Catherine Hardwicke Says ‘Twilight’ Success Did Not Pave the Way for More Female Directors: ‘It Was an Earth-Shattering Reality’

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Catherine Hardwicke couldn’t break the glass ceiling at studios even after her “Twilight” success. The director told The Guardianthat she was treated differently than a male director would have been following a staggering opening weekend: “Twilight” opened to $69 million in November 2008, and went on to earn $192 million domestically and $408 million worldwide, spurring the film adaptations of the full novel series. However, even with the feature being a hit, Hardwicke claimed she was sidelined when the film’s studio was doling out praise.

“I walked into a room with all these gifts, and everybody was congratulating the studio, and they gave me a box,” she said. “I opened it up, and it was a mini cupcake.”

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A male director instead would be gifted “a car, or a three-picture deal, or [the chance] to do basically whatever you want,” after “Twilight” landed at the box office. Hardwicke cited that it was an “earth-shattering” realization about sexism in Hollywood.

“No, people aren’t going to hire more women directors,” she said. “They’re not going to give you the next job and let you do something great. It was an earth-shattering reality right away.”

Hardwicke did not direct the “Twilight” sequel film “Twilight: New Moon”: It was instead helmed by Chris Weitz.

“Thirteen” and “Lords of Dogtown” filmmaker Hardwicke recently said during the Mediterrane Film Festival, from THR, that “every studio in Los Angeles turned down‘Twilight'” at first.

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“They gave me the script and said, ‘Are you interested in directing any of these?’” she said of the project that was in development at Summit Entertainment. “At the time, every studio in Los Angeles turned down‘Twilight’and it was in turnaround. Nobody thought it would make one penny because it was a young female lead. I read the script and thought it was terrible. I went and read the book and I saw there were a lot of fans that were passionate about it. So I said, ‘I want to take a meeting.’”

She continued, “I took the script and said, ‘This goes in a trashcan but we’re going to make it closer to the book and what matters in the book. Here are some ideas.’ They said, ‘OK, we agree with you. We’ll hire you.’”

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