And yet, for all her contributions, she was rewarded by Twilight producer Summit Entertainment with… a mini cupcake. Not even a full-sized treat! In a recent interview with The Guardian, the director said she knew successful male directors were often gifted “a car, or a three-picture deal, or [getting] to do basically whatever you want” by the studio after a box office success on Twilight‘s magnitude. (The original film made over $400 million worldwide.) Hardwicke, however, remembers that she “walked into a room with all these gifts, and everybody was congratulating the studio, and they gave me a box… I opened it up, and it was a mini cupcake.”
The revelation that the film’s success wouldn’t automatically snowball into more opportunities was “an earth-shattering reality right away,” she reflected. “No, people aren’t going to hire more women directors. They’re not going to give you the next job and let you do something great.” She was replaced by male directors for the remainder of the franchise.
Still, Hardwicke pressed on and continued to make films that are personally meaningful to her. She’s currently in post-production on her latest project, Street Smart, which she describes as “a kind of homeless The Breakfast Club” starring Yara Shahidi, Isabelle Fuhrman, Michael Cimino, and a group of unknowns with “big hearts and compassion for others; otherwise, they would be trying to work on a superhero film.”
In addition to serving as a “love letter to Venice” (the California neighborhood), the film is also a rebuke of Donald Trump’s politics. “Even though we wrote it before he got elected, Street Smart is directly addressing some of [these] issues,” Hardwicke said. “It’s telling a compelling story that shows people who do not look like Donald Trump, or think like him.” Hopefully, this film will lead to more opportunities for the director; or, if nothing else, at least a full-size dessert.
