Twilight: Dark Secrets Of The Movie's Cast

The Twilight Saga was indeed quite the saga. Not only did the vampire and werewolf romance, written by author Stephenie Meyer, sell over 120 million copies, but its film adaptations made nearly $3.3 billion at the box office between its five films, according to Reuters. From 2008 — when the first film Twilight was released — to 2012 (when Breaking Dawn — Part 2 hit theaters), the world lived in Twi-mania. With her portrayal of Bella Swan, Into the Wild's Kristen Stewart was suddenly a household name. And who could forget the drama between Team Edward and Team Jacob, as well as the hunks behind the characters themselves, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner? Between Twi-hards and Fanpires, calling the series a global phenomenon feels like an understatement.

But of course, with that level of fame often comes scandal, and the cast of Twilight certainly wasn't immune. From jaw-dropping affairs to nude photo leaks, let's relive the biggest scandals that threatened to derail both the stars' careers and the Saga altogether.

Undoubtedly the biggest celebrity news story to come out of The Twilight Saga was the demise of the relationship between stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson.

At first, it was a Hollywood fairytale: the lion had fallen in love with his lamb co-star offscreen. Their mysterious, media-shy fling began to unravel in July 2012, after Us Weekly published photos of Stewart having an affair with her married Snow White and the Huntsman director, Rupert Sanders. The photo bombshell dominated the tabloids, forcing Stewart to issue a public apology to Pattinson for cheating. The couple tried to weather the storm, but wound up splitting for good in 2013. (Sanders' wife, Liberty Ross, filed for divorce in January 2013.)

For what it's worth: Stewart later called her breakup from Pattinson "incredibly painful," but described him as "the best" and her "first [love]" in a 2019 interview on The Howard Stern Show. "I was super in love with my high school boyfriend ... but me and Rob were like a little older and it was just like, 'guh-gong,'" she told Howard Stern. But, Stewart noted, "I've actually never been allowed to just say what happened ... I was so self-conscious about seeming like an attention seeker."

Pattinson ultimately took it in stride himself. "S**t happens, you know?" he told British Esquire in 2014. "It's just young people ... it's normal! And honestly, who gives a s**t?" Fair enough!

Throughout their relationship, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson were sometimes plagued by Internet and tabloid gossip alleging that their relationship was less authentic and more of a Hollywood publicity stunt. Whether far-fetched or not, there were a number of incidents along the way that certainly fanned those flames — like, you know, the time Stewart told The New York Times Style Magazine in 2016 that their relationship eventually became a "product."

"People wanted me and Rob to be together so badly that our relationship was made into a product," she said. "It wasn't real life anymore." However, more than a decade after Twilight's premiere, it seems Stewart has changed her tune. When asked on The Howard Stern Show what she would've said had Pattinson proposed while they were dating, Stewart admitted that though she wasn't "a super duper traditionalist," she likely would have said yes. "Every relationship I've ever been in, I thought that was it," she said in 2019.

Either way, neither star is still licking old wounds. Stewart has since come out as queer and is attached to actress Dylan Meyer, as of this writing. Meanwhile, Pattinson — who was briefly engaged to singer FKA Twigs — is "truly inseparable and in love" with his girlfriend, Suki Waterhouse, per E!.

Rachelle Lefevre played the villainous vampire Victoria in both Twilight and New Moon; however, much to fan horror and confusion, the studio went in a different direction for Eclipse and Breaking Dawn — Parts 1 and 2, replacing Lefevre with another Hollywood redhead, actress Bryce Dallas Howard.

Fans were shocked at the change and cruelty towards Lefevre, who was equally surprised, telling E! in a statement that she was "stunned" by the decision, and had turned down other work in order to fulfill her commitment to the complete Twilight series. According to an E! insider, Lefevre had reportedly secured a pay raise for Eclipse, so when a potential scheduling conflict came up, the studio might have seen an opportunity to "save a lot of money by recasting her." Regardless, Lefevre maintained she was "deeply hurt" by the decision. When Catherine Hardwicke, who had directed the first Twilight movie, came forward to say that the studio had always wanted Howard for the role and cast Lefevre when Howard wasn't available, it only added insult to injury.

Still, it was a happy ending for Howard — however, she might have had some "lustful" intentions herself. "When I first saw Twilight ... I watched it with my husband ,and whenever Robert Pattinson came on screen, I would squeeze his hand so hard," she told PeopleTV in 2020, adding that her Twilight experience was "totally wonderful."

The press tours for the Twilight movies were sometimes painful to watch, due to the not-exactly-subtle shade various cast members would throw at the franchise. (Remember the time Robert Pattinson quipped that he wanted to take his dignity as a parting gift?)

And yet, while they appeared to be in pain during interviews, behind the scenes, Pattinson and Kristen Stewart were laughing all the way to the bank. In 2014, a lawsuit revealed that the stars made a you-know-what-ton of money for starring in the Saga, including receiving $2.5 million bonuses for the first movie. Even crazier, TMZ reported that Pattinson earned $25 million to star in Breaking Dawn — Parts 1 and 2, and Stewart was the highest-paid actress in Hollywood in 2012, according to Forbes.

However, time heals all wounds, even those forged by vampire teeth. "It's lovely now that the mania is not so intense," Pattinson told USA Today in 2019. "I think the only scary part was right in the thick of it all, when it was very, very intense. Now the intensity has died down and it's just very warm memories." For her part, Stewart felt misunderstood throughout her Twilight experience, and told Vanity Fair in 2019 that "it definitely kind of blew [her] head off." We think that's a compliment.

Robert Pattinson may have portrayed the mind-reading vampire, Edward Cullen, in The Twilight Saga, but he couldn't quite read the room when it came to his career for a while. In May 2017, Pattinson revealed to The New York Times that his rebellious behavior on the set of the first Twilight movie almost got him fired, "until his agents flew in to straighten him out." He told the outlet, "I didn't have to kiss anybody's [a**] the entire time. I don't think I did, anyway."

However, Pattinson said he now looks back on the Twilight movies as "an amazing luxury," adding it was "amazing luck, as well, to just have fallen into it with the group of people I worked with on it." It seems that his first film post-Saga, 2012's Cosmopolis, would set the tone for the rest of his film career. "[It was] the big turning point for me," Pattinson told the Times. "I just realized that was what I wanted to do."

Despite having high-profile romances with the likes of Taylor Swift and Lily Collins, Taylor Lautner often battled gay rumors in real life. Speculation reached a fever pitch in 2014, when the Twilight star was photographed at a gay bar, sending the world of social media into a speculation frenzy. Funnily enough, it was a gay underwear model who officially put the rumors to rest shortly after. After sharing his photo with Lautner at a gay bar, Murray Swanby jokingly wrote (via New Now Next), "If [he] wanted to come out of the closet ... he would've come home with me Thursday night."

We'd be happy to see Lautner end up with anyone, and as for the Abduction star, it seems his shirtless werewolf days are behind him. As of this writing, he leads a fairly low-profile life and has been dating Tay Dome, a nurse, since 2018, according to the Daily Mail.

The Twilight Saga's success didn't just affect the actors who played Edward, Bella, and Jacob. The Twi-hards went crazy for every member of the Cullen clan — including Ashley Greene, who portrayed the adorably quirky sister, Alice — from the series' premiere onward. "All of us essentially were unknown," Greene told Allure in 2011. "Everyone kind of went through this crazy whirlwind [together.]" That kind of fame comes with its downsides, like in 2009, when nude photos of Greene were leaked online.

Greene and her family seemed to keep a good sense of humor about it. "One of my family members said to me, 'Ashley, everyone does it,'" she told Allure. "'You're just famous.'" Still, the Pan Am star made it clear that a boundary had been crossed. Greene lawyered up and let everyone know through a statement from her attorney that she intended to sue anyone who posted the photos or shared them online.

In March 2012, the tabloids confirmed that Peter Facinelli, who played Twilight patriarch Dr. Carlisle Cullen, and his wife of 11 years, Jennie Garth, were divorcing. "I was very resistant. I didn't want it to happen. It took me some time to come to peace with it," Garth later told People.

In her 2014 memoir, Deep Thoughts from a Hollywood Blonde, Garth explained that while the split seemed sudden, it was actually years in the making, and Facinelli's Twilight work schedule contributed to the stress. "I was thrilled for him that he was taking his career to the next level, but I was also, I can see now, feeling a bit resentful and itchy in ways that I couldn't quite identify," she wrote (via Yahoo! News). "All I know is that I felt like I was waiting: for him to come home, waiting for him to be free to join me in the day-to-day of our family life, waiting for the next job to be lined up that would take him far away from us again."

That next job turned out to be the movie Loosies, where Facinelli met Jaimie Alexander, who would become his fiancée for a brief stint, before the two broke it off in 2016. Later that year, Facinelli met Lily Anne Harrison, whom he proposed to in 2020, according to ET. Perhaps he's finally found his Esme, after all!

When director Chris Weitz was hired to direct the second Twilight film, New Moon, rumors swirled that he was thinking about replacing Taylor Lautner with an actor who physically fit Jacob's buffed-up description in the book. Lautner campaigned hard to stay in the film, at one point telling MTV News, "I have been working out. I've been working out since the day we finished filming Twilight. I just weighed myself today; I've put on 19 pounds. I'm guaranteeing Weitz 10 more [pounds] by filming."

For his part, Weitz told the press in 2009 that he "was always convinced that [Lautner] was going to be able to do it." Weitz added, "The doubts came up because he had very few scenes in the first movie and also because he's described as being 6'5″ in the second book. So there were some reasonable facts that we had to come to grips with. I liked the sweetness of his character and I knew that it was easier to take an actor in the direction of anger and rage than it was to find someone who was kinda a hunk or 6'5″ Native American and somehow turn him into that very sweet-natured persona that Taylor brings out so well to boot."

Considering Lautner was clearly a fan-favorite from his first appearance — and he earned a reported $25 million for the last two films alone — we'd say the decision to keep him on was mutually beneficial!

Bronson Pelletier, who played a member of Jacob's wolf pack, had a public relations nightmare on his hands after exhibiting some very bad behavior at LAX in December 2012. According to TMZ, the Twilight star was reportedly first kicked off a plane after he was deemed "too intoxicated to fly" by officers. He was then told to wait for another flight, during which he allegedly began "urinating in public by the gate." Cops returned to the scene and arrested him for public intoxication.

After the incident, TMZ discovered another dark secret in Pelletier's closet: just one week prior, he had been arrested for felony meth and cocaine possession at a bar. Pelletier was later sentenced to two years' probation for the peeing incident. It seems the mishap didn't hold him back for too long, though. According to his IMDb page, Pelletier made his return to film in 2015's Fishing Naked, and nabbed additional big screen roles in the 2020s.

In March 2013, the West Hollywood, Calif. condo of Ashley Greene was destroyed in a fire that killed one of her two dogs. According to TMZ, the fire, which began while the Twilight star, her boyfriend, and brother were sleeping, was initially believed to have been started by a candle. As if that wasn't tragic enough, the story took a dark twist in October 2014, when the building's manager, Adrian Mayorga, alleged that a glass crack pipe had been found inside Greene's apartment after the fire had occurred.

No evidence of a crack pipe was discovered; however, Greene still wound up having to settle a lawsuit filed by Mayorga (who was later identified as the building's doorman), who had "claimed he was hurt while running through the smoke-filled hallways, yelling for residents to flee." After a years-long battle, Greene and Mayorga finally settled "for an undisclosed amount" in 2016, per TMZ.

Nikki Reed, who portrayed the gorgeous Rosalie Cullen, rose to fame in early 2002, when she and eventual Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke co-wrote the movie thirteen, based on Reed's tumultuous upbringing. The risqué coming-of-age film did not shy away from feuds with her parents, sex, drugs, and a whole lot of drama. "When she started changing from 12 to 13 years old, I saw her losing her joy," Hardwicke told the Daily News upon the film's release in 2003. "She became so angry ... I wanted her to get back to creative, rather than destructive, things."

While the film was critically acclaimed, Reed later admitted she "wasn't ready" for fame at age 15, and that the film had hindered her relationship with her parents. "It was from one kid's perspective and not a well rounded one," she told Zooey magazine (via IMDb) in 2012. "You get older and it's like, how dare I portray my father as being a totally vacant careless schmuck?" She also appears to have a good relationship with her mother, which, for anyone who saw thirteen, will come as a sigh of relief.

Reed's relationship with her Twilight cast mates, however? Not as great. "In the beginning, it was innocent and fun ... and then success comes along and changes the dynamic," Reed told Seventeen in 2011. "We're not all best friends, and we're not all going to hang out together after the final movie is done."

Kiowa Gordon ran around with Jacob Black's wolf pack as Embry Call in The Twilight Saga, but his career hit a little snag in August 2011. According to CBS News, Gordon was arrested in Arizona on an outstanding warrant after missing his court date following an arrest in February 2010. Gordon reportedly failed to appear in court after he pled guilty for "possession and use of drug paraphernalia and giving liquor to a minor" after being pulled over for a "routine registration check," per TMZ.

Gordon wasn't the only member of the cast to have a run-in with the law, but according to his IMDb page, he's thankfully bounced back. Since the Saga's conclusion, Gordon has gone on to star in films like Castle in the Ground and The Lesser Blessed, as well as The CW's Roswell, New Mexico.

By the time Breaking Dawn — Part 2 hit theaters in November 2012, it was clear that the franchise's leading trio had tired of their roles — but it seems that even author Stephenie Meyer had had enough of the vampire romance by then, as well. "I get further away every day," Meyer told Variety in 2013. "I am so over it. For me, it's not a happy place to be." She took it one step further, vowing to never write about Bella, Edward, and Jacob unless it was "three paragraphs on [her] blog saying which of the characters died." Wow.

Considering she's revisited The Twilight Saga multiple times since her above comments, it seems as though Meyer has changed her tune. In 2020, she released Midnight Sun, a re-telling of Twilight from Edward's perspective, and she told fans at an online Books-A-Million event (via USA Today) that she has plans for "two more books ... in [that] world." While that doesn't necessarily mean we'll see our fav vampires and werewolves back on the big screen, we can always hope!

Director Catherine Hardwicke deserves a lot of credit for helming the first Twilight film, a blockbuster shot on an indie shoestring budget that launched a global franchise. Still, a decade after its release, Hardwicke has some hard feelings about how the series went on without her. While Hardwicke told Vanity Fair that she turned down shooting 2009's New Moon as "it would require too tight of a turnaround," she was sad to see the female-centered and female-written series take a decidedly male turn.

Not only were there four more Twilight films, but the series paved the way for other young adult adaptations like The Hunger Games and The Divergent Series — all of which were directed by men. "That was a heartbreak for me," Hardwicke told the outlet in 2018. "There are other badass women out there that could have done those ... It goes on and on. They're stories written by women, about women, and given to male directors."

Although Twi-hards undoubtedly adored each and every member of the Twilight cast, the feeling wasn't always mutual. In 2011, Taylor Lautner told Fox News that he understandably felt "freaked out" when an older woman "desperately" tried to remove her pants for his autograph. Chiming in on the disturbing matter was co-star Elizabeth Reaser (a.k.a. Esme Cullen), who said, "Taylor was just 16 and still a boy when much older ladies would be asking me about his body." She added, "It was just really inappropriate." 

Robert Pattinson was also a bit thrown by the age of fans, telling Germany's Interview magazine (via HUFFPOST) in 2013 that "the real odd thing about this Twilight target group is that they aren't really teenagers ... most of them are older." Furthermore, Pattinson told the outlet that he didn't quite understand why they were so attached to the series in the first place. "Sometimes I ask myself what these masses of people do the whole day," he said. "They sit in front of their computers and comment on anything having even remotely to do with Twilight."