“It’s time.” Alice Cullen’s (Ashley Greene) dialogue from the original Twilight is apropos in this instance, particularly as she refers to the start of the now iconic baseball game. In the 2008 film, the Cullen family gathers in a remote field to honor the American pastime, but they can only play baseball when a thunderstorm passes over the town of Forks — the sound, along with a gushing waterfall, masks the cracking of their bats against the ball. And director Catherine Hardwicke is taking fans behind the scenes of the Cullen family’s first encounter with the three rogue vampires. Hardwick said during a Twilight watch-a-long with Happy Sad Confused podcast host Josh Horowitz:
“Okay, so this is the most fun sequence ever known to mankind. And immediately, the stunt coordinator and I are just trying to figure out what… how do vampires play baseball different than humans? And how can we make it exciting, you know? What could they do with their special strength? And what ways can we make it super fun?”
In the sequence, the matriarch Esme (Elizabeth Reaser) asks Bella (Kristen Stewart) to be the umpire. In real life, Hardwicke reveals that she and the Twilight team had to teach all of the actors how to play baseball. Of the entire cast, Hardwicke said only Jackson Rathbone, who portrays Jasper Hale, really knew the game on the Cullen side. Cam Gigandet — he played the villainous James — was also well-versed in the sport. Everyone else had to learn the basics in order to pull off the scene perfectly.
When you can live forever, what do you live for?
During the Twilight watch-a-long, director Catherine Hardwicke looked back fondly on the vampire film, as it celebrates its 15th anniversary this holiday season. And Hardwicke has a lot of memories when it comes to pulling off the iconic baseball scene in the latter half of the movie. As she alluded to, only Rathbone and Gigandet really knew how to play the American pastime, and James (Gigandet) doesn’t end up participating — he’s more interested in having Bella (Stewart) as a snack once the breeze carries her scent his way.
Hardwicke recalls that both Kellan Lutz (Emmett Cullen) and Peter Facinelli (Carlisle Cullen) probably knew what they were doing during the baseball scene, but she knows that Robert Pattinson (Edward Cullen) didn’t play the game over in London. However, Hardwicke was so impressed by how all the members of the cast really made it look all so effortless. Hardwicke said during the watch-a-long:
Like Ashley (Greene) really, you know, really worked hard to get her stuff done.
Greene’s character, Alice Cullen, served as the pitcher during the baseball scene. Hardwicke was impressed by the actress’ work ethic and how her time on the mound came across on film. And the director couldn’t speak highly enough of actress Nicki Reed’s attempt to score, but Bella ends up calling her character out at the plate. Hardwicke continued:
Nikki (Reed) got that slide in that’s just awesome! The thunder… oh, it’s so fun.
Reed portrayed Rosalie Hale of the Cullen clan. And in real life, Reed is married to another actor famous for his own iconic “creature of the night” character — Ian Somerhalder of The Vampire Diaries fame. Another fun fact about Twilight is that Summit Entertainment questioned whether Robert Pattinson was attractive enough to play Edward Cullen.
