The All-American Rejects have had several hits — but Tyson Ritter revealed one had an unexpected impact on none other than Kristen Stewart.
“There’s a song called ‘There’s a Place’ that I wrote for the film called Miss You Already that starred Toni Collette and Drew Barrymore and I got to be in the film,” Ritter, 39, exclusively told Us Weekly on Thursday, August 3, while chatting about the band’s Wet Hot All-American Summer Tour. “It was a Catherine Hardwicke movie, and she asked me to write a song. And I was in my London flat with my ukulele and this song spilled outta me.”
Ritter plays Ace in the 2015 dramedy, which starred Barrymore, 48, and Collette, 50, as two best friends whose lives get turned upside down after one of them is diagnosed with cancer.
After playing the song at a charity event attended by Hardwicke, 67, and Stewart, 33, Ritter said the actress told him the tune helped get through a romantic hardship. (Hardwicke directed the first film in the Twilight franchise.)
“[Kristen] came up to me and was like, ‘You did this song?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ She’s like, ‘I f—king just got over a breakup and I love this song,’” he shared. “And I was so taken aback ’cause I was like, ‘But you’re Kristen Stewart and I love you and you’re great. You’re a great artist and you like something I made.’”
Though Stewart didn’t specify whom her breakup was with, the song was released two years after her split from Twilight costar Robert Pattinson, whom she dated from 2009 to 2013. (In 2012, Us broke the news that Stewart had cheated on The Batman actor, 37, with director Rupert Sanders.) Following her breakup with Pattinson, Steweart began dating Alicia Cargile in 2014. The pair called it quits in 2016.
Over the years, Stewart has moved on with stars such as St. Vincent, Soko, Stella Maxwell and Sara Dinkin before getting engaged to Dylan Meyer in November 2021.
Not only did “There’s a Place” have an impact on Stewart, but also on Ritter. “I approach everything with massive amounts of self-deprecation,” he explained to Us. “It’s really hard to get me to like myself, but that made me feel a sense of self-worth that I haven’t had in a long time. And that was a really special moment to me, to know that a song that I did 20-plus years after our career began had its own little, like, you know, biosphere.”
Other All-American Rejects songs Ritter said he’s particularly proud of are “Mona Lisa,” “Believe” and “Swing, Swing,” the latter of which he has “such an affinity” for.
He continued: “I always kind of say to myself, I’m like, ‘I like this song, man.’ And people ask, ‘Oh my God, does it get tiring to play these things?’ And when you see someone singing it … it in front of you, it gives it a life that fills you with that energy to be able to perform it back at them like that.”
Tyson Ritter. Michael Hurcomb/Shutterstock
Ritter is gearing up to sing along with fans on the band’s Wet Hot All-American Summer Tour, which kicks off on August 11 in Tampa, Florida, and features New Found Glory, Motion City Soundtrack and The Get Up Kids.“This tour is the biggest headlining tour we’ve ever done in our career,” Ritter noted. “And that it’s happening 20 years plus into our career. [The fact] that we get to do this, that we even get to do this is what I’m most excited about.”
Having been on the road with the group since he was 17 years old, Ritter said he’s “excited to deliver a show that maybe some people have waited their lives to see from us. I feel like we’re actually up for that task now.”
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With reporting by Leanne Aciz Stanton
