Robert Pattinson Wasn't Hot Enough For Twilight, According To Studio Execs
Before Robert Pattinson dumped a bunch of body glitter on himself to play Edward Cullen, his other major role was as Cedric Diggory, the seemingly flawless and incredibly good-looking Hufflepuff student who faces off against Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) in a multi-school tournament. Despite this, director Catherine Hardwicke just revealed that studio executives thought he wasn't quite pretty enough to play Edward in the first place.
On the "Watchalong" podcast (a spinoff of "Happy Sad Confused"), Hardwicke revealed that he looked kind of weird when he first read with eventual co-star Kristen Stewart for the role of the super-old vampire who falls in love with a teenage girl. "When he came over to my house, he had black bangs, hair with dyed black bangs. He was kind of out of shape 'cause he was hanging out at the pub all the time and stuff," Hardwicke said. "After we did the fun auditions [with Kristen] at my house for a couple hours ... The next morning, I looked at all the footage I shot and had recorded, and I thought, it works not just in person but it works on screen. I had to be sure 'cause in person, I got carried away, but you have to be sure: Does it really translate [to the screen]?"
So did it translate for Summit Entertainment? Apparently not, as they told Hardwicke.
Studio execs had doubts about Robert Pattinson playing Edward Cullen
"Then I sent it over to Summit, and then he went over to meet them," Catherine Hardwicke revealed. "They called me back and go, 'Do you think you can make this guy look good?' I'm like, 'Yeah, I do. Did you see his cheekbone? Here's a photograph. We're doing a makeover on the hair. ... He's gonna start working out, and he's gonna be gorgeous.' But they didn't believe it at first. He walked over there, I think, with a stained shirt."
Knowing what we all know about Robert Pattinson's very specific eccentricities, this isn't totally surprising. As the latest actor to pick up the Caped Crusader's black cowl, Pattinson did a totally bizarre interview in the lead-up to "The Batman," where he was clearly suffering from COVID quarantine-related frustrations. In that interview, he made upsetting pasta, told the outlet that he'd stopped working out in advance of filming, and was just generally a weird, weird man. The fact that he didn't take his "Twilight" audition seriously — especially considering the disdain he'd gain for Edward Cullen later on — isn't exactly a huge shocker.
Hardwicke, Stewart, and Pattinson recently had a Twilight reunion
"Twilight" fans know that, while filming the five-part film series, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson — who, obviously, was deemed attractive enough to play Edward Cullen — famously dated, splitting up and getting back together a few times (perhaps most notably over Stewart's affair with director Rupert Sanders, who helmed her film "Snow White and the Huntsman"). That said, Catherine Hardwicke told the podcast that not only are the two good friends once again, but the three of them even managed to reunite at a recent event, providing a happy ending to a story about a studio previously thinking that Pattinson was a weird-looking basket case who couldn't convincingly portray Edward.
"Strangely enough, I went to Rob's birthday party recently," Hardwicke said. "I crashed with my friend Toni Collette, [who] had just done a movie with him. Rob's like, 'Yeah, bring Catherine!' We had a fun thing, and then Kristen crashed it too! That was just a few months ago. It was like, oh my god. Everybody, we all hugged each other. It's like, this is so crazy and cool."
You can currently stream Hardwicke's "Twilight" film — she directed only the first one — for free on YouTube.