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Bill Condon tells MTV News he tried 'to give people the experience they had reading the book' in 'Part 1.'
By Terri Schwartz, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Director Bill Condon on the set of "Twilight: Breaking Dawn - Part 1" with Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson
Photo: Andrew Cooper/Summit

"Breaking Dawn - Part 1" features two of the most hotly anticipated moments in the entire "Twilight Saga." First, lovebirds Bella Swan and Edward Cullen finally get it on. And later, in a far less tender scene, Bella endures a pretty gory birth to give life to her half-human, half-vampire daughter, Renesmee.

Bill Condon knew all along that those two scenes were pivotal moments that he would need to get right onscreen. But keeping in mind the PG-13 rating the studio wanted to preserve, the director also knew that he had to tackle those intense sequences without going too far over the line. When MTV News caught up with Condon, he predicted that fans will be pleased with the final product (especially the sex scene), which hit theaters on Friday (November 18).

As in the novel, the honeymoon scene plays out mostly through Bella remembering the passionate night the morning after, which allowed Condon to show the event in several parts.

"I think when you see the movie you'll see, you think you get it and then you get more of it and then you get more of it, which I think was part of the intention because it's such a big thing — everyone's been waiting for it," he said. "We just wanted to make sure you got a lot of it when you got it."

And Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart were good sports about the whole process, Condon said, though he admitted filming the steamy section got "kind of clinical." The scene was carefully choreographed but the two lead actors were "so cool about it."

The birthing sequence, which easily could have pushed the film to an "R" rating, proved similarly challenging. Condon wanted to stay as true as possible to Stephenie Meyer's depiction but he knew he couldn't be too graphic. "You want to give people the experience they had reading the book, and that was incredibly powerful, the way Stephenie described it.

"You can't show everything, obviously, we have a [PG-13] rated movie," he said. "But we did it through the point of view of Bella and what she can see as she's giving birth. I think your imagination fills in a lot of that."

Check out everything we've got on "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1."

For young Hollywood news, fashion and "Twilight" updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com.

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