Let's Revisit Some Of The Wildest Twilight Behind-The-Scenes Secrets

The Twilight saga is... pretty out there. I mean, these are movies that involve animatronic babies, random baseball games, and laughable lines like “You nicknamed my daughter after the Loch Ness Monster?!” But it’s that ridiculousness that makes the moody vampire films so beloved. If you just can’t get enough of the melodramatic wackiness, sink your teeth into these Twilight saga behind-the-scenes facts, which somehow manage to make the movies even more absurd than you ever thought possible.

Back when Twilight premiered in 2008, it inspired an all-encompassing standom that took over pop culture for years. The movies were only half of the fascination for fans — there was also a treasure trove of gossip about what went down behind the scenes, especially after stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson began dating. And funnily enough, the more the Twilight stars shaded the movies in interviews, the more popular they became, and now the five-film saga is not only a campy classic for an entire generation, but it’s also inextricably linked with all the late-2000s and early-2010s drama that went down when cameras weren’t rolling.

The next time you have a Twilight movie marathon with your friends, keep these behind-the-scenes details in mind and you’ll be able to grasp the full breadth of just how wild these movies really are.

1. Edward was supposed to have long hair.

Edward Cullen’s perfectly disheveled hairstyle is iconic, but it was almost completely different. Director Catherine Hardwicke wanted Edward to really lean into the melodramatic romance by having long, luxurious locks, but Robert Pattinson hated the hair extensions. “I thought it would be cool if Rob had long, romantic hair,” Hardwicke revealed in a 2009 interview. “We put extensions on Rob and he just hated it. He sat there in the chair for eight hours and was like, ‘No.’”

2. The original script had CIA agents chasing vampires on jet skis.

As hard as it may be to imagine, Twilight was initially going to be even more ridic. Hardwicke recalled how drastically different the first draft of the movie’s script was from the books in an interview with CinemaBlend. “The [initial] script ... veered very far from the book, and so I did not like it at all,” Hardwicke said. “[Bella] was a track star in the first scene, not an every-girl kind of awkward and clumsy [kid] ... she was like a badass, and then it escalated into this whole thing where there were CIA agents on jet skis trying to find the vampires.”

3. An Eclipse scene was cut because everyone laughed at it.

A lot of Twilight’s most serious scenes have inspired laughter from fans, but one got such an unwanted uproarious response that the filmmakers cut it from the movie. In the Eclipse DVD commentary, creator Stephenie Meyer and producer Wyck Godfrey revealed they shot a scene in which Bella imagined herself as the Quileute elder chief’s wife in a flashback that resulted in her sacrificing herself to vampires. Stewart herself called the scene “fairly ridiculous,” and Meyer and Godfrey said they cut the scene because everyone who saw it burst into laughter.

4. Taylor Lautner was nearly replaced after the first movie.

It’s hard to imagine the Twilight saga without Taylor Lautner as the brooding werewolf Jacob Black, but after the first movie came out, director Chris Weitz planned to replace Lautner with a different actor for New Moon. Since Jacob is supposed to majorly bulk up between the events of Twilight and New Moon, Weitz wanted to replace Lautner with actor Michael Copon to emphasize Jacob’s transformation. However, Lautner began an intense workout and diet routine at the time and managed to pack on more than enough muscle to keep his role.

5. Taylor Lautner wore lifts in his shoes to appear taller.

Bulking up wasn’t Lautner’s only physical transformation for New Moon. To make Jacob’s growth spurt even more apparent, costume designer Tish Monaghan revealed Lautner wore lifts in his shoes to exaggerate his height difference with Kristen Stewart. The wardrobe team also purposefully put him in shirts that were too small for him to really showcase his muscles.

6. Anna Kendrick compared filming Twilight to a “hostage situation.”

The Twilight actors haven’t been shy about sharing their not-exactly-amazing feelings about the movies throughout the years, and one of the most brutal comments came from Anna Kendrick. In a 2020 interview with Vanity Fair, Kendrick recalled how miserable she was filming the first movie. “I just remember my Converse being completely soaked through and feeling like, ‘You know, this is a really great group of people and I'm sure that we would be friends at a different time, but I want to murder everyone,’” she said. “Although it was also kind of bonding. There was something about it, like you go through some trauma event, like you imagine people who survive like a hostage situation and you're kind of bonded for life.”

7. Robert Pattinson got an Oregon driver’s license because of Twilight.

When Edward Cullen wasn’t jumping around the woods, he was driving around Forks in his Volvo. That was a bit of an issue for Robert Pattinson, though, since the then-21-year-old didn’t have a driver’s license. Pattinson later revealed he learned to drive for the role, and passed his driver’s test in Oregon during production.

8. Stephenie Meyer really wanted Henry Cavill to play Edward.

Since the Twilight books were already super popular before the movies were made, there was a ton of fan-casting for the lead roles of Bella, Edward, and Jacob. Even author Stephenie Meyer got in on the fun, posting to her website that she passionately wanted Henry Cavill to play Edward Cullen in the movies. “The only actor I’ve ever seen who I think could come close to pulling off Edward Cullen is [...] Henry Cavill,” Meyer wrote. Later, she reluctantly removed Cavill from her wishlist due to his age: “The most disappointing thing for me is losing my perfect Edward,” she wrote. “Henry Cavill is now 24 years old. Let us have a moment of quiet in which to mourn.”

9. Stephenie Meyer shows up in two of the movies.

Meyer didn’t only stay behind the cameras when her books were adapted into movies. The author has two brief cameos in the film franchise. She first appears in the diner where Bella and her dad Charlie meet up for a meal in Twilight. Meyer is seen typing on a laptop at the counter as a nod to all the Twihards. She also shows up in Breaking Dawn Part 1 seated next to Seth Clearwater at Bella and Edward’s wedding.

10. Robert Pattinson’s sister is singing in the scene when Edward first appears.

Robert Pattinson isn’t the only talent in his family — his older sister Lizzy is a singer-songwriter who fronted the U.K. dancepop band Aurora and made a splash as a contestant on The X Factor in 2014. She can also be heard in Twilight; Lizzy sang ambient background vocals for the Twilight score, and can be distinctly heard in the track “Who Are They,” which plays when Bella first sees the Cullens as they walk into school.

11. Robert Pattinson has two songs on the soundtrack.

Following in his sister’s footsteps, Pattinson also showed off his musical talents while filming Twilight. He recorded two songs: “Never Think” plays during Bella and Edward’s dinner date, and “Let Me Sign” plays after James attacks Bella in the ballet studio.