Twilight’s all-female braintrust share set secrets

The director: Catherine Hardwicke

“I was a juror at Sundance last year and I had dinner one night with a couple of the Summit executives and they said they wanted to make a movie next year,” Hardwicke recalls. After being handed a stack of scripts, they had a simple request. “See if you like any of them.”

Each one she tossed aside after one minute, the last, was interesting. “But, it was not a good script at all. It had a lot of weird stuff in it. But enough, that I went and grabbed the book. I read the book and started putting all these images together. I did drawings and I went into a meeting and said, ‘this could be great.’ But, you have got to throw this script away and you have to make a script that is like the book,” Hardwicke says. “The book is way better. That is how I got into it.”

Twilight movie history:

“Right before this book was even printed, they sold the rights to Paramount. During the development process, they didn’t know it would be a success. They didn’t even know it was going to be published. They just started doing their own thing. It needs to have more action. That’s put the FBI in, let’s put them on jet skis. She shouldn’t be clumsy, she’s a track star,” Hardwicke says and laughs. “I just went off! A track star! But, they didn’t make it and Summit was interested even in that script.”

Sounding board

“Stephenie started it,” Hardwicke says of the soundtrack’s genesis. “She talks about Muse and Linkin Park and Radiohead as the soundtrack to writing the books,” Hardwicke says. “Of course I listened to that and wanted to get into her head. I wanted to see if it would make a good soundtrack for it and it obviously does. It was great when those bands agreed to be a part of it.”

Casting:

“I saw a lot of cute guys come in and they all really wanted to be Edward and they were awesome and gorgeous. But, I still felt that they could be the guy next door or the guy I knew in high school. I didn’t feel they were special. They were 109 years old and they could be a vampire – something unique, until you meet Rob. The dude is different,” she says and laughs. “He might really be a vampire for all I know. But, seriously, I’ve sat there and seen music come out of him and it’s pretty rad. Not everyone is like that.” Hardwicke’s approach to capturing chemistry is rare. “When I’m in a casting office, I just don’t feel it. I try to do a lot of auditions at my house because it’s a very funky Venice house, you know? That’s where I do all the rehearsals for almost all my movies. Let’s do the chemistry test scenes between Kristen and the possible Edwards, let’s do it at my house,” Hardwicke says. “The biology class scene was on the dining room table and the bedroom scene was on my bed. That’s a lucky bed because on Thirteen, the first time Nikki Reed and Evan Rachel Wood met was on that bed and they did that scene in the bedroom. I saw the magic happen between those two. They were just on fire. Same thing with Rob and Kristen, you just felt it. This is going to be good! They’re both pretty beautiful creatures.”

Bella in Kristen:

“I saw her in Into the Wild and thought that this girl was amazing. Her desire was so palpable and somehow she was able to express it. She has a great depth, and she’s always thinking and feeling something. I didn’t think we could have a little cute TV star as Bella,” Hardwicke says. “That would not work. The fans are so passion about the book, they get deep into it and you have to have somebody who echoes that kind of depth.”