Melissa Rosenberg Talks Eclipse

Melissa Rosenberg is easily one of the most successful female screenwriters of all time. A fan of the genre herself, she became the writer of the screenplays for the vampire romance phenomenon Twilight, The Twilight Saga: New Moon and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, while simultaneously working as head writer and executive producer of the Showtime original series Dexter.
Having recently left Dexter to focus on writing both parts of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Melissa Rosenberg spoke exclusive to IESB about the challenge of juggling two such different projects, and how she’s approaching splitting up the Breaking Dawn story.
IESB: How did you originally get the job to write the Twilight films?

Melissa: It was really through my relationship with Summit – the studio – with whom, after all this is done, I will have done all six movies that I’ve written with them, which has got to be some kind of record. But, I had done Step Up with them and it was such a great collaboration. They actually wanted me to do Step Up 2, and I was just like, “You know, I’ve already written it.” It was not a continuing storyline, so it was basically just writing it again, and I was like, “How can I do it any better?"
So, I bowed out of that and went, “Oh, god, they’re going to hate me. I just lost my whole relationship.” And then, about eight months later they called and said, “How do you feel about teens and vampires?,” and I was like, “I love it!” I’m so into the genre. So, I read the book in one eight-hour sitting, and then went in and talked to Summit and Catherine [Hardwicke], and it was an instant marriage. Embarrassingly, it was one of the easiest jobs I’ve ever gotten. I think it works like that, when it’s just meant to be. That’s what I’ve found, over the years, as I’ve gone out for jobs. When you have to go through hoops, it’s never right. When it’s right, it just happens. Step Up was like that, Dexter was like that and this was like that.
IESB: Had they always wanted you to write all of the films?
Melissa: From the beginning, they wanted to see how I did with Twilight. It was before Twilight actually came out, right after the production, they signed me on to do the next two films. And then, they were still wrestling with the rights for the fourth book, and they wanted to see how two and three did. It just evolved into being that way.
IESB: With as long as these books are, how challenging is it for you, as the writer, to decide what needs to stay and what has to go? Have there been things that you just didn’t want to let go of?
Melissa: Always. You’re having to condense so much and you just have to let go of stuff. The process of rewriting is killing children. There are some things I would have loved to have put in, but ultimately, when the films were done, I didn’t miss it. It’s pretty common.
IESB: How advantageous was it for you to have Stephenie Meyer there to get her input on things that might not have been in the book?
Melissa: It was unbelievably advantageous. What a resource. She’s been living with these characters and this mythology a lot longer than I have, and she’s thought about it in much greater detail. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I could go to the original inventor and say, “What are the backstories?” And, even if I don’t use that specific idea, it gives me another idea. She’s been a great resource, not only in terms of the backstories and the mythology, but also as a sounding board. Having another writer to bounce around ideas with is really invaluable.
IESB: How different is your process, as a writer, once you know who you’re writing for and you know the voices of the actors?
Melissa: It evolves over the course of the films. It’s very similar to working in television. I don’t know that the pilot of any series is ever it’s best, even though I’ve seen some great pilots, because the actors are still getting used to their characters. If you check in around Episode 5, 6 and 7 of a series, the actor has gotten comfortable and he or she knows who the character is more, and you’re writing toward that more. You’re are helping to shape the character as much as the actor is. That’s really been the case with the Twilight films as well.
When I was writing Twilight, I was really in a vacuum. I didn’t know who I was writing for, and I had a lot more humor in there. I was off tone, a little bit. As that got adjusted in Twilight, I made those adjustments moving forward, and I got more and more attuned to these actors. Writing for Rob [Pattinson], you can be really spare. You don’t have to have a lot of dialogue, with any of these actors. Some of them are more comfortable being more verbose, but some of the characters just don’t lend themselves to that. So, it is definitely a give-and-take and back-and-forth.
IESB: Do you pay any attention to how vocal the fans are, or do you try to shut that out when you’re writing?
Melissa: I have a fan site on Facebook, and it’s good to check in with them and see what’s important to them. With Breaking Dawn, they’ll say something like, “This scene has to be in there, and it has to be about this. It’s got to have this moment.” If enough of them are weighing in about that, then I’m like, “Okay.” More often than not, 95% of the time, the scene is already going to be in there because, if it was important to them, it was as important to me, as a reader. So, that’s actually really helpful.
But, what I have to be careful of are the haters. People are very passionate about these books. They’re angry or frustrated about the fact that every moment and every word isn’t there. I can’t bring every word to the screen, and I think it would be a fairly dull movie if I did because it’s just a different medium. But, a large number of the fans are able to allow that the book is the book and the movie is the movie. It doesn’t have to be either/or. You don’t have to be Team Movie or Team Book. You can have both. Both can exist in the universe and you can appreciate both. I think enough people have allowed for that, thank god.
IESB: With as big a book as Breaking Dawn is, was it a relief to you, to be able to split that into two parts?

Melissa: Initially, I thought, “Well, maybe it’s one movie.” But then, as I got into the breaking of the story, I realized that it’s actually two movies. What’s great is that, if it were one movie, it would be more of the agonizing over how I would condense it and what I would have to pull out. With making it two movies, there’s actually a little room to breathe, particularly in the first half. I can expand on some of the mythology and some of the characters, and that’s nice. It’s nice to really let some of those moments just play, and bring new moments to it. Part of me thinks about it being double the work, but on the other hand, there’s room. I’d rather have space than be cramming stuff in there and cutting stuff out.
IESB: Do you have any idea where you will split the story for the two films?
Melissa: We’re still figuring out a little bit of where exactly that is, but there’s a natural breaking point. The first half is about Bella as a human. First, she’s a newlywed, and then she’s pregnant. And, the second half is about Bella as a vampire and a parent. Somewhere in there, in that transition, is a natural breaking point. That’s how I’ve been approaching it. Where exactly that happens is still up for discussion.
IESB: Obviously, it must have been difficult for you to juggle writing the Twilight films with writing Dexter, but does it also keep things more fresh for you, as a writer, to be working on things that are so different from each other?
Melissa: Yeah. For the last three years, I’ve been five days a week on Dexter and two days a week on Twilight, and during hiatus, it was all Twilight. And finally, right in the middle of the fourth season of Dexter, it came down to looking like Breaking Dawn was going to be two movies and I was like, “I can do one Twilight film and Dexter, but I can’t do two.” So, sadly, I had to leave Dexter. They started back up just this Spring and I wasn’t in the room. I sent them champagne with a note that said, “I miss you!” I was all alone in my little room without them. It’s actually nice to just be doing one job, even though it’s two movies. It’s two jobs, but it’s all in the same universe. It was a lot, to constantly shift gears. On Friday night, I was writing Dexter, and then Saturday morning, I was writing Twilight, and that was a challenge, but it keeps you nimble.
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse opens on June 30th.
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