Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart apparently broke hearts on- and off-screen when they met on the set of “Twilight” in 2008. Catherine Hardwicke, who directed the first movie, still feels some remorse over the break-ups that followed.
Hardwicke recalls in a new interview that Pattinson was dating Twilight co-star Nikki Reed and Stewart was with her boyfriend of four years Michael Angarano. Hardwicke had worked with Reed in her breakthrough movie “Thirteen.” Hardwicke won a Sundance Film Festival award for best director.
Angarano had appeared in her 1997 movie “Lords of Dogtown,” about skateboarding. Michael started dating Kristen after co-starring with her in the 2004 movie “Speak.” But not long after “Twilight” started filming, Pattinson ended his fling with Reed, and Stewart ended her relationship with Angarano.
Before long speculation began that the two “Twilight” stars were off-screen lovers as well. But they doggedly evaded all questions about their relationship. Today, it’s widely accepted they have been a couple for some time.
But Hardwicke can remember when Stewart gave Angarano his walking papers. “He’s a wonderful actor. He was in Dogtown, one of my favorites, so I felt pretty bad because I love him and they were such a great couple,” she told the Vulture column of New York magazine.
This is intriguing news and raises questions about the status of Rob and Kristen’s prior relationships before they got together. Had they already split up, or were they still dating others when they started hooking up?
Sadly, writer Jada Yuan doesn’t follow up. What is known is that no love is lost between Reed and Stewart. “In the beginning, it was innocent and fun, and we were like one big happy family; it was like being at sleepaway camp,” Reed told Seventeen magazine back in November. “And then success comes along and changes the dynamic.”
Reed revealed that not everyone will be parting friends now that filming on the last two segments in the series, “Breaking Dawn, Part 1 and Part 2″ is over. “We’re not all best friends, and we’re not all going to hang out together after the final movie is done,” she added. Reed got married to actor Paul McDonald last October in a private Malibu ceremony.
For his part, Angarano has never spoken publicly about what happened between him and Kristen, and neither has the vampire star. But so far Rob and Kristen’s relationship seems to be enduring.