kristen stewart was on the set of "adventureland" when hardwicke visited her for an informal screen test that "captivated" the director. hardwicke had trouble finding an actor otherworldly enough to play vampire edward cullen. then she got a call about a guy in london. "i looked at a couple pictures and was like, ‘i’m not sure,’?" hardwicke says. "he had been fired from his last job, he was unemployed, he was in debt." pattinson flew to los angeles on his own dime to read with stewart. shiloh fernandez, jackson rathbone, ben barnes, and robert pattinson were the final four up for the role of edward. hardwicke did not initially choose robert pattinson for the role of edward cullen, but after an audition at her home with stewart, he was selected. hardwicke said, "kristen was like, ‘it’s got to be rob!’ she felt connected to him from the first moment. that electricity, or love at first sight, or whatever it is." hardwicke gave him the part, but he had to make a promise. "you’ve got to realize that kristen is 17 years old," hardwicke told him, "she’s underage. you’ve got to focus, dude, or you’re going to be arrested. i made him swear on a stack of bibles." pattinson was unfamiliar with the novel series prior to his screen test but read the books later on. meyer allowed him to view a manuscript of the unfinished "midnight sun", which chronicles the events in "twilight" from edward's point of view. fan reaction to pattinson's casting as edward was initially negative; rachelle lefèvre remarked that "[e]very woman had their own edward [that] they had to let go of before they could open up to [him], which they did." meyer was "excited" and "ecstatic" in response to the casting of the two main characters. she had expressed interest in having emily browning and henry cavill cast as bella and edward, respectively, prior to pre-production.