Kristen Stewart confirms in the March L.A. issue of Architectural Digest that she has purchased the historic Highland Theatre in L.A.’s buzzy Highland Park neighborhood.
The Highland Theater, which opened in 1925, was a neighborhood fixture until it closed in 2024. It was rumored that Stewart had bought it last summer as it was being prepped for a film shoot.
“I didn’t realize I was looking for a theater until this place came to my attention. Then it was like a gunshot went off and the race was on. I ran toward it with everything I had,” she told Architectural Digest. “I’m fascinated by broken-down old theaters. I always want to see what mysteries they hold.”
Stewart recently said that she would probably be making movies in Europe instead of the U.S., but the theater purchase indicates her commitment to supporting indie film in Los Angeles. “I’d like to make movies in Europe and then shove them down the throat of the American people,” she said last week.
The theater was recently featured in Marvel Television’s series “Wonder Man” and was used extensively to film David Fincher’s “The Adventures of Cliff Booth,” doubling for Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Theatre.
Stewart said she intends to make the theater, which requires extensive renovation, into a space for the whole community. “It’s an opportunity to make a space to gather and scheme and dream together…We want to make it a family affair, something for the community. It’s not just for pretentious Hollywood cinephiles. I see it as an antidote to all the corporate bullshit, a place that takes movie culture away from just buying and selling. I think there’s a huge desire and craving for what this kind of space can offer.”