Last night, Dakota Fanning had the honor of introducing Kristen Stewart―friend and four-time co-star―at ELLE's Women in Hollywood Awards. But her intro wasn't the typical spouting niceties one might expect, instead, it was the stuff―excuse the hackneyed phrase, but there's no better way to describe it―of friendship goals. These two simply love the fuck out of each other.
"I can honestly say that my friendship with Kristen is one of the most special bonds in my life," Fanning told the audience. "She has held my hair back and talked me through heartbreak. She has always been there for me when I have needed her most and most of all she has taught me the power of being one hundred percent yourself one hundred percent of the time."
Stewart responded to Fanning's lovefest―which ended with a magnificent "I can't present an award to Kristen Stewart and not say "fuck" so, lastly, I love you so fucking much."―in kind, telling "D-bags" that she too acts as an inspiration: "I've looked up to you since I was, like, ten… no, you were five? Who knows, maybe I was, like, nine? Oh my God, dude I love you so much. Yeah, anyway. Okay, here we go, sorry that was like a real trip to have that experience in front of so many people, you know."
In her speech, Stewart also talked about her hopes for the future of women in Hollywood: "While I'm so glad to be here tonight with so many incredible people, I would be remiss if I didn't say how much I look forward to a time...when the question 'Hey, what's it like to be a woman in film? What's it like to be a female director? What's it like to be a woman in comedy?' are questions of the past and, unfortunately, as of yet that's not the world we live in," she said.
Below read both actresses' full remarks below.
Dakota Fanning's full speech:
As actors, we work with so many people. On each set a little family is created, but inevitably your time together comes to an end. We say goodbye to the friends that we have made; we promise to keep in touch but inevitably life takes us in different directions. Kristen Stewart's life and my life travel in different directions a lot of the time, but we always seem to find our way back to one another. I never know what occasion to mark as the first time that Kristen and I met. We had met in passing on the set of a short film and were once in a meeting together, but neither of those instances feel special enough to be the moment that we met so I'm choosing my own moment. We were sitting in a warming tent on a sound stage on our first day working together on New Moon. Our conversation took a deep turn very quickly and I walked out of that tent knowing I had just connected with someone that I was going to know forever. I was 15 years old and I am now 22 and I can honestly say that my friendship with Kristen is one of the most special bonds in my life. She has held my hair back and talked me through heartbreak. She has always been there for me when I have needed her most and most of all she has taught me the power of being one hundred percent yourself one hundred percent of the time.
Kristen's greatest gift in her life and in her work is the ability to feel and her ability to convey exactly how she was feeling. She feels deeply and madly and enjoys translating those mad feelings into something that others can understand. Anyone who has received a text message from her kind of knows what I'm talking about. I'll give you an example: I texted her recently asking if she was good. My text read "you good?" Her response was "I am so [four spaces]Good." The period, the spaces and the capitalization of the G are everything to Kristen and they were everything to me. She was not only good, she was great. This may seem trivial but it represents something so much larger about her and her talent. She is able to get right to the core of the character or a scene or a line and convey emotion in a way that pierces the heart. She finds what is most important and carves into it like a building into the sky. Obviously the carving into the building part is an inside joke and I'm super proud of myself for working that in [laughs]. I've had the pleasure of being able to work with her several times—on three Twilight films and The Runaways. Watching her work on The Runaways and working with her intimately on that film is an experience that I hold dear to my heart. It will never be replicated and I feel lucky to have been there. She approached playing Joan Jett with a guttural passion that can only come from one's soul, she gave her whole heart, her whole self to Joan and to me.
For the last seven years, I've had a front row seat to watch her films, but also to watch her excitement when she's preparing for a project she truly believes in. I know when she says "it's so cool, dude" that it's going to be a good one. This year alone we have seen her transform seamlessly from character to character I think four times. All I can say is that I'm grateful for that front row seat. Kristen, you endlessly inspire me; I admire the strength and bravery you share with us on screen but most of all I admire the woman I have watched you become. I admire your fierce loyalty to those of whom you love, I admire your limitless curiosity and your commitment to creativity. I am so proud of you, I am so proud to call you one of my best friends in this world and you are my sister forever. I can't present an award to Kristen Stewart and not say "fuck" so, lastly, I love you so fucking much.
And Kristen Stewart's full speech:
"I've looked up to you since I was, like, ten… no, you were five? Who knows, maybe I was, like, nine? Oh my God, dude I love you so much. Yeah, anyway. Okay, here we go, sorry that was like a real trip to have that experience in front of so many people, you know. Good evening ladies, girls, women, transwomen, gentlemen, you guys, too. While I'm so glad to be here tonight with so many incredible people, I would be remiss if I didn't say how much I look forward to a time―this was mentioned in the beginning of the show. When there's not—I mean, for a special night for women, you know—when half of the population doesn't have an asterisk besides it and everyone can be valued for their multitudes and not maligned or ghetto-ized or sidebar-ed or any of that nonsense, you know? When the question 'Hey, what's it like to be a woman in film? What's it like to be a female director? What's it like to be a woman in comedy?' are questions of the past and unfortunately, as of yet, that's not the world we live in, so that said I'm really grateful for the fucking medium.
"I'm a kid from the valley, and my mom was a script supervisor and my dad was an AD and I'm obsessed with the filmmaking process because they would come home with loaded script bags and craft service-filled pockets and the jackets would smell like smoke machines and Fuller's earth and they'd smell like they've been around the world in a 16-hour day and I became obsessed with the search for something—I'm reading this, but I mean it—real in tiny precise moments or splattered messy ones. The precious and insane ways we protect those moments that make us feel less alone or at least valid in our fucking craziness. Without that we wouldn't make our—so I guess I can say, I'm probably not alone in this, I thank my mom for a little bit of my crazy but I have to say that's the best kind of crazy cause I need that. I'm happy that my parents showed me the way and speeches are really good when they end with quotes and stuff so in the words of Charles Bukowski, who is my absolute boy and arguably a misogynist who loved women and arguably a drunk who probably came up with this when he was wasted: 'An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way and an artist says a hard thing in a simple way.'
"So, very simply, thank you very very much, ELLE magazine and Robbie Myers and all the women—'huwomen'—who came before me. And thank you, Dakota Fanning, D-bags. My girl. She flew here to do this because we're like such good friends, ya know [laughs]. I just watched her in a movie and it's called… it's Philip Roth's American Pastoral, she's SO GOOD IN IT! It doesn't surprise me or anything like that, it's just… wait til you guys see it. I love you so much, man. I'm so proud of you and I'm always really proud of you, I'll do this for you really soon, just ask me! And also the incredibly sick women that I worked with this year and last, Kelly Reichardt—fucking steel train of a director. Her crew, my production designers, sound mixer, composer, assistant editor, makeup artist, costume designer, colorist on the short flick that I directed, all women. Boom! Olivier Assayas, Woody Allen, Ang Lee for being so brilliant and hiring me to be a real complex woman in their most recent endeavors cause that's what we all want to play, right? Real complex women. Because what the fuck else is there? It's been a really rad year for me, thank you guys so much. I've destroyed this podium, fuck it!"
