Yesterday we brought to you part 1 of our exclusive interview with director Bill Condon. Today we bring you part 2:

Becca: So Stephenie takes a huge chunk of this book and puts it in Jacob’s perspective.

Bill: Well, the last film, not this one so much.

Becca: It is part one, ok.

Bill: That was interesting in that, to go inside the wolves and everything, but here, it’s Bella. It’s all Bella.

Kallie: One of the scenes we saw, no it was one of the stills that we saw, of it looked like it could be Renesmee communicating, The first thing that hit on twitter was ‘What do you guys think is going to happen, is it going to be like the wolves? Is it going to be different?’ Have you even, I am sure that you have approached it, but is that clear in your head how you want it to be seen?

Bill: Yeah, and it’s not like the wolves. [Bill wipes forehead in relief and all laugh]

Kallie: I wasn’t even sure I would get that, so I am happy. Awesome.

Bill: It’s definitely  own thing. You know that’s what’s fun, cause we do have, now you have this whole different power and this whole different way of communicating.  And that means we get to play with a whole different  visual approach.

Nikki: How tuned into the fans and people’s critiques are you? I mean it seems with a series that is so popular, it would be film making by democracy maybe?

Bill: A little bit.  I think that’s very true. I think we are right from the script stage what are favorite things, what you feel comfortable with, visualizing in a different way, and then obviously I read everything written, every good and awful thing. So very, very tuned into that.

Laura: Picking up with what Nikki said, our fandom, and there are definitely some fan favorite scenes that we can see have ended up in the movie, by just stills or you know, looking at the trailer, are the two that I can think of right off the top of my head. With the arm wrestling thing, I can’t tell you how many people are thrilled about the arm wrestling. I mean I don’t think I have ever gotten so many RT’s off of arm wrestling in my life. That and just the inclusion of Garrett, and sort of that character and his speech and what he does, so I guess what’s, and you know there’s other fan favorites that got cut from the first one, like the dog bowl thing. Is hard for you to decide what stays and what gets cut? Or humor sometimes, is it easier to put humor in this one then it was the last one?

Bill: I think so. I think that’s true. I think the dog bowl is a good example of that. We’re trying to fit that in to the long version, you know, the one movie. It a whole different, I thought in that case, it was important to stay with Bella. Again, it was all like, but now we’re trying to find room for it in kind of, a different pace film. But here, I got to say, let me think, there are one or two things that we shot like that that didn’t make it in the film. Not as much as in the first one. I hope they won’t miss too much.

Kallie: What were your favorite and least favorite scenes to shoot and film.

Bill: Oh I always thought it was a challenge, and I was curious how other directors dealt with it. When you are shooting the Cullens, they don’t drink coffee or tea, they don’t smoke, they don’t sit, they don’t walk. So you know it’s like, you’ve got… that turned out to be nothing compared to putting 27 vampires in a room. So even though, there’s that. Twenty-seven statues having a big emotional scene, was a challenge. I love the scene, but that was a nightmare.

Kallie: But good, was there anything really great in the one that you went back .

Bill: Oh yeah, so much of it. I have to say the whole…I think having Michael Sheen play such a crowning role in this is such an exciting thing. Way beyond what he’s done in other ones, you know. He really is, as you know, on the field, he’s a dominant presence in the film leading up to that. It just brought a different energy to the whole thing. It was great.

Lee: That’s a very good point, because it’s very visually striking that he has a Summit Marshall look (classic battle figure) to him, and that was a conscious decision that it would look almost like he was going into battle. Like a Prussian uniform.

Bill: Absolutely. That combined with, it’s sort of like you know, in his mind it’s a ceremonial kind of duty. To go a judge on this thing. So yes he is going to battle, but it’s the College of Cardinals coming, you know he’s the Pope. You know, so he’s all robed up for the whole thing.

Jack: The fun thing from the trailer this morning is you’ll see, in another instance in history where that actually happened with the immortal children. It’s not just the battlefield at the end. You’ll see them sort of, going around the world and doing cleanup.

Greg: Just like the book.

Kallie: We’re going to have a lot of twitter Pope jokes. All of the fans are going to be like why are all the fan sites tweeting about the pope.

Andrew: With this being the last film are there any sort of, tribute moments for the fans.

Bill: Yes. We start in a subtle way with the overture, of all the themes.

Lee: The red to white, you know I thought was, brilliant.

Bill: Yeah, it’s going to be fun. I have to say there are a few that we are very excited about. Won’t talk about that there.

Laura: I’m probably going to get strung up by fans if I don’t ask this question, how do you balance the romance now with a movie that is a little more action heavy. You know, a little more fight to death kind of thing. How do you find a way to fit that in? Is that kind of tough?

Bill: it’s interesting, because also the triangle is over. So it doesn’t have that, but the thing that has replaced it is, obviously their love for each other, but their love for Renesmee. So that she becomes the focus, of all the strongest emotional moments in the movie. And then, I think again I think it was something that started in the first movie, but there is a sense of, these are grownups now. So it is, they are married and they take time out to express their feelings for each other, but it is not in that same kind of yearning way, that teenage yearning way. It’s very mature. I think people will be surprised by that.

Kimmy: What was the most challenging thing to do involving Renesmee and having her grow up really fast?

Bill: Everything. You know I think that the secret is out on this probably, that we age her more quickly in the movie than in the book. I think that is the biggest and potentially scariest change that we made. But it was, when you try to imagine, some of those scenes, especially the field at the end, and all of that happens with a toddler, it just, it’s a wonderful idea, on the page that was tough to imagine visually. So that meant we age, and believe me she starts as a baby, so we watch that progression. It’s not, I think that some people have been concerned that, it’s all Mackenzie Foy. It’s not, it’s all Mackenzie Foy’s performance, but it’s, in a very complicated way combined with you know, girls of different sizes. That was always really unwieldy. And it’s something you know, we still can’t show, cause we don’t have it yet. It’s still in process.

Jack M: Much like you were commenting last night Laura, that Renesmee being in part one, where the baby name is introduced for the first time, and you see everyone’s sort of… the reaction to it [referencing the non-verbal communication between Edward and Jacob about the unusual name]. It’s not spoiling anything to say that there is that beat in part two, where Bella is dropping Renesmee off at Charlie’s house and Charlie comes out and says…

Bill: Yeah, she…

Jack M: She’s grown 6 inches.

Laura: Was that your toughest? Do you think that  your toughest FX challenge in this film is Renesmee?

Bill: I think it is, because it’s really, it’s the guys who did social network, but each of these movies, Bella’s emaciation and then in this movie, Renesmee, is new ground. You know, they are really discovering, so it’s a lot of trial and error here. But when it works, and it’s all going to work, the stuff that we have seen that works, is really magical.

Michelle: With the new trailer that just came out, what’s the process like for choosing which scenes go into the trailer, and the balance between not showing too much, and then not giving the fans enough.

Bill: A lot of arguing (everyone laughs) I think always, you know, Tim Summerfield and the team at Summit, and the vendors they use, create that trailer and then we all get to weigh in on it. What’s interesting and I am curious to know what you guys think, because I think we show enough in that trailer, and my only worry about it is, do people remember, that it’s still a teaser. In other words, that it’s not the whole movie. There is so much more then that shows and the next trailer will show more of it. In other words, the scope of the movie is suggested by the trailer, but I worry because we have seen others that people will think oh that’s it. They have shown their best stuff, and we haven’t. So do you think that people remember still that it’s only a teaser?

Becca: Yeah, I think. I was shocked by how long it was…it was long.

Jack M: How long was teaser number one?

Jack P: 30 seconds

Jack M: So now this is 60.  And then we go to 2:30.

Becca: That makes sense. I was just thinking teaser, I was thinking .30.

Laura: More action packed, like wow, they packed a lot in there.

Lee: There’s so much sweep to it, because what you get in this trailer more than anything, is scope.

Bill: Good, I’m glad.

Lee: That’s what your pushing for, is you get this feeling cause everything is sweeping and long angles, you see it moving all the time so it really does capture that.

Bill: Good.

Jack P: Did everyone want more after seeing it?

Everyone: Yes

Nikki: I don’t want too much, just exactly enough to make me think about what I want.

Elena: Between the stills that we have seen in EW, and the trailer, and teasers and so forth, I mean we’ve seen Vampire Bella, we’ve seen Renesmee, we’ve seen most of though not all of the new faces, and back in part 1, we all knew that there was the one thing that we weren’t going to see, until we saw it on the big screen, which was the dress, is there any like one particular thing, for part two that we are just going to have to wait for the big screen for the big reveal?

Bill: yep.

(Everyone laughs)

Laura: And he’s not telling.

Becca: I was watching  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 last week and I was thinking how when they protect the castle and that shield, I was wondering if that’s like a similar effect that you are doing with Bella.

Bill: You know it’s interesting, it isn’t. You know, what the challenge of it is, these are mental powers, right, that we are physicalizing. Well you know the mist, that’s obviously quite physical. Her shield, we’re truly trying to walk that line so that you remember that nobody else can see it. You are getting it more, Bella’s point of view, but it’s very, um, subtle.

Laura: I think you alluded to it before, one of the fans’ favorite parts from Breaking Dawn 2 is Garrett’s whole speech, and everything which, can be an awesome speech, but I can also see it could be a little draggy. Was that difficult as a director, do you have to do a lot of different cuts and things for that kind of thing? How was it doing that kind of speech?

Bill: Lee Pace, you know. Like he gets to, and it was so fun, because Michael Sheen was on the other end going on and on, getting all of his speeches and stuff. So it was like, Team Cullen was there. Kind of what it was. And you know he’s a great actor, so he got to really go to town on that one. So yeah, it wasn’t a problem, no.

Michelle: Now besides, you talked about it earlier, having Renesmee age quicker than in the books, is there anything else that is drastically different in the movie than you see in the books?

Bill: Couple of thing.

(Everyone laughs)

Someone: Kill off Edward.

Greg: There is no Edward in this one.

(More laughter)

Laura: The music plays such a big part in this, and I know you are going to be going off to go and do that again. Is there any part in particular that you are really looking forward to you know, underscoring, with music, and if you could, could you tell us a part that you might be looking forward to hearing the music with?

Bill: You know the thing is, it’s that 25 minutes on the field. Because it’s so, again, it’s so big. The actual scoring period is longer than it’s ever been. We’ve added an 80 piece orchestra to a big chunk of the movie there. So it has again, it has the kind of sweep that you were talking about, and that’s Carter Burwell really, kind of bringing home all of the stuff that he’s seeded in. You know, I think you will be surprised to know that a theme that you already know from Breaking Dawn part 1 is actually the Volturi theme. He hinted at that in the 1^st movie. You know, there’s things, where again, I think the pleasure of him getting to complete the whole thing, is really strong in that part. I can’t wait; it’s going to be thrilling. I think I’ll be Skyping with the Orchestra behind me. [Initial plans called for Bill Condon to video Skype call into Comic Con and to be there live. It was then rethought due to being worried about fan reaction if the technology went down and he couldn’t speak. Therefore Bill Condon pre-recorded his Comic Con intro.]

(Everyone laughs)

Jack M: Bill will be in London while everyone else is in Hall H. And it’s back at Abbey Road studios on one of those historic stages again.

Bill: We couldn’t change it cause of the Olympics.

Jack M: Well you could if you don’t mind paying 6 times for hotel rooms. It’s ridiculous.

Jack P: Anything else. Greg?

Greg: I don’t have any questions. (Everyone laughs). Bill what was it like to work with Greg?

(Everyone laughs)

Greg: Don’t answer that.

Laura: Costume wise, cause all of these vampires look so incredibly different,  can you talk a little about how much did you collaborate with Stephenie Meyer and the costume designers and what went into each one getting those looks just right for those?

Bill: You know the big challenge there was they all are different. They are all from around the world.

Jack M: Or around the country

Bill: we started from the back in a way. Michael’s[costume designer Michael Wilkinson] big question always, was how are they going to look together. So it’s like, you can’t have, the Irish people in bright plaid (everyone laughs). So it’s retro fitted from that, from what they look like in the field. And obviously, a lot of them didn’t come with trunks of clothes and things. Certainly the Amazons don’t have a lot of things and changes, but they do have other things. So that was a big, that was the way we did it, making all these distant things into a unit.

Andrew: It seems like kind of, I don’t know, this is kind of a wrap up question, it seems like there is a lot of secrets. It’s funny because we’ve all read the book–

Bill: Right, right.

Andrew: So was one of the intentions from the beginning to set out a few surprises for readers:

Bill: I don’t think it was a conscious thing, let’s do that, but I do think it’s…, I don’t know. It’s part of the pleasure. I was so proud of the fact that there had been, no image of the wedding dress before the night that that movie opened. And I think that it just makes the experience. To not know everything, that is all it is. But it wasn’t a, ‘No like we’re going to mess with people’s heads!”, you know. That wasn’t the idea.

Laura: The tale is in the telling. We know what happens, but it’s how it happens. The tale is in the telling.

Bill: Yeah, how it’s executed.

Jack P: You want to save some surprises for the actual movie going experience.

Jack Morrissey: So whose gonna to do this, anybody? (he’s holding a gift bag that we had him sneak into the studio)

Kallie: This is from us (as Jack hands the bag to Bil)

Laura: I guess I’ll do it. So for everything you’ve done for all of us embracing everything Twilight and TwiHard  and taking us seriously we truly appreciate it. So even though you may not win an OSCAR for this one, but here on behalf of TwiHards everywhere is your very own Lion and Lamb award . (Bill then unwraps a large trophy that has a lamb on top, had the name of every website involved in the visit and the engraved statement “TO BILL CONDON,  FOR UNFLINCHING SUPPORT OF ALL THINGS TWILIGHT, WE PRESENT YOU WITH THE FIRST EVER LION AND LAMB AWARD THE FANSITES OF TWIHARD NATION
JUNE 2012”

Excellent Photo Gallery of Bill getting his trophy here. Video of it below.

Bill Condon Edit Bay Q&A

After seeing the same footage that fans saw roughly three weeks later at Comic Con, Bill Condon addressed a room filled with Twilight site operators.

Bill: Do you want to talk first or then see another one or what should we do next?

Jack Pan: Do you guys Do you want to see the second clip?

(Laughter, Everyone starts shaking their head yes)

Laura (Lex): Or you could just play the whole movie, we’d be down with the whole movie going, you know (everyone laughs)

(They then roll a second clip of Emmett and Bella arm wrestling)

Bill: There you go, probably days from our goal. That rock is going to look like a rock on the inside. (everyone laughs)… Yeah, so you are seeing all the flaws. (He’s commenting on so of the CGI still being in the rough stages. We saw the wrestling scene between Bella and Emmett. In it they rest their arms on what is supposed to be a large rock which looked a lot more like foam because it was still in process.  In our viewing Kristen also tackled what looked like a carton cougar.)

Jack Pan: So do you guys, maybe quickly just want to run down your sites and we can start the Q&A?

(Everyone agrees, some say sure)

Kaleb: I’m Kaleb Nation, I’m from TwilightGuy.com

Heidi: I’m Heidi, from Twilight Facebook

Lee: Lee from Twilight Moms

Kimmy: I’m Kimmy from HisGoldenEyes.com

Michelle: I’m Michelle from BellaandEdward.com

Laura: Laura from Twilight Lexicon

Kallie: Kallie from TwilightSeriesTheories.com

Sheila: Sheila from Team-Twilight.com

Elena: Elena from Twilightish

Becca: Nikki and Becca from Letters to Twilight

Erin: Erin from Twilightish

Andrew: Andrew from Twilight Source

Bill: (Hand Gestures to Jack Morrissey) Jack from Team Jack

(Everyone Laughs)

Jack: (Looks at Bill) Team Bill Condon

Bill: (Looks at people sitting to his left) Ian Slater, Ginny Katz. We edited the movie together. (Looks at back of the room) And Greg Yolan… in charge of everything else

Jack M: Greg Yolan from Team Jack

(Everyone laughs)

Greg (waves): I’m Greg

Jack Pan: So who wants to start? (No one says anything)… They were all so blown away.

(Everyone laughs)

Jack: I couldn’t follow it

(Everyone laughs again)

Laura (Lexicon): I don’t know, I guess I’ll dive in. The teaser (the first one) came out today and I think we all probably played that like 3 million times, not that there is anything wrong with that. And one of the things I really liked is you saw glimpses of alternative points of view…

Bill: Right

Laura (Lexicon): Can you talk a little bit about how did you those; maybe that’s a collaboration between you, Melissa Rosenberg, and Stephenie Meyer, to decide which are the alternative points of view, and how much fun was that to film something that is not in the book, other than saying we traveled some place and came back. Like how much fun was that, to go to that space?

Bill: Ya, I know, exactly like, for example; The Denali’s right? In the book they come, and it just felt like,  to get our lead characters on the road together, in 3 different areas, was like an important thing just for the scope of the movie. I think you’ll see. You get a glimpse of it from the size of the main title. With this movie, it’s all about scope in a weird way, and it’s all about like, canvasing the world for all these vampires. So, that actually was, in very early days we made that decision to do that, It’s a challenge because, we introduce, I think it’s 23 new vampires, right? And, we do it in the second act, and by the 3^rd act they’re on the battlefield and you have to get to know them very quickly. Actually it was great fun for the actors. Cause they all realized that they only had a moment or two, where they had to land what it was that they did. So it was part of what drew me to it. That it is a completely new part of Twilight that is getting introduced in this movie.

Laura (Lexicon): Any one of those alternate point of view your favorite or is that like picking between your kids?

Bill: Yeah, it is. Definitely.

(Everyone Laughs)

Kallie: Well, I’ll go next. You mention the 23 new characters. I mean, that is profound to me. We were talking about it at breakfast, that that’s just a huge number of people to be working with on one set. We saw a glimpse of it in the trailer. Of all of them lined up together.

Bill: Yeah, Yeah

Kallie: How was that as a director? I mean it’s kind of a feat to tackle that many characters.

Bill: It was like, putting on a play. You know, we did something that you never do in movies. As you know from the book its 100 pages of the book. Its 25 pages in the script. Taking precious time with the crew standing around. We took a day and I staged it like a play, and we did the entire 25 pages. And we just like, beat by beat by beat we had the actors. So that it was just  like staging a musical number almost. You know, cause you’ll see it. In order to make that feel like it has life. It doesn’t get monotonous to be there.  I don’t think it does you know, it’s part of like really making sure that you are doing very different things through all that, section of the movie. But it was good.

Andrew: And do they equal amount of screen time? Like how was that balanced out?

Bill: No. Um, you know some of them have more. The Denali’s are more prominent, I would say. Garrett is more prominent. The Irish people are more, you know, jolly Irish people.

(Everyone Laughs)

Bill: Some of them, you know, I think that you couldn’t do that honestly. Some of them were there to kind of fill out the sense of being across the world. But I have to say each of the actors again, even they, had their moments. They had little things that made them kind of pop.

Kaleb: How close is what we just saw here to the finished version without adding CGI and things like that?

Bill: Right, it’s the cut. So, the cut is done. [Note: the footage in the first clip was identical to what was shown at Comic Con]But the big thing is, it’s all Bella, you know, whatever little Spider Monkey thing is there, won’t be there yet. All those things, when she gets on the rock for example, she, the whole point of it is that she just finds a…she creates her own hold by basically, pushing through the rock[referencing the scene where Kristen Stewart scales the rock to get at the climber and was reacting to non-existent falling debris]. So that’s going have a lot of debris, a lot of stuff as she’s going, going down. She’s creating all this stuff so that all these elements aren’t in there yet. But the cut is the cut.

Jack M: Laura was nervous over dinner last night that it was going to be like last year’s edit bay visit where you got the opening Volturi scene, and …

Bill: Oh, and then it goes away

Greg: You guys were responsible for that (jokes)

Bill: That’s right

Laura: We jinxed it [At last year’s visit the websites saw an entire scene that was originally slated to start the movie. It was set in Volterra and it was the Volturi being informed that Bella and Edward were getting married. The scene heavily featured Marcus, Aro, Caius, Felix, and Demitri and a receptionist that was given to Felix and Demetri for lunch. It was cut from the final print because it was felt that it was more important to get to the Bella and Edward connection right away.]

Laura: You talk about the 23 which, that’s got to be an amazing job just to cast 23 people and you’ve got all sorts of people. Of those 23 vampires, which was the easiest one to find and which was the hardest one to find?

Bill: Ooh that’s a good question. Umm, you know like Lee Pace was like an obvious Garrett. So that just happened. There’s some of them, you see them, and that’s it you know. The hardest, you know, the Denali sisters, just getting them all to feel like they are from the same family, but having those different qualities, that was sort of a mix and match. Took a little time.

Lee: Do you prefer to shoot so tight that there is very little room for variation or based on the collaborative nature of putting together final cut, how much is collaboration and how much is deliberate in terms of choice? Or is that just situational?

Bill: Well, it’s all collaboration here and obviously these movies get created by large part in this room with the three of us[referring himself, Ian Slater, Ginny Katz . So I have to say at this movie it’s really new for me. We have 2,000 effects shots. I think that’s as many as Avatar. So, it’s like an animated movie. The last, that thing on the field, I don’t really want to promote this cause I feel like it takes away from the magic of it, but that was, as you know, all on green screen stage. So we’re, between that and you know the powers and every part of it feels like its still being created. We’re still, we have these sessions every day where we look at shots, maybe the 20^th version of a shot, so it feels as though we’re still in production too you know. (Looks over at Ginny Katz) Ginny you want to say anything more about that?

Ginny: No. (Everyone laughs) You said it. I mean there are multi cameras all the time so there are a lot of choices.

Kallie: Well based on that,  having filmed both the movies at the same time, I kind of already feel like I know your answer and what it’s going to be, but was it good or bad, I mean what was it, what was the good, what was the bad, of having them spaced out so far, being released.

Bill: It’s funny I was with, I shouldn’t say. I was with Eric Feig the other night and he was saying they are thinking of doing the last Hunger Games as two movies, and what advice would you give the director and I was like don’t do it (Everyone Laughs). I think that’s going to take even longer to shoot but ,yeah I would say, having to do it, distance and going through the experience of movie one was helpful, then in putting movie two together. At the same time it’s …we’re cutting stuff that we shot a year and a half ago, we’re recently cutting, so it does feel like God it’s a long time. I’m eager. When we originally started, the original idea was going to come out in July, if you remember, then it got pushed. So I am kind of at that point where I’m just so excited to show it to you. I want people to see it now. I don’t want to wait anymore then you do. But we needed the extra time though; it was bigger than we thought.

Becca: Did you touch part two at all, while you were editing part one?

Bill: Ginny always cuts right up to the camera. And Ian too.

Jack M: You want to explain to them that term, cutting up to the camera?

Bill: Like would go home on Friday and see everything that we had shot up to a few days before. So we had a cut of both movies before we started BD1.

Jack M: One long movie.

Ginny: We set part two aside, concentrated on what we needed to do first and then when that was done we were all ready.

Andrew: This question may be like really direct, but what does happen at the end of this movie. Cause like in the trailer, there’s this build up.

Greg: Jack’s sitting close enough to reach over and go like that (makes motion like picking him up) to you.

(Everyone Laughs)

Jack Pan: You have an idea of what happens.

Bill: Have you seen Prometheus? (Everyone laughs)

Laura (Lexicon): You talk a little about the CGI, and all that going on. These vampires all have different powers. We saw a little bit of it in the trailer. We could see what they were doing with Benjamin, with the water, and if you could pause it just exactly right you kind of caught what was going on with Alec. That was a real tough pause. Thank you very much four times, to get that.  So how did you discuss with the actors like this is what. I mean obviously they read and this is what their power is. Did you discuss with them, this is kind of how we thought this was going to be approached? How did you go about that?

Bill: No, with each one of them, Rami Malek for example, he was really, he came with all these variations on where that power comes from. Is it from here, is it from here? [points to his forearm, then wrists, then finger tips] You know how his physical movements would cause these huge, you know, control the elements basically. How he could do that. He does it. He has like three big scenes, three different big things that he does. He was wonderful, the way he internalized it. He sort of, you can’t see much there, cause that’s him showing off in the first scene, but in the other ones he takes incredible pleasure in what he can do. So um, yeah, I think um, Cameron [Cameron Bright who plays Alec] had been waiting a long time to show what he can do. So he was totally into it. He’s like a “gangsta” vampire. (Everyone laughs).

Nikki: The first one has a definite look and feel to it. This one feels very new and clean and contemporary. And just from what we saw, a little bit different. What’s the thinking behind that?

Bill: You know it’s funny, cause we even, like very early until it became to unreal and I thought probably a mistake, but when I first got involved, I thought this movie should be in 3d. Because we are crossing over into Bella. We always heard what they do when they hunt and what they do when they come home and what it’s like to see at night, to be able to see so clearly, but we never experienced it. Now we get to. So even though we didn’t do that, you can see like, even that shot going over her shoulder, that’s shot with hi-def camera [a scene of Bella running through the forest at break-neck speeds during her first hunt]. So it’s the first thing that’s not on film. Just to get that super clarity that happens from her point of view. So yeah it does, I have to say, you know, ultimately they are going to be one movie. And that’s going to be an interesting thing, I haven’t even actually looked at it that way yet. In fact, we’re just starting to put that together.

(frantic gesturing starts among the executives in the room. Someone mumbles to Bill, “I don’t think that info is out there yet.” More chatter, Someone “well we could have guessed someone would do that at some point.”)

Laura: We heard nothing

(Laughter)

Bill: But um, this one is really, it does have a different feel, no question.

Sheila: Do you feel you changed kind of your vision from the first one to the second one, because it does feel very different.

Bill: No. I think it was because obviously, we shot them at the same time. It was always meant to have a different feel. You know it’s all informed by Bella, you know it’s always Bella. First movie, its Bella’s intimate experiences, you know with all these incredibly important moments in her life. And then in this movie, it’s one big idea, vampire mother. And I guess who turns into a warrior. But it is about following her journey. And that kind of informed everything.

Stand by for part 2 coming tomorrow!

Yesterday we brought you part 1 of our hour long interview with Breaking Dawn director Bill Condon. Now we have the second part up. If you missed part one yesterday, you can check it out here.

Q: How was it filming both movies at the same time, ‘cause it’s your first time doing this? How was that?

BC: Yeah. Better than if we’d done it in 3D, the way we were thinking.

(laughter)

Yeah that was my question! Was: are you really doing it in 3D? ‘Cause that rumor’s been out there for so long.

BC: No, no.

Oh thank you.

BC: We were gonna do the second movie in 3D. There was a good idea behind that, which was: okay she wakes up as a vampire, now let’s see the world differently.

It’s a new dimension for her.

BC: But that wouldn’t have been—it wouldn’t have been just cheesy, but we would have gone crazy.

(laughter)

BC: I think we’re all grateful now. Yeah.

I can never see 3D movies. They just give me a headache so thank you. Thank you so much!

BC: I know. Yeah, no me too. I get a headache just from the tutorial.

(laughter)

BC: But yeah—so it was—I found it was not hard—it was harder on Kristen, I think, more than anybody but she stepped up. But not only to have to go from “oh my God, I’m high school graduate Bella” [to] “oh now I’m kind of intense momma vampire” in the same day! Not only that was a psychological challenge but also physically. I mean she had to—the vampire makeup was two hours. God help her, the pregnant, late term Bella was three hours prosthetics, and sometimes she’d be jumping back and forth between those things. So she was a real trooper, you know. I think it fell on her shoulders more than anybody else’s.

Q: Well, and we’re talking a lot about the serious stuff, and in the clip we saw we got to see some comedic relief from some of the Cullens. (in a pre-wedding scene Alice is barking orders at the family who are moving around large trees)I, and I think a lot fans, are really wanting to know is there going to be some comedic relief with the whole Rosalie/Jacob thing while Bella’s pregnant? Is it—even the trailer’s really serious, which I love—

BC: Yeah, yeah.

—but in the book there’s a lot of comedic relief that I think fans love, and is that going to be in the movie?

BC: Yeah. Yeah, there’s definitely a lot of comedy in the movie.

Good.

Q: I have a question. Melissa Rosenberg, when she was talking about the birth scene, she always kind of said something to the effect of “Well, I wrote it and now it’s up to Bill how he wants to do it”. And I was kind of wondering, what do you have to add to that?

BC: In terms of the birth?

Yeah. What did you see? Like how did you see doing it?

BC: Again, the basic idea there was—went back to the approach of the novel which is let’s have her give birth and only see what she can see. So it’s all from her point of view, right? And for me, that allows us to do things like oh my God, he’s coming back into frame and he’s got blood on his teeth! He just bit through something. And if you know what he bit through then you know, but if you don’t, you don’t, you know? So it’s like—it gives—I think for people who know it intimately it gives us that moment: “oh my God, the baby’s just bitten her”. But we don’t see it, you know. It’s only what she can see. So that was the approach there.

Q: I have a question about the leaked photos that came out.

BC: Yeah.

Did you have to change anything because of the leak?

BC: No, we’ve kind of just ignored it.

You ignored it?

BC: Yeah.

Okay.

Q: So building a relationship with your cast members, and obviously, your crew and all that, what was your favorite aspect of building with the team?

BC: You know what? I think it was with the actors, being able to really spend weeks and weeks before we started talking through the scripts over, and over, and over again, you know. Um, and especially Kristen who knows it so well and she feels such a strong like burden of responsibility to live up to what the fan—she’s a fan, you know. She [said] “I cried when I read this [the] first time. I wanna make sure that people [cry]”, you know. So that when she’s walking down the aisle at the wedding, you can’t believe what she puts herself through to make sure she gets into the state that’s gonna make—like open her up to all of the feelings that Bella’s feeling at that moment. It’s really amazing to watch. So that, I think, more than anything, you know. And I always think with Kristen too—sometimes she gets a bad rap for—like she seems like she’s a little, you know, unfriendly and things like that. I think that it’s all just—it’s her—she’s so tough on herself and that’s all it is.

She’s so great one-on-one.

BC: Yeah, yeah.

Q: Any favorite moment on set? Like a favorite moment on there?

BC: Oh gosh.

(laughter)

Q: Tell us about the dance off, what happened? ( the actors on Twitter kept referring to the Breaking Dawn Dance Battle)

BC: Oh yeah, that thing. You heard about that, right? That was amazing. God, I’ve never been surprised on a set like that ever.

Q: Is that gonna make the DVD?

BC: I would think so, yeah. I would think so.

JM: It will, because we knew it was happening and he didn’t know but I knew, and we T-ed up all the DVD documentary guys. It’s like “this is happening” and we had all these cameras going.

Thank you.

‘Cause all the fans wanna know that. Everyone tweeted about it so much.

BC: Just the part of me dancing won’t be on there.

(laughter)

Q: Next to Catherine Hardwicke, you probably had the larger shot of casting.

BC: Yes, it’s true. Yeah.

I mean just compared to—I mean just everybody else, you know there was the wolf pack—

BC: Yeah, like 70 of them.

One of my favorite movies is Jerry Maguire with the line, “You had me at ‘hello’”. Was there anybody in that casting process that maybe you didn’t know and then you were just like, “Whoa, you had me at ‘hello’!” Who was your—

BC: You know who? Mackenzie Phillips. I mean—Foy…Mackenzie.

(laughter)

BC: She’s a perfect, perfect—yeah, [inaudible] Mackenzie Foy. Mackenzie Foy was like, wow that’s it. She looks like their daughter and there’s just a quality she had, you know. I mean and it was such a relief because Renesmee was so tough to picture and imagine, you know? So I have to say she was just like, I think we’ve got it right there ‘cause it’s possible. And then I showed her to everybody else and everybody agreed.

Q: How were the auditions for the new cast members?

BC: The auditions?

Yeah. How you chose them?

BC: You know some of them came in, some of them were on tape. All of that, you know. And then—

I guess it’s a lot.

BC: A lot, yeah I know. We, yeah…but we had a great casting director, Debbie Zane, who I worked with a lot. She really did a wonderful job sort of tracking everybody around the world.

Q: Going back to Renesmee, it was such a big thing, like Stephenie always said…I think when Breaking Dawn the book came out, she said, “You know, I don’t know if the technology will be advanced enough by the time the film comes out”. How did you approach that? Like was that a daunting thing, were you excited to do it? How did you approach Renesmee as a character?

BC: Yeah, it was a little scary at first just ‘cause it is all that dots on people’s faces and helmets and things like that. But it was—it actually turned out to be fun. Mackenzie was there all the time to sort of provide the model for whatever size girl was playing the part. And then weirdly enough, the three-year old, four-year old, they all have their different personalities and they were all kinda good, you know. So actually you sort of fall in love with aspects of different girls all the way through. But we’re just—there’s John Bruno (he walks into the room), who’s our visual effects supervisor, the legend.

Say hello, John.

(laughter)

BC: But we haven’t done any of that yet ‘cause it’s movie two, so it’ll be fascinating to see when it actually starts, to see if it works.

Q: A lot of directors get this glazed look in their eye when people say, “What is your biggest Twilight movie challenge?” And they go like this [runs hand through hair with hellish exasperated look], and they go, “The weather.” You probably were the person who’s had to spend the least amount of time in the Pacific Northwest; so I’m just curious, were you warned beforehand that the biggest challenge was the weather?

(laughter)

BC: Yes. Because we were up there for a third of the schedule but we shot every interior in Baton Rouge so we had to be outside everyday. And we had nowhere to go when it was raining, which was everyday. So that was a huge challenge, absolutely. The most amazing thing was it was April 15, it was the last night of shooting, we looked up and it was snowing.

(laughter)

You can’t—you can hide rain, you can’t hide snow. We were just like, “Oh my God, what are we gonna do?” And then suddenly, you know, like an hour later it stopped. But, you know…

Q: Was the weather problematic at all in Brazil, too? I mean I’m thinking of the water and—

BC: Yes.

(laughter)

BC: No, that was a pretty—you know we were on this island near Paraty, sorta 45 minutes available just by boat, and at the end of our, I think, second, maybe third, night of shooting we go to get in our boats to go back to the village and there’s a storm, which turns into a typhoon and we’re stuck there all night. It’s 80 people on the floor, and one bottle of vodka that they found in the wine closet!

Oh no! (laughter)

JM: Sleeping on the floor of the set.

BC: Sleeping on the floor of the set. We were all—Stephenie was on a huge mattress and we’d hang around her for awhile. It was amazing, yeah so…

Q: How was your visit to Brazil did you get to know some cities? What did you do in your spare time?

BC: In Rio?

Yeah, in Rio.

BC: Well, it was great ‘cause the film festival was going on there at that time so I got to—

In Paraty, right?

BC: No, no in Rio. When we were prepping in Rio ‘cause we shot in Rio too.

Oh, you shot in Paraty and Rio.

BC: That’s right. So I got to hang out with some filmmakers who were there and that was sorta just a nice way to get like a glimpse of the film community there.

Do you plan to return [for] the premiere?

BC: I hope so, yeah. We’re hoping this year. I don’t know if it’s gonna work this year, but one of them I hope, yeah.

Aw, that’s great. So—

BC: But I shouldn’t say that, it’s not my decision.

(laughter)

But it’s probably gonna be both premieres, like this year, because they say…I heard that this year you’re gonna have the premiere, so probably for the next movie you’re gonna have another premiere there?

BC: Well, I would assume, yeah. Although this is the one that’s—

Because I think this year, in Rio, you’re [going to have] a big premiere like The Fast and Furious had. The official—not the official premiere is gonna be there, but some unofficial because all the cast was at the premiere.

Summit: Premiere plans for Parts 1 and 2 are far away. They’re out there. That’s a long ways away.

Q: So kinda tying back with the end, like what do you most want to convey to the fans, to anybody who sees this?

BC: Huh…

It’s a loaded question.

BC: That’s a big question. Yeah. Um…

We don’t bite we promise.

BC: I know, it’s just hard to put into words, you know? [I] just hope that it’s a satisfying next step in the journey and I think the reason I took the movie on is that it represents Bella, Edward, and Jacob growing up. I mean that’s the essence of the movie and that’s what excites me; it’s watching them move past the last moments of childhood into being adults and everything that that represents.

Q: I know we have a costume designer that takes care of most of the costumes and things like that, but with Bella’s wedding dress, you know, we’re talking about years of anticipation and speculation. And we had even designers drawing their own mock-ups of what it might be like and so I was wondering, like, how did you choose a designer/design? I’m sure you had a hand in it, right?

BC: I had—no, you know I—

Summit: The designer hasn’t been announced, yet.(It has since been announced as Carolina Herrera)

BC: Right, so I won’t announce the designer but this was something, as you might imagine, Stephenie had very strong feelings about. So she had somebody she wanted to use, Michael [Wilkinson, costume designer] felt comfortable with her, then we all got in and collaborated, but that was basically a choice that was sort of driven by Stephenie.

Q: Were you guys able to enjoy getting into the really small parts of the book since you have two films?

BC: Yes, I think so. Yeah. And I think what’s interesting is that um, you know, we’re trying—the second movie now is running a little over two hours, I don’t see much to trim there so there’s no question that the books—there’s no fat, you know? There’s no just sort of trying to fill it out into two movies. It’s like incredibly—it’s incredible how much happens in these books, you know? It needed two movies, there’s no doubt. Yeah. But I think that’s one thing that Kristen was really excited by when we started working together, rehearsing, it’s like this is the first—these are the first scripts where I wasn’t like thinking, “Oh my God, there are a hundred favorite moments that aren’t here.” You know? That it’s been so telescoped.

That’s great.

Summit: Last question.

Have a good one!

Pressure’s on you!

(laughter)

Q: Speaking of like anticipation, is there something in particular that you’re really excited to see the fan’s reaction to and something that maybe you’re like more nervous [about] ‘cause it’s such a highly anticipated thing?

BC: That’s a good question. Um…

Thank you!

(laughter)

And it’s two-in-one!

BC: You know, I think…She gets married; she has sex; she gives birth; and she dies and she becomes a vampire. Five huge things happen in this movie—I’m sorry, Jacob imprints.

(laughter)

Six.

BC: Six! Six huge things that happen and that was—I had on my board just like cards with these things: how do we figure [these out]?—you know, the second movie, obviously it’s got the shield and all that stuff. So I feel like that is my biggest excitement about people seeing how we did those six things, and also fear that it will because I think those are so…such huge events for everybody. It’s what everything’s been leading up to that I think everyone’s got ideas; clearly, they’ve visualized what that might be. So you hope you get to the essence of what it is and that none of them is a disappointment, you know?

Summit: Thank you, Bill.

BC: Okay, thank you. It’s so nice to meet you!

Bill Condon (BC) Interview

June 3, 2011

(Just finished seeing clips and trailer. Introductions of all present just concluded)

BC: So what did you all think? Any thoughts?

Q(Brazilian Blogger): I can’t find the words to explain seeing them where I am from, in my favorite movie. Seeing Kristen out in Rio—to see Kristen there was like…

BC: Yeah, it was great to go down there—

Brazilian Blogger: I’m trying to recover.

(laughter)

BC: It was so fun. That’s how we started the movie, too. We spent our first couple weeks there, you know. And it was so great to actually feel, you know—it was actually our biggest experience of fans, kind of being on the set or tracking Rob and Kristen. It actually calmed down after that, but you really felt the excitement when you were there, you know?

Q: Was the fan interaction—I mean that was the one scene where it seemed like there were a lot of people around during filming.

BC: Right.

Was that distracting or did it help elevate the mood?

BC: Uh, it was weird ‘cause that was again like our second night and it was—I didn’t know what to expect and actually, it turned out to be the most extreme of anything that happened through the whole movie. But when we’re on the streets of Lapa, suddenly, you know, we’re shooting something and this girl suddenly jumps into the shot and throws herself on Rob, goes “ha ha ha ha”, gets pulled off, and I think she was beheaded. I never saw her again.

(laughter)

BC: Something happened to her. But after that—but yeah, it was a little crazy there. Yeah, definitely.

Q: How much of the fandom did you know about before you jumped into this?

Bill: We’d gotten big lectures from all the people at Summit about what it was going to be like. And I actually have to say, in Baton Rouge we were in the studio the whole time, so it was actually really under control, you know. It was actually only being on the streets in Brazil that we saw it.

Q: How much fun was it scouting the locations? I mean, I guess next to Chris Weitz getting to go to scout out in Italy—

BC: I know! Can you imagine? Yeah.

—you probably had the next most exciting things to go scout. How involved were you in the scouting of the locations?

BC: Well, I mean Richard Sherman scouted first. He spent a month there ‘cause it was tough to find Isle Esme, you know?

Jack Morrissey(Bill Condon’s partner): Richard Sherman’s the production designer.

BC: And then I got to go to the last five possibilities or something like that. But it was great. I mean, scouting in a boat and stopping off for lunch at the little fish place on an island…No problems there. It was fun.

Q: How familiar with the series were you before you decided to pop into the last installment?

BC: Right. Pretty familiar, I guess. But not you know—I wouldn’t say I was a student of it but I was aware of them all and had seen them all. But then obviously once I jumped in it was really about Twilight Lexicon and it was the books and rereading and just making sure that we had everything right. You know things like—you saw the—Rob’s thing about( referencing a clip showing a glimpse into Edward’s past where he is at a movie theatre stalking “human monsters” )“I haven’t told you everything about myself” and there was a moment when I moved away from Carlisle. That’s only one line I think in the first book, you know, and he’d mentioned it one offhanded comment in one of the movies. But that was an example of something where the first time I met with Rob we had a long great night, many, many, many beers [laughter] and um, he said that one thing that had frustrated him a little is that—I guess that had been more developed in the first book, that was from Edward’s point of view, and it kind of informed the way he was playing the part throughout the whole movie. This sense of self-loathing and guilt that came from having killed humans for that period and yet, it had never been explored in the movies. So it felt like then I went back and looked at the section that described it in Twilight and I felt like, God, what better time right before a wedding to lay out the last objection, you know? And to have it also explain who he’s been, and then in the wedding you’ll see he has a toast where he said—he talks about the fact “to find that one person who can look at you, know everything there is to know about you and still accept you for who you are. I’m ready to move on”. So that being caught in this perpetual 17, and this perpetual kind of—I think you’ll see starting from the moment he gets married he moves on. The performance changes. It’s about him becoming a man. So I think that will be an interesting shift for people, you know? So that—the whole idea of just sort of, between discussions with him, going back finding a line in the first book and then deciding to dramatize that with an episode of him being someone who was on the hunt for human blood felt like something we hadn’t seen before.

Q: Speaking of that scene, I was really interested in the whole black/white dynamic—

BC: Sure.

—and I guess it was a parallel to the Bride of Frankenstein movie that was on.(in the scene where Edward is in a movie theater in the 1920’s the film that is playing is Bride of Frankenstein in black and white)

BC: I think in a way it was sort of. I mean, there are a lot of levels. One of them is that—I just like the fun that they’re all screaming at Frankenstein and they’ve got Edward in their midst—

(laughter)

BC: —walking behind them, but also, yeah, he’s become the monster in the movie. And actually, the whole movie turns out to be creating his bride. I mean, basically at the end that is what he’s done. Also, the tone of that movie is very similar when you’ve got Aro cackling—it’s similar tonally to a movie like that, and then finally the black and white thing that we do there is just like—as he kills people the color goes away and then it comes into him. So just a film language way to kind of give that sense, you know.

Q: Should we expect to see a lot of that kind of playing with new dimensions that we haven’t seen before in the other [films]?

BC: Yeah, I think so. You know why I think? Because in this movie it’s Jacob, in the next movie it’s Bella. You know as that surprising thing that Stephenie did in the book where having told the story through Bella’s point of view, then suddenly she shifted to Jacob’s point of view in the middle, and then you’re back to Bella’s. In this movie you do—there is this chunk of movie where you get inside the head of what it’s like to be a wolf. So that involves a certain stylization. And then in the next movie, the big change is we’ve been watching these vampires from Bella’s point of view but now it’s like we—because we are her—now it’s like you’re inside what it’s like to be a vampire. What it’s like to move that fast. What it’s like to have those powers. What it looks like. What the world looks like through her eyes. So both of those—they are more—it does become more the point of view of those characters and you get more—it’s more immersive, I think, and that involves a certain kind of stylization.

Q: I love that you’re talking point of view. I mean one of the things that I really love and that other people love too about the movies is that because the books are first person, either from Bella’s point of view or Jacob’s point of view, that now you get to expand out into that scene in Volterra—

BC: That’s right. Yes.

—and you get to see that total—what you only can imagine is occurring. How much collaboration did you have with Stephenie Meyer on those sort of alternate point of view moments that you don’t see in the books, but clearly were happening to get everything to spin.

BC: Right. Well, I think my kind of most intense collaboration was with Melissa Rosenberg—Stephenie was there and part of it all the time, and then—but we were the ones who sort of day-by-day, once I got involved in a rough outline form, we would be there kind of shaping what the scripts would be, and then Stephenie, along with the other producers, would have comments and things like that. Obviously, she’s this great resource that we would go to all the time.

Q: So how much collaboration did you do on the day to day script writing? I mean after doing Chicago and doing Dreamgirls as a screenwriter, I was wondering how’s the adaptation different going from a musical to a movie to going from this large volume of a book to a movie?

BC: Right, which I’d done before too. Gods and Monsters was an adaptation of a book, so that was something, but Melissa wrote these scripts—*his phone rings* Excuse me, this is her right now—

(laughter)

—which was great ‘cause I mean you know I jumped into this in March or April or something and we were shooting—you know if you’re prepping two movies and all that stuff—so it was sort of just—it was kind of overwhelming right there in the beginning. So Melissa, who knew it so well and is such a solid, strong writer—we would collaborate and talk through scene after scene after scene, structure, all that stuff, and then she’d come back. And it was really very, as I said, very intense for several months. But it was her. It was her knowing the stuff inside out…and creating. She’s done a lot of creating too on these movies.

Q: Speaking of Melissa and Stephenie, I think it was you that pointed out the cameo first—

BC: Oh right! Yeah.

It was Laura from the Lexicon.(room points at Laura)

Q: What—how did that come about? Who’s idea was that?

BC: Um, I kinda like nudged them all into doing it.

(laughter)

BC: And I stuck them in the back so you could see them as Bella’s coming down the aisle and get a good glimpse of them, you know.

Thank you on behalf of all of us!

(laughter)

BC: Oh good! Well it makes sense ‘cause she was at the diner, right? And they [the Cullens] don’t have that many friends, you know.

(laughter)

Q: Which part of Breaking Dawn do you think is going to be the most exciting for the fans? Part 1 or Part 2?

BC: You know what’s interesting about them? All the three—one of the reasons getting involved I was excited is that all three movies are so different. One thing, they each have the director’s style of whoever did it, and these two movies are incredibly different one from the other. They’re like—this is a very—I always think of this movie as being kind of the bookend to the first Twilight. It’s very much Bella’s, you know, kind of private journey from where she starts to being—to becoming a vampire, getting what she wants, you know. But there isn’t that kind of external threat in this movie, you know? The Volturi are always out there but they’re not really breathing down their necks. It’s really Bella making her way to what she wants to be and staying alive. The second movie is epic. The second movie is—you know the whole world kind of converging in this one place to deal with these big major issues about what it means to be a vampire.

Q: You had some parts where—about the sex scenes. Did you have some concerns? Because it’s going to be PG-13.

BC: Yes.

Did you have some concerns to do the sex things?

(laughter)

BC: Yeah, I guess. Yeah. (laughs) Well I think—yeah I think obviously we weren’t doing anything explicit but I think it’s also important to really—they’re married now—to really express this great connection that they have and to put it into physical terms, you know. So…

Q: Stemming from [an earlier] question, coming from a musical background how excited are you to be involved in the whole music process with Carter Burwell who’s done phenomenal scores in the past—

BC: He has.

–what tone do you want to convey going into the movie, ‘cause we obviously didn’t see any music with this [Breaking Dawn footage that we screened screened]?

BC: Right, right.

What tone or feel do you want to convey in your head to Carter, or is it more just Carter’s vision?

BC: No. You know Carter and I have worked together a lot before too, Gods and Monsters and Kinsey, and then he did this first movie. So it’s—I mean we have a collaboration that goes way back and we were just talking the other day. He’s going to come out next week. So it is—again because he did the first movie and now he’s picking up, I think that bookend nature of it will be kind of really heightened by his involvement. But I think like any other movie it’s just now we go and we talk through every moment. Here what’s interesting is that there’s a style that’s been set up that really works—and I think we shot to reflect this—where songs do tell a lot of the story, too, and that way it’s a little bit like a musical. There are all these ballads. You know, when she figures out that she’s pregnant and suddenly he leaves for a second, and she has a moment where she looks in the mirror and falls in love with her baby and looks at herself and said, “You are gonna be a mother”. That’s a minute and a half, just three long shots, but it’s all about where that music takes you inside her head again. And there is a musical number.

(laughter)

At the wedding. A very short one but there’s a dance number. We had a choreographer, who is one of the chorus boys from Chicago who’s now a big choreographer up there.

We’re big musical fans.

BC: Oh good!

Q: On the same note as music: all of the directors so far have had kind of say on the soundtrack choices—

BC: Right.

—at least one that they picked themselves. Do you have someone in mind that you hope to see?

BC: For songs?

Yeah.

BC: Yeah, we’ve been doing that all along, you know. Quite a few of them actually. And what’s interesting I think it’s gotten, in a way, easier and easier because like amazing bands now write songs and submit them. So I mean we’ve got Alex Patsavas, who’s done the music supervising for all these movies. I think we’re up to CD ten or eleven or something like that.

(Chatter)

BC: Eleven. Each of which has eighteen songs in it. So that’s what? Two hundred songs with amazing people you’ve all heard of who have written Twilight songs for us to choose from. So it’s really…yeah.

Jack Morrissey: And all unreleased. The golden rule stands of: if it’s been released, if you’ve heard it, it will not be in the movie.

Q: I’m curious. When you first read the script, you know you get pictures in your head of things, what scene from when you read it—what was the one that was like the clearest in your head of “Oh, this is how I want to do this”. And did that actually—when you shot it, did it actually come out that way?

BC: Right. That’s a good question. You know what it was? It was the lovemaking. And it wasn’t in the script. There was no script. But it was reading the book and figuring out an approach to that. I think I had a very simple idea right away that I wanted to try, and I think that’s part of why they hired me. I think it was sort of like—I think it made some sense, you know? And that’s exactly the way we shot it, and it’s in the movie now until the MPAA sees it. But so far so good!

(laughter)

JM: Don’t worry. It’ll stay. That will stay.

BC: Yeah, that’ll stay.

Q: So what initially really drew you to want to kind of take on this project, ‘cause it’s exciting but it’s also kind of daunting I’m sure—

BC: Oh it is. Yeah.

—so what kind of drew you to actually say “I’m gonna do this”?

BC: Well it’s like I started out in genre movies, so I’ve always been looking for a chance to get back into that, you know? And this—and also, it’s not just the genre stuff but also a certain kind—I have a reverence for old Hollywood films, you know, and it seems to me this also reflects the kinds of movies that Vincente Minnelli would make. You know romantic melodramas that are really heightened and with a great use of color and style to tell a woman’s story. All that really appealed to me about it, I have to say. If it had—the fact that it was two movies and back-to-back, that was…um, a consideration, you know. That didn’t seem like the most exciting prospect! (laughs) But on the other side of it, it’s—I’m glad we did it, you know?

Q: Are you working on anything involving Part 2 right now? I mean what’s going with that? How do you balance both of them?

BC: Well you know Ginny [Virginia Katz] edits as we go along, and then we would talk on the weekends and stuff. So we have a pretty good rough assembly of Part 2 that Ian, the associate editor, is still working on in terms of putting second unit stuff in and stuff like that. ‘Cause soon enough we have to start, even though it’s a year away, getting some of that effects stuff going. But basically it’s in a drawer for the next six weeks until we’ve finished—really refined—Part 1.

Come back tomorrow at noon for part 2.