his friend, Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund)—the character inspired by Neal Cassady—on a trip through the mental and physical landscape of postwar America.
While Dean carves a wild path through the highways and byways of the nation, drinking and sexing in and out of trouble, Sal stores up a stash of memories that will serve him well as a writer. He observes the tumultuous relationship Dean has struck up with his brazen lover, Marylou (Kristen Stewart), a free-spirited, fearless, fast-talking Westerner, who trails along as part of the pack and is influenced by a number of colourful characters he meets along the way including Carlo Marx (Tom Sturridge).
Stewart had to dive right into her own journey of self-discovery while filming, which had her doing some nude sex scenes, including a threesome with Garrett Hedlund and Sam Riley. The actress said that her Twilight fans will be shocked to see her in a new light.
“I wasn’t scared, honestly. It’s kind of insane to watch now. I’m like, ‘Who is that?’ But I think — as every actress says when they do this is — it just felt so right,” Stewart told press at Cannes. “It was so within a different world and so within a different environment. I am personally connected to it, of course — but it is something outside of myself…. I felt so safe with Walter. Nothing was ever about taking your clothes off. ‘But I love pushing. I love scaring myself. And to watch genuine experience on screen is just so much more interesting.”
As part of his research, Hedlund took his own road trip, including one with Salles. “I was pent up in Los Angeles, after doing a film that I worried was going to be negatively received. I jumped in the car, showed up in SLC at 2 in the morning, got a hotel, took off at 7 in the morning, got some Dennys, got pulled over for speeding in Idaho, drove through Yellowstone behind logging trucks, up through Montana, 19 hours straight,” he told Indiwire. “Slept in a Motel 6, who turned 100, in North Dakota, showed up on the farm to surprise my dad. I’ve done quite a few, through Arizona and stuff. I drive a SUV. I’ve got to be higher up, I can’t stand not being able to see the road in front of me.”
“Walter and I did a cross country in a ’49 Hudson (owned by Neal Cassady), that took us 14 days. We broke down nine times. If you try and get brake pads in Nashville on a Sunday, good fucking luck,” Hedlund continued. “We broke down in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico. I’ve been to some great places, and some great trips, but it’s weird that I found this the greatest 14 days of my life. We took the back roads, we didn’t take the freeways. When it takes 5 hours to get from Phoenix to LA, it took us 16. Within the impatient traveler, there’s part of you that says ‘Ah, come on, let’s just get there.’ But it takes as long as it takes.”
On The Road is executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola, directed by Walter Salles and also stars Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst, Amy Adams, Steve Buscemi, Elisabeth Moss and Terrence Howard. It makes its premiere at TIFF 2012 on September 6.
—Toni-Marie Ippolito
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