Kristen Stewart Releases Statement Regarding James Gandolfini

Kristen Stewart met James Gandolfini on the set of their movie, Welcome to the Riley’s (2010). If you’ve never heard of it, you aren’t alone, it was an indie that took a lot of fan persuasion and time to get to DVD. James plays Doug Riley, a businessman in a troubled marriage after their daughter was killed in a car accident.  Melissa Leo plays his wife, Lois. He meets Stewart, a young girl who makes a living as a prostitute, while on a business trip. Instead of taking the usual man-woman prostitute turn though he ends up becoming a friend and ally to Stewart.

Stewart was in New Orleans when Gandolfini unexpectedly passed last week but has just issued a statement to Entertainment Weekly:

When I heard of James’ passing I was in New Orleans, where we met shooting, and every memory flooded back and gutted me, I’ll hold that time near to me forever.  He was immeasurably great. My heart goes out to his beloved family.

James and Kristen always spoke very highly of each other and got along great on and off set.  Welcome to the Riley’s is one of my favorite movies of all time. I’m a big fan of Kristen and when I found out she was going to be acting along side Gandolfini and Leo I was ecstatic. This movie isn’t sugar coated in any respect, it’s raw and emotional and real. I highly recommend you watch it. It’s not Twilight and it’s definitely not The Sopranos.  He spoke with the NY Times back in October of 2010 and talked about why he accepted the role of Doug Riley;

Q. So it was only the nonviolent script that attracted you to this?

A. I found out Kristen was going to do it. I saw her in “Into the Wild.” Some people kind of jump off the screen because they’re — actually, it had nothing to do with her beauty. She’s beautiful, but her intelligence seemed to leap off the screen. I thought, this is a smart young girl. And Jake Scott, I know his uncle — Tony [Scott] actually gave me my first big film [“True Romance”]. It was different from something I played before, and I thought the script had some humor in it. I have not seen the movie yet so I don’t know how much humor we kept, but I thought it was good and interesting and had a pretty good point.

 

Trailer for Welcome to the Riley’s:

Author: Heather Duval

Heather Duval is a co-owner of Fanspired and entered the world of pop culture at an early age by studying film in high school, attending IMTA in NYC and working with New England Models Group. With a Bachelor’s degree from Keene State College, Heather studied Marketing and Business Economics, filling every possible elective with film studies, social media and web design.