21 "Twilight" Behind-The-Scenes Facts That'll Make You Watch The Movie In A Whole New Way
by Nora Dominick · BuzzFeed1. First, in 2004, the unpublished manuscript for Twilight was given to producer Greg Mooradian, who brought it to the head of Paramount's MTV Films division. Mark Lord wrote the original film script, and the story was completely changed. According to Mark on an episode of The Big Hit Show podcast, he was instructed to "put in some more action to advance it more and give something more for the male audience."
He told The Big Hit Show, "What I can recall of my pitch was, I don't really care for vampire stories, wasn't my jam. But Romeo and Juliet, I love… So I went in, and I was like, 'Look, I don't love vampires, but I love telling the story about these characters.' And so that's why they hired me."
MTV and Paramount eventually lost the rights to Twilight, and Summit Entertainment ultimately got the rights for the film adaptation.
According to The Wrap, following the massive success of Twilight, there was an "internal 'witch hunt' [at Paramount] trying to pinpoint who was responsible for letting the project go."
2. According to Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke, Mark Lord's original script "literally had Bella on jet skis being chased by the FBI. She was a star athlete. Nothing to do with the book." Catherine told The Big Hit Show podcast she immediately told executives at Summit that if they were to get the rights and adapt Twilight, "this script has to go in the trash," and they need to make the film adaptation exactly like the book.
Twilight production executive Gillian Bohrer told The Big Hit Show, "It was sort of exciting to us that somebody like Catherine, who had done such kind of grounded, realistic portrayals of adolescence, saw something in the book that really spoke to her."
She continued, saying, "She came in with an annotated copy of Twilight and a big visual presentation, and she'd put together a whole lookbook on how she saw Twilight. And from that point on, there was never really a serious conversation of any other filmmaker."
Eventually, Melissa Rosenberg was brought on to write the Twilight script. She went on to write all five Twilight movies.
Speaking to The Big Hit Show podcast, Melissa said, "Well, it's interesting that the first writer on it was a man, and it led to jet skis and shotguns in order to deal with the challenge of making Bella proactive. And then, when you put women on it, we go in the direction of character."
3. Director Catherine Hardwicke knew Kristen Stewart was the perfect Bella Swan after seeing her in Into the Wild (2007). However, Kristen was unable to attend auditions for Twilight because she was filming Adventureland (2009). So, Catherine flew to Pennsylvania to meet with Kristen and even brought future Twilight star Jackson Rathbone with her to read scenes.
In an interview with The Big Hit Show podcast, Catherine recalled just having Kristen and Jackson run around a local park and just hang out after they spent some time reading scenes together.
She said, "Kristen and Jackson are just playing by the end. I'm like, 'She's so good. She's perfect for this. She doesn't over act, she doesn't push it. She's got that kind of sexual repression. All the kind of things needed.' And I really felt strongly about Kristen."
4. Robert Pattinson was first brought into audition after executives looked through photos of the Harry Potter cast to see if there was anyone who hadn't auditioned that would be right for the role. That's how they stumbled upon Rob, who played Cedric Digory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005).
Summit Entertainment executive Erik Feig told The Big Hit Show podcast that Rob sent in an audition tape after they asked him to audition. He said, "I remember I was watching it at home...And my wife walked by. And I said, 'Watch this for a second.' I said, 'I really like him. Watch him. What do you think?' And she watches, and she's like, 'Yeah, really good.' And I said, 'Good looking?' And she said, 'Uh, yeah.' And I said, 'Yeah, but do you think the average girl in America is going to think he's good-looking?' And she said, 'Yeah. Yeah, totally.'"
Erik said he recalled telling his wife they would likely clean up Rob's hair a little bit and make it less "scraggly," and she told him no.
5. Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson's chemistry read took place at Catherine Hardwicke's house. Notably, they performed the scene when Bella and Edward kiss for the first time, and Rob was apparently "so into it" that he fell off Catherine's bed.
Catherine told The Big Hit Show podcast, "Rob and Kristen auditioned on my bed, the kissing scene, Rob was so into it he fell off the bed. I'm like, 'Dude, calm down.' And I'm in there filming with my little video camera, whatever."
After this audition, author Stephenie Meyer signed off on Rob and Kristen portraying Edward and Bella.
6. When filming began on Twilight, author Stephenie Meyer gave Robert Pattinson and Catherine Hardwicke an exclusive first look at her manuscript for Midnight Sun, which is Twilight told from Edward's perspective. Rob told MTV in 2008, "It is very top-secret. And it is like halfway, two-thirds finished. I read that right at the beginning [of filming]. I got a lot of stuff out of that."
In 2008, Stephenie's manuscript for Midnight Sun was illegally posted on the internet. In a note to fans on her website, Stephenie said she didn't know how she would continue working on the book, writing, "I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working on Midnight Sun, and so it is on hold indefinitely."
The book was ultimately published in 2020.
7. Twilight was filmed in only 44 days in Oregon. Despite becoming a box office hit, it was filmed like an indie movie, with a small budget, on location, and a short amount of shoot time. The movie was made for just $37 million, and four days before production began, they had to cut $4 million from the budget.
In 2018, Catherine Hardwicke told The Hollywood Reporter, "Nobody knew what it was going to be, what it was. I didn't have committees giving me notes; I wasn't watched by big-time producers. I didn't have the pressure of hitting blockbuster marks. We didn't even have a test screening, so it was really made like an indie film."
8. The budget for Twilight was so limited that they couldn't afford to use a lot of CGI. Aside from the scene where Edward shows Bella how he sparkles in the sunlight, the Cullens are never shown in the sun because production didn't have extra funds to spend on CGI to make them sparkle.
Catherine Hardwicke told Business Insider, "We were filming in the winter because that's when you have the most overcast. We couldn't have bright sun because then the vampires would have to sparkle. We didn't want them to be sparkling all the time, we couldn't afford that. CGI sparkling cost a lot of money."
9. The baseball scene took a week and a half to film instead of the initial four-day estimate. It was shot on location in the Columbia River Gorge in Portland, Oregon. Due to the weather — they filmed during the winter — they had to make sure the cloud cover was consistent throughout filming. If the sun came out or if it rained, they couldn't film.
Catherine Hardwicke recalled to Business Insider, "The weather did not cooperate. And you can't have pouring rain [because of] all the makeup drips; the hair. They just don't look like the cool vampires in the pouring rain."
10. Using "Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse during the baseball scene was a very early idea because author Stephenie Meyer listened to Muse while writing the book. Catherine Hardwicke told the Happy Sad Confused podcast that she originally wanted Muse to do the score for the whole movie, but the timing didn't work.
Catherine Hardwicke told Entertainment Weekly, "I can't imagine [the baseball scene] with any other song. I'm sure most people when they hear that song, that [scene] is the first thing they think about."
11. For the moment when James, Laurent, and Victoria meet the Cullens and Bella on the baseball field, a "magic carpet"-like rig was created out of plexiglass and covered with leaves so the trio could glide over the grass and approach the Cullens.
Alongside the rig for this moment, wires had to be rigged on location so that while the Cullens played baseball, they could be pulled on wires both up in the air — like when Emmett and Edward slam into each other — or simply just so they could be pulled so they would appear to be running faster.
12. The first scene they filmed for Twilight was actually one of the hardest: the ballet studio fight between Edward, James, and Bella. Due to the limited budget, a lot of old school tricks were used to get this scene right instead of using VFX. For example, because of all the mirrors, Catherine Hardwicke and the camera crew had to simply hide and film the scene so they weren't visible.
Catherine told Entertainment Weekly, "Me and the camera person would [accidentally] be in the shot and we didn’t have a VFX budget on that film so we had to find a way around that."
13. Also, because of the limited budget, Edward biting into James' neck and spitting out part of his skin was not created using VFX or makeup. Instead, the crew used melted string cheese for James' skin, and Robert Pattinson would simply spit it onto the floor — hopefully out of frame — while filming.
Catherine Hardwicke told Entertainment Weekly that the ballet scene was one of the best examples of the cast and crew "trying every trick in the book" to film this movie with a limited budget.
14. Another big scene that was all done without special effects was when Edward saves Bella in the school parking lot. A soft, flexible door was created so that Edward's hand would make an impact when he stopped the van from crushing Bella.
First, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart filmed the moment where Edward grabs Bella, and close-ups were filmed to get the moment where they see each other. Then, the van was driven up and put in the perfect location where Rob could then bounce his hand off of it.
15. The recreation of the Twilight book cover in the cafeteria scene was also done practically and without CGI. A clear string was attached to the apple, and Robert Pattinson had to catch it perfectly to recreate the cover. It took thirteen takes to get it right.
In a behind-the-scenes featurette for the film, Catherine Hardwicke spoke about including the moment, saying, "I do kind of like it because if you know the book cover you got it for, like, one eighth of a second in there."
16. The forest where Edward reveals to Bella that he's a vampire was filmed right behind the restaurant in the film and near a parking lot. This was actually a backup location as the first location was covered in snow and they couldn't shoot there.
In the book, this scene takes place inside Edward's car, but Catherine Hardwicke wanted it to feel bigger on screen, so she moved it outside.
On an episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Catherine spoke about filming the moment, saying, "I want to feel how dizzy you would feel if you were coming to this realization. We're moving around and helping you feel like this is just crazy ... I was kind of going with that out of body experience."
17. While most of Twilight was filmed on location in Portland, some reshoots took place in Los Angeles. For example, the iconic meadow moment between Edward and Bella after she finds out he's a vampire was actually filmed on a golf course in Griffith Park.
The cast and crew added wildflowers, moss, and more to make the meadow on the golf course come to life.
One reason it was not filmed on location in Portland was that the movie was filmed during the winter, and the cold and unpredictable weather made it challenging.
18. The Cullens were given a specific color palette for their wardrobe. Catherine Hardwicke said they decided to have the colors they wore resemble "arctic wolves," so they were dressed in silver, white, and grey. Then, when "Bella fell more in love with Edward," she began to wear more of those colors, too.
While speaking to the Ghetto Film School, Catherine added, "You saw [Bella's] own personal color palette change."
She also said "nobody ever" wore any bright colors like yellow, orange, or red. The only red/orange seen in the movie was for Bella's signature pickup truck.
19. After Atlantic Records executive Livia Trotella gifted Paramore's Hayley Williams a copy of Twilight, she became obsessed. Eventually, Hayley even went to the editing room and watched an early cut of the movie before writing "Decode" and "I Caught Myself."
Livia told Billboard, "Paramore was chosen because it was the epicenter — the key demographic that would be drawn to the movie. Paramore was almost like a voice to the reader of this book as well because we saw an immediate reaction. They were on the brink. They weren’t broken by any strategy. That song, that movie — all of that just catapulted them."
Twilight music supervisor Alex Patsavas, Livia Trotella, Catherine Hardwicke, and other Summit executives worked extensively with bands that they wanted to be featured on the Twilight soundtrack.
20. "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" by Iron & Wine was included in the movie because Kristen Stewart was listening to the song and suggested playing it while she and Robert Pattinson filmed Bella and Edward's dance at prom. Iron & Wine singer Samuel Ervin Beam recalled to Billboard, "I guess it was just a thing where they heard it so many times in that scene, they couldn’t imagine it [being] something else."
Twilight music supervisor Alex Patsavas also told Billboard, "Kristen knew what would best evoke the feeling of that scene. I think she came up with that possibly before the movie even shot. I’m not actually sure of that, but by the time we were in post, that song was already living in the cut."
Ultimately, the Twilight soundtrack spent 48 consecutive weeks on the Billboard charts.
21. And finally, at the time, the cast was all relatively unknown or up-and-coming actors, so Catherine Hardwicke wanted to make sure they got the recognition they deserved. So, she came up with the idea of the black-and-white credits where the cast's names were prominent so audiences would learn who these actors were.
Catherine told Entertainment Weekly, "I thought, 'Let me give them their due so people will know.' Everybody had their footage with their name on it."
The footage used at the beginning of the end credits also included some deleted scenes that hadn't been used in the movie. Speaking to the footage used, Catherine added, "I'd see Kristen and Rob just laying there, and I’d say to the cameraman, 'It's not a scene or anything, but just walk up and let’s film it. Let’s just get beautiful moments.' That’s what’s really fun in a movie is if you can have two seconds on a set where you’re not just running around and have a little moment to make something magical or create something special."