Kristen Stewart was left covered in bruises after struggling with her pole-dancing routine in upcoming film Welcome To The Rileys.

The actress plays a 16-year-old exotic dancer in the drama, and admits she was not prepared for the physically gruelling stripping scenes.

She tells E! Online, “I did some pole dancing. I got bruises all over my legs. I tore myself up doing it. It sucked. (But) the more I saw it, the more I wanted it (to perform). It was like a weird self-hating kind of thing. The cool thing about my character is she is not sultry and she is not sexy.”

Director Jake Scott asked the Twilight beauty to take lessons from a real stripper – but insists Stewart was still scared of shedding her clothes even though the set was closed off to everyone but cast and crew.

He adds, “She was terrified. The strip club we shot in was really a club, and it really was that dirty and really that tough. But she killed it.”

Cherie Currie of the Runaways on stage in 1976. Photograph: Chris Walter/ Retna Ltd/ Corbis

Cherie Currie was 15 when she started scandalising middle America. That was when she auditioned to become the lead singer of all-female teenage rock band the Runaways, a group that would send shockwaves through the suburbs with their attitude-fuelled performances and sexually explicit lyrics.

Their first single, “Cherry Bomb”, talked unapologetically about “wild girls” and “street boys” and several radio stations refused to give it airtime. Currie would routinely appear on stage wearing stockings, suspenders and a tight-fitting basque so that even the reliably liberal Village Voice was moved to denounce the girls as “bimbos”.

The year was 1976. Jimmy Carter was about to be elected president. It seemed America was not yet ready for five adolescent females who played their own instruments and sang openly about sex. But Currie didn’t care. “We truly believed girls could play rock’n'roll,” she says now from her home in Los Angeles. “We knew we were going into unknown territory. We had to fight on a daily basis, especially with a lot of male bands who didn’t take us seriously.” She gives a long, throaty laugh. “I look back 30 years and I still can’t believe it.”

Now, the story of the band is to be immortalised in a film, The Runaways, which premieres at this year’s Sundance film festival and which is partially based on Currie’s brutally honest memoir, Neon Angel. Kristen Stewart, the star of the popular Twilight franchise, is cast as the feisty guitarist Joan Jett while Currie is played by Dakota Fanning. “Seeing [her] playing me is so off-the-map it’s incredible,” says Currie, who was a frequent visitor to the set. “I can’t even digest it. She’s so together, which I was not at that age… She came to my house one afternoon and we sang back and forth so that she could get the inflections, and she nailed it.”

Stewart learned to mimic Joan Jett’s mannerisms with such devastating effect that Currie could barely tell the difference. “I got a phone call one day and there was this voice going ‘Hey Cherie’, and I thought it was Joan, I said: ‘Oh my god, are you in town?’” In reality it was Stewart playing a practical joke.

The filming process has brought back vivid memories, both of the band’s spectacular success and the subsequent fall-out. For a four-year period from 1975 the Runaways blazed a trail for hardcore female rock bands at a time when the most popular music in America was embodied by the soft melodies of Carole King and Fleetwood Mac.

The Runaways went on to tour internationally, performing to packed-out venues and revolutionising the male-dominated rock world with riotous nonchalance. But Currie walked out in 1977, and two years later the band buckled under the weight of infighting and jealousy. “We were all growing up, trying to deal with the transition into young womanhood,” she says. “At the same time there was a whole lot of craziness going on.”

The hard-partying lifestyle took an inevitable toll: Currie started popping Quaaludes and then graduated to cocaine. She was an addict before she was 18. “Our management, our booking agent – they were all feeding us drugs. The thing was, back in the 70s, if you didn’t do drugs there was something wrong with you.”

Where were her parents? “They had recently divorced,” says Currie, who was raised in the small town of Encino in the San Fernando valley. “My mother remarried and moved to Indonesia. How could they say no? They had the record company ringing them up… they wanted us to have the dream. It all happened so fast.”

The Runaways were managed by Kim Fowley, an eccentric Svengali figure who was introduced to the 16-year-old Joan Larkin (she later switched surnames to Jett) at an Alice Cooper aftershow party. Jett subsequently met Currie and her twin sister, Marie. The latter was approached first and asked if she wanted to be in a band. She declined. But Cherie said yes and her fate was sealed.

Was it a case of too much, too young? “That’s a very hard question to answer because we were just thrown into this cyclone and did what we were told to do,” Currie replies. “We literally just had to hold on to our seats and make it from point A to point B on a daily basis.”

The film portrays Fowley as a malign influence who deliberately marketed them as “jailbait rock”. He allegedly used to throw jars of peanut butter at the girls during rehearsals to prepare them for the rough audiences they would face. In the past Currie has called him “a beast [who] should not be allowed near young girls”. “It was the abuse from Kim Fowley and our roadies that was so hard to take,” says Currie now. “We got such abuse on a daily basis. They were trying to harden us to the reality of the rock’n'roll world but how could we possibly know this wasn’t the way it was supposed to be?”

Later they discovered that their management had also been ripping them off. “We were not getting any money,” recalls Currie, a note of incredulity creeping into her voice. “We were doing sold-out concerts and getting $20!”

Drained and exhausted from the constant travel and drug use, the increasingly flaky Currie suddenly walked out on the band. “There was so much conflict over the attention paid to me as the lead singer,” she says. “Joan was very upset and hurt but I really thought these girls wanted me out. It was a lack of communication.” Does she regret it? “Absolutely.”

She went on to record two solo albums and had some minor success as an actress, starring alongside Jodie Foster in Foxes and even appearing in the classic spoof “rockumentary” This Is Spinal Tap. She married the actor Robert Hays in the 1990s and the couple, now divorced, have an 18-year-old son. Today, aged 50, she spends much of her time making “chainsaw art” wood carvings. Tellingly, Currie says what she loves about her unusual hobby is the fact that “I’m the boss – it’s just me and the chainsaw. I’m in control. And it’s really dangerous”.

Still, there is no doubt that she misses the excitement of the Runaways’ heyday. “We’ve always wanted to do a reunion,” she admits. Looking back, would she do everything the same again? “Absolutely. I wouldn’t change a thing except I wish we could have got back together. That’s my only regret… Being in the Runaways, we were trailblazers, we changed a lot of people’s perspectives on what they could or could not do as females.”

Her son Jake, also a musician, turns 19 next month. He will then be four years older than his mother was when she started out in the band. Would Currie be happy to see him doing what she was at the same age? “I couldn’t even conceive of allowing my son to do the things that I did,” she says, her voice suddenly serious. Luckily Jake does not need to live out his mother’s adolescent rock’n'roll rebellion: he can watch the film instead.

Kristen Stewart in Sundance Film Festival 2010 entry “Welcome to the Rileys.”

The first major Kristen Stewart film of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival debuted at the Racquet Club theater this afternoon in Park City, Utah and the results were certainly disappointing.  Directed by Ridley Scott’s son, Jake, “Welcome to the Rileys” features fine performances by stars James Gandolfini, Melissa Leo and Stewart, but the screenplay is almost pointless and the film moves at a glacial pace.

Mostly set in New Orleans, “Rileys” finds Gandolfini as a middle aged married man from Indianapolis whose life is at a crossroads.  His wife (Leo) hasn’t left the house since their 15-year-old daughter died in a car accident almost 10 years prior and his only escape, his growing relationship with a waitress, ends after she suddenly passes away from a heart attack.  While at a convention in The Big Easy he runs into a young stripper named Mallory (Stewart) who strikingly reminds him of his deceased daughter.  While Mallory — we later discover her real name is  Alison — is looking for more money in the back room (she prostitutes on the side), Gandolfini is transfixed on trying to help her.  After dramatically informing his wife he plans on staying in New Orleans and selling his business to do so, the three protagonists find themselves converging down south where more secrets are revealed to the characters and the audience.  Unfortunately, besides the daring lengths Stewart goes to for the role (more on that later) it’s not as exciting as it seems on paper.

As expected, the actors are all game trying to bring a realistic three-dimensionality to the characters — a difficult task considering the clinched themes of the screenplay.  Gandolfini has the toughest task trying to convince audiences why his character would make such a big jump, but he mostly succeeds (even if his southern accent jumps in and out at times).  Leo is the most impressive of the three as she brings this shattered woman and “perfect mom” slowly out of her shell.  Stewart has the gutsiest role as she shows a sexual side she’s never displayed to this level before.  Fishnets, huge high heels, some revealing rear end shots and running around in her underwear aside, Mallory/Alison is a foulmouthed kid who will pretty much do anything but one specific sexual act not prime for publication.  And yes, you’ll words come out of Stewart’s mouth you may never hear again over what should be a long cinematic career.

The biggest problem with the film has to be Jake Scott’s direction.  He’s smartly hired actors who can bring the roles to life, but his sense of tone is significantly off (there are way too many unintentionally funny moments) and unlike his father or uncle Tony, he has absolutely zero sense of pacing.  The film is 1:45 before credits, but most audiences will feel as though it’s well past the 2 hour mark by the time it ends. This Ridley needs a little more experience if he’s going to prove his filmmaking talent really is up to his family’s legacy.  To be honest, it’s very disappointing the film even made it into the festival’s dramatic competition.  While the field hasn’t been completely screened so far, “Rileys” would have been much more appropriate in the premieres category.

As for distribution, the dark and slow “Welcome to the Rileys” is a very tough sell.  As “The Yellow Handkerchief” has shown, just having the “Twilight Saga” superstar in a movie doesn’t guarantee pick up and many distributors will have to question whether there is a real audience beyond the big city art house scene and the most loyal of Stewart fans.

Dakota Fanning & Kristen Stewart looked looking cute and cold in snowy Park City, Utah on Jan. 23 to promote their new film ‘The Runaways’ in The Sundance Film Festival.

I Add Stills Later

Kristen Stewart smoking a cigarette on the tarmac after she arrived by private jet to attend the 2010 Sundance Festival in Park City, Utah this afternoon. Photo: INF.

Kristen Stewart jovially laughed while hiding her jet black hair, under a hooded sweatshirt, from photographers. Kristen, wearing her signature tied t-shirt, was working on her new movie The Runaways with Dakota Fanning.

Say what you want about Kristen Stewart’s acting chops—when it comes to playing a not-quite-ripe hooker, nobody beats her. Although James Gandolfini looks like he’s on the verge of doing so in the following footage.

Behold, a newly released clip from the much-anticipated K-Stew flick Welcome to the Rileys, in which the New Moon star plays 16-year-old prostitute Mallory, who Gandolfini—as married middle-aged man Doug Riley—takes under his wing after meeting her in a strip club. (Sounds like fun for the whole family!)

In the following sneak peek, Gandolfini’s character berates Stewart for her constant pottty-mouth. Because as we all know by now, if it’s one thing that James Gandolfini can’t stand for, it’s cursing.

Better build a new addition onto your home, Kristen; after this thing hits theaters, you’re going to need the extra space for all the awards.

The film stars former “Sopranos” mob boss James Gandolfini as a businessman in New Orleans, who finds himself taking care of a young woman (played by “Twilight’s” Kristen Stewart) who he meets in a strip club. Here’s a fresh clip from the movie, apparently the night after the two’s first meeting. I’m guessing that “things” happened the night before, since Stewart’s Mallory ends up naked under a sheet and demands money for her services. Or maybe not.

The film has a listed January 2010 release date, but as far as I know there hasn’t even been an officially released trailer yet.

Thank You kstewartnews for telling us