Catherine Hardwicke

I was a little out there for architecture school. I would dress up like my building and people were like, "wow, dude, architecture really doesn’t encourage that type of creativity".

While working with such big-name directors, she was able to study their techniques: "I always told them I really want to make my own movies, and they were all very generous and gave me tips." Her career as a production designer was crucial and beneficial to the molding of her career as a director. Her time spent with these directors aided her and were able to give her a sense of direction: "As you’re riding around with the director location scouting, you hear a lot of conversations and you start piecing them together, so I think that helped me." She even worked with fellow female director Lisa Cholodenko on her film Laurel Canyon (2002). Aside from her time spent working alongside directors, Hardwicke continued to work on her own projects such as scripts, short films, and teaching herself Final Cut Pro. Hardwicke even took it upon herself to take acting classes to become a better director.

Hardwicke directed the American-Mexican action-drama-thriller Miss Bala, a remake of 2011 film of the same name by Gerardo Naranjo. It stars Gina Rodriguez, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Anthony Mackie, Aislinn Derbez, Matt Lauria and Cristina Rodlo. It was released on February 1, 2019, by Columbia Pictures.

A common theme in her movies, specifically Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown, is teen angst. These movies revolve around the trouble that comes with adolescence and show it in a realistic way. In Thirteen she shows head on the trials and tribulations that come with growing out of adolescence and into adult hood, and girls becoming women. Her film Lords of Dogtown is an example of the laid-back California lifestyle and fictional account of boys growing up in the streets of Venice. Hardwicke purposely casts young teens from indie films, "both of Hardwicke's pics (Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown) are marked by the believable performances she elicits from young actors, something she says comes from respecting their creativity and a lot of time spent ‘just hanging out’".

Hardwicke directed the British-American comedy-drama Miss You Already in 2015. The film starred Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette as best friends who hit a snag in their friendship when one of them is diagnosed with cancer as the other becomes pregnant for the first time. The film premiered in the Gala Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.

Hardwicke's next feature came in 2013 when she directed the erotic thriller Plush. Following a young female rock musician and her band Plush, the film starred Emily Browning, Cam Gigandet, Xavier Samuel and Frances Fisher.

In 2013 Hardwicke also directed and executive produced the pilot for the CBS hour-long legal drama Reckless starring Cam Gigandet, Shawn Hatosy, Kim Wayans and Adam Rodriguez. It was ordered to series for the 2013-2014 season on May 12, 2013.

In 2012, Hardwicke helped create a public service announcement for the National Women's History Museum. Hardwicke came up with the idea for the announcement and contributed to the script.

Hardwicke has worked with many of this generation's tween idols: Evan Rachel Wood (Thirteen), Emile Hirsch (Lords of Dogtown), Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner (Twilight), who each got big breaks in her highly successful films. Hardwicke's films have been considered "dark" in story and tone. In 2009, she was awarded the Women in Film Dorothy Arzner Directors Award.

Amid rumors of a rocky relationship with Hardwicke, in 2008 Summit Entertainment announced that she would not direct the Twilight sequel, New Moon. Hardwicke said it was her decision, although a blog reported she had been fired by Summit. She said, "I couldn't even be fired, that's what's so funny," she says. "In my contract, I had the first right of refusal." She turned down the second film, she says, because the studio wanted to rush it out. "I do not regret it at all, thank the Lord," she says. "The truth is I liked the first book the best." Hardwicke went on to direct Red Riding Hood for Summit.

In 2006, Hardwicke directed this biblical film for New Line Cinema. At first she was reluctant to take on the project as she worried about finding a fresh approach to the story at the heart of Christian culture. She began to consider Mary as a young girl faced with an incredible task, and also incorporated a psychological approach to Joseph and his issues. She put it in a context of contemporary teenagers. Hardwicke tried to dramatize the account of the Bible. Hardwicke wanted to cast a young actress as Mary, traditionally held to be about 14 or 15 at the time of Jesus' birth, given the age of marriage of girls in that culture. She wanted an actress who at least appeared to be Middle Eastern. She cast as her lead Keisha Castle-Hughes, the Oscar-nominated New Zealand actress of aborigine descent, who starred in Whale Rider (2002).

Reed and Hardwicke wrote the script from the point of view of Tracy, a "normal" 13-year-old who begins at a new middle school. There she meets Evie, who she thinks of as more advanced and whom she wants to impress. She hopes Evie will give her entree to what she thinks is an exciting "crowd." Tracy's single mother Melanie, played by Holly Hunter, has tried to be a friend to her daughter and does not know how to deal with her changes. The film features female friendship and the difficulties of adolescence. Hardwicke has developed these as recurring themes in her work. The film received critical acclaim and had praise for its stars and Holly Hunter was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Thirteen earned Hardwicke the directing award at Sundance in 2003.

Through the 1990s and early 2000s, Hardwicke worked as a production designer on films including Tombstone (1993), Tank Girl (1995), 2 Days in the Valley (1996), The Newton Boys (1998), Three Kings (1999), and Antitrust (2001). In 2000, she worked as production designer with director/screenwriter Cameron Crowe and actor/producer Tom Cruise on Vanilla Sky (2001). That and Three Kings were noted for their original use of color-manipulation techniques to complement the narrative.

Her following film was not a commercial or critical success. Doing an adaptation of the classic fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood", Hardwicke makes this a coming of age story, exploring the theme of adolescence growing into adulthood and sexual awakening. As in Neil Jordan's 1984 film The Company of Wolves, the wolf is a werewolf who lives as a human among the townspeople. The village becomes turned on itself as everyone is suspect. Gary Oldman arrives to help solve the mystery. Red Riding Hood is played by young actress Amanda Seyfried, with supporting roles from Max Irons and Shiloh Fernandez as the love interests.

Feeling limited, Hardwicke moved to Los Angeles, where she studied at UCLA film school to explore her creative talents. Hardwicke made her first short film for her brother Jack who was marrying Nicolette Cullen. During this period in the 1980s, Hardwicke made an award-winning short, Puppy Does the Gumbo and was recognized with a Nissan Focus Award was featured in the Landmark Best of UCLA film program.

Helen Catherine Hardwicke (born October 21, 1955) is an American film director, production designer, and screenwriter. Her directorial work includes Thirteen (2003), which she co-wrote with Nikki Reed, the film's co-star, Lords of Dogtown (2005), The Nativity Story (2006), Twilight (2008), Red Riding Hood (2011), Plush (2013), Miss You Already (2015), and Miss Bala (2019).

Hardwicke was born in Cameron, Texas on October 21, 1955, the daughter of Jamee Elberta (née Bennett) and John Benjamin Hardwicke. She has a brother, Jack, and a sister, Irene Hardwicke Olivieri, who became an artist. She grew up in McAllen on the U.S.–Mexico border, where her family owned and operated a farm along the Rio Grande, and was raised as a Presbyterian. She said the border area was wild: in high school, "her principal was stabbed three times. A friend's father was shot in the back, and another friend was murdered. And yet life could be wonderful at the same time. 'It was a Huck Finn life, too,' she said." Growing up in McAllen, Hardwicke describes it as "wild". As a child she did not attend many movies and explains, "I didn’t go to many movies. Let's be honest: It was a cultural wasteland. At the time, you could not go to a significant museum unless you drove three hours to Corpus Christi or four to San Antonio". However, there were other ways to have fun such as sneaking over to the bars and nightclubs of Mexico before she was even a legal adult. Speaking on her early life Hardwicke says, "It was a wonderful childhood. I'm dying to make a movie about it".