Rolling Stone Magazine recently sat down with New Moon’s director, Chris Weitz.

RS: You said everyone’s been asking you about the pressures of taking on such a successful franchise, and they also want to know why vampires are so popular.

Chris: Honestly, there weren’t really any pressures for me because there was a guaranteed audience which meant that even if I made a terrible movie people would still watch it. So once you got that reassurance [laughs], you just set out to make the best movie possible, which is what we aimed to do. And I’ve felt nothing but support from the fans since day one — actually day one there was a little doubt because I have a Y chromosome, but ever since then I’ve felt a lot of love from the fans.

RS: And why vampires?

Chris: I’ve actually realized that Stephenie Meyer’s vampires aren’t really vampires — you really don’t see many crosses, there’s not much garlic, they don’t sleep in coffins, they can go out in the day time — they just look more beautiful. It’s just more like Greek gods. So, in some ways it’s about this girl who falls in love with this demi-god. I think that symbolizes your first love — the person you’ve fallen for who you think will never never possibly return your affections.

Read the rest of the interview, here.