Kristen Stewart said she enjoyed scaring herself when filming some of the more risque scenes in new film On The Road.
The Twilight star plays Marylou in director Walter Salles' adaptation of Jack Kerouac's landmark Beat Generation novel, a seductive and liberated young woman who married her ex-con husband, Dean Moriarty, at 16.
Kristen, whose boyfriend and Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson will also be in Cannes with his film Cosmopolis, said she wasn't nervous about some of the sex scenes and nudity.
She said: "Obviously everyone who does scenes like that the first thing you say is: 'Oh I felt so safe.'
"I love pushing, I love scaring myself and I think to watch genuine experience on screen is so much more interesting. I wanted to do it. The reason I wanted to do the job was because you read something and you're provoked on some level, and then it's just taking that further and being able to live it; and I always want to get as close to the experience as I possibly can.
"In this case I did not have a thought in my mind. We really were just going forth.
"As long as you're always really honest there's never really anything to be ashamed of."
In reality Kristen's character is LuAnne Henderson, who at 15 married Neal Cassady - Moriarty in the novel - before divorcing him but remained his mistress for many years.
British actor Sam Riley plays Sal Paradise in the film, Kerouac in real life. Garrett Hedlund plays charismatic Moriarty in the sex, drugs and booze-fuelled story.
The all-star cast also features Kirsten Dunst as Camille, Carolyn Cassady in reality; Viggo Mortensen as Old Bull Lee, or junkie guru William S Burroughs to those who know his work; and Allen Ginsberg's alter-ego, Carlo Marx, is played by Tom Sturridge.