Laughing off detractors, Pattinson said, “I love that people keep telling me, ‘Man, Twilight ruined the vampire genre.’ Are you still stuck on that? How can you be sad about something that happened almost 20 years ago? It’s crazy.”
In a prior GQ interview in 2022, Pattinson revealed his early artistic vision for the first film, which clashed with the studio’s expectations. At just 21 years old, he envisioned the movie as “edgy and emo,” but the studio wanted a lighter tone. “I wanted to make it as arty as possible,” he shared. “We had this strange tension where the studio was scared to make things too emo. I spent so much time infuriated on set.”
Pattinson’s intense portrayal even raised concerns among his managers, who reportedly warned him: “You’ll be fired by the end of the day if you don’t stop doing what you’re doing.”
Casting Pattinson as Edward Cullen was also a controversial decision. Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke shared in a 2023 interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that the studio initially doubted Pattinson’s looks. When he auditioned, she recalled, “He had black bangs and was out of shape from hanging out at the pub. Summit asked me, ‘Do you think you can make this guy look good?’ I told them, ‘Yes. Did you see his cheekbones?’”
The studio eventually agreed, though many fans initially envisioned Henry Cavill in the role, as author Stephenie Meyer had named him her top pick. However, Hardwicke believed Cavill was too old to play a high schooler, and her persistence secured Pattinson the part.
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