“Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke mentioned in an interview with The Guardian that the studio gifted her a “mini cupcake” as a congratulations when the vampire romance opened to an unexpectedly big $69 million in November 2008. It was a blunt realization that regardless of how profitable her directing profession may very well be, she wouldn’t be valued in the identical method as a male director.

“No, folks aren’t going to rent extra ladies administrators,” she instructed interviewer Hanna Flint. “They’re not going to provide the subsequent job and allow you to do one thing nice. It was an earth-shattering actuality straight away.”

Whereas a profitable male director with a franchise-launching big opening weekend is likely to be gifted “a automobile, or a three-picture deal, or [the chance] to do principally no matter you need,” Hardwicke continued, she was given kind of a pat on the again.

“I walked right into a room with all these items, and all people was congratulating the studio, and so they gave me a field,” she remembered. “I opened it up, and it was a mini cupcake.”

The director beforehand revealed on the “Completely satisfied Unhappy Confused” podcast in 2023 that the studio at all times underestimated how large “Twilight” might turn into. She was instructed by executives proper earlier than opening weekend that debuting to $30 million can be a aid. “Twilight” earned $7 million from midnight ticket gross sales alone on its solution to a $35 million opening day. The movie generated $69 million over its opening weekend and would go on to earn $192 million domestically and $408 million worldwide.

Hardwicke additionally mentioned on the podcast that the studio questioned if Robert Pattinson had adequate seems to be to play the vampire Edward Cullen, explaining: “They referred to as me and go, ‘Do you assume you may make this man look good?’ I mentioned, ‘Yeah, I do. Did you see his cheekbones? We’re doing a makeover on the hair and all the pieces and he’s going to start out understanding and he’s going to be attractive.’ However they didn’t consider it at first. He like walked over there with a stained shirt or one thing. It was Rob.”

Not solely did Hardwicke get solely a mini cupcake after the success of “Twilight’s” opening weekend, she additionally bought dropped from the sequel. “Twilight: New Moon” was directed by Chris Weitz. As an alternative, Hardwicke moved on to the fantasy film “Purple Using Hood” with Amanda Seyfried. However “it was far more difficult” as a result of “it had a decrease finances than we had on ‘Twilight,’ and it was all fantasy, so we couldn’t shoot any actual places and needed to construct all of the units. They didn’t give me a lot freedom.”

Head over to The Guardian’s web site to learn extra from Hardwicke’s newest interview.