Catherine loves us

Check out this article (printed below) about Catherine Hardwicke's appearance yesterday in Parsippany. Jenn M. and I asked the questions they mentioned first! My question was "What would you do differently if you could film Twilight again?" and it's the very first question addressed in this article. Jenn asked if it was true that Catherine wanted Edward to have long hair. I am loving this. My question is in RED and Jenn M's is in PURPLE.

Aug 28 2009 5:32 PM EDT

'Twilight' Director Catherine Hardwicke Tells Behind-The-Scenes Secrets

'We had to do a lot of things with little money,' the director tells the 'Twilight' convention crowd about making the first film in the franchise.

Many "Twilight" fans may think the first film in Stephenie Meyer's four-part saga is darn near perfect, but there are a few things director Catherine Hardwicke would go back and change if she could. "I would have a giant, plastic dome built over the state of Oregon," Hardwicke joked during a one-hour Q&A session at the official "Twilight" convention in Parsippany, New Jersey.

Joking aside, Hardwicke did say she wishes she could have delved deeper into Bella's vivid dreams. "I loved in the book when Stephenie would describe some of the dreams and things, so I really wanted to film some of the dream sequences," Hardwicke said. "And we had a whole plan for this beautiful, underwater dream sequence. [But we had] no money. They said, 'We can't afford it.' We had to do a lot of things with little money because Summit didn't know if anyone was going to see the movie."

Obviously fans came out in droves for the vampire romance, but there were a few other scenes fans didn't get to see. For one, the beloved "blood test" scene from the novel was cut to add variety to the filming locations — and to abate Hardwicke's bloody fears. "I was actually that person that fainted in my seventh-grade biology class," she said. Another thing fans didn't see was a hairy Robert Pattinson. Hardwicke originally envisioned Bella's bloodsucking boyfriend Edward with long hair. "I thought it would be cool if Rob had long, romantic hair," she said. "So we put extensions on Rob and he just hated it. He sat there in the chair for eight hours and was like, 'No.' "

Hardwicke also had Pattinson style secrets to share from off the set. According to the director, Pattinson was sporting a not-so-fresh shirt at the Teen Choice Awards. "I was sitting on the couch next to Rob and he was telling me, 'I didn't know what to wear. I didn't have anything clean, so my friend wore this shirt last night and did a performance.' So his buddy did a whole performance in this shirt and Rob found it on the floor and thought it was the cleanest shirt he had, so he wore it to the awards."

But it wasn't all Rob, Rob, Rob during the Q&A session — Hardwicke offered particular kudos to actress Kristen Stewart. When one fan asked if Stewart could pull of the emotional intensity needed in "New Moon," Hardwicke wholeheartedly replied yes. "She has depth deeper than any actress I've ever known."

Though the session revolved mainly around "Twilight," Hardwicke alluded to her upcoming projects including "If I Stay," "Hamlet," "Maximum Ride" and the recently announced "The Girl With the Red Riding Hood," noting that they are all in the development stages and that she is not sure which she'll work on first. "Any fortune tellers out there?" she asked.