For Twilight, I wasn't thinking it was going to be a crazy success, or anything. It had been rejected by all the major studios. Nobody wanted to make it and they didn't think it would make any money, but I read the book and I thought, "Wow, I want to capture that feeling of just being crazy in love. I wonder if I can do that in a film." That was my challenge.

Catherine Hardwicke

I worked for 20 directors as a production designer, most male. I was on the set to witness firsthand a range of sometimes atrocious emotions - well-documented firings, yellings, fights between directors and actors, hookers, abusive things, budget overages, lack of preparation. A man gets a standing ovation for crying because he's so sensitive, but a woman is shamed.

Catherine Hardwicke

yelling fighting men

People love to talk, so let them have fun talking, I think they have an interesting, wonderful connection, so you knowWhat does dating mean? I don't know. I couldn't say. People love to talk, so let them have fun talking.

Catherine Hardwicke

fun mean thinking

People love to talk, so let them have fun talking.

Catherine Hardwicke

fun talking people

You can't really just think, "Oh, I want to make something that is going to appeal to every single person in the world." You have to just try to make a movie that comes from your heart.

Catherine Hardwicke

heart trying thinking

Sometimes, a scene goes on too long and, with this being a suspense story and murder mystery that you're trying to discover through her heightened paranoia, you don't want scenes that take you on a tangent. Sometimes, you love those scenes, but you know that it's better not to be in the overall film. So, I'm not sad that they're not in the main movie, but I do think it's fun for people to get to watch them, if they want to.

Catherine Hardwicke

murder-mysteries fun thinking

When you're in the editing process, you try different things and you get creative ideas.

Catherine Hardwicke

creative editing ideas

We love those beautiful, Latin American stories where there is an element that's more mysterious and wonderful. I think as a child a lot of us love the idea of the star and more of the supernatural elements.

Catherine Hardwicke

stars beautiful children

I was told 50 percent of the population gets cancer. Everybody is going to be affected.

Catherine Hardwicke

percent cancer population

The truth is, most of those female stories that are contending for Oscars are directed by men. Let's be honest. I looked at the 44 Oscar contenders in Variety that someone wrote up - there was not one directed by a woman. All the ones that were getting an Oscar pitch with the money and everything behind them were by men.

Catherine Hardwicke

female stories men

Meryl [Stripe]spoke out about the low percentage of female critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Why are there 760 male critics and just 168 women? You are immediately [biased] on what kind of films you are being told to go see. What are you told are good films? Male films.

Catherine Hardwicke

stripes males female

Most of the female-directed films, if they got distribution, would have fewer dollars to support the film and play in fewer theaters than the men. Because the female-directed films go to smaller companies. So the gap starts widening.

Catherine Hardwicke

support play men

Of course, the male-directed films make more money.

Catherine Hardwicke

more-money males film

I directed the first "Twilight" movie. It was in my contract that I could have gone on to do the other films, but I didn't feel as connected to the other books.

Catherine Hardwicke

twilight gone book

Now there are three guys who directed "Twilight" films that had a gross of a gazillion dollars. All those "Hunger Games" guys, the "Divergent" guys. All those people. When they are looking for the next big director, they see they have a track record. So there's 20 people that spun off of "Twilight" that have more qualifications than any woman.

Catherine Hardwicke

twilight games people

People are more likely to help other people who look exactly like them. They will hang out at the bar and on the golf course with them.

Catherine Hardwicke

helping-others golf people

I really wanted our male characters to be a lot stronger. We gave them careers, lives.

Catherine Hardwicke

stronger careers character

I used to be an architect, so I have a series I am working on with USA Network that I created and am co-writing.

Catherine Hardwicke

architect usa writing

I just wrote a really cool script. It's called "One Track Mind." It's an origin story about the most successful and the most foul-mouthed, outrageous songwriter in history.

Catherine Hardwicke

track successful mind

I think it's true that the more sanitized a person is, you can't really relate to that person.

Catherine Hardwicke

relate persons thinking

Some of the best stuff in all my movies has been improv.

Catherine Hardwicke

has-beens stuff