Written by Steve ‘Frosty’ Weintraub

While speaking with any actor is always cool and the interviews get a lot of hits, the real info always comes from the director. After all, they’re the ones who put the film together, and they’re the ones who decide what shot to use or which scene to cut. So when you’re looking for info on an upcoming DVD….the only person to ask is the director.

So when I participated in a roundtable interview yesterday with Director Catherine Hardwicke for “Twilight,” the one question I wanted to ask was about the upcoming DVD/Blu-ray. Also, while tons of info about the movie “Twilight” is already online and in every magazine and newspaper…I haven’t seen word one about deleted scenes or what else we can fans can expect.

Thankfully, she was more than willing to talk about the subject and she says there are about 12 deleted/extended scenes and they’ll be a separate section on the DVD and not an extended edition. Here’s exactly what she said:

Collider: I'm curious, I know you just got back recently and I'm sure you're not thinking about yet, but what can we look forward to on the DVD/Blu-ray?

Catherine: Actually, I have been working on the DVD already. So we put together all the deleted scenes and extended scenes, there's quite a few, like 12 or something like that. And then I made some montages of some other crazy elements, like more vampire kiss, biting. And more human hijinks. And I made a pretty wild music video, like a remix of Bella's Lullaby and I did some pretty trippy things that you may like.

Speaking of deleted scenes, and I'm sure fans want to know, what's the length of stuff that was cut out of the film? Is it any of the special effects stuff or is it dialogue scenes? Could you talk a little about what you cut?

Catherine: Well, for example the diner. You know, the first day after school, where you go see Bella and Charlie and talking about their awkward meeting and stuff, that scene was about twice when we shot it. And so it kind of slowed down the pace …and it’s still cool, but it just kind of kept going. (she makes a cutting sound) So we just put the whole thing on the DVD. There were times when Esme and Dr. Cullen make a comment on how Bella's brought Edward to life, it was kind of in the middle of the tree top sequence, and you kind of just wanted to stay with Edward and Bella. So you'll see that. And there's a little bit more sexiness with the bad vampires. A little kissing and biting, nyah, nyah, nyah.

Is there going to be an extended cut or is there going to be a separate section for deleted scenes?

Catherine: A separate section for deleted scenes, because I feel like what we have in the movie is probably the right stuff. I wouldn't really want it to grow any fatter than it is. I don't think so.

Of course our interview covered a lot more subjects and the entire transcript is below. As always, you can either read the transcript or listen to the audio of the interview by clicking here.

Finally….since you may have missed some of the other interviews and clips I’ve posted from Twilight….here are some links:

Question: So you’re probably the only one involved in Twilight that can you walk down the street and not have to worry?

Catherine Hardwicke: (laughs) Well, are you implying that I'm a streetwalker?

No.

Catherine: Ok. Well thanks. I've got a couple of comments about you too. Yeah. No, no, no. That's cool. I mean, it's pretty crazy for all the actors. But I've got a couple of imitators on the internet too. Have you seen my reenacters? They reenact me directing.

Really? Is this a YouTube phenomenon?

Catherine: Yeah, if you go on there...and they act out all of our trailers. (laughs) It's pretty crazy. And they act out behind the scenes.

Really?

Catherine: Yeah.

How good are they at capturing you?

Catherine: Oh, mine? One of them is excellent being me. Yeah.

I wanted to ask you. This movie is very chaste. And I'm not that familiar with the book, but I understand there's a little more touching and kissing and that kind of stuff in the book then there is in the film. Or is that not accurate?

Catherine: Do you think so? Does anybody else know that book? I don't think that's accurate, but..

A little more kissing.

Catherine: Yeah. Well, there are more than 500 pages in the book. And then you say chaste, or you could see it another way. Sexual tension. You know? That's how I think it's a little more interesting, cause they're just always trying to just walk that razor's edge, if you get too passionate, he will kill you. So, yeah.

Speaking of that, it was reported on the internet that the author, maybe, had you pull back on the kissing scene.

Catherine: Yeah, she thought that the way we filmed the kissing scene was a little too steamy. Because I had a wide shot in the cut, so I ended up filming with the B camera and using more intimate shots. Which, actually, I think it still feels pretty steamy. But it's just a little more intimate.

At what point in the process did you realize that this was going to be as huge as it got? Especially on the internet with the following.

Catherine: You know, a year and nine months ago, a year and ten months ago is when I started on the project. And at that time there was still a really passionate following on the internet. And you know, people loved it, and they were making their own trailers and posters, so I knew people loved it. It's just, I don't think it was nearly as big. I mean, there were only too books out. And then it's just kind of grown and grown and grown. So people were already, like, crazy about it.

Interviewer: How much did that blow up of the phenomenon impact you? Because that was happening while you were doing this. I mean, did the pressure start to mount?

Catherine: Well, I mean, actually, you know any person that's a director, filmmaker, musician, we have our own pressure that we put on ourselves, to try to make ourselves feel good about the project and make it as excellent as we can. So that was already more than anyone external could put on me. My own standards. And also as a director you're really working hard. I mean, you have like, a billion tasks, up until ten days ago I was still working on the movie, like really hard, 24/7. So I'm just trying to make the best product I could within my limitations and not worry about the other. Just make it as good as I could.

Can you talk about some of the other reshoots? Entertainment Weekly said that the reveal in the sunlight was reshot or redone. In addition to the kiss.

Catherine: Well, that wasn't redone. So no, that's not true. I don't think they exactly said that cause I have read the Entertainment Weekly, but the meadow scene? We never got to film in a meadow when we were up in Oregon, or anything that even looked like a meadow. And for me, I kept saying to the studios that Stephanie's dream came from a meadow and I really want to shoot one scene in a meadow, please. And we did get to do that in a new, it was like a new scene and it wasn't a reshoot. But it was like a new little part of the meadow, where you see them lying down and you see the flowers and everything. So that was one of the new scenes.

Was it because of the budget in the first place that you didn't get to do it?

Catherine: It was the budget and logistics because we had only 44 days to shoot the film and that's pretty ambitious for a film like this. I mean, you know, if you think of a 37 million dollar budget versus a Harry Potter, 150 million dollar budget, you can appreciate a little more what I was dealing with logistically. And then we had to be based in Portland every day, so it could only be an hour drive from Portland. And we scoured everything, just tried to find, like, what could be a meadow, and nothing really worked. The best thing we found was buried under eight feet of snow. So we thought, oh no. So finally we actually made a meadow in Griffith Park here. We brought the grass and we brought the rocks and the moss on the trees.

I was talking to Peter Facinelli before and he said what brought him to this project was your passion for the material and the fact that you were just so tied to it. What drew you to the material to begin with?

Catherine: Well, when I read the book, I just, Ok, you could look at the book critically and not like it or you could just let yourself go when you read the book. And so I just like, let myself go and just let myself get into these obsessive, specific details and passages of just falling in love. You can get almost like hypnotic and intoxicated in remembering what it was like, well hopefully maybe it's still like that for all of us, where you're just madly in love with somebody and you're just obsessed. And I thought, that would be so cool, to create that world of obsession on screen. You know? That was one thing I really liked about it. And the dangerous obsession too.

The sparkling in the sun, how difficult was that? How many tests did you do?

Catherine: Oh, whoa! That was difficult because you look at all the history of film and you look at, like, how did Arnold Schwarzenegger look as Mr. Freeze in that Batman movie, and you know, scary. Little, like, sparkly makeup. And you look at the Silver Surfer. You look at everybody who's tried to do something like that. And it's kind of like, terrifying. So I started looking at crystals and things in nature, and iridescence and things and trying to figure out how to make it look good. And we had 10 companies, effects companies, trying things out. Most of them, nooo! Because there's an inherent contradiction in the books. She says he's covered with, encrusted with diamonds, ok? And diamonds are faceted and that's what make them sparkle, and when you do something like that, it looks like a really bad case of acne, right? And then it also says in the books that he's smooth as marble. And so trying to resolve that was like, oh! But ILM came up with a more interesting test, and then I went up there many times. Three different times, and sitting there with the artists, let's try more of this. Let's do this. Let's work on this. So it was a very long process. Very long.

What was it like going from movies that are pretty much rooted in reality and actual happenings, things like that, to one with a whole fantastic side to it? Was that something you've been looking for? Was that a challenge you decided to rise to?

Hardwicke Well, you know, my background, I was an architect and an artist and an animator, so really when I went to UCLA film school I was in the animation department, all of that was out of this world and more in the imagination. So that's what I always...my first job was with Tim Burton, making little sculptures and things. So I've always relished in that. Also, I worked a lot in visual effects when I first moved here to keep myself going to UCLA, so I loved that world, but haven't had much opportunity to...actually in my last movie I had more visual effects shots than in this one. So, yeah.

I'm curious, I know you just got back recently and I'm sure you're not thinking about yet, but what can we look forward to on the DVD/Blu-ray?

Catherine: Actually, I have been working on the DVD already. So we put together all the deleted scenes and extended scenes, there's quite a few, like 12 or something like that. And then I made some montages of some other crazy elements, like more vampire kiss, biting. And more human hijinks. And I made a pretty wild music video, like a remix of Bella's Lullaby and I did some pretty trippy things that you may like.

Speaking of deleted scenes, and I'm sure fans want to know, what's the length of stuff that was cut out of the film? Is it any of the special effects stuff or is it dialogue scenes? Could you talk a little about what you cut?

Catherine: Well, for example the diner. You know, the first day after school, where you go see Bella and Charlie and talking about their awkward meeting and stuff, that scene was about twice when we shot it. And so it kind of slowed down the pace …and it’s still cool, but it just kind of kept going. (she makes a cutting sound) So we just put the whole thing on the DVD. There were times when Esme and Dr. Cullen make a comment on how Bella's brought Edward to life, it was kind of in the middle of the tree top sequence, and you kind of just wanted to stay with Edward and Bella. So you'll see that. And there's a little bit more sexiness with the bad vampires. A little kissing and biting, nyah, nyah, nyah.

Is there going to be an extended cut or is there going to be a separate section for deleted scenes?

Catherine: A separate section for deleted scenes, because I feel like what we have in the movie is probably the right stuff. I wouldn't really want it to grow any fatter than it is. I don't think so.

When it came to the casting of the actors and the reaction of the fan base, did you expect that there was going to be some sort of backlash, no matter who you cast?

Catherine: Yeah.

So how did you shepherd your actors through that fragile ego period of like, everyone on the internet hates me? They don't see me as the character.

Catherine: Yeah, I had spoken to other people that had been involved in Spiderman, like Thomas Hayden Chuch. He was cast in Spidey 3 or whatever and he told me people just freaked out. How can that fat dude be, blah, blah blah. He said, look, you've just got to go for it. And then once they see what you're doing they're just going to be...I was telling everybody these stories and I said, don't watch anything, don't read anything, and Robert said, but my Mom sends it to me...thanks Mom. But he actually said it made him want to work harder and do better. I mean, maybe that's how you deal with something. I don't know.

Can you talk about what made you trust your gut about the leads? What made you say, I know this is going to be the one.

Catherine: Oh, okay, well, first of all, I had looked at everybody else. Even people that the fans suggested. You know we'd try to contact them. Are they the right age for it? Are they interested? Are they available? When that was done, do they look good in person or do they just look good in the photo? Abercrombie & Fitch model or whatever. But we tried to check out everybody that the fans suggested, but those suggestions were really bad, actually. They might have been originally or whatever. Brad Pitt's a bit too old to be still in high school(laughs)...I felt confident that I'd looked at everybody they had seen and farther, and then I looked at millions of other people too, and so I knew what the choices were out there. And after I saw Rob and Kristin I didn't even just say yes right there in the room. I had to look at my video and step back a day or two later and have a little bit of distance. How does this feel on the screen, not just in the room? And I felt really good about it.

Did you ask Stephanie at all? Did Stephanie have any input?

Catherine: I think she knew. I think one of our executives was letting her know the people I was talking to. But she, I think, pretty much trusted my judgement or whatever. Yeah. But she wasn't there in the room or anything.

What specifically did you see when you reflected on Kristin and Rob?

Catherine: Well, when I saw Kristin, I loved her in Into the Wild. Just that image of her sitting on that bed, in the trailer and that yearning. So palpable and her emotions were so strong and she could convey that. I thought that was great. So I was pretty much sold on Kristin even before I went to Pittsburgh and spent a day working with her. I felt like she was going to be pretty great. And then it's finding chemistry and then he worked with her. And when Rob and Kristin work together, you know, you could feel it in the room. (laughs) It was kind of scary. Kind of cool You know?

Any interest in doing the sequel?

Hardwicke Well I love the second book. Have you read the second book?

Yeah.

Hardwicke You know, it's probably going to cost at least twice as much as the first one. We've got the werewolf effects...the list adds up quick. So this one has to make really quite a lot of money to make that one affordable, so I'm not going out and buying a new Prius yet. I'll just take my time and see how it goes. Well see.

But you would want to do it?

Catherine: Well, you know, we'll see. I don't want to be like...we've got a couple weeks. We'll see what happens.

It's really interesting, apart from the effects of the project, you have a penchant for teen stories, like Thirteen and even The Nativity Story.

Catherine: Yes, she was sixteen.

What makes you gravitate towards that particular kind of story?

Catherine: Well, I do think it's the time when the most exciting stuff happens. Suddenly you get boobs. Suddenly you want to kiss a boy or a girl. Suddenly you can drive a car or drink, or, you know, talk back to your parents. Suddenly all these things are possible and you have to start figuring out who am I as a person and what am I doing? What's my style and am I cool or not cool or am I a nerd. You know, it's all happening to you, and that makes it high drama. And something like that kind of transformation, in a way, we're all still going through that, because every day we need to reinvent ourselves. So I think it's a great, exciting time.

What do you think is the secret of Rob Pattinson's appeal. Not as Edward, but as Rob.

Catherine: Well, you know, he is a very fascinating person. Have you guys met him yet?

No.

Catherine: He's read a very eclectic, strange group of novels and stories and books, and the music he likes and the films he seeks out. He's quite a unique person. (laughs) And you know, he has a gift, where he can just sit down and start playing guitar or playing piano, and something comes out of him that doesn't come out of anybody else in the world and he's just really unique. Things you'll probably see later if he's still alive by the time he gets here. He's special. (laughs)

The Entertainment Weekly story made it seem like he was obsessing almost too much about the role. Is any of that true?

Catherine: Yeah, you know sometimes that was probably true. I think it quotes me as saying sometimes, and this is true, I have to say, Rob we have to go through the whole thing once, when we'd rehearse. Don't stop on the first sentence or on the first word. Sometimes you have to just try something and see if it works instead of second-guessing yourself. So that was one thing I tried. to get him to just try it and then look at the big picture.