The Hyatt Regency Valencia from “Twilight”

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The other Los Angeles area filming location from Twilight that I mentioned in last Wednesday’s post is the Hyatt Regency Valencia Hotel.  In Twilight, the Hyatt stood in for the Phoenix area hostelry where Bella (aka Kristen Stewart), Alice (aka Ashley Greene), and Jasper (aka Jackson Rathbone) hid out while on the run from the evil vampire James (Cam Gigandet) towards the end of the movie.  In reality, the hotel is, of course, not located anywhere near Arizona, but instead can be found just about four miles away from the home that was used as Bella’s mom’s house in the flick.  So, of course, since I was already in the area last week, I just had to stalk the place.  🙂  I found this location thanks again to the link that fellow stalker Kerry sent me last April while the first Twilight movie was still in production.  Thank you, Kerry!  🙂

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The Hyatt is, sadly, featured only briefly in Twilight, but I am happy to report that it looks very much the same in person as it did onscreen.   In the scene featuring the Hyatt, Bella, Jasper, and Alice are first shown hanging out in a hotel room discussing their current predicament.  And while the exterior set up shots for that scene were indeed filmed at the Hyatt Regency Valencia, after looking at photographs of the hotel’s rooms online, I am fairly certain that the interior filming took place elsewhere.  My best guess is that the hotel room scene was either filmed on a soundstage or at a real hotel located somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, where the rest of the movie was filmed.

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We next see Jasper and Alice in the hotel’s lobby area waiting to check out.  And, as you can see in the above photographs and screen capture, that particular scene was actually shot on location at the Hyatt Regency Valencia and the lobby area still looks pretty much the same in person as it did in Twilight.  Even the red flower paintings hanging behind the reception desk are there in real life.  🙂  Love it!

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In a subsequent scene, Bella is shown rushing out of the Hyatt Regency Valencia’s main entrance and into a waiting taxi cab.    And that pretty much covers the entire Twilight segment that took place at the Hyatt!  LOL  All told, the scenes probably last a little under 45 seconds.  As I said in the previous Wednesday’s post, though, it’s better than nothing!  🙂

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While stalking the hotel, I happened to strike up a conversation with one of the bellhops who truly could NOT have been nicer to me.  He even took the photograph of me featured at the top of this post.  🙂  According to the bellhop, the Hyatt is actually an oft-used filming location and has been featured in such series as CSI: Las Vegas, NCIS, and the reality show Make It Or Break It.  The bellhop said that a scene from Twilight was also filmed in the hotel’s parking garage, but he wasn’t sure which scene.  He also informed me that Robert Pattinson actually stayed at the Hyatt Regency Valencia for a few days during the filming of Twilight.  LOVE IT!   The Hyatt Regency Valencia is a really beautiful hotel, with a large swimming pool, picturesque gardens, and a beautiful wedding courtyard (pictured above).  I highly recommend stalking the place or even staying there while visiting the L.A. area.  Who knows – you may even wind up in RP’s former room!  🙂

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On a very random side note: Earlier today, while reading the fabulous book Twilight: Director’s Notebook, I learned that the scene pictured above, in which Bella and Edward kiss for the first time, was actually filmed in Pasadena!  Apparently, the scene was originally filmed on location in Oregon, but director Catherine Hardwicke never ended up getting the exact shot she wanted.  So, a few months later, when the cast and crew was back in California, some reshoots were done, one of which was the Bella/Edward kiss scene.  For the re-shoot, a replica of Bella’s bedroom was built at the Elk’s Lodge in Pasadena.  🙂  So, as it turns out, there are actually three L.A. area locations that were featured in Twilight.  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Hyatt Regency Valencia, where Bella, Jasper, and Alice hid out in Twilight, is located at 24500 Town Center Drive in Valencia.  You can visit their website here.  The Elks Lodge in Pasadena, where Bella and Edward first kissed, is located at 400 West Colorado Boulevard.  You can visit their website here.

Bella’s Mom’s House from “Twilight”

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Well, it took me long enough, but on Monday afternoon I finally decided to crawl out from that rock I’ve been living under for the past year by sitting down to watch the movie that the rest of the world has long been obsessed with – Twilight.    Yes, it’s true – while it seems that pretty much every other human being on the planet has gone Bella and Edward crazy, until earlier this week I had yet to watch – or even read – the saga’s first installment.  I’m not exactly sure why I avoided the movie for as long as I did, being that I am usually right in line with the masses when it comes to the latest pop culture obsessions, especially the teeny-bopper ones.  For some reason, though, Twilight  never piqued my interest.  But then, this past Friday night, I met up with fellow stalkers Lavonna, Beth, Kim, and Melissa, who were in town from Cincinnati, and they were all quite disappointed to learn that a stalker like myself had yet to see the movie.  So, on Monday afternoon, I decided to bite the bullet and finally sat down – Starbucks iced latte in hand – to watch Twilight in its two hour entirety.  And I am shocked to report that I didn’t hate it.  I didn’t exactly love it, either, but I definitely didn’t hate it.  It was actually pretty enjoyable.  The cinematography was nothing short of breathtaking and Robert Pattinson wasn’t so bad to look at, either.  Don’t hate me ladies, but before seeing the movie, I thought RB was absolutely hiddy.  Now I can understand what all the fuss is about, though.  There’s definitely just something about him.  And I am happy to report that while most of Twilight was filmed on location in the Pacific Northwest, the movie did feature two locations in the Los Angeles area, most notably Bella’s mom’s house.  So, of course, I just had to stalk it! 🙂 

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Thanks to my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry who sent me this Twilight  link well over a year ago, I knew that Bella’s mom’s house was located somewhere in the Valencia area.  I just wasn’t sure exactly where.  So, yesterday, after watching the movie, I got to cyber-stalking and came across this page on Wikipedia, which stated that the home was located near Highlands Elementary School.   And even though Wikipedia isn’t always the most reliable of sources, I decided to begin my search in the neighborhood surrounding the school.  And sure enough, just about ten minutes later, I came across the house!  YAY!   So, early this morning, I made the journey out to Santa Clarita to do some Twilight  stalking!  Because Bella’s mom’s house is supposed to be located in Arizona in the movie, quite a bit of it was changed for the filming, including the paint color, the landscaping, and the exterior decor.  Numerous fake cactus plants were also added to the surrounding area.  You can see photographs of the house all decked out for the filming on this fansite, which details the experience of two stalkers who made a trek from Arizona to California  – in the middle of the night, no less –  just to watch Twilight being filmed!  Two women after my own heart, I swear!   (The photographs of the house are featured on the website under the heading “More Pictures on the Set 4/29 and 4/30”.  You have to scroll down a ways to see them.).

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Bella’s mom’s house is actually only featured very briefly in the movie.  I’m talking like 30 seconds brief.  LOL  But since it is one of the only Twilight sites located in the state of California, I figured stalking it was better than nothing.  🙂  The abode first shows up in the very beginning of the movie, when Bella and her mom and step-dad are shown moving out of the property.

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The spot where Bella digs up a cactus plant to take with her to her dad’s house is located in the field situated directly next to the home.

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The house shows up once again towards the end of the movie, in the scene in which Bella is led to believe that the evil vampire James has kidnapped her mother.   

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Even though the house looks a bit different in person than it appeared onscreen, to all of those L.A. area Twilight fans, I still highly recommend stalking it!  It’s a whole lot cheaper than traveling all the way to Oregon and Washington where the rest of the movie was filmed.  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Bella’s mom’s house from Twilight is located at 22301 Cataro Drive in Santa Clarita.