Catherine Hardwicke Reveals 5 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets From Filming ‘Twilight’

Credit: Summit Entertainment

Catherine Hardwicke Reveals 5 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets From Filming ‘Twilight’

Nearly 10 years after Twilight’s premiere, director Catherine Hardwicke is giving Us Weekly the inside scoop on filming the beloved vampire flick.

“We were hoping people would still love it,” Hardwicke, 62, exclusively tells Us of the movie’s continuous loyal following. “Every movie you make as a director, you hope people will love it, but a lot of them sneak between the cracks. But this one has had love, detailed love, for a long time.”

During her chat with Us, Hardwicke also revealed fun facts about filming Twilight, which returns to theaters on October 21 and 23 and will be out on 4K Ultra HD on October 23.

Scroll down to find out secrets from set, and for more on the Twilight anniversary, pick up the new issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now!

Credit: Summit Entertainment

1. The Cullen House Has Inspired Future Architects

Robert Pattinson’s epic character Edward Cullen lived in a beautiful home tucked away in the forest. Hardwicke told Us that, while visiting the property nearly two months ago, she came across tourists who were enthralled by it’s beauty. 

“There was still, in front of the Cullen house, on a dead-end street in a hidden neighborhood in Portland, [Oregon], there were 11 people from Guam visiting the house,” she explained. “Like, OK, that’s pretty neat that they made this trip there. The homeowners told me that there’s something, like, 150,000 digital models that architecture students have created of their house online from all around the world. They got inspired by the architecture. I’m, like, that’s pretty neat. That’s crazy.”

Credit: Summit Entertainment

2. An Underwater Sequence Was Supposed to Happen

Long before Kristen Stewart (Bella Swan)’s iconic underwater scene in New Moon, Hardwicke had dreams for a similar shot to appear in Twilight. “I’m a director. Of course I had bigger ideas,” she tells Us of having to hold back her creativity due to budget restricts and other filming struggles. “I had a whole underwater dream sequence.”

“I had a lot more action beats that I wanted to do in the baseball sequence, a lot more crazy CGI and a few things with the final fight sequence. But the budget did not support it, so we had to adapt,” the film guru adds. “But, you know, they got more money after the first one was so successful, and they just got a little bit wilder I guess. But I still love what we wanted to do; I just wanted to do a little bit more.”

Credit: Summit Entertainment

3. CGI Makeup for Vampires Is Very Costly

A lot of time and energy goes into bringing the Cullen clan to life! Hardwicke tells Us that production faced difficulties while filming the baseball scene, due to the “blazing sunshine.”

“We could not do the baseball sequence in the sun because the vampires would have to sparkle and sparkle cost a lot of money and we couldn’t afford them to sparkle,” she shared. “In fact, on the sparkle, I was pretty worried about that. How do you convincingly make a grown man sparkle without losing the audience? And so we did test it out with different kids of makeup on.”

Credit: Summit Entertainment

4. Kristen Stewart Chose the Prom Scene Song

Talk about a collaborative cast! Stewart had a say in which music would play as she danced with Pattinson during the prom scene. “We were up in the hotel room that we used as a rehearsal space and I said, ‘OK, let’s rehearse the prom scene. Let’s practice dancing. Bella, or you know, Kristen, your foot’s gonna be in a cast,’” Hardwicke recalled of choosing the track “Flightless Bird, American Mouth.”

“And I had selected some beautiful music that we were dancing to and Kristen said, ‘I actually have this song that I really like. It’s by Iron and Wine. Do you want to listen to it?’ And we played it and it was amazing,” she noted. “It’s just a beautiful song and she and Rob danced to it beautiful and I went, ‘Ok, that’s got to be the song.”

Credit: Summit Entertainment

5. Nikki Reed Was Hesitant About Her Role

Reed had her doubts about going blonde to assume the role of Rosalie Cullen. “When I started working on the movie, I thought, ‘Oh, Nikki would be super fun for the crazy, wild, you know, that part. This would be great and she could really pull it off.’ But then I called Nikki … and she goes, ‘But isn’t she supposed to be blonde?’ I was, like, ‘Oh, but Nikki, I’ve seen you with sun steaks in your hair. You could do it,’” Hardwicke said of convincing Reed, who she had previously worked with on Thirteen, to join Twilight. “But that was really fun to be back with Nikki again, ‘cause she’s just got so much energy and great spirit, brings a lot to it, and I just thought she looked fantastic in the baseball scene, sliding in the mud and all that stuff.”