PORTLAND, Oregon — As the loyal legions of "Twilight" fans now know, best-selling author Stephenie Meyer shot a cameo on Wednesday for the big-screen adaptation of what could very well become Hollywood's next great franchise.
Here at MTV News, we often report on "Where's Waldo?"-esque nods to the creative talents behind our favorite films, whether we're talking about Jon Favreau's upcoming cameo in "Iron Man," Leonard Stern's appearance in "Get Smart" or the ubiquitous glimpses of Stan Lee in almost every superhero movie. Such appearances are typically blink-and-you'll-miss-'em moments with little bearing on the plot, and an advance heads-up gives moviegoers something fun to look for.
This is an article about further details behind Meyer's cameo. It contains exciting, expansive quotes from the film's stars that will undoubtedly please many of the author's biggest fans. However, since some people claimed that we ruined their lives by reporting the cameo news last week, we're giving you one last chance to surf elsewhere. Click here to enjoy a lovely story on "The Hottie and the Nottie."
Still here? All right, strap in and get ready for the exclusive details about Meyer's cameo, which, contrary to the reports we received at first, is not a silent one.
"She came to [shoot] the coffee shop [scene], and she orders a vegetarian plate," revealed director Catherine Hardwicke. "Of course, the joke is that [some of] the vampires are vegetarian vampires. Our vampires don't eat humans — they eat deer and animals — so that's a little inside joke."
With that order, Meyer might get the same sort of laughs as the "I'll have what she's having" line delivered by Rob Reiner's mother in "When Harry Met Sally." Those involved in the film, however, compared Meyer's wink at the fans to an old gimmick employed by Alfred Hitchcock.
"It was a little Hitchcock moment, which I love," explained Kellan Lutz, who plays Emmett Cullen in the flick and was on set the day of Meyer's cameo. "I love his movies, where he throws himself in there as a small little speck. [Meyer] did a great job, and I'm sure it's going to be cool for her to see herself in her movie."
"It's a great wink and a nod to the hard-core fans, who are going to identify it in a second," grinned producer Greg Mooradian. "It will be a very interesting moment in the theater when a gaggle of young girls are going to scream at a very quiet moment, and the rest of the audience will be scratching their heads. Those who know who she is and what she looks like will maybe, maybe, just maybe, have a little private thrill."
Nikki Reed (who plays Rosalie in the film) said that while she wasn't on set for Meyer's cameo, she was one of the many who watched nervously while the visiting author watched them. "It's tough to work with someone who created you," she grinned. "Most of the stuff she saw was pretty light stuff — lots of school cafeteria, fun shots, hair-blowing. We did a scene that's the introduction to the Cullens: We walk in [to the Forks High cafeteria], and there's this huge shot and it pushes in on us, and then there's a fan that was blowing our hair in the wind. I walked [behind the camera], and I was like, 'How did you feel about that, Stephenie?' and she was like, 'It's great.' "
Despite working on several novels, including the soon-to-be-released "The Host," Meyer was on the "Twilight" set during the preproduction process, answering questions for the actors. Pattinson told us that she even went so far as to let him read the unfinished manuscript for "Midnight Sun," an upcoming novel that tells the "Twilight" events from Edward's point of view.
"Stephenie describes her characters as people. She never really thinks of them as characters," Mooradian said of the mastermind behind the franchise that will land in theaters in December. "She truly thinks that these people walk around in her life, so to actually meet the physical embodiments of her characters was a mind-blowing experience. ... She's the fan that we want to please most of all."
"It's incredible," Hardwicke said of helping the former stay-at-home mom complete her Cinderella story with an immersion into the very tale she first imagined five years ago. "She was a mom, she has three sons, and one day she had this dream about a vampire boy meeting a human girl, and she just thought, 'I've gotta write that down!' In three months, she wrote the whole novel, and her friends and her sister encouraged her to do it. ... There are 2,000 young adult novels a year published, and hardly any of them ever break out. ... People were just swept away by that voice and by that passion."
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