Twilight Director Reveals How a Meeting With Sean Penn Led to Kristen Stewart's Casting
Catherine Hardwicke explains how Kristen Stewart ended up auditioning for Bella Swan.
It's hard to imagine Twilight without Kristen Stewart. The actor's role as Bella Swan in the fan-favorite adaptation of Stephanie Meyer's best-selling novels made Stewart a household name when the film was released in 2008, but while it's difficult for many to imagine anyone else in the role, it turns out that it was a meeting with Sean Penn that ultimately led to Stewart's casting in the iconic role. At a 15th anniversary screening of Twilight attended by ComicBook.com, Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke revealed that it was her showing the movie Lords of Dogtown to Penn that led to Stewart's audition and eventual casting.
"I directed that movie, Lords of Dogtown. Emile Hirsch is in that movie and I went and showed it to Sean Penn for a bizarre, odd reason," Hardwicke said. "And his kid was a skateboarder and he did the voiceover in the documentary. The Z-Boys. But he wanted to see it and at the end he goes, 'Oh my God, that kid is amazing. Emile Hirsch. Get him on the phone.' So, we called him. He goes, 'I'm going to cast him in Into the Wild. Then they said, 'We're doing early screening of Into the Wild, why don't you come see it?' And I saw Kristen in there, you guys, she's there in the trailer. She just looks like she wants to eat Emile. Okay, she's got the right attitude. And then the full circle thing. And then I wanted to meet her in person. She was out in Pittsburg filming Adventureland. And who went with me? I took an actor with me so that she could audition with an actor, Jackson Rathbone. He's very polite. He carried my suitcase."
There Were Some Other Notable Twilight Auditions
While Bella ultimately went to Stewart, she wasn't the only audition for the now-beloved film. Both Jamie Lynn Spears and Jennifer Lawrence auditioned for the film, though exactly which roles they went out for is unclear. Spears previously told Variety that she was surprised that a film was even being made about vampires.https://comicbook.com/movies/news/jamie-lynn-spears-reflects-failed-twilight-audition/
"I did read for Twilight," Spears revealed. "This was before vampires had really made their mark. Now we all love to watch stories about vampires, but I literally was like, "Vampires? Are you kidding me?" I remember reading it and going, "Who is going to watch these vampires?" Boy, was I wrong."
As for Lawrence, she said that she didn't even get a callback for her audition, but she ended up starring in The Hunger Games instead.
"I auditioned for 'Twilight,'" Lawrence confirmed. "They turned me down immediately. I didn't even get a callback. But my life would've been totally different. I got 'Hunger Games' I think, like, a year later. It was probably after 'Winter's Bone.'"
As Lawrence revealed elsewhere in the interview, she also almost turned down The Hunger Games purely because of the massive fandom that had spun out around Twilight.
"I was still in a franchise, so I was still trying to counteract the franchise-ness," Lawrence said. "I'd still be doing that if I was in 'Twilight.' But I almost didn't do 'Hunger Games' because 'Twilight' had come out and that fandom had happened."
The Twilight Saga is Coming to SteelBook 4K Ultra HD
Fans of Twilight will get to relive the story in time for the 15th anniversary of the first film with a new, SteelBook collection 4K Ultra HD release. It's available now with a suggested retail of $119.99.
"Timed to the 15th anniversary of the first film in the franchise, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION – 15TH ANNIVERSARY arrives on a SteelBook® 4K Ultra HD™ (4K Ultra HD™ + Blu-ray™ + Digital) on November 14th at Best Buy from Lionsgate. Based on Stephanie Meyer's best-selling novels with screenplays by Melissa Rosenberg (all five films), the film series was directed by Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight), Chris Weitz (The Twilight Saga: New Moon), David Slade (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse), and Bill Condon (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Parts 1 & 2), and a cast that included Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Ashley Greene, Kellan Lutz, Billy Burke, Michael Sheen, and Dakota Fanning."