Movies

Twilight Could've Been a Children's Movie, Kristen Stewart Reveals

Twilight Could've Been a Children's Movie, Kristen Stewart Reveals
Image credit: Summit Entertainment

How could they make it even more PG?

Summary:

  • Twilight is the movie franchise based on Stephenie Meyer's series of novels of the same name.
  • The first Twilight movie was released in 2008 and was rated PG-13 by the MPAA for some violence and one sensual scene.
  • According to Kristen Stewart, the studio wanted to make the movie even cleaner, despite the original source material.

No matter how many years have passed, Twilight remains in everyone's minds and never seems to leave the realm of public interest. The love story between the stone-cold vampire Edward Cullen and the human Bella Swan, which leads to an epic adventure in five parts, remains as relevant and beloved as it was back in the 00s.

While the story may seem like a distant childhood memory to many, some fans remain as invested as ever. So do the actors. Having made peace with the sudden fame and all the changes the franchise has brought to their lives, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson seem to be on board with all the discussions.

In fact, Kristen Stewart often shares some of her reflections on the Twilight experience in various interviews, revealing more and more interesting facts about the production. It turns out that Twilight dodged a lot of bullets in the beginning.

Twilight Censorship Rating

Back in 2008, the first Twilight movie, rated PG-13, hit the big screen, paving the way to instant success for the entire franchise. As the story progressed, the rating of the saga changed. The characters grew up and shared more intimate and violent scenes. None of this, however, was the studio's original plan.

If anything, the big bosses behind the production were willing to make the movie even cleaner than it turned out to be in order to appeal to younger audiences. Kristen Stewart, who portrayed Bella Swan, revealed this detail in a recent cover story for Rolling Stone.

“The studio was trying to make a movie for kids.They didn’t want what actually was the book. When the f#ck are [Bella and Edward] smiling, ever?” the actress shared.

Fortunately, Stewart and the film's director, Catherine Hardwicke, were able to stand their ground and portray Bella as she was supposed to be, a moody and quiet teenager. Although these acting choices cost the actress many years of bullying on the internet from those who found her lacking in emotion and stale.

While it would be interesting to see how the dynamic between Bella and Edward would have changed if the executives had pushed harder, it probably wouldn't be the same beloved story.

And there's no hard evidence that Disney- fied version of the dark vampire drama would have been as successful as the original story.

If you are interested in revisiting Twilight, you can set up a movie night and binge all 5 films of the saga on Peacock.

Source: Rolling Stone