Both Kristen and Stewart and Bill Condon have strong visions of the Twilight characters. Condon had to get on board quickly with many characters, whereas Stewart has built up a strong affection for Bella Swan over time.

Box Office Magazine talked with both Kristen Stewart and Bill Condon regarding their Breaking Dawn experience.

Bill Condon gave his spin on what was the prevailing question among many fans on how he was able to stay true to the books and keep the rating PG-13.

Everyone has been saying for years how hard it would be to make Breaking Dawn PG-13. How did you pull it off?

The whole movie is very immersive, kind of like in the book, which is in the point of view of Bella and Jacob [Taylor Lautner]. We tried to do the same thing in the movie—there’s a whole chunk where you get inside the head of a wolf. And in terms of the birth, it was, “Let’s do it from Bella’s point of view. Let’s see whatever she can see.” Once you decide on an approach like that, it’s amazing how powerful you can be without being overly explicit. She gets glimpses of a lot of things—and hears everything—but it’s not the cutaway to teeth clawing through flesh. But you certainly know what’s happening.

Kristen Stewart puts her foot down and talks about Bella being stronger than a lot of people think, and Stephenie Meyer not getting credit for writing a stronger character.

You know this character so well, what’s it like to take her through this huge change when she becomes a vampire herself?

It felt good. It was really weird. It was such a long process of the two movies being shot at the same time as if they’re one. You shoot, obviously, out of order and you keep going back and forth between pregnant, human and dead vampire Bella. There’s so many different versions of Bella in this, it’s insane. It was a strange experience walking on set the first time I played a scene as a vampire because I’d watched everyone around me doing it all the time. I sound so lame, but vampire Bella really is my favorite character—she’s very representative of a matriarch. She’s very intuitive on almost a psychic level and no one ever acknowledges it, which is interesting. Maybe that says something about Stephenie that she doesn’t get respect for all of her f–king amazing qualities. And that’s also one of the things that makes her appealing to me, so that’s not a strike at it—that’s something that I like about it. And I think it’s nice to see her finally get what she wants. That’s probably the best thing, even if it sounds simple and indulgent, which is why the f–king thing is criticized all the time. It’s nice to see people be happy. And she really—if I’ve played it right—is born to be where she is.

Do you agree with the choices of Condon and Stewart’s assertion?