Happy 10th anniversary, Twihards!
Happy 10th anniversary, Twihards!
It's been 10 years since the beloved vampire romance hit screens on Nov. 21, 2008, quickly becoming a surprise mega-hit and grossing over $393 million worldwide. The relatively low budget film also catapulted its stars -- particularly Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart -- into A-list status, where they've stayed ever since.
ET spoke to Pattinson in June at the premiere of his film, Damsel, where he talked about the movie's 10th anniversary and revealed what he would now say to himself walking on the set for the first time. Pattinson's portrayal of vampire Edward Cullen, who's in love with a 17-year-old human girl (Stewart's Bella Swan), turned him into a household name and a heartthrob seemingly overnight.
"I don't know, just have fun," he said. "The whole ride's been really great. I've just been incredibly lucky in my career and my life. I'm really appreciative of everything."
In September, the now 32-year-old British actor also joked about a possible Twilight sequel. "I was literally just talking to my agent about it," he told Variety. "The amount of time I’ve spent moisturizing, I am ready to play 17 at a moment’s notice. Ready! I've got the Botox out! I can do it."
Of course, aside from the cast's good looks, a major part of the film's success was the undeniable chemistry between Pattinson and Stewart, who dated in real life after they met on set in 2008. They eventually split in 2012 after Stewart was photographed kissing her married Snow White and the Huntsman director, Rupert Sanders.
Clearly, the two have since moved on. Pattinson was formerly engaged to singer FKA Twigs and is now rumored to be dating model Suki Waterhouse. As for Stewart, she's been linked to model Stella Maxwell.
The former couple appears to have no hard feelings towards one another, and even had a friendly reunion in June at Lily-Rose Depp's 19th birthday at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. When ET spoke with Pattinson in June, he noted that 28-year-old Stewart and Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke were still some of the biggest boss ladies he's worked with.
“I mean, I've worked with some real powerhouses," he said. "Definitely Mia [Wasikowska] is one of them, obviously. Kristin Scott Thomas, Uma Thurman. ... Kristen Stewart, Kristen too! Kristen Stewart as well, yeah, yeah, yeah. Catherine Hardwicke, too. She's great."
Stewart has also spoken to ET about the 10th anniversary of Twilight, noting in August that the cast -- which includes Taylor Lautner, Anna Kendrick, Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone and Kellan Lutz -- still stays in touch "a bit."
"Yeah, it has been a long time," she reflected. "I don't know, it is funny, I have also lived in the same neighborhood for 10 years and I thought about that the other day, and I was like, oh god, you know a decade ago it wasn't as crowded, and I was like, that is bizarre to be able to say that. So, same, just 'cause ... certain things, certain memories will be close to you forever. So, it will never be normal to say something was that long ago, and I feel that way about that too."
And there's still a definite interest in Twilight 10 years after its release. Rathbone, who played Jasper Cullen in the film, spoke to ET's Katie Krause in September about his new album, American Spirit Blues -- which he describes as "acoustic driven rock and roll" -- and also talked about re-releasing the films on DVD.
"Catherine Hardwicke and I went back to Portland, Oregon, a couple months ago," he shared. "We stayed at the same hotel that we were staying at when we filmed, which is a crazy trip down memory lane, and then we went to all the places that we filmed and we just kind of ... you know, when you're with friends and you're talking about something that happened years ago, and it's like an avalanche of memory. That's what happened, and it was. It's incredible and so we filmed it all. It's gonna be on the 10-year anniversary box set of the new Twilight film re-release."
He also didn't turn down a possibility of a sequel.
"Well, look, at the end of the day things are being rebooted a lot, things are being re-examined, casts are being brought together for reunions, so it'd be one thing -- if we had the whole cast together, I would never turn it down 'cause I had a wonderful time working with my cast and crew and I just love my job," he noted.
Rathbone said he does keep in touch with the cast.
"Nikki Reed is the godmother of my first born child and I congratulated Kellan and Ashley on their recent weddings, I'm so stoked for them and their loves ones," he said. "I still definitely keep up with my cast. When you film with these people... and I'm gonna be honest with you, we got lucky, the cast is just wonderful and we got along famously and they are just wonderful people."
When ET spoke to Rathbone's love interest in the film -- Greene, who played Alice Cullen -- last March, the actress did note one potential problem of doing a Twilight sequel if author Stephenie Meyer were ever to release another book in the franchise. Meyer does have an unreleased companion novel to Twilight titled Midnight Sun, which is written from the perspective of Edward as opposed to Bella.
"First of all, I would pre-order it and I would read it first," she said with a laugh about a possible new Twilight book. "I absolutely would read it -- her writing is really fun and a way to relive those Alice days. And I would be interested to kind of see where she would go with it. There's so many characters, especially in Breaking Dawn -- there's like 100 vampires. There's so many directions I feel like she'd be able to go in. It sucks to say but I just turned 30, so I don't think I'm really young enough to play Alice anymore -- vampires aren't supposed to age. But I would definitely watch it."
As for Lutz, who played Emmett Cullen in the film, he's just "forever grateful" for the once-in-a-lifetime experience of filming the beloved franchise.
"Twilight opened up so many doors, forever grateful," he told ET in February 2016. "Like, I had a small little role that I really just lived as full as I could -- and I love Emmett. Emmett will forever live in my heart. No way would I ever look back and take that away because it gave me so much more."
"I did not think it was gonna be the success that it was -- and frankly, playing a vampire that sparkles, there's no fangs -- that just felt not 100 percent a vampire," he added. "... I just remember playing vampire baseball. I think that's the most vivid memory I have, and freezing rain and running around and laughing, just, it was so much fun."
When it comes to keeping in touch with the cast, Lutz said he's still in contact with about "half of them."
"A lot of time has passed and people got married or have kids -- they have different lives now," he noted. "For the most part, Twilight was a gathering of every cool kid of every group of high school -- so, the musician, the artist, the jock, the cheerleader -- so, for the most part, I got along with everyone... some of them, they wouldn't be friends in real life. So, we still see each other, Hollywood's a small town. But, for the most part, I keep in touch with about half of them."
As for Lautner -- who played Pattinson's romantic rival, Jacob Black -- he appears to have kept in touch with Stewart the most. He told ET in August 2013 on the set of his film, Tracers, that making five films together has forever bonded the cast.
"After four or five years of working together and spending that amount of time together, it's impossible not to [keep in touch]," he said. "I'm close with everyone. ... It's tough with all of our schedules...but...when we're both in L.A., we figure out time to see each other."
The Twilight bond also extends to 17-year-old Mackenzie Foy, who played Pattinson and Stewart's daughter, Renesmee, in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2. Foy told ET earlier this month at The Nutcracker and the Four Realms premiere that she still keeps in touch with her Twilight parents.
"I do. I do try to," she shared. "They were just amazing people. I have so many wonderful memories just working with them and hanging out with them. So, I do try to talk to them."
"Being in Twilight, that was my first film," she added. "So, everything I learned on that set, I was learning for the first time. That was a film that I really knew, and understood what a film is and how it worked. So anything that I did in that process really prepared me for the rest of my career."
For more on Foy's Twilight experience, watch the video below:
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