Director Catherine Hardwicke and series author Stephenie Meyer discuss the 'surreal' phenomenon surrounding 'Twilight' and staying true to Meyer's vision.
The fans of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight books are fierce. The Internet is swarming with fan sites, blogs, Facebook pages, and forums devoted to the sweet story of Bella Swan and her vegetarian vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen. The anticipation for the movie, which won't be out until almost Christmas, is already deafening — literally. The fans at Comic-Con 2008 who attended the Twilight panel shrieked like the cast, director, and author were The Beatles' second coming.
Premiere was lucky enough to meet with some of the stars of Twilight, director Catherine Hardwicke, and bestselling author Stephenie Meyer to discuss staying true to Meyer's visions, good vampires versus bad vampires, and much more.
How do you feel about the phenomenon that's been your work?
Stephenie Meyer: It's a very strange and surreal thing and most mornings I get up and don't think about it at all, and then I come some place like here and I'm not allowed to walk in the front door! And it's weird and it's hard for me to... You know, I have a very normal life, and so when I have to step out of that and realize that I have all these readers and all this excitement, it's weird. It's great! But, it's really strange.
How did this whole thing come to you? Where was that flash of inspiration for you?
SM: It was an actual flash. I was not planning to write. I had no aspirations to be a writer, [but] I had this really fantastic dream. I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget it, and in [that] one day I was hooked on writing.
How reticent about giving up the rights? What were you looking for when you decided to say yes?
SM: I lost a few nights of sleep over it. The two sides [of my brain] were [competing]... more adaptations than not [have] turned out badly. There are a few that are amazing, but most of the time it's not a good thing. But, then on the other side, I saw the book very visually when I was writing it, and just to see one scene of it on the big screen [was worth it]. I didn't care about anyone else going to see it. This was about me, alone, in the theater getting to see it on the screen and having it be real, and that's what swayed me.
How close of an adaptation is it?
SM: I have not seen the whole thing yet, but from the script and from the days on set, they are really working hard. I mean, the goal was to make it as close to the book as possible, given the time constraints of the film. I mean, the book was a bit long.
Catherine Hardwicke: We did have to tighten it up a little bit.
How did you end up directing the project?
CH: I read several scripts that Summit was planning to make last year and I threw away all the other ones, but this one looked really interesting. Then I went and read the book next and I thought, "Oh my God, the book is so powerful and so much better than the script." So we kind of threw that script away too and started over and got the script to really match the book the best that we could.
You look like Bella to me. How do you like the Bella that they chose for you?
SM: I think Kristen is a really great actress. When they first told me about her, I'd seen her in other things where she played more of a blond bombshell and I was like, "Hmmm...." But then when they got her in makeup and hair, and Catherine's really just great at bringing out in an actress what needs to be there, and [Kristen's] really got it down. Plus, I really love her voice. I just think she has Bella's voice.
Do you prefer the evil vampires or the nice vampires?
SM: [laughs] You know, I love them all in different ways. I can totally see Victoria's perspective and James's perspective, so I have a really hard time preferring one to the other. I mean, obviously the Cullens get the spotlight most of the time, but I really have a fondness for my bad vampires.
Do they reflect various aspects of your own personality?
SM: I think so. I think that different things come through, but they are all really distinct in my head, you know, very different people from me, but I suppose little pieces of myself fit in there.
How much creative control do you retain for the film side of things, and, Catherine, how much do you lean on her for being a source?
CH: We wanted Stephenie to like what we did, and we loved what she did. That was the whole inspiration, so we tried to spend as much time with Stephenie... to get [her] over to the set, though she was really busy at the same time, because she was writing two other books and traveling the world. She came to the set... what, three times?
SM: Three times. One of the times, I spent almost a week, which was great. That was really fun. As an author, you can't really control that kind of project. First of all, they won't let you. Secondly, it's a different medium and I don't know how to work in that medium, and so I was very much, "Summit has their way of doing things," and when they had questions for me, I was ready to answer them. I really loved to hear what was going on, but, overall, I don't know how to make a movie and I'm not going to think that I can go in there and tell them, "This is how it should be done."
CH: We'd email Stephenie, "What about this?" "What about this?" "Does this sound good?"
Did you want a cameo in the film?
SM: They wanted me to do it. They actually wanted me to have a line, but I just did not want to take away from the movie. Like, "Who is that dorky woman who can't speak a single line?" So I'm there for a brief flash.
CH: She's in one scene.
SM: I didn't say anything because I didn't want to take anybody out of the movie with me and my clunky delivery.
What is life as a bestselling author like for you?
SM: You know, I don't know how to compare it. My life is pretty much the way it was before. I'm all about my kids and that's really my whole life, so right now it's getting ready for school and all of that, and every now and again, I have to step out of my comfort zone and be "Stephenie Meyer."
Catherine, you seem to do a lot of work with younger people and to draw great performances out of them. What is special about young people to you that you work so well with them?
CH: I think it's such an exciting age, like, coming-of-age stories, like the first time you can drive a car or drink or kiss a boy, so all those emotional things are happening and it's really kind of like the greatest time, period.
What will you do next?
CH: I really don't know, because right now we're in the middle of this so much and totally thinking about it 24-7.
Will you direct another Twilight movie?
CH: Well, it's all kind of... it hasn't been exactly decided... I mean, we've all got our fingers crossed... and hope it keeps going and all of that.
Who are your own favorite vampire characters?
SM: See, here's the thing. I'm not a vampire person, so before I started writing about them, I had never seen... I mean, pieces of vampire movies, but I had never been to a vampire movie, I'd never read a book about vampires besides my own, so I'm really not into horror... I don't know the genre.
Do you think that is why your books resonate with a wider audience?
SM: I think it's why they're different, because it's not a genre I am stuck in where I would know what walls I break through, because I don't know they're there. I think it's more about just Bella being an ordinary person that people can relate to. When I was writing this, I was not writing this, at the time, for anyone else ever, ever to see... Even my husband didn't know what I was doing. I was just having fun, so if you could sit there and create your own little world... it was like, "What if she could see the future?" Well, that would rock. "What would happen if they played baseball?" Oooh... it was just pure fun.
What inspired the diamond skin?
SM: That was part of the first dream that I had, so that was sort of a gift from that dream. It's one of the really, I think, pretty things about it that's different from a lot of vampire stories.
Have you seen the footage?
SM: No. I have seen probably 15 minutes total.
Was it what you imagined in your dream?
SM: Some of it. You know, I mean, obviously there are going to be little differences, but some of it was nailed.
The fans of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight books are fierce. The Internet is swarming with fan sites, blogs, Facebook pages, and forums devoted to the sweet story of Bella Swan and her vegetarian vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen. The anticipation for the movie, which won't be out until almost Christmas, is already deafening — literally. The fans at Comic-Con 2008 who attended the Twilight panel shrieked like the cast, director, and author were The Beatles' second coming.
Premiere was lucky enough to meet with some of the stars of Twilight, director Catherine Hardwicke, and bestselling author Stephenie Meyer to discuss staying true to Meyer's visions, good vampires versus bad vampires, and much more.
How do you feel about the phenomenon that's been your work?
Stephenie Meyer: It's a very strange and surreal thing and most mornings I get up and don't think about it at all, and then I come some place like here and I'm not allowed to walk in the front door! And it's weird and it's hard for me to... You know, I have a very normal life, and so when I have to step out of that and realize that I have all these readers and all this excitement, it's weird. It's great! But, it's really strange.
How did this whole thing come to you? Where was that flash of inspiration for you?
SM: It was an actual flash. I was not planning to write. I had no aspirations to be a writer, [but] I had this really fantastic dream. I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget it, and in [that] one day I was hooked on writing.
How reticent about giving up the rights? What were you looking for when you decided to say yes?
SM: I lost a few nights of sleep over it. The two sides [of my brain] were [competing]... more adaptations than not [have] turned out badly. There are a few that are amazing, but most of the time it's not a good thing. But, then on the other side, I saw the book very visually when I was writing it, and just to see one scene of it on the big screen [was worth it]. I didn't care about anyone else going to see it. This was about me, alone, in the theater getting to see it on the screen and having it be real, and that's what swayed me.
How close of an adaptation is it?
SM: I have not seen the whole thing yet, but from the script and from the days on set, they are really working hard. I mean, the goal was to make it as close to the book as possible, given the time constraints of the film. I mean, the book was a bit long.
Catherine Hardwicke: We did have to tighten it up a little bit.
How did you end up directing the project?
CH: I read several scripts that Summit was planning to make last year and I threw away all the other ones, but this one looked really interesting. Then I went and read the book next and I thought, "Oh my God, the book is so powerful and so much better than the script." So we kind of threw that script away too and started over and got the script to really match the book the best that we could.
You look like Bella to me. How do you like the Bella that they chose for you?
SM: I think Kristen is a really great actress. When they first told me about her, I'd seen her in other things where she played more of a blond bombshell and I was like, "Hmmm...." But then when they got her in makeup and hair, and Catherine's really just great at bringing out in an actress what needs to be there, and [Kristen's] really got it down. Plus, I really love her voice. I just think she has Bella's voice.
Do you prefer the evil vampires or the nice vampires?
SM: [laughs] You know, I love them all in different ways. I can totally see Victoria's perspective and James's perspective, so I have a really hard time preferring one to the other. I mean, obviously the Cullens get the spotlight most of the time, but I really have a fondness for my bad vampires.
Do they reflect various aspects of your own personality?
SM: I think so. I think that different things come through, but they are all really distinct in my head, you know, very different people from me, but I suppose little pieces of myself fit in there.
How much creative control do you retain for the film side of things, and, Catherine, how much do you lean on her for being a source?
CH: We wanted Stephenie to like what we did, and we loved what she did. That was the whole inspiration, so we tried to spend as much time with Stephenie... to get [her] over to the set, though she was really busy at the same time, because she was writing two other books and traveling the world. She came to the set... what, three times?
SM: Three times. One of the times, I spent almost a week, which was great. That was really fun. As an author, you can't really control that kind of project. First of all, they won't let you. Secondly, it's a different medium and I don't know how to work in that medium, and so I was very much, "Summit has their way of doing things," and when they had questions for me, I was ready to answer them. I really loved to hear what was going on, but, overall, I don't know how to make a movie and I'm not going to think that I can go in there and tell them, "This is how it should be done."
CH: We'd email Stephenie, "What about this?" "What about this?" "Does this sound good?"
Did you want a cameo in the film?
SM: They wanted me to do it. They actually wanted me to have a line, but I just did not want to take away from the movie. Like, "Who is that dorky woman who can't speak a single line?" So I'm there for a brief flash.
CH: She's in one scene.
SM: I didn't say anything because I didn't want to take anybody out of the movie with me and my clunky delivery.
What is life as a bestselling author like for you?
SM: You know, I don't know how to compare it. My life is pretty much the way it was before. I'm all about my kids and that's really my whole life, so right now it's getting ready for school and all of that, and every now and again, I have to step out of my comfort zone and be "Stephenie Meyer."
Catherine, you seem to do a lot of work with younger people and to draw great performances out of them. What is special about young people to you that you work so well with them?
CH: I think it's such an exciting age, like, coming-of-age stories, like the first time you can drive a car or drink or kiss a boy, so all those emotional things are happening and it's really kind of like the greatest time, period.
What will you do next?
CH: I really don't know, because right now we're in the middle of this so much and totally thinking about it 24-7.
Will you direct another Twilight movie?
CH: Well, it's all kind of... it hasn't been exactly decided... I mean, we've all got our fingers crossed... and hope it keeps going and all of that.
Who are your own favorite vampire characters?
SM: See, here's the thing. I'm not a vampire person, so before I started writing about them, I had never seen... I mean, pieces of vampire movies, but I had never been to a vampire movie, I'd never read a book about vampires besides my own, so I'm really not into horror... I don't know the genre.
Do you think that is why your books resonate with a wider audience?
SM: I think it's why they're different, because it's not a genre I am stuck in where I would know what walls I break through, because I don't know they're there. I think it's more about just Bella being an ordinary person that people can relate to. When I was writing this, I was not writing this, at the time, for anyone else ever, ever to see... Even my husband didn't know what I was doing. I was just having fun, so if you could sit there and create your own little world... it was like, "What if she could see the future?" Well, that would rock. "What would happen if they played baseball?" Oooh... it was just pure fun.
What inspired the diamond skin?
SM: That was part of the first dream that I had, so that was sort of a gift from that dream. It's one of the really, I think, pretty things about it that's different from a lot of vampire stories.
Have you seen the footage?
SM: No. I have seen probably 15 minutes total.
Was it what you imagined in your dream?
SM: Some of it. You know, I mean, obviously there are going to be little differences, but some of it was nailed.
By Pamela Chelin
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