Before there was the Twilight franchise, there was a movie called Thirteen.
Catherine Hardwick, the director of the explosive Twilight franchise took the film Thirteen as her directorial debut, which tells the story of a thirteen-year old girl (Evan Rachel Wood) who gets involved in drugs, sex and crime after getting influenced by a friend (Nikki Reed).
“I mean, every studio and every financier said, ‘No, we can’t make it. How could we make a movie that’s gonna be R-rated with an unknown 13-year-old girl in the lead?’ Everybody said no.” She later adds, “We made it by hook or crook, you know? And for no money. I got paid three bucks the whole time. But when we finally made it, people were like, ‘Oh, it’s powerful. It’s moving. It’s relevant in a way to what people are going through,'” explained Hardwicke.
But we can all agree that Hardwick managed to find her pot of gold at the end of the rainbow when Twilight hits, so never give up on your dreams!
*Cover image via Summit Entertainment
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