Actor Kristen Stewart Plans New Life For 100-Year-Old LA Theater

LOS ANGELES, CA — Actor and director Kristen Stewart has purchased a historic Highland Park movie theater with plans to bring the movie palace back to life, according to a report released Wednesday.

Architectural Digest interviewed Stewart about her plans for the Highland Theatre, which closed its doors in 2024 after 99 years in operation.

“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 the publication. “I’m fascinated by broken-down old theaters. I always want to see what mysteries they hold.”

The Figueroa Street theater was built in 1925 and designed by Lewis Arthur Smith, the architect behind the Vista theater in Los Feliz, the El Portal in North Hollywood and the Rialto in South Pasadena.

Stewart said she wants to restore the Highland to its former glory with a vision for a new kind of social space.

“It’s an opportunity to make a space to gather and scheme and dream together. This project is about creating a new school and restructuring our processes, finding a better way forward. We want to make it a family affair, something for the community. It's not just for pretentious Hollywood cinephiles,” she explains. “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.”

Last summer, the theater was a focal point of a large film shoot starring Brad Pitt that transformed the movie palace and the neighborhood into a slice of 1960s Los Angeles.

Read more at Architectural Digest