By Christina Radish

Stephenie Meyer at a book signing/discussion for "The Host" at Torrance High School Auditorium in Torrance, Calif. on May 22, 2008.

Author Stephenie Meyer and film director Catherine Hardwicke took time out, at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, to speak with MediaBlvd Magazine about bringing this much-loved romantic saga from page to screen.

MediaBlvd Magazine> Stephenie, how difficult was it for you to hand your story over to a filmmaker and let go of it?

Stephenie Meyer> I’m a quick decision maker. I don’t stress out over things. I just make a decision, and I’m done. But, with the movie thing, they first came to me about six months before Twilight came out, and I knew that it could go either way. And, actually, statistically, it goes the bad way more often. But, what pulled me through was the idea that, if I could just see it on the screen, with one scene right -- preferably the meadow scene -- that was what I really wanted, and I felt it was worth the risk. It was touch and go. There was another script. They could have filmed it and not called it Twilight because it had nothing to do with the book, and that’s kind of frightening. When Summit came into the picture, they were so open to letting us make rules for them, like “Okay, Bella cannot be a track star. Bella cannot have a gun or night vision goggles. And, no jet skis. Are you okay with that?” And, they were so cool!

MediaBlvd> Catherine, how important was it for you to be as true to Stephenie’s creation as you could?

Catherine Hardwicke> The earlier script that they had before was just pretty crazy. Bella was a track star in the first scene. I read it and was like, “This isn’t the girl from the book that I love!” So, everybody wanted to make it as close to the book as possible. The book is long, so we can’t have every scene, but we did the sweetened, condensed milk version.

MediaBlvd> Stephenie, how does your vision of Edward and Bella, and all the other characters, match with the actors who were cast in the movie?

Stephenie> Of course, I have a mental picture and, unfortunately, people can’t climb into my head and pull those out to use them. But, I’m actually amazed, particularly with Rob because Edward was a really hard one to cast. It was tough. I didn’t really know if there was anyone who could do it. I knew it was going to be a version of Edward, but I didn’t know what it was going to be. When they told me Rob was probably the one, I looked him up and thought, “Yeah, he can do a version of Edward. He’s definitely got that vampire thing going on.” And then, when I was on set and I got to watch him go from being Rob to shifting into being Edward, and he actually looked like the Edward in my head, it was a really bizarre experience. It was kind of surreal and almost a little scary. He really had it nailed. So, that was an amazing thing for me. That was very positive. 

Catherine> As you can imagine, when you read Stephenie’s description of Edward, you’re like, “Who in the world could possibly live up to that?”

Stephenie> But, look at the poster. That’s Edward!

MediaBlvd> Is his pale skin enhanced with make-up?

Catherine> Everybody wears some make-up when you’re on camera. He didn’t go out in the sun. He’s British. They don’t have sun over there. He has naturally beautiful, pale skin. And then, of course, in the winter in Portland, you can’t get hardly any sun, anyway.

Stephenie> Except when you’re filming and don’t want it.

MediaBlvd> So, what do you guys think of all this anticipation, and all these people walking around with the Team Edward and Team Jacob t-shirts? Does that create added pressure to make sure you get this film right?

Catherine> There’s no pressure at all! We feel no pressure. It’s fabulous. It’s so cool.

MediaBlvd> There were fans that lined up overnight, just to see the Twilight panel at Comic Con. How do you feel about that sort of dedication?

Stephenie> Yeah, one of the kids, that we’ve worked with before, texted my publicist the night before the panel and said, “There is already a line!” I went, “Wow!” I don’t camp out for anything, so that’s impressive.

Catherine> It was pretty crazy!

MediaBlvd> Are you still surprised by that kind of thing? It seems like there’s been a frenzy since it began, hasn’t there?

Stephenie> You know, it’s been a gradual building. When I first started doing this, I remember my first event because we were so lucky to scrape together 20 people who would come and listen to someone who had never done a book before. And, that was actually great. We could sit and talk about everything and really get into the characters. I kind of miss those days. We got up to a hundred people and I’d freak out and say, “There’s 100 people in there!” Now, I just have to suck it up and talk to 6,000 people. It’s just part of the job, I guess.

MediaBlvd> How does that influence your writing and how you move forward?

Stephenie> It doesn’t. The writing is so separate. I knew the story before the fans were part of it, and so I knew where I was going. It didn’t really affect the way I wrote anything. 

MediaBlvd> The great thing about this story is that it’s from a woman’s perspective. You’ve got a female director and a female screenwriter, and it’s got such a strong female point of view. Was it important for you to have those voices in there?

Director Catherine Hardwicke at the premiere of "thirteen" held at the Arclight Theater in Hollywood, Calif. on August 12, 2003.

Catherine> I think Stephenie is able to get into the guy’s point of view too. Reading some of Midnight Sun, you really get to see Edward’s point of view too. She does have a balance.

Stephenie> If I would have known how the story was going to turn out, I probably would have started by writing from Edward’s perspective because it’s so much more exciting when the vampires are telling the story. But, a human female was easier to write for me.

MediaBlvd> Do you think this strong female perspective is indicating a movement in our culture?

Stephenie> It would be great if it was, wouldn’t it? I think it was cool that there were a whole bunch of girls at Comic Con.

MediaBlvd> What made Comic Con a good place to promote this film?

Catherine> It seemed like a natural. People get so excited there, and that passion just translates to the rest of the world, when people see that excitement.

Stephenie> It was a fun venue to talk about it. There was no pressure. Everyone was just there to have a good time. And, they’re the fans. They’re there and they love stuff and they get all excited. It’s fun for us to be able to be with that group.

MediaBlvd> Bella is not the typical teen, in any way. What do you think about how she compares to other teenagers?

Stephenie> I think she’s more of a typical teen than people give her credit for. She’s a little more withdrawn and she’s quieter, but there are so many girls out there who do not know Kung-Fu, and if a guy jumps them in the alley they’re not going to turn around with a roundhouse kick. When I was in high school, I read. That was my main entertainment. And, there’s a lot of people who are just quieter, and who aren’t having the Prada lifestyle, and who don’t go to a special school in New York, where everyone’s rich and fabulous. There’s normal people out there, and I think that’s one of the reasons why Bella’s become so popular. 

Catherine> I could really relate to her insecurity and her clumsiness.

MediaBlvd> How much communication did you two have during the process? Catherine, how much did you want to do your own thing? And, Stephenie, how much did you want to just separate your book from the film?

Catherine> It wasn’t like, “I want to do my own thing.” I wanted to do what Stephenie had created, and make it as cool, make everybody just embrace it and make those characters come to life. We tried to talk to Stephenie, but she was a bit busy writing two other books.

Stephenie> Every time that Catherine called me, she’d be like, “Where are you now?,” and I’d say, “Oh, I’m in London now,” or “Oh, I’m in Detroit,” or wherever I was. So, it was a busy time. But, she was great about including me in everything. She’d say, “We’re thinking about this, what do you think?,” and I wasn’t expecting that because I’ve heard the stories. I know it’s not normally like that when you adapt a book. This experience was probably the best I could have hoped for. I’m a natural pessimist, so I was waiting for the door to fall out underneath, but it was great. They were so good about wanting my opinion and letting me know what was going on, and keeping me in the loop. It was really nice.