Twilight Director Recalls Robert Pattinson’s ‘Makeover’ for Role — and Why He Turned Down Hair Extensions

Twilight got everybody wanting a bit of the supernatural, from vampires to werewolves. The teen fantasy series soon became a frenzy, and Robert Pattinson’s Edward Cullen was the man of many teenage girls’ dreams. However, it wasn’t so easy for the actor to become the sparkly vampire. On the movie’s 15th anniversary, director Catherine Hardwicke recalled the makeover the actor underwent to become the 100-year-old teen vampire.

The Casting Struggle

While being interviewed for the Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz, Hardwicke reflected on the 2008 movie. She told the interviewer that they had to work hard on convincing the studio members that Robert Pattinson was the perfect person to cast as the main lead. While his chemistry with co-star Kristen Stewart, who played Edward’s love interest Bella Swan, was obvious, Hardwicke was still called in twice to assure them that Pattinson was the right choice to make. She was confident that after his transformation, everyone would agree.

When the director was called in to ask whether Robert Pattinson was the guy who could play the role well, she told the studio members about her plan to do the actor’s complete makeover. She told them they would change his hair, eyebrows, and even his teeth, and the actor would start working out to get in shape. There were still speculations, but after Pattinson got the envisioned makeover, everyone started seeing Edward Cullen in him!

The Infamous Hairstyle

The Edward Cullen hairstyle was, in particular, a source of conflict, as she had a vision of a vampire boy with long hair, but Pattinson was against it. They even tried hair extensions on Robert for a photo shoot, but he was way too uncomfortable with them. Eventually, the makeup team started playing with Robert’s hair and came up with the iconic Edward Cullen hairstyle, which got pretty popular.

However he ended up looking, there’s no denying that Robert Pattinson was embraced by fans of the series, becoming the perfect person to encapsulate the spirit of Edward Cullen.