‘Twilight’: Stephenie Meyer Didn’t Agree With This Movie Scene; ‘That Was Not Bella at All’
When Stephenie Meyer first began penning the books in The Twilight Saga, she had no idea that she would be providing the source material for five movies. But fans were completely enamored with the love story between human, Bella Swan, and vampire, Edward Cullen. Before long, the stories that Meyer had crafted about the unlikely couple were being shown in theaters and titillating viewers across the globe.
Many fans of the Twilight movies might not realize how much input Meyer had when it came time to transfer her story from the page to the screen. The author was able to give her opinions on everything from who was cast to bring her characters to life to the style of dress Bella wore to her wedding. In fact, Meyer was constantly on set of the films and even has cameos in Twilight and Breaking Dawn – Part 2.
‘Twilight’ author, Stephenie Meyer didn’t agree with this scene in ‘Eclipse’
While Meyer had some power, there were times when she was overruled as well. In fact, sometimes there were scenes that she staunchly disagreed with. One scene, in particular, comes in the third movie, Eclipse. Twilight fans may recall the scene where Jacob shows up at Forks High School to confront Edward and Bella rides off with him on his motorcycle after learning Edward has lied to her.
Some viewers, who also loved the Twilight books, feel like the aforementioned scene is something that the book version of Bella would never do. And it seems they’re not alone in their thinking. Meyer also had a real issue with the scene because, for her, it was in direct contrast with Bella’s nature and all-consuming love of Edward. According to Meyer, the original scene that was written was even further away from her version of Bella. In a 2010 interview with Twilight Series Theories, Meyer revealed that she worked with the screenwriter and editors to change the scene.
Meyer felt that the movie scene showed an untruthful version of Bella
“I said the way that this is written, her getting on the back of the [motorcycle] is a direct response to her saying: ‘You lied to me. Well, I’m going with him,'” the Twilight author recalled about expressing her grievances. “And we were able to, day of, cut down the clip that they played for MTV and stuff, we were able to soften it. We were able to get some lines in, and you’ve seen the whole thing so you know that there’s a breakaway. We tried to put in, you know, her response to Edward, and then now it becomes about Jacob. ‘Why haven’t you called me?’ We switched…We tried as hard as we could to soften how that went down so it didn’t feel like something where: ‘Well, I’m gonna go get on the back of his motorcycle.’ Because I felt like that was not Bella at all, and it’s not assertive. It’s rude. You know what I mean?”
Meyer lost a few creative battles while the ‘Twilight’ movies were being made
While Meyer admits that the compromised version that fans see in Eclipse is an improvement on the first pass, she still doesn’t see Bella as someone who would have that response. But, she realized she wasn’t going to win every argument and she chalked that particular battle up to a loss. “I still think it’s kind of a stretch that she would do that,” the Twilight author confessed. “But you know you only have so much…that was one I lost. Early in I lost that one. You do what you can do.”
