11 Fascinating Details About the Film ‘Twilight’

On August 2, 2008, Breaking Dawn—the concluding part of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga—was released, breaking records for Hachette Book Group by selling approximately 1.3 million copies in a single day. However, the vampire craze hadn’t peaked yet, as the film adaptation of the series’ first book premiered in theaters on November 21, just a few months later. 

Directed by Catherine Hardwicke of Thirteen fame, Twilight was produced on a $37 million budget and grossed over $400 million globally. While some critics dismissed it as overly melodramatic or, as Variety described, “surprisingly lackluster,” others praised Hardwicke and the cast for portraying teenage desire with raw, awkward authenticity. Regardless of its reception, the film—centered on the forbidden love between a high school student, Bella, and a century-old vampire, Edward—remains a cultural milestone, launching Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart into stardom and blending the feel of an indie gem with the scale of a blockbuster.

With Netflix adapting Midnight Sun (a retelling of Twilight from Edward’s viewpoint) into an animated series, now is an ideal moment to revisit the original film. Here are 11 intriguing facts about Twilight, from the discarded initial screenplay to Pattinson’s lack of enthusiasm for the baseball scene.

The first draft of the Twilight screenplay featured a Jet Ski pursuit and unexpected character deaths.

During Paramount’s MTV Films’ early development of Twilight for the big screen, they believed the plot required additional action to attract male viewers. Screenwriter Mark Lord crafted a script where Bella, portrayed as a marathon runner, wields a shotgun against vampires and eventually becomes one. Lord also chose to eliminate Bella’s father, Charlie, and Edward’s father, Carlisle.

The studio eventually let the rights expire, and Summit Entertainment acquired them in 2007. When Catherine Hardwicke was chosen as director, she insisted on discarding the existing screenplay. “The original script had Bella on Jet Skis, fleeing from the FBI. She was depicted as a top athlete, completely deviating from the book,” Hardwicke explained on The Big Hit Show podcast. Melissa Rosenberg, known for writing 2006’s Step Up and contributing to The O.C., was brought in to create a new Twilight script faithful to the novel. (She later wrote the screenplays for the entire Twilight Saga.)

Stephenie Meyer envisioned Emily Browning as Bella and Henry Cavill as Edward in her ideal cast.

Although Meyer played a significant role in the production of Twilight, she wasn’t in charge of casting. However, she had a clear vision for her dream cast. She originally hoped Henry Cavill would portray Edward, but by the time Summit Entertainment secured the film rights in 2007, she believed he was too old for the part. (Cavill was 24 at the time.) Other potential candidates, as she mentioned on her website, included Tom Sturridge and Logan Lerman.

For the role of Bella, Meyer’s top pick was Emily Browning, who was widely recognized for her role as Violet Baudelaire in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004). She also considered Elliot Page and Danielle Panabaker as capable choices for Bella. 

Meyer also envisioned Charlie Hunnam as Carlisle, John C. Reilly or Vince Vaughn as Charlie Swan, Rachel Leigh Cook as Alice, and Cillian Murphy as James.

Jackson Rathbone nearly landed the role of Edward.

Hardwicke had little trouble finding her Bella—Stewart was selected partly due to her ability to express “longing” in Into the Wild (2007), as Hardwicke explained to Yahoo! Entertainment. Casting Edward, however, was more challenging: While there were plenty of attractive actors, few had the “otherworldly, century-old” appearance Hardwicke sought.

Jackson Rathbone, who ultimately secured the role of Jasper Cullen, was one of the final four candidates, alongside Ben Barnes (Westworld, Shadow and Bone), Shiloh Fernandez (2013’s Evil Dead), and Pattinson.

“They all visited my house with Kristen, and she spent an hour and a half with each actor. She had to kiss them, participate in improvisations, and engage in various playful activities to see who she truly connected with,” Hardwicke shared. “In the end, she said, ‘It has to be Rob.’”

The actors portraying vampires attended a cat movement class to embody their characters.

Hardwicke arranged for the cast to take a cat movement class, helping them adopt the elegance and fluidity expected of vampires. Nikki Reed (Rosalie Cullen) told Insider she found the method “really cool and intriguing.” 

Ashley Greene (Alice Cullen), however, described it as a “deeply awkward experience” and “one of my least favorite moments” on her podcast The Twilight Effect. “I think it brought us closer because we all felt ridiculous,” she said. “[The instructor] told us, ‘I need you to move like cats, meow, and hiss,’ and I thought, ‘Is she serious? Is this a joke?’”

Robert Pattinson personally chose the line “You better hold on tight, spider monkey” from a selection of options.

One of the most iconic lines in Twilight comes just before Edward takes Bella on a swift piggyback ride through the forest. “You better hold on tight, spider monkey,” he tells her. Pattinson selected this line from a list of nearly 10 alternatives that Hardwicke had written the previous night. (Due to the Writers Guild of America strike during filming, Rosenberg couldn’t make any script changes during production.)

Other potential lines included “Prepare for liftoff,” “Got a good grip? Don’t let go” (with Bella responding, “No chance of that, buddy”), and “Wrap your legs around me like a spider monkey.”

Kellan Lutz’s real-life habits inspired Emmett’s egg-filled school lunch.

Observant fans have noted that Emmett’s (Kellan Lutz) school lunch features a plastic bag full of hard-boiled eggs—an unusual choice for a high schooler, especially one who doesn’t eat human food. The eggs actually belonged to Lutz, who ate them on set to maintain his physique for the role. Hardwicke noticed this and incorporated it into the film.

“I couldn’t stop laughing,” Hardwicke told Insider. “I thought, ‘OK, [Emmett] has to have those eggs. You need to carry them in that scene,’ because it was just too funny.”

Meyer appears in a brief cameo during a diner scene.

Meyer not only visited the set during filming but also made a cameo in the movie. Just before Bella arrives at the diner to meet her father, the camera briefly focuses on a customer at the counter—that’s Meyer. “Here’s your veggie plate, Stephenie,” the server says.

“[The filmmakers] convinced me to do it. They thought fans would enjoy it, as many would recognize me,” Meyer told the Middletown Transcript. 

(Meyer also makes a cameo in 2011’s Breaking Dawn - Part 1 as a guest at Bella and Edward’s wedding. “It wasn’t my idea—and I hated that dress!” she told Entertainment Weekly. However, she admitted she enjoyed creating a backstory with producer Wyck Godfrey, who sat beside her: “He played a deputy policeman, and our marriage was falling apart because he was in love with [Bella’s father] Charlie.”)

The Cullens had room for improvisation during the baseball scene.

The thunderstorm baseball game—set to Muse’s “Supermassive Black Hole”—showcases the Cullens’ superhuman abilities, from their incredible jumps to their lightning-fast runs and powerful hits. The actors underwent extensive training to perfect the scene, though not everyone was enthusiastic. (“I just didn’t care. I think sports are pointless,” Pattinson told MTV.)

While the scene was meticulously choreographed, the actors were allowed to add their own flair. Lutz came up with Emmett’s quirky boxing warm-up, and Facinelli suggested Carlisle point his bat toward the field, inspired by Babe Ruth. Rathbone, meanwhile, contributed Jasper’s impressive bat spins. “Many people thought it was CGI, and I’ve had to prove repeatedly that I can actually do it,” Rathbone told Entertainment Weekly. 

FX’s popular vampire mockumentary series, What We Do in the Shadows, paid homage to the scene—but with kickball—in its third season (watch it above).

The fight scene between Edward and James involved Swiss cheese and honey.

In the intense ballet studio fight, Edward bites into James’s (Cam Gigandet) neck. According to Gigandet, Pattinson suggested using honey-coated chicken to mimic biting into vampire flesh. “We started with chicken, but it got messy. We ran out of chicken and eventually switched to Swiss cheese,” Gigandet told MTV. 

The final scene doesn’t reveal the “layers of Swiss cheese and honey piled on my neck,” as Gigandet described. However, you can see Pattinson rip into James’s throat and spit out a piece of the fake flesh.

Robert Pattinson did not write “Bella’s Lullaby” … 

A common misconception is that Pattinson composed “Bella’s Lullaby,” likely due to early reports claiming he would. While Pattinson was playing his own music on the piano during the scene where Edward presents “Bella’s Lullaby” to Bella, the scene was filmed before the final music was chosen.

The actual “Bella’s Lullaby” was created by Carter Burwell, who also scored the rest of the film. He wrote it years earlier after a breakup with his now-wife, Christine Sciulli. “She wouldn’t talk to me, so I sent her the music to express my feelings,” he shared on his website. Muse’s Matt Bellamy also composed a version of “Bella’s Lullaby,” though it remains unreleased.

... However, two songs by Pattinson are included in the movie.

Twilight includes two tracks performed by Pattinson. “Let Me Sign,” co-written with Marcus Foster and Bobby Long, plays as Edward removes venom from Bella’s wound after James bites her. “Never Think,” co-written with Sam Bradley, is heard softly in the background during Edward and Bella’s dinner at a Port Angeles restaurant.

According to Pattinson, his music made it into the film “by chance” after Nikki Reed shared a CD of his old recordings with Hardwicke. He considered using a fake name for the soundtrack credits, fearing it might “be distracting … which it has been,” he told MTV. “It might have been a mistake, but I like the idea.”