Twilight’s Stephenie Meyer won’t read Fifty Shades of Grey: it’s ‘not my thing’

If I ever meet MTV interviewer Josh Horowitz, I am going to fan girl on him so hard. He always manages to ask celebrities the questions we really want to know, but most interviewers would be afraid to ask. He got Angelina Jolie to explain the meaning of her tattoos, he offended Kate Hudson by asking her if there really was a portrait of A-Rod as a centaur over A-Rod’s bed, and he played “name that dong” with Michael Fassbender, in which he had Fassie identify actors by their dicks alone, with hilarious results. He asked him questions like “When did you know you had a celebrity p3nis?”

This one isn’t as amazing as all that, but it’s still an inspired question. Horowitz was talking to Twilight and The Host author Stephenie Meyer, and he asked Meyer what she thought of 50 Shades of Grey. The series of course started out as Twilight fan fiction from a British lady frustrated by the lack of sex scenes in the young adult novels. Author EL James changed the names and repackaged the story and the rest is history.

I’ll be honest, I was hoping for more controversy here. Meyer was gracious about the series, and simply said she hadn’t read it because it wasn’t her thing. But Fark labeled their link for this story “Stephenie Meyer criticizes Fifty Shades of Grey, says it’s not her thing because it’s poorly written romance.” It would have been awesome to see a Meyer vs. E.L. James argument play out in the press, because you know James would be like “whatever, I know my writing sucks, it’s cool.” I’ve only seen one interview with James and she was freaking awesome. But alas Meyer was pretty decent about the whole thing. Here’s more:

“Fifty Shades of Grey” seems to be on everyone’s mind lately. How will they make NC-17 reading material into an R-rated film? Who will take on the role of the timid Ana Steele? And, most importantly, who will be cast as Christian Grey, the sexy leading man? Those all are important questions, but the one query we were itching to have answered is: What does “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer think of the book? E L James’ trilogy started out as “Twilight” fan fiction, after all.

When MTV News caught up with the writer on the set of “The Host,” she told us she doesn’t know much about “Fifty Shades,” but she supports James in her endeavor.

“I haven’t read it. I mean, that’s really not my genre, not my thing,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve heard about it; I haven’t really gotten into it that much. Good on her — she’s doing well. That’s great!”

“Fifty Shades” follows the sadomasochistic affair of college graduate Ana Steele and dominant billionaire Christian Grey. Their relationship begins as a purely physical attraction, but as they become engrossed in each other and start to fall in love, Ana realizes Christian’s past might not be something she wants to uncover. Christian represents Edward Cullen, a brooding, self-deprecating and impossibly good-looking man with a few secrets, while Ana is an adaptation of the clumsy and shy Bella Swan. Without Meyer’s novel, “Fifty Shades” might not exist.

“It might not exist in the exact form that it’s in,” Meyer said. “Obviously, [James] had a story in her, and so it would’ve come out in some other way.”

But James isn’t the only writer who gained Meyer’s support. “The Host” author mentioned being a “super fan” of Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games.”

“I’m just excited for anything that they do,” she said. “I was really excited they were turning it into a movie. Of course, then you have that, ‘Are they gonna screw it up?’ ’cause it’s so awesome, but they didn’t; it’s awesome. I’m really looking forward to the next one. I have fingers crossed for a couple of casting choices.”

Once she revealed she had actors in mind, we had to ask her pick for the beloved District 4 tribute, Finnick Odair: “Taylor Kitsch,” she said, stating her choice. “Is there another option?”

When our correspondent Josh Horowitz mentioned he spoke to Kitsch, and the actor said he’s not interested in the role, Meyer was more than a little disappointed, saying, “You’re breaking my heart.”

[From MTV]

See she was nice about 50 Shades, and she was nice about The Hunger Games. I think she’s so repressed that she’ll never read 50 Shades, and that’s fine, that’s what the whole premise of Twilight was about. You can have sex, but you have to wait until marriage and then you’ll die afterwards.

Disclosure: I’ve read the Twilight books but I haven’t read 50 Shades yet. My mom has read all three and has given me TMI about how sexy they are. Kaiser read the first book and said it sucked royally. I thought the Twilight series was ok. I got through them because I wanted to see what happened, although the dialogue did make me roll my eyes a lot, as did the movies.

Also, Meyer is doing interviews because she’s promoting The Host, a movie based on her second book series. It’s filming now and is out next year. Pajiba has the teaser trailer and it looks SO BAD, like a 90s Michael Jackson video. I should just write a book already. This lady gives me a lot of hope.

Stephenie Meyer Twilight

Stephenie Meyer Twilight

Stephenie Meyer Twilight Cast

Stephenie Meyer Twilight Cast

Photo credit: WENN and Fame

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33 Responses to “Twilight’s Stephenie Meyer won’t read Fifty Shades of Grey: it’s ‘not my thing’”

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  1. marie says:

    Isn’t there also a parody book out coming out called 50 Shames of Earl Grey? Now that, I will read!

    • orion70 says:

      I think one of the best things to come out of all of this is the amount of grey-related parody. It’s the only thing keeping me sane while people trip over themselves on FB about how awesome these books are.

  2. Crystal says:

    An author of a shitty, misogynistic book isn’t a fan of other shitty, misogynistic material ?? Who woulda thought.

    ‘Fifty Shades Of Bad Fanfiction’ is an joke. There’s so much good erotica out there… This book can diaf.

    I’m not opposed to badly written smut but 50 Shades crosses other boundaries and makes the whole publishing industry look like a massive joke. Which people suspected was the case, anyway, but it’s kind of like confirmation. Seven figures for fanfiction you can still find for free online. Not editing. No grammar. No research. No plot. No integrity.

    Another Mary Sue who’s a virgin (why are the girls always virgins?) and a mysterious, good looking, rich guy. Sound familiar ??? Of course the difference is that instead of being a vampire, this guy is a sadist who fucks girls who look like his mummy. Lovely.

    Is it really gonna be a movie because if so, I need to see the tampon scene on the big screen. Maybe they should have it in 3D so someone in the audience can catch it.

    • Anne says:

      Well I thank you for that review; I was considering purchasing these books but you have saved me the time and also the discomfort and inconvenience of gouging my eyes out.

      Cheers.

    • marie says:

      I started to read it when it was a fanfic, but never made it past the 5th chapter, it was that bad.

    • It is ME!! says:

      Crystal: Hey, I think I love you.

      So what am I so afraid of?

      Hee hee. Analysis spot on.

  3. miriam says:

    Stephanie Meyers looks really masculine in these pictures, her face is very blokey.

  4. Linny says:

    Who the hell is she kidding? This is exactly her thing.

    • DreamyK says:

      Have you read it? It’s so f*ing awful. Even the author, E.L. James said she’s a terrible writer, or in her words ‘I’m not a great author’. The books are readily available on the internet so it’s laughable people are actually PAYING for that poorly written garbage.

  5. anons says:

    i admit that i liked the 50 shades books, mostly because i found the bdsm story line interesting. the writing; however, not so great. overused phrases, poor grammar and lacking editing aside, some parts did make me blush. being the good man that he is, my husband since got me a bunch of other reads from the bdsm genre. gotta say, though the author touts it as twilight fan fiction, 50 bares much resemblance to other erotica–namely, the ‘edge’ books by eve berlin (the first of which was published a year before 50 came out). regardless, i’m all for anything that gets you–and keeps you–reading.

  6. Jo 'Mama' Besser says:

    Tampon scene?

    Okay deja-vu alert. I’m not really one for the perverted arts, so this phenomenon was a mystery to me until about 24 hours ago. I was at my sister’s place and she was on the phone. I was half-asleep and listening to Judge Mathis (one of the very, VERY few televised small claims court judges with whom I feel like I could share a decent conversation, unlike a certain Joe Brown who overuses the word ‘matriculate’ and is a sexist, bloviating blowhard), when I faintly heard he say, ‘That’s not really my thing’.

    She wasn’t speaking to a friend or colleague or even someone she had previously met, it was about a personal medical matter, and I’m not in the business or caring about the content of other people’s phone calls. Many hours later, that conversation she had had came up, and she’s dealing with some leftover inconveniences that resulted from a surgery she had last month. The lady with whom she was speaking said that since my reader is a reader, consult some literature, though it would be more than her job’s worth to suggest titles. Before there was time for me to think, ‘okay, whatever’, she informed me that the literature wasn’t of the ‘researched, written, peer-reviewed’ species, or some kind of narrative testimony from past patients, but rather this 50 Shades… (is it a series?) from a health care worker. My complete non-reaction prompted her to ask me if I was familiar, I admitted that I had not, and she went on to talk about weird it was that A) The lady would make a reccomendation after saying it wasn’t professional and no one asked her to commit that breach and B) ‘She told me to go read some erotica!’

    That’s what she was talking about when she said ‘That’s not my thing’.

    Isn’t it totally wonderful that I inflicted that story upon you? I still have no idea what this phenomenon is about, as I am not a partaker of erotic literature…unless I’m doing research on The Lover’s War, or just finished downloading a podcast that this week focuses on The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. I don’t *think* those count, but how would I know?

    • I Choose Me says:

      Hi again Jo Mama. I knew there was a reason I liked you. I find Judge Joe Brown insufferable as well. I cannot abide his pontificating and how he seems more inclined to gossip and get all up the business of the people in front of him, than actually judging the case.

      • Minty says:

        Good points. I think Judge Judy is even worse. Yes, she’s intelligent. Yes, she hears BS from people every day (like all judges), but man, she is mean-spirited and incredibly condescending. There have been 9 other TV judges I’ve watched, and none browbeat plaintiffs/defendants as much as she does. It’s not necessary to stoop to that level to control a courtroom.

  7. Aubra says:

    LMAO I haven’t read a syllable and I can already tell it’s awesomely insufferable! The black version of her is this crappy author we have called Zane, I am sure it’s no better (and by better I mean it’s equally crappy) than her!

    But I thought “fan fiction” was fiction stories using one’s fave celebs, that’s what it was when I used to read it 13 years ago. Was this based on a celeb? If not, what were the poeple reading it fans of?

    • Anne de Vries says:

      What you’re referring to is normally called Real Person Fiction. If it’s about a band, it’s called Bandom.

      Fanfiction is – broadly speaking – using an existing fictional universe as a setting for a story. This often includes that universe’s main characters (like 50 Shades was originally about Twilight’s Bella and Edward) but doesn’t have to.

      Fanfic has a bad rep and a lot of people like to talk down on it, but in between the dross of 13 year old girls (and shit like 50 Shades) there are also fantastic stories to be found, epic novels or more than publishable quality that are only set apart because they happen to be set in a non-original universe. I know some stunning Lord of the Rings fanfic novels for instance.

      Mind you, not being set in an original universe doesn’t always stop it. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is fanfic, for instance.

  8. sup says:

    the girls on ontd were posting little excerpts from that 50 shades of crap and my first reaction was… wtf… that is the most un-erotic thing i ever read. and the would-be author has no way with words at all. everything she wrote, aside from being unrealistically dumb, sounds like a regurgitation of words.

    • orion70 says:

      It sounds as though it was written from a combination of something like this:
      http://awfullibrarybooks.net/?p=5273

      and a thesaurus. And by Googling a bunch of music/culinary/etc references and sticking them in.

      etc.

    • telesma says:

      You know what the worst part about all the hype about this is? There is LOADS of really hot, really well written erotica out there. Things that are about a billion times hotter than 50 Shades of Grey. And some of it is actually empowering for women. But this misogynistic piece of sh*t gets all the attention.

      • sup says:

        i think many women are buying into the hype, it’s annoying! she only wrote these books for money, she saw the market yielding to the twatlight series and wrote something she believed would cause a controversy. she doesn’t even believe in her own writing and she only got published because she knew people in the publishing industry. i say we should treat this garbage as we treat samantha brick from now on, pay no attention and it’ll wither and disappear.

  9. CL says:

    50 Shades of Grey is to books as Kim Kardashian is to entertainers. Mindless drivel with no redeeming value.
    The book is about a controlling, abusive stalker and a naive girl who doesn’t seem to realize that a man who never lets you tell him “no” has no respect for you at all.

    Please feel free to hate me in the reply…..

    • sup says:

      no hate from me… women need to realize that they shouldn’t stay with, or stand up for men who are abusive

    • fluffybunny says:

      “The book is about a controlling, abusive stalker and a naive girl who doesn’t seem to realize that a man who never lets you tell him “no” has no respect for you at all.”

      Twilight part two…

  10. Franny says:

    For what its worth, I really liked the host…and hate twilight

  11. jc126 says:

    They’re all crappy books. I have opened them randomly at the library, read a paragraph or two, then put the books down in disgust at the lousy writing quality. Not worth reading.

  12. Amanda G says:

    I admit that Fifty Shades of Grey was a page turner, but I’m now on the 2nd book, Fifty Shades Darker, and it’s AWFUL. The whole book basically covers about 4 days of their relationship and the amount of sex they are having is ridiculous. Any time we start to learn more about Christian they start having sex again. He could be a fascinating character if James were a better writer. And I just really want Ana to let him have it for his controlling, untrusting, stalkerish, don’t-see-your-friends ways! I have no idea how they will turn this into a non-X-rated movie!

  13. Sweettart says:

    My question is, why was the “frustrated British lady” reading Young Adult fiction anyway?

    No, sex scenes are NOT appropriate in YA fiction, thus the absence.

    I’ve never understood the obsession that people my age have over the Twilight books. It kind of freaks me out actually.

  14. telesma says:

    Oh, I think she’s kidding herself. Unimaginative, misogynistic dreck is definitely her thing.

  15. she says:

    Hello everyone.new here. I didn’t like the book. Couldn’t get past the first two chapters. It glamorized abuse. Didn’t find it erotic at all. Almost puked at the scene where he orders for her at the restaurant and commands her to eat .like a dog.