The Twilight SagaKristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson & Taylor Lautner Remember ‘Eclipse’

WYCK GODFREY (Producer): One of the things that has been exciting about the franchise is that New Moon couldn’t have been more different stylistically from Twilight, and Eclipse is the same way from New Moon. They really do offer something different for the audience each time out, and director David Slade did exactly what we had hoped for: he brought an edge and sense of menace and danger, and you feel a little uncomfortable in a lot of the scenes just because of the way he shoots his movies. I think that’s really good as Bella starts to realize that these dangers are descending upon Forks and they’re coming after her, and Edward and Jacob have to work together to defend her. It’s all very exciting.

ROBERT PATTINSON (Actor, “Edward Cullen”): Eclipse isn't as intimate as Twilight or New Moon. It's a massively different movie to New Moon. There's so many more main parts, and having these huge battle sequences, I've never done anything like it in any of the other movies. We're at war, so I get to interact with more characters, not just Kristen. You'll also find out more about the other members of the Cullen family. It just feels bigger. Also, New Moon set up a love triangle with Bella, Edward and Jacob, so we explore that further in Eclipse. It's a tough situation for all of them, because Bella is torn between two guys.

DAVID SLADE (Director): Having seen the previous films and read the books, there was a certain degree of mythology that was there that was interesting to me and that I really liked once I kind of got my head around all of it. I thought I could bring a sense of awareness that hadn’t been addressed before. How do these things work when it comes to vampires? Why do they sparkle? What is it about them that does that and how does it work? Those kinds of things were very interesting to me. There aren’t as many sparkly shots, but I think you get a sense of the physics of the whole thing. On the one hand you’ve got this intensely naturalistic romantic drama, which all of the energy goes into, but when it comes to the fantastical elements, to me it was important that they didn’t raise above the level of magic realism.

KRISTEN STEWART (Actress, “Bella Swan”): Like New Moon, Eclipse sort of starts and becomes a completely new movie. Just as soon as you think you’re going to get the same story, all of a sudden it completely changes. Bella is much more back to herself. She’s content now. She’s comfortable and self-assured in a way that she wasn’t in New Moon. I think what I really love about Eclipse, what was interesting for me to explore, was different levels of love and acknowledging that the ideals that you maybe had a little while ago aren’t true. Bella is innately honest. That’s something that I feel she is. In Eclipse she lies to herself and she lies to everyone around her about the fact that she’s in love with Jacob — just not as much as she loves Edward. It’s that extra thing that you can’t really even describe. I loved watching the three of them. I loved playing with the three characters together. There’s literally a scene where Edward and Jacob, who are mortal enemies, are in a tent with a sleeping Bella in between them. It’s a ridiculous circumstance to find yourself in. We had so much to work with. Then the FX as well were even more. There’s a big battle that happens and that was more than we had to deal with on New Moon. So it was cool.

WYCK GODFREY: I think it’s not just a love story. I think there is a love of fantasy when you go the movies, to be taken to a world with different rules and different creatures. I think part of the excitement of the Twilight series is not just it’s about first and perfect love, it’s about eternal love, which is kind of supernatural. And it’s about the introduction of a world of vampires and werewolves that do live among us, all handled in a realistic way. I think it kind of heightens the fantasy for the audience.

DAVID SLADE: You have to accept it was as natural as the next thing for the story to work. If you dissected one of these things, in the book it says one thing, in the film it says something else and we had to decide how to make it really tangible so that running at 50 miles per hour looks like they’re running 50 miles per hour. How can they do that? Why do they sparkle in the light and how does that work? These kinds of things were quite interesting to me as well in terms of exploring the mythology. We know certain things about these characters emotionally and story wise, and these things are actually kind of naturalistic, so for me the more fantastical things about these elements, I felt, needed a little bit of grounding in this film.

MELISSA ROSENBERG (Screenwriter): The third book is about the triangle, and this is the episode where Bella chooses between Edward and Jacob. She’s chosen when we start the movie, but then she has to go through a process of elimination. She starts by choosing from a teenager, immature place, "That’s what I want," but then we have to break that down and she really has to look at that choice, because everything and everyone is forcing her to look at that choice, and she has to make that choice from a very mature place and really looking at the consequence of this choice. The whole movie is about choices and consequences, and I think that requires some very delicate handling. You’re talking about some very subtle emotions and you really have to track that, and I think it comes to looking at both of these guys as viable options. And in looking at both lifestyles and what they offer as options, what do you want for yourself? It’s really about, "Who am I and who am I going to be? What do I want for my life?" It’s a very mature question to ask, so finding that answer will require some exploration.

TAYLOR LAUTNER (Actor, "Jacob Black"): Eclipse was my favorite book, so I was really excited to start filming the movie. I just love that it’s the height of the love triangle. Twilight develops Edward and Bella’s relationship, New Moon develops Jacob and Bella’s, and in Eclipse, the three of them are physically together. It has one of my favorite scenes ever in that movie — the tent scene. Edward is forced, I mean I guess it was a choice of his, to let me sleep in the same sleeping bag as Bella, just so she doesn’t die, because she’s shivering to death. And I’m warm and I’m the only thing at that moment that can keep her alive. It’s a funny scene, there’s a lot of ribbing going on between Jacob and Edward.

MELISSA ROSENBERG: I was intrigued by the expansion of the mythology, really digging deeper into this world and introducing some new characters. For me as a writer it was fun, too, because I got to expand on some of these characters. In the books, everything is from Bella’s point of view, so in the book you couldn’t really cut away to what these other characters were doing. I actually cut away to who they are and how they came to be. It was fun to explore the outer fringes of this mythology that Stephenie created.

DAVID SLADE: There is nothing that isn’t intense about romance. Romance and love are the most intense emotions we go through as human beings, particularly human beings of 17 or 18 as these characters are. It’s the time where things are intensely dramatic. A romance scene for an audience like this is as fulfilling as an action scene. There is a certain respect that has to be given to this audience. They’ve loved all of these films and so, to me, there has to be an intensity in the emotion that cannot be precluded by an intense action sequence. They all have to balance out in the end.