Helen Catherine Hardwicke (born October 21st 1955, in Harlingen, Texas), known professionally as Catherine Hardwicke, is an American director, producer and screenwriter. She's perhaps best known for directing the teen drama film Thirteen (2003), the film adaptation of vampire romance Twilight, and the music video for Lady Gaga's song "Til It Happens to You". In 2012, she contributed to the creation of a public service announcement for the National Women's History Museum. She also designed the "Four Ladies of Hollywood" sculpture, located at the western end of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which depicts actresses Dorothy Dandridge, Dolores del Río, Anna May Wong and Mae West.
Hardwicke grew up on her family's farm in McAllen on the US-Mexico border; after graduating from high school she studied architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. However, she felt architecture was too creatively-limiting and subsequently moved to Los Angeles to attend the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. She began making short films and working as a production designer, including working with and learning from directors such as Richard Linklater, Cameron Crowe and David O. Russell. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Hardwicke was the production designer for films such as Tombstone, 2 Days in the Valley, The Newton Boys, Three Kings, Antitrust and Vanilla Sky, before making her directorial debut with Thirteen in 2003.
Filmography includes:
- Thirteen (2003): Director and co-writer
- Lords of Dogtown (2005): Director
- The Nativity Story (2006): Director and executive producer
- Twilight (2008): Director
- Red Riding Hood (2011): Director
- Plush (2013): Director, co-writer and producer
- Reckless (2013): Director (pilot episode) and executive producer
- Miss You Already (2015): Director
- Eyewitness (2016): Director (two episodes) and executive producer
- This Is Us (2018; 2020): Director (episodes "Six Thanksgivings" and "The Cabin")
- Miss Bala (2019): Director
- Stargirl (2020): Executive producer
- Don't Worry Darling (2022): Executive producer
- Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (2022): Director (episode: "Dreams in the Witch House")
Tropes found in or associated with Hardwicke's works include:
- Breakthrough Hit: Her directorial debut Thirteen managed to be this; it was critically-acclaimed and won or was nominated for many awards. Twilight was an even bigger hit commercially, grossing $400 million on a budget of $37 million, making Hardwicke the most commerically successful woman director at the time.
- Creator Thumbprint: Many of her works are Coming of Age stories starring teen characters, especially teen girls, with the struggles of adolescence and loss of innocence being recurring themes. Hardwicke has stated her belief it's important to treat the issues teenagers deal with seriously and sympathetically.
- Follow-Up Failure: Lords of Dogtown was Hardwicke's second film after her successful and acclaimed debut with Thirteen, but didn't do nearly as well; it received mixed critic reviews and was a box office flop, though it has since become a cult classic. Her next film, The Nativity Story, also received mixed reviews and underperformed at the box office. Then Hardwicke directed Twilight as her next film project, which was a smash hit at the box office and helped make the Twilight franchise a worldwide phenomenon.
- Production Posse:
- She has worked with Nikki Reed in a few films: Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown, Twilight and "Til It Happens to You"'s music video. Hardwicke has known Reed since the latter was five years old; Hardwicke was once in a relationship with Reed's father and they remained close even after the relationship ended. Reed helped Hardwicke write the screenplay for Thirteen, which was partly based on Reed's own life.
- She directed Billy Burke in both Twilight and Red Riding Hood; in both films he played the father of the main heroine.
- What Could Have Been:
- She was at one point considered as the director of Twilight's sequel New Moon, but turned it down. She stated that she passed on it because of Executive Meddling, feeling that the studio wanted to rush the film's production. She said she didn't regret this decision, also confessing she actually preferred the first Twilight book to the sequels. There were rumors at the time that the studio were the ones who dropped Hardwicke from New Moon, although she clarified that her contract with them gave her right of first refusal.
- It was announced in 2015 that she would direct a film adaptation of Stargirl, starring Joey King in the title role, though nothing came of this. The film was eventually reworked with Julia Hart now directing, although Hardwicke stayed on as executive producer.
- She was signed on to produce and direct a TV adaptation of The Raven Cycle in 2017, but it eventually fell into Development Hell.
- Write Who You Know:
- Hardwicke based parts of Thirteen and the main characters of Tracy and Evie upon Nikki Reed, who she had known for most of her life up to this point. Reed collaborated with Hardwicke on the screenplay and played the role of Evie.
- Or direct who you know in this case. Hardwicke lived in Venice Beach and personally knew many of the Z-Boys from surfing; she later directed a biographical film about them, Lords of Dogtown.
