This is a very long, but entertaining and informative interview with Meyer. I really enjoyed reading it and if you have the time, I would recommend you read the full article, as well, here. I’ve pulled out a couple paragraphs I thought the most interesting, where Meyer calls herself a feminist and talks briefly about body image. You can read them below. The article is by Kira Cochrane on The Guardian.
Despite all the criticism of her work, Meyer says she is a feminist, and that this is really important to her. “I think there are many feminists who would say that I am not a feminist. But, to me … I love women, I have a lot of girlfriends, I admire them, they make so much more sense to me than men, and I feel like the world is a better place when women are in charge. So that kind of by default makes me a feminist. I love working in a female world.” She was thrilled when Catherine Hardwicke’s adaptation of Twilight made her one of the most commercially successful directors in Hollywood, and says of working on Austenland: “It was almost an entirely female production, which is so rare, and to be able to work with female writers and female directors and even our co-producer was a woman – it was a totally different feel than you would have on a more traditional, male-centric set.”
The Host was also inspired by her feelings about body image. Meyer is attractive – when she speaks, she resembles the actor Julianna Margulies – but she doesn’t seem to see it. “As I was writing The Host, one of the things that made it really interesting was the idea of looking at being human from the perspective of someone who hasn’t been human their whole life,” she says, referring to the Wanda character. “You know, you usually wake up in the morning and think: ‘Ugh, I look horrible, I hate myself, I don’t want to walk out the door like this.’ And it’s nice sometimes just to stop and think, I can walk out the door and see everything outside of it, and that’s amazing.”
