Hollywood star Kristen Stewart: I've always wanted to direct a movie

Kristen Stewart has always wanted to direct.

The 35-year-old star has actually been thinking about directing since the start of her acting career, but she's been waiting for the perfect project to come her way.

Kristen - who is making her directorial debut with 'The Chronology of Water', a film adaptation of writer Lidia Yuknavitch's memoir - told The Hollywood Reporter: "I think I asked a couple of actors on one of my very early projects [about] the youngest director they could stomach working with. And I was sat down by most of them and asked, 'Why are you even asking us that question?'

"I had to wait until right now for this to be actualised, because there are portals that set you free. Texts or songs or conversations that give you ways into figuring out how you want to wield your voice. And even though I always knew that I was waiting for that trigger, I hadn’t found it yet until ['The Chronology of Water']. This was eight years ago."

Kristen admits that reaching her directorial debut has been a "slow and laborious" process. But the actress - who is best known for playing Bella Swan in the 'Twilight' film franchise - has relished the challenge of directing.

She explained: "I’ve wanted to direct movies as long as I have been an actor and it’s been a multi-tiered development. But for some reason, psychotically, I’ve wanted to do it forever, because I do think the exchange between an actor and a director is a bridge between two very different positions.

"You actually have to end up doing the same thing together to hold this reciprocal energy in this emotional space and make something feel congruent. So I was like, 'Oh, I’m half of you.' And I feel like my actors are half of me and I just wanted to do both. I wanted to get onto the other side."

Kristen relished reading 'The Chronology of Water' and she jumped at the chance to turn the memoir into a feature film.

The actress-turned-director shared: "It was just a book that I read and impulsively, after 40 pages, put down and reached out to the writer.

"I thought, 'There are certain things that I’ve read that really do live in your brain and it would be an honour for them to live there.' And they get to multiply within your own personal experience.

"But this one felt like it needed to get up and share space with a lot of people. It was one of those books that I wanted to read out loud with all of my friends. It was one of those books that felt like a choir that you wanted to join."