Teenage Wildlife

Having made her breakthrough with Thirteen, Catherine Hardwicke has just enjoyed the biggest-ever opening for a female director with Twilight. “It's all a little surreal,” she tells Paul Byrne.

Every now and then, Hollywood gets caught napping. Sure, Stephenie Meyers' teen-lit vampire saga ‘Twilight’ had sold oodles of books, but that was just the luststruck goth-girl market, right? And they wouldn't number enough tatooed bums on seats to guarantee a big opening weekend.

It was only after Catherine Hardwicke - who made her feature debut, after years as a production designer (on the likes of ‘Three Kings’ and ‘Vanilla Sky’), with 2003's ‘Thirteen’ - had completed the $37m shoot did the first rumblings of a phenomenon begin to surface.

Her leading man, young Brit Robert Pattinson, headed to ComicCon to spread the early word. And was greeting by 7,000 screaming fans of the books. The websites went into overdrive, and it wasn't just teenage girls who were getting all hot and bothered over this tale of unconsummated love. The Salt Lake Twilighters Anonymous is largely made of up middle-aged housewives. Who like nothing better than the idea of a hunky, mysterious 17-year high schooler who's really a 109-year old vampire holding back from jumping his sweet and innocent teenage girlfriend's bones for fear he might just rip her to shreds. And, yep, drink her blood.

When ‘Twilight’ finally opened in the US last month, it took $35.7m on its opening day. And went on to take $69.6m for the weekend. Both set a record for a female director…the female director who's sitting in front of me at London's Mandarin Oriental Hotel right now.

Like your leading couple, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, you hadn't read the books until the movie became a possibility - was there any reluctance on your part once you realised there was a somewhat rabid fanbase out there?
From the first moment I read an old script, and then I read the book, I fell in love with the book too. I just dived in, and let myself go. I became one of that rabid fanbase, getting lost in that world. So, from there on, I became excited about seeing this up on the screen. And I wanted all the fans to get to see it too.

Stephenie Meyers' books were already best-sellers, but an opening day like $35.7m took just about everyone by surprise. Including you?
It's a little surreal, and it did shock us, quite a bit. We were hoping to hit somewhere in the 30s for the opening weekend. That would have made us really happy, because we only made it for $37million, so, it's cool that people embraced it.

We're dealing here with a group of people who are pale and pasty-faced, whose natural habitat is cloud and rain, who only eat animals, and who only drink a thick, gooey liquid. Are you sure Edward Cullen and his family aren't just Irish?
(Laughs) Someone said we should have filmed this in Ireland. You have such a beautiful country too...

Your leading actor has become an overnight sensation, with even your 70-year old mother expressing only an interesting in seeing Rob when you brought her on set. Did you recognise the effect he was going to have from the first audition?
Robert, as a person, really does fit the idea of who Edward Cullen is. There's a mysterious depth there. He somehow fits the idea of a 109-year old vampire that's cultured, and tortured, that's lived through all these things, that has all these different talents, and conflicts. So, he's got that depth that comes across on screen.

The idea of a sweet and innocent teenage girl who falls for a much older, blood-gargling, nocturnal oddball - did you talk to your ‘Thirteen’ leading lady, Evan Rachel Wood, to find out what that must be like. She's still dating Marilyn Manson, right?
(Laughs) That's pretty funny, but she just broke up with Marilyn, by the way. She just came over to visit, and she's broken free.

Is she vulnerable right now? Because I'd love to talk to her...
You're so bad, you're so bad.

In all your films, you seem to deal with teenagers in peril - ‘Thirteen’, ‘Lords Of Dogtown’, ‘The Nativity Story’ - the Virgin Mary was a teen in peril, and your leading lady, the then-16-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes, followed suit, getting pregnant before it opened - and now, ‘Twilight’. Is there something in you that is drawn to these stories? There is a danger that you'll turn into the female Larry Clark...
(Laughs) I think the teenage years are so crazy and volatile. Your body changes, your brain changes. You could drive a car, you can drink, you can kiss a guy or a girl for the first time, so, it is heightened drama. And everything is critical and important, so, it makes for great cinema. More stories can keep coming out of there.

You've now had the biggest-ever opening for a female director. Do you feel you've moved up the Hollywood food chain? Do doors open quicker? If you want a seat in a restaurant now, you get it right?
(Laughs) I'd like to feel that. I don't think it quite works that way...

Have you committed yet to the ‘Twilight’ sequel, ‘New Moon’?
We're trying to work that out now, yeah...

You were a little frustrated by that $37m budget on ‘Twilight’, because it meant pulling back on some of the scenes you wanted to shoot, and the special effects weren't always that special. Where Edward is supposed to sparkle, he merely looks like he's sweating. Do you feel the studio will give you something approaching a blank cheque next time out?
That's what we're talking about now. I only want to do it if it's going to be powerful and beautiful, and better than this one. So, we're trying to see if we can get on the same page.

As much as the film has done phenomenal business, the reviews haven't been all glowing for ‘Twilight’. It's current score on rottentomatoes is 44%. Clearly a film not designed to please bitter fortysomething male critics though...
Well, we've had reviewers of all ages review and embrace it. Kenneth Turan of the LA Times loved it, and he's not a teenage girl.

He clearly wishes he was, though...
I think it depends on how open your heart is, if you embrace this forbidden love. Also, some people always feel, of course, I've got to go against the popular trend. 'If everybody else likes this, I'm not going to like it'. So, you know there's always going to be mixed feelings about things, and the fact that the source is from a young adults novel, that'll freak some people out. But, you know, I feel that, overall, people have embraced it, and gotten excited about it.

Very quickly, like the poor unfortunates in this movie, my mum lives besides a family of Cullens. What's the best way to kill them? You've read all the books, done the research...
You've got to rip their limbs apart, and it's not easy.

This is going to be a great Christmas...
Thanks, man...

Credit: The Event Guide