"Twilight" director Catherine Hardwicke has admitted that the film studio behind the 2008 vampire romance, Summit Entertainment, was initially reluctant to cast Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen because it did not believe he had good enough looks for the part.
"When he came over to my house, he had black bangs for hair and was kind of out of shape because he was hanging out at the pub all the time," Hardwicke recalled during an appearance on the "Watchalong" podcast of auditioning Pattinson, according to Variety.
The movie launched a $3.3 billion film franchise and propelled leads Kristen Stewart and Pattinson into worldwide stardom.
"After we did the fun auditions [with Kristen] at my house for a couple hours, then I looked the next morning at all the footage I shot and recorded and I thought it worked not just in person but it works on screen," Hardwicke recalled. "I had to be sure. Of course in person I just got carried away, but you have to be sure it translates [to the screen]."
However, Summit Entertainment had reservations after she sent through the footage and Pattinson "went over to meet them."
"They called me back and go, 'Do you think you can make this guy look good?' she said. "I said, 'Yeah, I do. Did you see his cheekbones? We're doing a makeover on the hair and everything and he's going to start working out and he's going to be gorgeous.'
"But they didn't believe it at first. He like walked over there with a stained shirt or something. It was Rob."
Pattinson didn't fit the studio's vision for Cullen, diverging from fan expectations. Before the announcement of the "Twilight" movie, fan speculations heavily favored a pre-Superman Henry Cavill, supported by author Stephenie Meyer's public endorsement.
Hardwicke considered Cavill too old for the high school student role when the film began production, while Cavill himself remained unaware of his consideration until Pattinson had already been cast.
Cavill expressed last year that portraying Edward "would have been cool" to play, yet he harbors no hard feelings about missing out on the role.