More kissing scenes in DVD

Another amazing interview from collider.com with Catherine Hardwicke

What do you think is the secret of Rob Pattinson's appeal. Not as Edward, but as Rob.

Catherine: Well, you know, he is a very fascinating person. Have you guys met him yet?

No.

Catherine: He's read a very eclectic, strange group of novels and stories and books, and the music he likes and the films he seeks out. He's quite a unique person. (laughs) And you know, he has a gift, where he can just sit down and start playing guitar or playing piano, and something comes out of him that doesn't come out of anybody else in the world and he's just really unique. Things you'll probably see later if he's still alive by the time he gets here. He's special. (laughs)

The Entertainment Weekly story made it seem like he was obsessing almost too much about the role. Is any of that true?

Catherine: Yeah, you know sometimes that was probably true. I think it quotes me as saying sometimes, and this is true, I have to say, Rob we have to go through the whole thing once, when we'd rehearse. Don't stop on the first sentence or on the first word. Sometimes you have to just try something and see if it works instead of second-guessing yourself. So that was one thing I tried. to get him to just try it and then look at the big picture.

it was reported on the internet that the author, maybe, had you pull back on the kissing scene.

Catherine: Yeah, she thought that the way we filmed the kissing scene was a little too steamy. Because I had a wide shot in the cut, so I ended up filming with the B camera and using more intimate shots. Which, actually, I think it still feels pretty steamy. But it's just a little more intimate.

So how did you shepherd your actors through that fragile ego period of like, everyone on the internet hates me? They don't see me as the character.

Catherine: Yeah, I had spoken to other people that had been involved in Spiderman, like Thomas Hayden Chuch. He was cast in Spidey 3 or whatever and he told me people just freaked out. How can that fat dude be, blah, blah blah. He said, look, you've just got to go for it. And then once they see what you're doing they're just going to be...I was telling everybody these stories and I said, don't watch anything, don't read anything, and Robert said, but my Mom sends it to me...thanks Mom. But he actually said it made him want to work harder and do better. I mean, maybe that's how you deal with something. I don't know.

Can you talk about what made you trust your gut about the leads? What made you say, I know this is going to be the one.

Catherine: Oh, okay, well, first of all, I had looked at everybody else. Even people that the fans suggested. You know we'd try to contact them. Are they the right age for it? Are they interested? Are they available? When that was done, do they look good in person or do they just look good in the photo? Abercrombie & Fitch model or whatever. But we tried to check out everybody that the fans suggested, but those suggestions were really bad, actually. They might have been originally or whatever. Brad Pitt's a bit too old to be still in high school(laughs)...I felt confident that I'd looked at everybody they had seen and farther, and then I looked at millions of other people too, and so I knew what the choices were out there. And after I saw Rob and Kristin I didn't even just say yes right there in the room. I had to look at my video and step back a day or two later and have a little bit of distance. How does this feel on the screen, not just in the room? And I felt really good about it.

What specifically did you see when you reflected on Kristin and Rob?

Catherine: Well, when I saw Kristin, I loved her in Into the Wild. Just that image of her sitting on that bed, in the trailer and that yearning. So palpable and her emotions were so strong and she could convey that. I thought that was great. So I was pretty much sold on Kristin even before I went to Pittsburgh and spent a day working with her. I felt like she was going to be pretty great. And then it's finding chemistry and then he worked with her. And when Rob and Kristin work together, you know, you could feel it in the room. (laughs) It was kind of scary. Kind of cool You know?

Collider: I'm curious, I know you just got back recently and I'm sure you're not thinking about yet, but what can we look forward to on the DVD/Blu-ray?

Catherine: Actually, I have been working on the DVD already. So we put together all the deleted scenes and extended scenes, there's quite a few, like 12 or something like that. And then I made some montages of some other crazy elements, like more vampire kiss, biting. And more human hijinks. And I made a pretty wild music video, like a remix of Bella's Lullaby and I did some pretty trippy things that you may like.
You can read the rest HERE