Catherine Hardwicke Divulges Twilight's Sultry Casting-Mattress Secrets

Summit Entertainment may have booted Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke from the editing room before ultimately plucking its billion-dollar franchise out of her hands for good, but there is one thing the company suits can never take away from her: Her casting. It also can't do much about her fascinating story of the Twilight Mattress of Dreams, where Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson apparently did some of their best auditioning en route to global stardom.

Talking this week to Time Magazine, Hardwicke recalled those early days of development when she had her Bella, but an Edward remained elusive. Enter Pattinson, a then "unemployable" actor who flew over from the UK, slept on his agent's couch and paid Hardwicke and Stewart a visit to read. And by "read," I mean "make out with his future co-star on Hardwicke's bed while she videotaped it":

So Rob and Kristen and the other three candidates all had to do the kissing scene on my bed. When Rob and Kristen met, all of us could tell there was a very strong chemistry there. You know just electricity. It was radical. And then we did the kissing scene about three times. It was very intense. The actors came one at a time, but when everyone was gone Kristen was like, you have to cast Rob. I told her, I have to look at it on tape. I need to make sure it translates, not just the vibes in the room. And we edited, looked at it the next day and said, yah, it has to be Rob.

TIME: So where is this mattress, in the Smithsonian?

I still sleep on it every night. It's been the beginning of several cool films. There are a lot of good vibes on it.

Hardwicke's not kidding, either. Just ask her about the torrid audition Keisha Castle-Hughes had with God before she won the Virgin Mary part in The Nativity Story.

· Q&A: Catherine Hardwicke, Director of Twilight [Time]