Kristen Stewart says she is “shocked” that her “violent and kind of irredeemable” latest film, Love Lies Bleeding, was allowed to be made.

The actress plays gym manager Lou, who falls in love with a female bodybuilder in late eighties New Mexico, in a film that has been praised since premiering at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

Directed by Rose Glass, the film is a queer love story but Stewart admits it’s also “scary” and “confronting”.

In an interview with PORTER – NET-A-PORTER’s digital magazine – she said: “I think we were shocked that we could even get this made. Because it’s so weird. It’s violent and kind of irredeemable at times, but it makes you look; it’s scary. It’s confronting.”

Stewart, now 34, has also delved into the world of directing, with her first feature film based on American writer Lidia Yuknavitch’s 2011 memoir The Chronology of Water.

“My movie is about incest and periods and a woman violently repossessing her voice and body, and it is, at times, hard to watch… but it’s gonna be a f***ing thrill ride,” she told Porter.

“I think people would want to see that, but then… I think maybe people wanna watch movies about, like, Jesus and dogs.”

Speaking from her position as a woman in Hollywood, the star said it can be easy for the industry to appear to check all the boxes.

“It’s easy for them to be like, ‘Look what we’re doing. We’re making Maggie Gyllenhaal’s movie! We’re making Margot Robbie’s movie!’ And you’re like, OK, cool. You’ve chosen four… And I’m in awe of those women, I love those women [but] it feels phony.

“If we’re congratulating each other for broadening perspective, when we haven’t really done enough, then we stop broadening.”

To see the full interview, read PORTER here. Or download the app for iPhone, iPad and Android. Search for NET-A-PORTER on the App Store and Google Play.