More than a decade after its final installment, Twilight director Bill Condon has defended the franchise, saying that critics missed the point. Based on Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling novels, the movies starred Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner in a human-vampire-werewolf love triangle that dominated the late 2000s, grossing over $3 billion at the box office to mixed reviews.
Now, in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Breaking Dawn director Bill Condon has addressed the backlash against the Twilight series. Known primarily for musicals like Chicago and Dreamgirls, Condon’s decision to helm the final two Twilight installments raised eyebrows. But for him, it was a chance to make “a classic Minnelli Hollywood melodrama.” Check out his quote below:
There were a lot of things about it. I think it started for me with Kristen Stewart. I’d just been fascinated with her right out of the box.
To me, it was also a classic Minnelli Hollywood melodrama. It’s a family story. I aspire to be in the tradition of George Cukor and Vincente Minnelli. But I do think one of the things that’s remarkable about that is that Twilight is a franchise that is really women’s pictures, they call them. It is told from a female perspective. I can’t tell you how many times you talk about that movie and someone would say in the first one, “Well, nothing happens,” but she gets married, she gives birth, she becomes a vampire.
Condon also defended Twilight from critics, stating, “it became such a target for people, and people felt superior to it, and I thought, ‘God, you were really missing the point.'” For Condon, the point was the franchise being in on the joke: “As a gay director, I thought I brought a bit of camp to it that was permissible.”
Taking inspiration from his new musical, Condon says, “There’s a line that Molina has in Kiss of the Spider Woman where he says, ‘Call it kitsch. Call it camp. I don’t care. I love it.’ And that’s how I feel about that movie.” However, Condon states his favorite moment had to be the infamous fake-out battle in Breaking Dawn — Part 2:
I’ve never, ever heard a scream as loud and last as long as when we cut off Carlisle’s head.
Reflecting on Twilight, Condon considers himself a “Hollywood classicist,” describing how “in that movie, there was emotion, there was beauty, there was humor and visceral pleasure that I try to have in anything I make.” However, as Twilight didn’t align with cinema culture at the time, people resented it. Although for Condon, “it becomes a kind of secret badge of honor.”
Why Bill Condon’s “Camp” Twilight Worked
Bill Condon’s comments reframe the Twilight saga from an overly sincere teen romance, to a knowing piece of camp cinema that is rooted in emotion, beauty, and heightened drama. By invoking classic Hollywood directors like Vincente Minnelli and George Cukor, he places the Twilight films in a lineage of stylized and emotionally operatic storytelling that critics often overlook or undervalue.
“Camp”, in this context, doesn’t mean “bad;” it’s intentional excess, theatricality, and pleasure. Condon embraced those elements while still honoring the sincerity of the characters and their arcs for Breaking Dawn, and his approach arguably made Twilight bigger, weirder, and more self-aware, something fans often picked up on and enjoy revisiting even now, even as critics continue to pan it.
Twilight Is Aging Better Than Anyone Expected
Condon’s candid reflections arrive during a wider reappraisal of the Twilight saga. What was once mocked has become a cultural touchstone for a new generation, and the Twilight movies have found new life on streaming. Fans, both new and old, continue to defend what critics originally dismissed: films made for the female gaze, with emotional honesty, and unapologetic campiness.
Twilight’s unapologetic intensity was over-the-top sometimes, but that was part of the appeal, as it felt big and emotional in a way that teen stories were rarely allowed to be on-screen back then. Therefore, Bill Condon’s comments on Breaking Dawn just confirm that the series was deliberate, deserving of praise, so I’m glad Twilight is aging better than expected.
Twilight
- Movie(s)
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Twilight The Twilight Saga: New Moon, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010), The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (2011), The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012)
- First Film
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Twilight (2008)
- Cast
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Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Kellan Lutz, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, Billy Burke
- Character(s)
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Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, Jacob Black, Alice Cullen, Carlisle Cullen, Esme Cullen, Emmett Cullen, Rosalie Hale, Jasper Hale, Charlie Swan
- Comic Release Date
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189623
