By Rollo Ross and Danielle Broadway
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – For “Love Me” actor Kristen Stewart, the overall message of the film remains a mystery.
“I’m not sure what the movie’s trying to say ultimately,” the “Twilight” actor said.
She believes, however, the film may be asserting that no one wants to be isolated and they often seek to be like one another. “Of course, we want to be not so alone,” she added.
“Love Me” is a futuristic drama about an existential romance between a smart buoy, portrayed by Stewart, and a satellite, portrayed by “Beef” actor Steven Yeun, as they try to become more human by delving into archives of modern-day social media long after humanity has died out.
The buoy and the satellite, who name themselves Me and Iam, mold their identities by emulating an influencer couple they discover called Deja and Liam, also played by Stewart and Yeun, whose lives appear perfect.
“Love Me,” distributed by Bleeker Street, arrives in theaters on Friday and is written and directed by wife and husband Sam and Andrew Zuchero, who are first-time feature film directors.
“They’re not trying to be fake, they’re trying to be real,” Yeun said, referring to Me and Iam’s cheesy expressions of romance.
Me and Iam are thousands of miles away at the beginning of the film but eventually share space as avatars before evolving into something more human.
For Stewart and Yeun, it meant spending months in motion-capture suits playing their ever-evolving avatars from undeveloped renderings to realistic human beings.
Yeun was unaware that he would be doing any motion capture, so it was a bit of a shock to him.
“There was no way to get around it. You’re like, ‘Yeah, I’m wearing this weird bodysuit,’ and that’s just what it is,” he said.
Sam Zuchero hopes the film will make people examine how social media has changed humanity.
“Prior to the internet, people saw you in different ways, in different spheres of your life. So, you could pull from those different spheres to create self. But now, self is like in one area and it’s one thing,” she said.
(Reporting by Rollo Ross and Danielle Broadway; Editing by Mary Milliken and Diane Craft)
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