Exclusive Interview: Taylor Lautner, Rachelle Lefevre, and Edi Gathegi of 'Twilight' Part 1.

Soon, everyone in the world will know their names and faces, but as of right now, Taylor Lautner, Rachelle Lefevre and Edi Gathegi are experiencing the serenity of the calm before the storm. Taylor Lautner, probably the most soon-to-be-famous of them all, plays Jacob Black, Bella Swan's (Kristen Stewart) best friend in the Twilight series. There are still thousands of teen girls who will remain on Team Jacob despite the recent mania over Robert Pattinson, who plays Bella's romantic interest Edward Cullen. Rachelle Lefevre and Edi Gathegi will have a slightly more difficult job winning over audiences, as they play the villains Victoria and Laurent who will threaten the livelihood of our central couple.

BuddyTV recently sat down to talk to the three actors about their experience with Twilight. In part 1 of our interview, they discuss the cast dynamics, working with Catherine Hardwicke, their experiences with the books and they even give all the guys out there some dating advice. You can listen to the interview or just read the transcript below. I recommend listening – there were way too many funny moments with these three who are all clearly charming and talented.

The age of the cast is so varied. Did you guys find yourselves migrating to people your own age or was it very much like an ensemble?

Rachelle Lefevre: No, it was really ensemble.
Edi Gathegi: For the most part we're all sort of the same age.
Rachelle Lefevre: Give or take a few years.
Edi Gathegi: I mean, you've got him (points to Taylor), who's two times eight but he's so impressive that I would hang out with him and I wouldn't feel like I was hanging out with a kid.
Rachelle Lefevre: Peter, who plays the dad, is like 30-something. I mean, like really young. We were all just able to hang out together. We didn't feel so much of an age difference.
Taylor Lautner: I was kinda nervous about it at first. When I was on the plane flying out there, I was like How's this going to be? But it was great. Everybody was so fun to work with.

You were nervous being young?

Taylor Lautner: I was a little nervous being young, but it turned out awesome. The cast is so nice and fun.
Edi Gathegi: I don't know how you did it. When I was 16… so much pressure.
Rachelle Lefevre: Dude, I totally couldn't have done a movie like this when I was 16. Oh my God.

It seemed interesting because when they cast you, Taylor in particular, there's an expectation of what you're going to turn into in subsequent books, assuming they film the next ones. Was that part of the audition process? Did you guys talk about that?

Taylor Lautner: The only thing is that they needed sides for me to read, so they used the beach scene from the movie, from the script, and then I had two other scenes and they literally just pulled quotes from New Moon and Eclipse and made them sides. So I actually got to do a couple scenes from New Moon and Eclipse with Kristen. It was kind of fun. It was a little taste.

How are you going to grow a couple feet? Jacob is supposed to be very very tall.

Rachelle Lefevre: He going to stand on a lot of apple boxes.
(Laughter)
Taylor Lautner: I wish we had Catherine Hardwicke here to explain that one to you. But we'll see. I'm doing the best I can.
Rachelle Lefevre: We feed him 8 times a day.
Taylor Lautner: Peter Facinelli said that I was going to use Tom Cruise's stilts. We'll see what Catherine has under her sleeves. She's usually very creative.

How was it working with Catherine Hardwicke? She has such a distinct style. How was watching that come to life?

Edi Gathegi: Well, for my part, I knew that this was a director I wanted to work with in my audition because she sort of had this energy, this eagerness to get work done, very enthusiastic and optimistic and that's something you want your director to have. It's that sort of energy that brings great performances out of young actors who are operating on a more energetic level. She actually has that energetic level so she works well with young people and you know that from her previous work like Lords of Dogtown and Thirteen. She has a great history with younger actors. I think that's one of the unique things she brings as well as her design background. She has a great eye. An eye for space and action. She's talented.

A question for all three of you regarding the phenomenon that is Twilight: It's so huge with the book series and whatnot so I wondered how many of you, prior to being cast, were fanatics or followers of the series? Were you big fans prior to being cast?

Taylor Lautner: I actually had no idea what Twilight was. I heard that it was a book series. I'd never seen a book.

Like any book?

(laughter)
Rachelle Lefevre: I was going to say something but then I was like Do I let that slide?” We take care of each other and so I was thinking I'll just let it go maybe.
Taylor Lautner: That too.
Rachelle Lefevre: He can read and write people.
Taylor Lautner: Sorry, I was referring to the Twilight series. I'd never seen a Twilight series book before, in my life. As soon as I was cast, that was when I found out how big this was and what the potential was. I was so excited to be a part of it. I was like wow. Originally I was just excited to work with Catherine Hardwicke and I did a chemistry read with Kristen Stewart and so I was excited to work with them. But then when I found out how much of a phenomenon this was, it was crazy for me.

It's probably better too because casting has been everything with the fans of this book and if you had gone in think they're going to hate me, I can imagine that would have been a little bit more petrifying.

Taylor Lautner: Yeah, it would have been a little bit stressful.

What about Rachelle and Edi, were you fans of the series prior to being involved in the movie or was it like Taylor?

Rachelle Lefevre: I read Twilight right before my audition. So I had heard of the books but hadn't read them. As soon as I read Twilight, I went into the audition – I didn't have the pressure of thinking everybody's expecting something so I have to be what they are imagining. I already had a vampire thing and I was already into the genre. Having read Twilight, I went in with a certain amount of I really want this job and then after the audition I read the other two books. I knew I was going to read them whether I got the role or not. I was just hooked. I read them and then as soon as Breaking Dawn came out, I read the forth. So yeah, I'm definitely a fan.
Edi Gathegi: I think for me, I would have been in trouble if I had read the books before auditioning and realizing how big it was. Especially because when I was cast, there was backlash from the fans because they didn't really see Laurent as being African American because he's described as being olive-toned. So I decided to address the issue head on. I did an interview where I addressed it and I said ,Well, there are many different types of olives. Black olives, anyone? And instantly, all naysayers became believers because they were like A. As far as I'm concerned, black olives are the only olives that exist in my world and B. The interview had some substance in it and they could tell that I was a genuine fan of Stephenie Meyer's novel and that I was going to do my best to bring this character to life.
Rachelle Lefevre: And that you'd thought about it…
Edi Gathegi: And that I thought about specific things about this world and I was invested. When they saw that this was not an actor who will butcher out baby, we want him to play the part. Now we're supportive of him.

Edi, you've actually called yourself sort of a Twi-Hard before…

Edi Gathegi: Twiguy now is the thing. It's the new phrase.

Haha, okay. So what advice would you for other guys who might not think they would enjoy this stereotypically girl movie?

Edi Gathegi: Easy.
Rachelle Lefevre: This is the best answer ever.
Edi Gathegi: Easy. If you have a girlfriend, you take her to this movie and you get points. If you're single and you go to a Twilight event, there will be nothing but girls. Guys, this is a goldmine that you need to tap into.
Rachelle Lefevre: And I actually added my two cents in there from the female perspective – I'm sorry ladies, I know that I'm betraying you by giving away our secrets – but, if you're girlfriend goes Hey, I really want to go see Twilight and as a guy, you just go Okay. I know you really want to see it so alright, you don't get any points for that.
Edi Gathegi: No points.
Rachelle Lefevre: But if you're a guy and you say to your girlfriend Hey, I know you really like this Twilight, baby, Saturday night, why don't we go see Twilight? Come on, I'll take you,” then for me, that's like perfect. It's got to be the guy's idea. Points. Score.
Edi Gathegi: That's your get out of jail free card right there. Twilight.
Rachelle Lefevre: You can't just get dragged.

What about the people that go into the movie cold? They heard all the build up and they've heard about how popular the books are but they've never cracked open the books. They go, Okay, I'll take a chance on this just because I've heard so much about it. Kind of like the Tolkien non-fan who goes to Lord of the Rings just because of the enthusiasm and hype surrounding it. You've talked about Catherine Hardwicke and her eye and her style and her mark on the movie, what do you think, seeing the visual interpretation of the story, without reading the book, what do you think they'll take away from the movie?

Edi Gathegi: Well, it's actually a very lovely story at its very core. It's a story about this human girl who falls in love with a vampire and at its essence; it's a romance novel and a romance movie. I think that the movie, itself, independent of the book, which you don't really because of the book, but for those who haven't read the book, it stands on its own. It's a great film in that way and there's a lot of action in it halfway through the film. This is what Taylor loves. Halfway through the film it gets amped up and it's non-stop, go, go, go, which is thrilling and exciting and you really feel like you've enjoyed a movie going experience with this film.
Taylor Lautner: I know that all my guy friends would totally love the film. I tend to like romance films but this one is not just a romance. It's got action. It's got this little twist of horror in it. I personally love the film and I think that anybody that goes to see it will love it as well.

From the trailer, it seems like there are more action scenes than there are in the book, particularly with your characters, Rachelle and Edi. Can you talk about more of what's not in the book that is going to be in the movie?

Rachelle Lefevre: I don't think there really is anything that is in the movie that's not in the book. There might be a couple of things that are either a way to link two scenes or two story points because they had to condense the story or it might be something like – because it's Bella's point of view, there are things that happen where Bella doesn't have the exact viewpoint so she misses a lot of the action because it moves too quickly for her and her human eyes. There's a lot of action in the movie that is in the book but it's just that we've actually shown it to you rather than Bella going I got hit in the head, I woke up, I heard there was a fight. We actually show you the fight. So in that sense, I think there's a lot more action in it. The other thing that I would say is that I think it's actually a faster pace because it has to be. Because the book is 600 pages and the movie script was like 100 pages and that's just what happens in an adaptation but I think that we were really really true to the book.

FUENTE.

'Twilight' Countdown: Catherine Hardwicke says original script was more like 'Charlie's Angels'.

Two weeks and counting. Today I've got Part II of the Countdown's Catherine Hardwicke interview. (Read Part I here if you missed it!)

The director talks about the original Twilight script, sets the record straight about Robert Pattinson's music and early reaction to the movie.

What were the major differences in the original Twilight script and the one eventually written by Melissa Rosenberg?

The very first thing in the script said that Bella was a track star. She’s obviously not a track star so the first moment you’re like whoa. And then she’s sitting in a diner with James and the bad vampires in the first couple pages. Wow, that doesn’t make sense. And there’s this whole FBI organization that’s tracking these bad vampires, the nomadic vampires, as they go down from Canada to Mexico. I mean, it’s pretty way out. And by the end the FBI is chasing them around on jet skis out in the ocean.
It kind of turned into Charlie’s Angels. It was cool enough that when I read it I became curious. I went out and read the book and was like, Whoa boy. Throw the script away and let’s start over. Out of fairness to the original writer, he’s a great writer, the book wasn’t out at the time the MTV and Paramount people were developing it. The idea of Twilight was only a jumping off point and they did their own thing after that.

What specifically were you most interested in that compelled you to go ahead and get the book?

I was intrigued with the idea of this human girl falling in love with a vampire. And this vampire family seemed very fascinating. Vegetarian vampires –- what does that mean? They’re fighting their true nature and Edward is struggling with his nature and tortured by his feelings. And all the sexual tension was there where you just felt like the closer he got to her the greater chance he would kill her. That’s pretty exciting.

Talk about the love theme for the movie. There seems to be some confusion over Robert Pattinson’s role when it comes to that music...

Maybe you can help me with that! People are very confused because they think that Rob wrote the love theme for the movie and that we chose not to use it and we used Carter Burwell, the composer, instead. That is actually not what happened. I’ve been wanting to tell someone this.
I asked Robert if he was interested in writing the love theme and he went, Not really. No, that’s not my thing. I mean he’s not like an artist that you give an assignment to and he completes the assignment. For Rob, it flows out of him. He’s more of an organic artist. When he feels something that’s when he creates. You can’t tell him, Do this. Do a love theme for Bella that will be used throughout the movie and translates to six different instruments. That’s not the way he creates. So, he never wrote a love theme for Bella.
What he did the day we shot the piano for the first time was he sat down and improvised for the hour we filmed. He improvised beautifully. I mean, he’s such a musician. Just beautiful things and melodies, but it wasn’t an intentional theme that could be used in different parts of the movie and developed and orchestrated with the violins and everything. He just let it flow. So the composer, Carter Burwell, did compose this beautiful love theme and that is developed in the early stages, in biology class, and then it keeps growing and goes through different instrumentations, and finally recorded with a full orchestra. When we re-shot the scene, Rob played that love theme on the piano.

What about the songs he recorded for the soundtrack?

We have two of Rob’s actual songs that he did create in the movie. He created them way before Twilight. Never Think is on the soundtrack. [The bonus song is available when you purchase the disc on iTunes.] They’re both haunting and just beautiful. Fantastic. The fans will not be disappointed for Rob, I don’t think.

Everyone’s waiting to see how the movie performs at the box office before talking about a sequel. But, have you done any preparations if and when New Moon gets the go?

Here’s the thing: I literally last Friday finished working the movie. I know it seems kind of unbelievable, but you won’t believe all the details that go into post-production. You’re literally polishing a gem. You’re working on the music, the sound effects, the color timing, all the visual effects. And so the day I finished, I got on a plane to Madrid; Kristen, Cam and I went. Rob joined us in Rome. So, honestly, I haven’t had time to think about it. Of course, it’s in my mind. I’ve just been trying to make this one really good.

Have you read all four of the books, and if so, which is your favorite?

Of course I’ve read all of them. That goes without saying. Of course I went and got Breaking Dawn at midnight the night it came out and read it instantly. I was like, Yes! On one level, my favorite is Twilight because it’s the first one and it’s when you’re completely introduced to this world, and it’s very fresh and crazy and fun and beautiful. I love Twilight.

Each of them takes you to a new place, and a new level of wild challenges for a filmmaker, shall we say? In fact, each one has more challenges than Twilight does. The rest of the books are going to be more expensive.

How so?

They have all the werewolf effects. They go to Italy. More stunts, going off the cliff, and the motorcycles. This movie will have to make a lot of money to be able to afford or justify the next ones. We hope it does, but we don’t know for sure.

Talk about working with Nikki Reed (Rosalie). This is your third collaboration.

I love Nikki, she’s obviously inspiring and was instrumental in me being able to break out of my other job and get to direct films, which I’d been trying to do for so long. She’s courageous and did a great job in Thirteen. And luckily both Lords of Dogtown and this movie had parts that I thought she’d be really great in.
Rosalie Cullen is, even Stephenie Meyer says, quite a bitch. Nikki can pull that off! Nikki is just like such a little badass. She said, Catherine, you want me to play the character that everyone’s going to hate because everyone wants Edward and Bella to be together but Rosalie doesn’t? I’m fine with that! She’s so feisty and funny.

Are you nervous at all about what the fans are going to think?

We had a mini friends and family screening so I’ve seen the reactions and talked to probably 150 people. A little less than half were Twi-hards and the other part were people who were interested but hadn’t read the books, certainly not three times. Across the board, we got a really positive response. In the Twi-hard group there were like two haters, like, the movie would never live up to what they wanted it to be, and I think that’s to be expected. Anything that creates this much passion, some people are just going to hate whatever’s done. And that’s kind of good too. I don’t feel bad about that. I think if people are that excited about it, that’s good too.
Because mainly of the chemistry between Rob and Kristen, I think people are going to feel good about it. I think they’re going to like it.

How are the cast members handling that pressure?

We were just in Italy. That was pretty crazy. We were in this bookstore after we had already done 10 things, and there was this line of people who had been waiting since eight in the morning. It was around the block. Everyone wanted their books signed and wanted to kiss Rob and photos. There were literally thousands of people so it was physically impossible. That was wild.
Trying to leave the bookstore we had that moment where the cutest sweetest girl one minute before was suddenly smashing the windows of the van, banging on the van and chasing us. The mob mentality is taking over. Personally, I thought it was kind of cool and exciting and fun to be in that rock concert vibe, but I think it’s overwhelming for the cast. Kristen is very tiny and they get jostled around. I was a little bit scared for her.
I think Rob likes it a little bit more than that. But imagine, every girl that walked up there to get there book signed, they would ask, Can we kiss you? and the bodyguard would say no, and then they would just jump over the table and kiss him. Oh yes. Can we take your photo? The body guard would say no, and they would just lean in and take it. It’s kind of funny, it’s kind of intense. But Rob has a great spirit. He makes it funny in a way. He’s wonderful.

FUENTE.

Catherine Hardwicke talks about the meadow and making Robert Pattinson 'dazzle'.

When I asked you guys which scene you were most excited to see, hundreds of your wrote in The meadow! -- and told me how lame it was that I didn’t even list it as a choice in the poll.
You were right. It was lame.
So when I spoke with Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke on Monday, I got her to talk about what she went through to get that pivotal scene right, (in two words: a lot!), how she got Edward (Robert Pattinson) to dazzle in the sun of that meadow, and what moments in the book she had to chop from the movie. (This is the first of a two-part interview. Check back for the second half later this week.)

How did you find the perfect meadow?

That was my misery, I gotta tell you. You are just stabbing the knife into the weak point. That was really hard because on one logistic level, we didn’t have a Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings budget. On a normal movie you would have built a beautiful meadow on a soundstage, that way you could control the sunlight so that Edward can step into and out of it. But with under $37 million, that was impossible. So, oh my, picture me in the middle of January wearing snow shoes hiking up trails for miles trying to find the perfect meadow in the middle of Oregon, freezing. (It was my first time in snow shoes -- that part was pretty fun.) We finally, after hiking all over and getting stuck in chains and seeing zillions of potential spots, we found a beautiful place.
It wasn’t exactly a meadow. It was by a river. But it was just stunning. We moved the filming of the meadow scene to the end of the schedule so we would have the best possible weather, closest to spring time. And then about two weeks before shooting, we discovered that it was still covered in over 12 feet of snow -- my perfect meadow. You couldn’t even get there, there were fallen trees, logging trucks would have had to clear the place. So at the last minute, even in the middle of filming, we had to find a new location for the meadow. I was so stressed out as you can imagine. Running around shooting all week, freezing and trying to find another place.
Finally, we found an absolutely stunning location...
It had these upturned boulders and aged, old growth trees. Just stunning -- but it doesn’t really look like a meadow. So, I’m like, Oh no! But the clock was ticking. I had to shoot on a certain day. And it has to be accessible. So we shot a lot of the scene there. And it looks gorgeous, I mean it looks like a fairy tale location, covered with moss and green and very Olympic rainforest.
But when we wrapped the movie, I said there was one thing I still had to shoot. I was just begging and begging, I’ve got to shoot a meadow. Something that looks like a meadow. Or people are going to stone me in the streets. So we ended up shooting a piece of the scene in a magical place in the middle -- bizarrely enough -- in the Griffith Park golf course. There are these old growth Redwood trees and we brought in all this amazing grass and rocks and moss and made it into our meadow. So we finally got the meadow, but man, it was not easy.

Can you talk about how you got Edward to dazzle in that meadow?

That again was super challenging. We had probably 10 special effects companies trying out experimental ideas on some footage we had to see how we can make him dazzle and sparkle and shimmer. Most of it wasn’t good. We ended up going with ILM (Industrial Light and Magic, George Lucas’ company) and they, of course, are masters at creating amazing effects. We did a full body scan of Rob, which we turned into a 3-D model of him -- (laughs) there is a 3D model of Rob somewhere! -- and did all this very high-tech mapping of every surface of his face and body.
Besides reviewing zillions of versions of it, I wound up flying to ILM with the visual effects supervisor three different times and spending whole days working with the three-dimensional models and the geometry and the physics going, How can we get this to be beautiful?
You know, the description in the book is a tiny bit contradictory. On one level, he is supposed to look like cut diamonds, on another, he’s as smooth as marble. So you’re like OK, when you think of encrusted cut diamonds that’s faceted -- and when we first did that it almost looked like acne, like a skin condition. And you want it to be smooth.
So it’s been very intricate science to get something we felt looked beautiful. And kind of scary, too, you know.

Are there scenes or moments from the book didn’t make it into the movie?

Well it’s almost 500 pages -- you do have to do the sweetened condensed milk version of that. We really tried to have all the most crucial potent exciting stuff be in the movie. That goes without saying.
But there are some things, for example, a scene that I kind of liked in the biology room where they do the blood typing. That’s not in the movie. We already have two scenes in biology: the first time they’re in there and then the second time when they connect. For a film, when you condense, you don’t want to keep going back to the same setting over and over. So that’s not in there.
The meadow scene is 23 pages in the book and, actually, Bella reveals in the car, way before that, driving back from Port Angeles, that she knows Edward’s a vampire. So, we took all those 23 pages in the meadow and the reveal in the car and made a more dramatic scene out of it. So instead of two characters sitting in a car talking, it’s a more visually dynamic setting -- the meadow -- where she reveals her knowledge.

FUENTE.

'Twilight' vampire Pattinson considers stakes of fame

Robert Pattinson, who stars in Twilight as hunky vampire Edward Cullen, has found himself the object of increasing fan fervor as the film made its way to theaters. USA TODAY caught up with Pattinson and tossed him a few questions, some of them from fans of the book series.



Q: Did you have any concerns about not living up to fan expectations of what Edward is like?


A: I never saw it as a vampire. I saw it as a guy with something in him that makes him terrified of commitment. He is extremely passionate and has very little self-control. He is with a girl he can't have a physical relationship with and she keeps tempting him.



Q: Did you study up on any old vampire movies for inspiration?


A: I've seen a few, but I'm not really a fan. I saw the original Nosferatu, but he definitely isn't dating material. My kind of preparation was not to talk to anyone for a long time. Edward would be so bored with any kind of human interaction. He would not feel like he was part of the human world and doesn't care about other people's reactions.



Q: You and Kristen Stewart, who plays love interest Bella, have said you watched Last Tango in Paris as homework. Any other films put you in the mood for Twilight?


A: With Tango, it is about a girl who doesn't fully realize the consequences of her decision. It is the dark side of the coin. I also watched Ang Lee's Lust, Caution and (Hitchcock's) Notorious. And a lot of Japanese films. They are a lot more about stillness, proximity rather than following through. It is what happens before a sex scene.



Q: Are you hoping that there will be a movie of New Moon, the next book in the series?


A: I like the second book a lot. In the second one, Edward is a very different character. I'm looking forward to showing the difference in his physicality as I let my discipline and control go.



Q: What do you think about fans urging Lorne Michaels at Saturday Night Live to have you on as the host and music talent? Would you do it?


A: It hasn't been offered, but I would be quite scared.



Q: If you got to play the main character of another book, what would it be?


A: Money by Martin Amis. I could do it in about 20 years.



Q: What is all this talk about you not washing your hair for months on end?

A: People are scared of my hair. But it starts washing itself after about three weeks. I'm just saying that. But, yeah, if it doesn't look dirty, why wash it?


Q: If you became a vampire for real, what age would you like to be frozen?

A: Maybe 35. People who are frozen at 17, everyone treats you like you are 17 all the time. At 35, you are between old and young.


Q: Would you like to be able to hear people's thoughts, like Edward?

A: Not at all.


Q: What are your next projects?

A: I have two movies coming out. Little Ashes, a drama in which I play Salvador Dali, and How to Be, a comedy. Tiny things.











FUENTE.

Vampires and werewolves mingle on “Twilight” junket.

The bad vampires in Twilight, from left Cam Gigandet as James, Edi Gathegi as Laurent, and and Rachelle Lefevre as Victoria.

Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black in Twilight.

Actress Rachelle Lefevre joins fellow Twilight cast members Taylor Lautner and Edi Gathegi in signing autographs at a recent appearance at a Hot Topic store in Tukwila, Wash.

Vampires and werewolves may be mortal enemies in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books, but they have been mingling often and contentedly while publicizing the movie version of the first book. The Twilight movie opens Friday.

Taylor Lautner, who plays Bella’s buddy Jacob, who turns out in the second book, New Moon, to be a werewolf, Edi Gathegi, who plays the wicked vampire Laurent, and Rachelle Lefevre, who plays the even more evil vampire Victoria, were group together for the roundtable interviews at recent press junket for the film in Los Angeles.

They also were put together for a seven-city publicity tour. Thank God we like each other or we would be in trouble, Lafevre said.
They may play enemies in the movies, but the trio agreed on the most challenging part of filming Twilight:

Lautner: I would personally say - and I think we all would agree - for me the weather was the biggest challenge. I did the beach scene with Bella and the weather was just horrendous. It is the worst weather I’ve ever been in so trying to film a scene where I am supposed to be-I am walking with my wannabe girlfriend on the beach was just unreal.

Lafevre: The weather in Portland (Ore.) is really erratic, so one minute it is ridiculously sunny and then it is perfectly overcast just the way you want and then you start to film and then it is hailing. So that was bizarre. The biggest challenge for my physically was the contact lenses. We had them painted and ours were black with a hint of human blood red.

So you have tunnel vision. You have no peripheral vision so you can’t walk down steps by yourself. You trip a lot. The thing that used to make me crazy was I would always end up jumping out my skin because you can’t see anyone come up next to you. They come up and start to speak and then you freak out because you thought you had no one around you.

Gathegi: You are supposed to be this vampire with heightened senses and you can’t see.

The visual challenges of the blood-red contacts did make for some embarrassing moments:

Lafevre: I fully fell down once, that was not slick.

Gathegi: Because I could see less I had to be extra cautious. I was more careful with those contacts in than I am in my life.

FUENTE.

Twilight trio.

Who turns out to be the most fun of the Twilight castmembers to interview? Two vamps and a wolfboy! We sat down with feisty red-head Rachelle Lefevre (Victoria), funny and well-spoken Edi Gathegi (Laurent) and very cute Taylor Lautner (Jacob) in Beverly Hills recently and got the impression that these actors enjoy each other's company and had a blast on their Portland, Oregon shoot for the film.

Rachel told us about a very early fan encounter, Edi talked about Laurent's elegant "look" and Taylor convinced us that teen Quileute Indian guys are questing for girls in bikinis just like every other guy their age. Join our wacky and fun chat and paint a mental picture of gorgeous, red-haired Rachelle in black jacket, tee and shorts, high black mary-jane heels and a long gold pendant necklace. Edi was wearing casual baseball cap, tee and jeans, the total opposite of the Laurent look, Taylor, whose hair is still black but short and spikey-cute, in jeans, white tennies and a white long-sleeved tee with gold crest design.

• TeenHollywood: Rachelle, Victoria has some interesting clothes in the movie. Did you have any say into Victoria's costumes at all?

Rachelle: Oh yeah! Catherine (Hardwicke, the director) and I were in a room with racks and racks of clothing and we started telling each other what we thought about the character based on the three books. We got as much information as we could and then, from there, it unfolded in this three hour fitting where I was in all kinds of crazy things; leather pants to jeans to cut-off shorts and all kinds of crazy outfits and we just played and made sure that we had a story for everything. Everything had a purpose. Yeah, I felt really involved in the costume process.

Edi: I remember Catherine was really hands on. She brought in a belt from her personal wardrobe for me to wear but we couldn't use it because I had a stunt double and you needed to have two of everything and she only had that one belt.

Rachelle: She'll give you the shirt off her back. Anything for the film, totally.

Edi: And it my case, no shirt off her back (we all laugh).

Rachelle: Which was the best thing for the film (more laughter).

• TeenHollywood: Taylor, did you have fun with Jacob's long hair?

Taylor: Oh yes, tons of fun. No! (laughs). When I first found out I was going to be wearing a wig, I was really excited. I was like Oh, cool! and, after the first day, I was done with it.

• TeenHollywood: The '80's rocker vibe just wore off, huh?

Taylor: (laughs). Yeah. It was itchy. It was in my mouth when I was trying to eat. When I was doing the scenes, it was in my mouth when I was trying to talk so yeah.

• TeenHollywood: Did you guys refrain from looking at any of the blog stuff at all or did you check it out and go what did they say about me and my character?

Edi: At the beginning, I think all of us were very, very curious because I don't think any of us had been a part of anything this big before and I saw that the fans were sort of disgruntled about my casting choice because Stephenie doesn't necessarily have an African-American in the book but Laurent is described as being 'olive-toned' so what I did is I decided to address the issue head on, I said listen, she describes this character as being 'olive-toned' but there are many different types of olives. Black olives anyone? (laughter). Then the next day the fans read it and they became instant supporters and believers saying things like As far as I'm concerned, black olives are the only olives in my world and he's perfect for the job.

Rachelle: He's a genius, by the way.

Taylor: It's hard for the fans because they're just so in love and dedicated to the series. They have this really detailed picture of what their favorite character is supposed to look like and act like. So, it's hard for them. I try and stay away from it. I'd say the weirdest thing I have seen on the internet is a friend of mine or family member sent me a link and asked me what this was. I clicked on the link and there was women's thongs being sold on the internet with my name imprinted on the front of it Team Taylor.

Rachelle: Welcome to your new life.

• TeenHollywood: Taylor, did you study any werewolf lore or anything about Indians in that part of the country?

Taylor: Yeah, I actually did. Before I went up to Portland, I did some research on the internet about the Quileute tribe and I learned some of their legends; very interesting. I made a booklet and brought that booklet up with me to Portland and I got to meet like eight or ten Quileute tribal members. They came down to Portland to meet me. I just had dinner with them and talked with them and the biggest surprise was learning that the kids are just like me. Their hobbies are football and, quote, checking out girls on the beach. (laughter) Pretty fun to learn.

Rachelle: At which point, he knew he could play the role perfectly (laughter).

• TeenHollywood: Edi, you play your character Laurent as very classy and royal in the way you carry yourself. When you created your character did you re-read those parts of the book or just create your own stance and look?

Edi: The book was the source material. That's where I started from and I did my own personal research and imaginative work. I was trying to model parts of my character after Saint George (Monsieur de Saint-George) who was this famous French black man who was a fencer and a renowned lover and a general of an army who was like the Renaissance man; very regal. And I thought maybe Laurent, in his human form, was like friends with this guy and that was the circle that he traveled in.

• TeenHollywood: Very cool! Have any of you had problems with fans rushing up to you yet?

Taylor: I think we've all encountered it.

Rachelle: I had one that caught me off guard. We had just finished filming and I had been back in L.A. for a month or two and I went to a very, very small bar to have a drink with a girlfriend and celebrate her birthday. After three or four songs, I went outside to get some air and I hear (intake of breath) Are you playing Victoria in Twilight? I was like Oh my God, it's one in the morning. I turned around and there were these girls who must have been about twenty-two, that happened to be walking by this tiny little bar at exactly the same time that I was going out to get air. At that point they hadn't aired clips from the film. Nobody had seen anything. There had just been the internet with our casting and our photos and I thought oh, my God, if this is what's happening now... Yeah, and especially for the guys. We have such a strong female fan base.

• TeenHollywood: How about the guys? Anyone asking you out on dates or any marriage proposals?

Rachelle: They were screaming things like that at them at Comic Con marry me!

Edi: I wanna have your babies! (laughter)

Taylor: Yeah, we had the babies incident.

Rachelle: That's a good sound-byte, we had the babies incident.

Edi: The panties incident, the thong incident.

• TeenHollywood: Taylor, are you getting to use your martial arts?

Taylor: I'm doing a TV show called My Own Worst Enemy with Christian Slater and I have the genetic make-up of his superspy side so I get to use some of it in that. I've got a lot of cool action stuff.
Rachelle: We'll TIVO it.
Edi: Let's watch it together (the two guys high-five).
Rachelle: I don't get invited? (pouting, then the guys hug her).

• TeenHollywood: What do you guys think the whole Twilight series of books and the films do for the vampire legend?
  

Edi: I think this is more of a romance story than anything else with the vampires as a backdrop. The mythology is completely different. There's no fangs or garlic or anything like that so I think it's bringing heart to a dark world. That's what the new tint is, if you color it.
Rachelle: The thing that I think is so interesting about it is that it's not an alternate universe; vampires live among us in this world. Everything that would make it possible to have this change, this virus, this infection, is still live in the world. For me, I think the fact that Stephenie (Meyer) did that, opens up all kinds of new possibilities for the genre because vampires are no longer only at night. So, opening those doors creates many new avenues for the whole genre.

• TeenHollywood: Taylor, did you build up more of a backstory in your head of how you knew Bella as a kid? Did you expand that or talk with Kristen about it?
  

Taylor: Yeah, I did in my own head and the series does explain it a little bit. What I came up with is that Jacob and Bella, their fathers have been best friends and they knew each other when they were younger and she moved to Phoenix and then when she comes back to Forks, it's the first time he's seen her in a long time since they were kids. Now she's older and she's lookin' very good and Jacob has the hots for her.

• TeenHollywood: Very well said. What was Catherine like as a director? What was she to you guys?
  

Taylor: Goofball!
Edi: She's got a wonderful, childlike energy that's infectious. It's a joy to work with somebody that eager to get things done and that happy to be there.
Rachelle: I knew she was going to be amazing in my audition actually because somebody had to read James so Catherine just jumped up and went, I'll do it and so my audition tape is actually me and Catherine. There was Catherine crouching down and really getting into it. I was like who are you? You're amazing! So, I knew immediately and she carried that energy through the whole thing.

• TeenHollywood: Had Cam (Gigandet) already been cast at that point?
  

Rachelle: I don't know actually. It's very possible that he was but she could have done it. She was like you brought a snack, with the voice and everything. It was crazy and awesome.

FUENTE.

Success of 'Twilight' would lead to bigger role for actor in 'New Moon'.

No one hopes the teen vampire flick Twilight is a hit more than 16-year-old Taylor Lautner. Lautner plays Jacob Black, who in Twilight chiefly serves to tell the heroine, Bella (Kristen Stewart), that her boyfriend, Edward (Robert Pattinson), is a vampire, explaining a Washington state Indian legend.Things pick up for Jacob in New Moon, the second book in Stephenie Meyer's series, when his own supernatural quirk sets in, making him leader of a pack of werewolves with his own crush on Bella. That's the stuff Lautner hopes he'll have a chance to perform.

Jacob's character definitely becomes really interesting in the following book, so we'll see, he said in a telephone interview from Miami. That would be really cool. The heart of the books is the competition going on between Jacob, Edward and Bella. I've been trying to not think about it too much. There's no confirmation on any sequels. Everyone's waiting for opening weekend to see how (Twilight) does, and make a decision right after that. So, tell all the fans to go out and see it five times, minimum.

Not that Meyer's readers need prodding. Her books evoke devotion, especially among teenage girls, rivaling any series this side of Harry Potter. Twilighters immediately began online debates on the casting of a movie version of Twilight, and still argue about director Catherine Hardwicke's choices on fan sites.Lautner appears to be a popular decision. The former Sharkboy of Robert Rodriguez's 3-D mess, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, gets generally positive reaction, if sometimes a bit over the top.

One of my friends sent me a (Web) link with a note saying: 'What is this?' Lautner said. I clicked and it was women's underwear being sold with my name on it. That was very interesting, but I have no idea what it's about. I mean, we have teenage girls (as fans) but I think there are just as many Twilight moms out there. It's crazy.Fans are so dedicated to the book, so passionate about it. They want to make sure (the movie) is perfect. I don't blame them for prejudging things. It's hard not to. What they'll love the most is that we stayed so unbelievably true to the book. They're going to be so happy about that.

FUENTE.