Kristen Stewart has discussed the audience reaction during the premiere screening of David Cronenberg’s Crimes Of The Future.

The body horror film premiered during the Cannes Film Festival on Monday (May 23) and reportedly sparked walkouts within the first five minutes due to a number of gory scenes.

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Speaking to Vulture following the premiere, Stewart, who plays investigator Timlin, believes there’s a “delicacy” to the film that’s been overlooked.

“Before the credits lifted, it was dead silent,” Stewart recalled. “I was like, ‘Ooh, people don’t know how to feel. They don’t know if they should clap or not.’ I felt like it was the fuckin’ Will Smith moment where everyone was like, ‘Yes? No? No. Okay, actually no!’ Like do people have to look to their left and right to see if people like it before they clap?

“It’s a lot to take on at first, I guess. But to me, the movie is so simply sweet. Yes, we’re barrelling towards certain death, for sure. But there’s a delicacy to the movie that, even in the gory stuff, I was really bewitched by it. Everyone talking about walking out and how intense it was. I was like, ‘It’s not intense! It’s really beautiful.’”

Crimes Of The Future stars Viggo Mortensen and Léa Seydoux as performance artists who grow and remove organs onstage before a live audience. Despite the walkouts, the film received a six-minute standing ovation as the credits rolled, according to Deadline.

Earlier this month, Cronenberg said he expected some “very strong scenes” would provoke walkouts among the Cannes audience.

“I mean, I’m sure that we will have walkouts within the first five minutes of the movie,” Cronenberg said. “I’m sure of that. Some people who have seen the film have said that they think the last 20 minutes will be very hard on people, and that there’ll be a lot of walkouts.

“Some guy said that he almost had a panic attack. And I say, ‘Well, that would be OK.’ But I’m not convinced that that will be a general reaction.”

Crimes Of The Future will be released in US cinemas on June 3. A UK release date has yet to be announced.