‘Twilight’ director Catherine Hardwicke only got a cupcake from studio

Director Catherine Hardwicke has at least one bad memory of working on the first Twilight movie, despite it having performed phenomenally well at the box office and paving the way for four more hit films.

It happened in 2008, at the offices of producers Summit Entertainment, just after the adaptation of author Stephenie Meyer’s supernatural books opened to big numbers.

“I walked into a room with all these gifts, and everybody was congratulating the studio, and they gave me a box,” Hardwicke told The Guardian in a story published Monday. “I opened it up, and it was a mini cupcake.”

Oof. Worse, Hardwicke was certain that her male counterparts would not be treated the same way.

For them, she said, it wouldn’t be unusual to be treated to “a car, or a three-picture deal, or (getting) to do basically whatever you want.”

Twilight was the first of five films in the blockbuster franchise about high school student Bella, portrayed by Kristen Stewartfinding herself in a love triangle with vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson) and werewolf Jacob Taylor Lautner. It brought in $408.5 million globally, according to Box Office Mojo.

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to former Summit co-chiefs Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger for comment on Hardwicke’s remarks. EW has also reached out to Lionsgate, which acquired Summit in 2012.

Hardwicke, who had helmed Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown even before her Twilight win, was replaced for the second movie in the franchise, 2009’s New Moon. Chris Weitz, the director of About a Boy and The Golden Compasstook on that job. Eclipsereleased in 2010, was directed by 30 Days of Night‘s David Slade. Chicago director Bill Condon stepped in for 2011’s The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 and for the second part the following year.

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Post-TwilightHardwicke has gone on to projects including the 2015 movie Miss You Alreadywhich starred Drew Barrymore and Collette tones, Miss Bala with Gina Rodriguez in 2019, and episodes of TV’s This Is Us.

She also directed the high-profile movie Red Riding Hoodwhich starred Amanda Seyfried and was released in 2011.

“It was much more challenging. It had a lower budget than we had on Twilightand it was all fantasy, so we couldn’t shoot any real locations and had to build all the sets,” Hardwicke said. “They didn’t give me much freedom.”