Despite the legions of devoted fans hanging on their every word, “Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke says the movie’s stars, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, have remained “grounded.”
“It hasn’t gone to their heads,” she told E! Online’s Marc Malkin on Wednesday in Santa Monica at the launch event for her new book, “Twilight: Director’s Notebook.” “They’re still really cool. They’ve got their family and friends who keep them grounded. It’s so cool.”
She said she couldn’t imagine gearing up to start filming on another movie in the vampire series so soon.
“I was in Paris with Rob and Kristen at dinner and talking to them and it was like, ‘Is this really the schedule? Would we really be starting 10-and-a-half weeks from now?’” she recalled.
Regardless, the director said she’d miss the experience.
“I’m sad,” Hardwicke admitted. “But I would not want to let those people down … I was offered a very nice amount of money, plenty more than I have ever seen or my family has seen. But I wanted to do it only if I was going to make it better than ‘Twilight.’”
Though she might not be working on the next installment in the vampire series, the director is staying plenty busy. She is slated to reunite with Summit Entertainment to adapt “If I Stay,” a young adult novel coming out in April.
She will also direct another beloved series, “Maximum Ride” from James Patterson’s book series, reportedly about “a group of kids who are 98 percent human and two percent bird.”
“I love when people are that excited and passionate about it,” she said, referring to “Maximum Ride.” “When you do an indie film you’re just hoping somebody will go see the movie and you’re trying to stir it up with some excitement. The fact that there already is excitement is great.”