Twilight's Director Had To Convince Producers Robert Pattinson Was Hot
Oh, how wrong they were.
Nowadays, it’s clear that Robert Pattinson was the perfect choice to play the brooding, lovesick vampire Edward Cullen in Twilight, but that wasn’t always the case. Initially, the studio that produced the 2008 movie didn’t see the vision. Director Catherine Hardwicke knew Pattinson was destined to be a heartthrob, but she recently revealed that producers “didn’t believe” the actor was attractive enough for the role at first.
Hardwicke recounted Pattinson’s awkward first impression during her Nov. 20 appearance on the podcast Watchalong. “When he came over to my house, he had black bangs for hair and was kind of out of shape because he was hanging out at the pub all the time,” Hardwicke said of first meeting Pattinson.
After being wowed by his auditions with Kristen Stewart and sending the tapes to Summit Entertainment, Harwicke recalled how the studio critiqued Pattinson’s physical appearance.
“They called me back and go, ‘Do you think you can make this guy look good?’” Hardwicke said. “I said, ‘Yeah, I do. Did you see his cheekbones? We’re doing a makeover on the hair and everything and he’s going to start working out and he’s going to be gorgeous.’ But they didn’t believe it at first. He like walked over there with a stained shirt or something. It was Rob.”
Pattinson’s look may have thrown producers for a loop given that all the speculation at the time was pointing to Henry Cavill as the top pick for Edward — Twilight author Stephenie Meyer had even expressed her wish for Cavill to play the part.
But luckily, the producers at Summit Entertainment were eventually won over by Pattinson’s charms (and cheekbones). The British actor landed the now-iconic part, beating out an estimated 5,000 actors who were in consideration to play the vampire. Recently, Josh Peck revealed he had made it far in the casting process for Edward. Other movie stars who were up for the part included Dave Franco, Ben Barnes, and Jamie Campbell Bower.
The studio behind Twilight may not have realized how hot Pattinson was back in the day, but thousands of Twihards sure did.
