The remarkably generous and self-effacing actor played along, answering our questions — about doing an indie, stripping for nude scenes, filming ‘New Moon’ — with a refreshing dose of candor and complete lack of any diva-tude.

After chatting with Pattinson, we have no qualms in pledging our allegiance to Team Edward.

1. How was filming ‘Little Ashes,’ which is such a small production, compared to doing the ‘Twilight’ movies?

I kind of like small productions ’cause there’s not so much waiting around. And it’s strange, there are little things on ‘Little Ashes,’ like we didn’t have stand-ins, so we’d just kind of sit or stand around the set, which I initially found kind of bizarre but after a while it’s great, because you can just kind of stay in character the whole time. And also you can be much more a part of the set up of the shot, so I kind of liked that. I don’t know, it was, I would say, a very different energy. [But] there’s not a huge amount of difference, really. You’re just inside your head anyway most of the time, so you don’t really notice stuff.

2. I read that you were really nervous about filming the nude scenes and the explicit scenes, how did you prepare yourself for those?

[Laughs] I had so many ridiculous answers just come into my head [more laughs]. I had a penis implant! I don’t know, I just kind of, it’s funny because Spanish people are so … have no problem with nudity at all, I mean at all, and English people obviously do have, like, the most enormous problem with it. It’s like little things, like when I saw my father getting changed for swimming I got, like, traumatized by it … I don’t really know what I did, I just kind of freaked out a bit. [Laughs]

3. So was that the most difficult thing about filming this movie?

No, I mean, a lot of it was quite hard. I guess in a lot of ways, the more I read about Dali the more I kind of liked him, and liked what he tried to make himself stand for. I guess the hardest thing was that I didn’t want to disrespect his memory, especially when I met a lot of people who he knew and stuff. People were very, very fond of him, so that was probably the hardest thing. [Laughs] I didn’t want to mess it up!

4. You were playing a real person — how did that affect your preparation? Did you study up a lot on Dali?

Yeah, I mean it’s nice. There are certain things like studying photos. I never really concentrated on my body in a performance before, well not to such an extent, and there were tons and tons of photos of him and he had quite strange posturing … There was one photo where he’s pointing at something, and I guess it’s quite nice, and I was trying to figure out “How do you point like that?” Then you realize “Oh, shit. You get your arm and ohhh…” and suddenly it clicks into place. And then when you realize you’re walking right and stuff, and people — Spanish people! — know who you’re playing, without the moustache, they know immediately just by looking in your eyes, it’s very satisfying. I like the idea of that; I’d quite like to do it again. And I’m always quite attracted to playing real people.

5. Kristen Stewart is going to be playing rock icon Joan Jett. Is there a rock icon that you’d like to play?

I’d love to play Van Morrison, but I doubt I would get the part [laughs].

6. Who would you love to tour with, if you were going to do a tour as a musician?

Rob: I’d quite like to tour with Kings of Leon. I think they’re pretty cool.

7. If you couldn’t be an actor or a musician, what do you think you would be doing?

I’d quite like to be a political strategist and like a spin doctor. [Laughs] I’d really, really like to do that. I think I will end up doing that at one point.

8. Can you talk about the movie you’re signing on, or about to sign on, called ‘Memoirs’?

It’s not final yet, but I think if it does happen it’ll be a fantastic movie. It’s an amazing script. I think Jenny Lumet [who's writing the script] is incredible and Allen Coulter [who's directing] is also. I think it could be. I was quite excited about it. I was working in New York on the script a few weeks ago, and we came up with some really cool stuff.

9. How are you handling the massive, instant fame and the craziness?

It’s quite stressful in a way, but it’s only when you’re by yourself. When I have my friends around it doesn’t make any difference. I just spend a lot of time by myself, and I used to walk around the block by myself in various different cities, and I don’t know, you start to feel a bit vulnerable, I guess. [Laughs] Well, not vulnerable, I don’t know … for paranoid people it does allow your imagination to run rampant, so it’s a little strange. You end up going out a lot less [laughs]. But I guess it’s so early now I’m really still thinking about it in terms of getting good jobs and stuff, so I haven’t really had a chance to be objective about my life, because every single day there’s something new happening in my life. In my eyes, everything just seems ridiculous, like every single day it’s like you’re walking on the street, and then suddenly you step on something and it just starts moving really, really fast, and you’re not entirely sure what direction it’s going in, but you can feel the force of it. That’s about it.

10. What has been your craziest fan experience?

There was one quite weird thing, I was in a Blockbuster the other day, and I hadn’t realized it was the day the ['Twilight'] DVD was coming out, and there were these two — no one recognized me in that place — and there were these two 8-year-old girls who turned up with their parents. They were picking up their preordered DVDs, and they were just shaking and crying just because they got their DVD. I thought that was pretty incredible, I hadn’t seen anything like that before … I mean, I have when it’s in person, when it’s meeting me. But just to pick up a DVD, that was kind of crazy.

11. What was your take on the whole Jacob casting drama? When it was possible that Taylor Lautner wasn’t going to get the part.

It was weird. When I came back, I hadn’t seen him in ages, hadn’t seen him since the summer and when I saw him, I saw him just before he got casted, and he put on like 100 pounds! I was like “Jesus Christ! If he doesn’t get it, it’s ridiculous.” But what are you going to do? There was a video of him on set the other day doing all these kind of fight stunts. That kid is incredible; he is one of the most stunning athletes I’ve ever seen in my life. I don’t know, I think it’ll be interesting. I haven’t seen any of his stuff yet, but everyone’s going a little bit crazy over him.

12. How’s the energy on ‘New Moon’ compared to ‘Twilight,’ because for ‘Twilight’ no one was sure if it was going to do well and now, obviously …

Yeah, it’s scary. It’s a very, very different experience. Last time we were just kind of … it was so easy to get the entire cast together. We’d all have dinner almost every day and be able to talk about it freely and stuff. Now it’s quite difficult to even leave the hotel. And all these random little stories become someway, somehow newsworthy, so you have to be very secretive about everything. Even if you want to just clarify something in the script or something. It’s just strange. It’s just very different … It’s very strange when you’re aware of being observed, I guess.

13. Is that similar to how it was when you were filming ‘Potter’?

Oh, no, not at all. The thing about ‘Potter,’ because everyone was so young, there weren’t really any [gossip] stories. Plus, the way we were shooting it was so impossible to get any pictures or anything. It was so, so private. And by the time I was working on it, everyone working there had worked there for about five or six years anyway, so they all knew each other. So nothing was really newsworthy. There wasn’t a lot happening. It seems that on [the 'Twilight' movies], maybe because they’re a little bit older, it seems like every single day there’s a new story coming out. I also think that’s it’s because all of these sort of blog sites have become way more popular in the last few years than they were then. And I guess that’s where most of the gossipy things go to.

14. Would you do full-frontal nudity like Daniel Radcliffe did?

I think it would depend on what it is. Yeah, it really does depend on what it is. And I don’t think a lot of people would really want to see that. I think it would ruin the illusion. [Laughs]

By Angie Argabrite
Original Source: Moviefone

Bright, 16, hasn’t even started filming his scenes as Alec — part of the Volturi vampire clan and twin brother of Jane (Dakota Fanning) in the Twilight sequel New Moon – yet he has been affected by Twilight mania since the day he was cast.

“It’s going to be kind of weird,” admits the Nanaimo actor who confesses he had to be dragged to see Twilight, the first in a series of movies based on Stephenie Meyer’s popular romantic teenage vampire novels.

“All the guys were saying, ‘It’s a chick movie,’ but it was really good,” Bright recalls. “I’m glad to be a part of it.”

No sooner had news reports surfaced about Bright joining the New Moon cast headlined by Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner and Michael Sheen than he began getting text messages from his friends.

“Even if you’re in it for five minutes, you’re huge,” says the Victoria-born actor who made his debut in a Telus commercial. “You’re revered.”

Not surprisingly, he has also been getting more attention from female friends.

“I say ‘no’ right away, because when they walk up to me I can sense what they’re going to say,” he says, laughing. ” ‘Can you get me Robert Pattinson’s autograph?’ ”

Bright, who hadn’t read the books, says it was easy finding a Twilight fan to help him research his role.

“I said, ‘I’m going to play Alec. Do you know him? Yeah? Sweeeet! Thanks, ya did the job for me.’ ”

While he hasn’t worked with Fanning, he met her at the Critic’s Choice Awards in Los Angeles two years ago.

“She didn’t know who I was, so when I introduce myself and go, ‘Hey, do you remember me?’ she’ll probably say no,” he says, adding he should get to know her quickly on the Vancouver set. “In our first scene I get to kiss her on the cheek.”

Since his scenes are interiors, he won’t be joining her when exterior Volturi sequences are shot in Tuscany, however.

Now standing tall at 5-foot-10, with longer hair and the demeanour, vocal inflections and lingo of a typical texting teenager, Bright seems worlds away from his younger self — the cherubic youngster known for playing spooky children.

He savours the memories of getting to work with Hollywood royalty in his first two major movies. He played Adam, the sinister clone of a distraught couple’s dead son, opposite Robert De Niro in Godsend; and Sean, a solemn 10-year-old boy claiming to be the reincarnation of the late husband of a fragile New York widow played by Nicole Kidman in Birth.

The teen says he has grown used to his fame, as bizarre as it can be. He laughingly shrugs off the antics of some overzealous fans, such as one who impersonates him on MySpace.

“I think it’s a riot,” says Bright, who has even playfully posed as a fan himself and interacted with the impostor. “I go ‘Hey, how’s it going? Must be cool being in all those movies.’ ”

But he isn’t complaining, realizing it’s all part of the acting career he signed up for. “My fans make me, and if I didn’t respect them I wouldn’t be here,” says

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
By Michael D. Reid, Canwest News Service – April 28, 2009

At least one very important person in the movie adaptations of Stephenie Meyer’s vampire love story thinks Tatum would be perfect to play bad-boy vampire Riley in Eclipse, the third in the four-book series.

“There’s a very big battle at the end with Riley, and I think Channing would do that so well,” Twilight and New Moon screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, who is currently writing the Eclipse script, told us this weekend at the Los Angeles Times Book Festival benefit for the Writers Guild Foundation.

“And there are some complexities to that character,” she adds. “He really is tragic. He’s a puppet for Victoria [bad-girl vampire played by Rachelle Lefevre]. So he has to break your heart a little bit at the end when he realizes that she doesn’t want him. Channing could do that beautifully.”

Rosenberg also confirmed some good news for Robert Pattinson fans…

Even though Edward Cullen may not be in the New Moon novel as much as he is in the others, she promised we’ll be seeing plenty of the Brit actor in the flick, which is currently shooting in Vancouver with director Chris Weitz.

“In the book, he’s actually an enormous presence in [Bella’s] mind,” Rosenberg said.

“He’s so present in her mind throughout the entire center of the book, so we really played off that, and it kept him alive in a slightly different way, but fans will feel it’s true to the book. You can’t have a Twilight without Rob Pattinson.”

And Rosenberg says you also can’t have a Twilight movie with anything more adult than a PG-13 rating. She has yet to be hired to write the script for the fourth, Breaking Dawn, but she thinks it’s safe to assume the book’s more graphic violent scenes will be tailored to keep it accessible for Twilight’s teen moviegoing audience.

“Our fans are in the PG age range, and I don’t feel a big necessity to see violence, and to see gore,” Rosenberg said. “I don’t need to see that. This whole series is more about their relationship. It’s not about the gore. I mean, there are some scary and special elements to it, but the series is really about relationships and coming of age and owning one’s power.”

PDT by Marc Malkin at E! Online
Additional reporting by Dahvi Shira

You could leave home, disappear from the radar, have different circles of friends, and spend that hidden time figuring out who you are. Now, every move, every mistake, every shift in personality is Twittered, Facebooked, MySpaced, texted and tracked via an elaborate network of cellphones and websites.

That’s how Kristen Stewart sees it. She became entrenched in the electronic babble when she became a superstar last year playing lovelorn good-girl Bella opposite smoldering vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson) in Twilight, the blockbuster adaptation of the best-selling novels.

The actress, 18, gets to explore what her life might have been like laying low a generation ago in Adventureland, opening Friday. The coming-of-age comedy about a girl and a guy who fall in love while toiling for the summer at a run-down amusement park is set in 1987 — three years before Stewart was born.

The teenage characters drink, smoke weed, lie to everyone (especially members of the opposite sex) and try their best to avoid abstinence (usually a reason for the lying).

“Movies like Adventureland remind you of a time my parents talk about when they were younger, when it seems like they were so much more independent,” says Stewart, sitting in a beachside restaurant, her back to the ocean. “My dad was living on his own when he was 18. My mom was out (of the house) before she even graduated high school.” Sometimes she wants to ask them: “God, do you guys realize —”

Her folks both got into show business, working behind the scenes. Her mother, Jules Mann-Stewart, is a script supervisor, and her father, John, is a producer and stage manager. She also has an older brother, Cameron.

Parents today, she says, “are incredibly hands-on.” Then she is quick to clarify: “Not that my parents are overbearing or anything. … Now it’s a little different because I’m getting older, but a few years ago, if my parents didn’t know where I was at a given time, that’s sort of unacceptable. And it’s very easy to track you down, considering.”

It’s not just ever-present parenting that makes growing up harder. It’s your friends — and yourself, she says. Everyone is complicit in their own surveillance, especially young people, who chronicle their lives obsessively, maybe seeking validation, which is still no easier to find.

‘Everyone knows who you are’

“You’re so connected to people and they all know how to get to you, and everyone knows who you are, so explicitly. They think they know you. It’s like, ‘You really think you know me? I don’t know me! How do you know I’m not different around someone else?’ ” Her voice gets a little loud, and she slumps back in her chair.

“It almost makes the secrets more important, those few things you actually do choose to keep to yourself,” she says quietly.

Right now, Stewart may be Hollywood’s only real teenager playing girls who are moody, reckless, cautiously sexual but still awkward, and more self-reliant than many parents would like to acknowledge.

Other stars her age tend to fall either into the fantasy realm of the squeaky-clean Hannah Montana/Jonas Brothers variety, or play teens who seem more like they’re established jet-setters, as with the campy-fun Gossip Girl.

Stewart has earned both praise and criticism for being a kind of sulky girl on-screen — the kind you can see sleeping until noon, getting into a fight with her parents and running away, only to try sneaking back in just past curfew.

Crooked games, misfit friends

In Adventureland, she’s a bit of a rebel playing Em, a quiet but tough girl who works one of the crooked games at the theme park. Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale) stars as uptight James, a fellow lost soul and minimum-wage slave who tries to work up the courage to win over Em as they both grapple with fractured families, misfit friends and hostile parkgoers.

As James draws closer to her, he discovers that there are as many different Ems as there are giant stuffed pandas in his games booth. “For Em, no part of her lives are connected,” Stewart says. “She is a different person in every one of the circumstances.”

Adventureland was written and directed by Greg Motolla (Superbad, The Daytrippers), who based it on his own experiences working at a theme park of the same name on New York’s Long Island.

He says the girl in the story “needed to be complicated and needed to be truly conflicted. We needed an actress who can convey a really believable sense of strength,” he says. “I knew with Kristen that character wouldn’t just be a brat. With Kristen, you can’t dismiss her that easily. She’s no pushover.”

Em maybe isn’t much of a role model, but the actress says there is something true about her, and beautiful, in a way the character doesn’t even realize. “They are both unaware of how cool they are; they don’t feel worthy,” she says of the main characters. “I feel like it’s a pretty common thing.”

Stewart could be a case study. Feeling worthy of media attention appears to be a struggle. At the start of the interview, she says she’s bad at this — talking about her movies, and herself.

“Really, I’m incredibly disjointed and not candid,” she says. “Just in general, my thoughts tend to come out in little spurts that don’t necessarily connect. If you hang around long enough, you can find, like, the linear path. But it will take a second. That’s why these interviews never go well for me.”

It’s why she has been slammed by some reporters and why she had what some considered a disastrous interview with David Letterman for Twilight.

She has a reputation of being cranky, or a bit aloof. But over the course of about two hours, she reveals a kind of insecurity. She tries to say something, thinks it’s coming out wrong, stops and starts again, then finally gets frustrated — and clams up.

Another thing that makes her stop in mid-sentence: teenage girls. A group enters the restaurant, and Stewart abruptly shuts up until they pass. She apologizes, a little embarrassed, and whispers: “If those type of girls saw me talking about Twilight, you don’t understand. If I said ‘Jacob’ too loud, they’d be like —” She makes her eyes wide and sticks her hands out like claws.

“More than three girls of that certain age — run away,” she says, laughing as the threat settles in a distant part of the patio. “Girls are scary. Large groups of girls scare the (crap) out of me.”

She says Pattinson gets it worse. “They covet him. I think half of them are so jealous that they hate me,” she jokes.

It doesn’t help that many Twilight-ers want her and Pattinson to be a real-life couple. She’s actually dating Michael Angarano, 21, whom she co-starred with in the 2004 drama Speak.

“It doesn’t make my relationship harder. It’s not like, ‘Maybe I should be with (Pattinson) to make them happy and it’ll make me more popular!’ ” Stewart laughs, adding that her real boyfriend “is totally not a threatened guy. But, dude, it sucks.”

Why the adoration?

But Stewart is mostly grateful for Twilight — though she doesn’t think she did anything special.

“I’m really proud of Twilight. I think it’s a good movie. It was hard to do, and I think it turned out pretty good. But I don’t take much credit for it. So when you show up at these places, and there’s literally like a thousand girls and they’re all screaming your name, you’re like, why? You don’t feel like you deserve it.”

One person who thinks Stewart did contribute a lot to Bella is Twilight author Stephenie Meyer. The character is regarded by some as overly passive, letting her vampire paramour take control, but Meyer says Stewart, currently shooting series sequel New Moon, gives the character an inner forcefulness.

“Kristin does a version of Bella that’s very strong. And you can see that what she’s doing is maturely thought out,” Meyer says. “In a lot of ways she’s a little bit impetuous, but you get the sense that she’s very adult about what she’s doing. She comes across as a girl who’s very serious and who happens to know what she wants.”

That also describes Stewart as she navigates her way to adulthood, on-screen and off. Unlike her Adventureland character, she’s not able to hide any of it.

Contributing: Carol Memmott

Source/Credits: USA Today

Last week’s widely anticipated announcement of the New Moon wolf pack marked the official new beginning for the five Native American actors chosen for the part.

They are already the subject of feverish fan-site activity by Twilight nation. And this is just the beginning.

“These kids are kids whose life is going to change,” casting director Rene Haynes tells Celebuzz in an exclusive interview. “They are now stars.”

“And right now they are just getting the tip of the iceberg.”

Welcome to Twilight-mania, wolf pack.

Haynes handled the Native American casting for the Twilight sequel. Her final wolf pack choices include Chaske Spencer, Alex Meraz, Bronson Pelletier, Kiowa Gordon and Tyson Houseman.

“They are all good kids,” says Rene. “They have good heads on their shoulders. I think they’ll navigate these waters the best they can.”

“I’ve told them, make wise choices from here on out. This is what you’ve been working for. Don’t mess it up.”

Just to give you an idea of the fan intensity, IMDB’s star meter showed Meraz’s star ranking rose 25,566 percent in popularity this week (the shirtless picture at the top sure don’t hurt).

Haynes’ office set up an extensive nationwide search to find the actors. They searched their database of up-and-coming Native American actors. There was a call-out for video auditions, which brought in 600 tapes (”I watched them all,” she says). There was also open auditions, including one in Vancouver which brought out thousands of hopefuls. Houseman was the lucky attendee who not only auditioned on that day, but also earned a part.

“Every single aspect was successful,” says Haynes.

It was crucial to Haynes — who specializes in Native American casting − that each of the characters chosen was of Native American descent. “It was important to the filmmakers,” says Haynes. ‘That is why they hired me. And that was my job.”

Future stars

Perhaps the hardest choice was that of casting Spencer. While Haynes declines to say what part the actor was cast for, fan sites have speculated Spencer is set for the part of Sam – a pivotal wolf pack leader who plays a prominent role in future installments.

“He’s someone I feel is going to be a star,” says Haynes. “I have cast him before. He’s always done lovely work. It’s awesome to know that it’s time for this young actor to have a great breakout role like this.”

It wasn’t a sure thing when Spencer auditioned, even after meeting casting director Joseph Middleton in NY for a powerful reading.

“It was a very long process,” says Haynes, pointing out there were many strong candidates for the part. “It was up and down, up and down. But he floated to the top.”

She’s now sure she’s found her man. Spencer is an experienced veteran who has worked with Haynes on a number of projects. “He’s an emerging young actor who has paid his dues,” says Haynes. “This isn’t just someone we picked off the street. He’s studied and ready for this.”

Another choice receiving a lot of buzz in the Vancouver shooting is Meraz. Haynes can see the appeal. “Alex is a professional dancer,” she says. “He is definitely a rising star in the Native American community.”

While all the actors are studly, the big question is, are they as studly as the bulked-up leader Taylor Lautner? “All the roles require a lot of physicality,” Haynes assures us. “They’re all quite fit.”

Credits: Celebuzz

Pattinson became an overnight sensation playing a lovestruck vampire in the smash hit that sucked $373.4 million from global box offices, and he is in Vancouver, Canada, this week starting production on the film version of “New Moon.”

Before that sequel lands in theaters in November, Pattinson plays eccentric painter Salvador Dali in “Little Ashes,” which opens in art houses May 8 and tells of a homosexual love affair between Dali and the poet Federico Garcia Lorca.

But for now his turn as immortal vampire Edward Cullen, who falls in love with high school girl Bella Swan ( Kristen Stewart ) in “Twilight,” has catapulted him to fame and his fans are dying for details on “New Moon.”

Pattinson, for one, is cautious.

“The book of ‘New Moon,’ the majority of it is incredibly depressing,” Pattinson told Reuters. “Obviously ‘Twilight’ was about finding first love and the difficulties of that, but ‘New Moon’ is really about loss and reconciliation, but the reconciliation isn’t completely full.”

“It’s a strange story to have for a market that, I guess, wants to see a love story,” he said.

Nevertheless, the London-born Pattinson said everyone involved is working to make “New Moon” as big a success as “Twilight.”

Pattinson’s rising star has turned the former model into a favorite target of the paparazzi. Only last year, he was a relatively unknown actor whose big film credits were supporting roles in a pair of “Harry Potter” movies.

“It’s turned into this crazy situation. I guess it has become a sort of phenomenon now which I really, really didn’t expect,” Pattinson said.

So, he often escapes to one of his first loves, music. He plays guitar and piano, and his song “Never Think” made it onto the “Twilight” soundtrack.

For now, he said there are no plans to put his music on “New Moon,” but he has become “obsessed” with composing songs.

He said his acting hero is Oscar winner Jack Nicholson , and his ideal job would be something out of the spotlight.

“I like any job where you can just shut yourself away from everybody,” he said.

“New Moon,” from director Chris Weitz, is scheduled to open in theatres on November 20.

Source: Yahoo – omg!
Credits: (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

“I’m really excited for ‘New Moon,’ ” grinned the 23-year-old star, stopping by MTV’s offices Wednesday to promote the “Twilight” DVD hitting stores March 21. “I go on Sunday the 8th to rehearse and do our screen tests and make sure the contacts fit — which I’m not looking forward to. But we do rehearsals for about a week, and then I go up in April and we start shooting.”

and AnnaLynne McCord are potentials in it, but I think that’s all the stuff like ‘Michael Copon to play Jacob,’ ” he laughed, remembering the actor who had supposedly taken the role from Taylor Lautner. “I’ve known AnnaLynne for years now. It would be fun to work with her, but I won’t have any scenes with her; [she'd be] doing the Italy stuff.

“Her potential character is Heidi. I think they’re looking for someone who is local up in Vancouver,” he revealed of the recent casting scuttlebutt. “I don’t know what the chances are of her getting it.”

Along those same lines, we had to ask Kellan about the rumor that Jacob’s American-Indian friends (including fan favorite Solomon Trimble) are being replaced for the sequels, and he revealed that some unnamed friends are in the running to populate the Quileute tribe.

“I know [casting director] Joseph Middleton has been reading some of my friends for the werewolves’ parts,” Lutz told us, saying that new director Chris Weitz is determined to keep the American-Indian actors genuine this time. “[They're] really sticking to them and making sure of their ancestry, that they are real Native Americans. They asked a buddy of mine to bring in his family tree to show that he was part Navajo! It’s interesting; I really think it is important to have somewhat-real Native Americans to play these roles to some degree, but it’s really interesting to see the way things are handled.”

Asked for the names of his possible Quileute friends, Lutz grinned. “I could tell you,” he replied, “but then I’d have to hurt you.”

The most interesting revelation of our interview, however, might have been for Lutz rather than us. When we asked him about Summit Entertainment’s announcement two weeks ago of the release date for “Eclipse,” the actor was genuinely surprised to hear the news that he’d be immersed in Emmett until at least mid-2010.

“That’s the first time I’ve heard that!” he marveled. “I’m the last to know anything. It’s been funny doing these conventions that a bunch of us castmembers have been doing, to a bunch of states and countries. The fans know more of what’s going on with our jobs than I do!”

Before we get started, I have a question for Kellan from the fans online. They’re wondering if he enjoyed meeting all the UK fans at the Eternal Twilight convention last weekend.

LUTZ:  Oh, yeah. It was in North Hampton, an hour north of London and the population was about 200,000, so it was smaller venue. There was a big turn-out, 800+ people, and we did photo shoots and signings for hours. The Q&A’s were great because it was Peter, myself, Ashley, Justin and Christian, all on stage just having random questions. It was very well organized and a smooth machine. The fans were just great. They had a prom there that night and Peter auctioned off two dances because he wasn’t feeling so well, so he wanted to do that for them. It was such a huge hit that a couple hundred more people purchased tickets for pictures with him. Fans came from LA and we asked them when we had smaller Q&As why they came from LA and they said, “Well, what a great time to see London. I get to do a convention with you guys and then go see Big Ben.” It was a great experience

How have you all of you guys perceived the attention you’ve been getting? Do you find you have it a bit easier than Robert and Kristen or do you still feel like you’re drowning in it?

GATHEGI: A little easier? No man, I can’t imagine what they’re going through. Jokingly, I think Rob can’t leave the house without full security detail. He’s full-blown A-lister, presenting at the Oscars. He’s getting it bad. It comes with the territory though. It’s an icon right now, a full blown pop-culture phenomenon, this movie. I personally can fly a bit under the radar since I look different in person than I do in the film. I’m not wearing huge locks. I think people are starting to know who I am but my character is not big enough or significant enough to garner that kind of public attention. It’s nice when I do, but I can definitely retreat and enjoy a meal at a restaurant.

Those dreadlocks. I’m going to grow them out now. [Laughs.] I get a table at a restaurant, they’ll be like “Edi who?” “Edi dread.” “Oh, This way!”

Regarding New Moon, you’ll all be in the film.

LUTZ: Yeah we’re all confirmed.

LEFEVRE: It’s vampire camp. I keep calling it vampire camp.

LUTZ: It’s nice to be part of it. It’s very similar to the book. I loved the script, we all enjoyed it and I think it’s just great being back together again.

LEFEVRE: Yeah.

Rachelle, you’re badder than ever in this film…

LEFEVRE: Oh yeah, I’m bad. [Laughs.]

How do you get into that mindset?

LEFEVRE: For me I’m not treating it any differently because Victoria’s a vampire. For me it’s very straightforward in terms of what has happened here. The person who I loved and the person who I was going to spend literally eternity with has been taken from me in a pretty horrifying way. It’s something I see as an injustice, and it’s channeling very human emotions because vampires are humans with a virus. For me it’s channeling devastation and revenge. All the darker human emotions.

With this film you’re working with a new director. Can you talk about any differences you’re sensing? Is the vibe any different?

LUTZ: I don’t know if any of us have had the pleasure of meeting Chris.

LEFEVRE: I’ve talked to him on the phone.

LUTZ: Oh, good. You like him?

LEFEVRE: Yeah, he’s great. He’s quite different than Catherine. Because with Catherine there was a real sense of energy coming through. It kind of comes out in a different way with Chris. He’s more measured. I think because he comes from being a writer and has come off of a film like The Golden Compass that he’s just thought it through completely. He’s ridiculously smart. You can tell by talking to him. I think he went to Cambridge. He’s a real intellectual. It’s real interesting because he has a fresh take. At the same time, you can tell that he’s seen the movie, read the book and respects that we’ve already established something, and that it needs to be continued and fans expect some continuity.

Rumors are all over the internet about new casting. Can you talk about any of them, Dakota Fanning, Vanessa Hudgens, etc.?

GATHEGI: I heard the Vanessa Hudgens, Anna-Lynn McCord rumor for the first time today.

LEFEVRE: I heard Anna-Lynn McCord for the first time today. Who was she meant to play?

GATHEGI: Heidi.

LEFEVRE: Oh, I hadn’t heard that one.

GATHEGI: So that’s the kind of loop I’m in. I heard the Dakota Fanning thing and I had a chance to meet her but Kellan asked her about it.

LUTZ: Yeah, we got to talk with her because she wanted to hang out with us, potentially her future cast mates, at the Push premiere. So that was great. It would be an honor to work with her. I’ve grown up watching her films and she’s a brilliant actress. Even in Push she did an amazing job, so for her to play Jane it would only better the film.

LEFEVRE: I keep laughing because, if we got to work with her, she’s done more movies than I have.

There were also rumors about Madonna being involved…

LEFEVRE: I heard that. Did you guys hear that about acting or about the soundtrack.

GATHEGI: I heard the soundtrack. For some reason I thought I saw something about her company producing the first film. I thought I saw that online. I hadn’t heard though.

And yet another rumor is that Drew Barrymore may direct Eclipse…

LUTZ: I only heard that today but I’m very excited about the possibility, if it’s a possibility.

LEFEVRE: For me, she’s one of those actresses that has been doing it since she was 6 years old and has been in movies that I connected with my entire life. I love her work. I feel like she would fit right in with us.

Can you talk about anything on the Twilight DVD that fans might be especially interested in?

GATHEGI: Absolutely! The suggested retail price is $13.99. [Laughs.] It releases March 20th. It’s at midnight, that Friday night. It’s a 2-disc featurette with commentary from the director and Rob. There’s going to be music videos from Linkin Park, Paramore…

LEFEVRE: Kellan wants to invite everyone to his midnight DVD release party. [Laughs.]

Any deleted scenes to look for on the DVD?

GATHEGI: I certainly hope so. I know there’s going to be 5 deleted scenes and some extended scenes in there. I’m going to watch it from beginning to end! There’s a documentary on the DVD. It’s a 7-part documentary, a couple minutes each, kind of following the creation of the entire process. There’s a Comic Con segment where we’re first exposed to the fans.

LUTZ: That’ll be fun for me. Since both of you guys were there it will feel like I was there. Just to feel the craziness of what you guys told me about. It won’t be the same, but still intriguing.

LEFEVRE: I’m still excited to see it because I was there, but I wasn’t there. It was one of those crazy out-of-body experiences. I’m going to watch it and say, “I don’t remember any of that.”

Any chance you might go back to Comic Con this year with New Moon?

LUTZ: I think so. I was so bummed I thought this was the movie to make me go there.

LEFEVRE: I hope so. Maybe we’ll get to go as a whole cast.

GATHEGI: Yeah.

Prior to working on Twilight, were you guys fans of vampire films?

LEFEVRE: I was. Not so much vampire movies for me, but Dracula, Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Movie-wise, yeah. I love it. Interview with a Vampire – I thought it was awesome. Even From Dusk Till Dawn. It caught me completely off guard.

LUTZ: Yeah I wasn’t expecting it to go that way. I love Underworld because [of] my wife—well, when she breaks up with her husband. Kate Beckinsale, just letting you know I’m single.

LEFEVRE: I have to agree with your taste there.

LUTZ: She’s beautiful. I love the accent.

Adn the latex.

LUTZ: Yeah!

LEFEVRE: Her husband, who is a director, will now never hire you!

LUTZ: I heard they broke up?

LEFEVRE: No! What?

GATHEGI: Now he definitely won’t hire you. Wishing ill will on a marriage. [Laughs.]

There was another rumor about Taylor Lautner…

LUTZ: Who’s that?

LEFEVRE: Didn’t he play…

LUTZ: One of the high-school kids? Wasn’t he an extra?

LEFEVRE: I don’t think I liked that kid. He was the really annoying one that kept calling us.

LUTZ: Calling us like, “You want to hang out?” He’s the one that had that weird snorty laugh too.

LEFEVRE: Oh God! That snorty laugh!

LUTZ: I was like, “Is that his character? Him being a high-school kid?” Oh, I hope he’s not…

GATHEGI: [Laughs.] Taylor, of course he’s in New Moon. He is a third of New Moon.

LEFEVRE: We love him.

There was talk about him not being in it. What was that about?

LEFEVRE: They always tell you don’t take it personally but he handled it with such grace. It wasn’t personally. There was no doubt ever that he did a phenomenal job in Twilight. It literally was a physical thing. You open up New Moon and because it’s a book, he doesn’t have to adhere to growth spurts. Over the summer, he’s now 6 foot 5 and 200 pounds and looks 25 years old. They’re concern was what’s going to happen to Taylor. This kid though, he put on 30 pounds of muscle and worked out like mad. He worked on the character and figured out a way to give him a sense of maturity. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gives him a bit of a deeper voice. He’s been working on it and he’s earned himself the role just by telling them he could do it. Since they wanted him anyway it worked out.

LUTZ: He was already working out with this in mind that he would have to become this mature, much more mature, Jacob before he even knew New Moon was green lit.

GATHEGI: The day after we wrapped on Twilight he hit the gym. While we were filming Twilight he didn’t touch the weights, knowing that might have to change his look completely.

If I may switch gears for a moment… Are you guys fans of the horror genre in general?

LEFEVRE: I can’t watch horror movies because when I was a kid I used to watch Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th and I did not sleep for months. There was a scene in one of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies where the girl is taking a bath and Freddy’s hand comes out of the drain. No baths after that. I’m such a lightweight when it comes to that. I have one exception and that is anything with religious content, like The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Reaping or even Stigmata. Anything with religious content I’m a sucker for.

LUTZ: I’m completely the opposite.

LEFEVRE: Like slashers?

LUTZ: Well, slashers I know are so pretend and I didn’t grow up being scared of the boogeymonster or a monster in my closet. But religious stuff… My family is so religious from the Midwest, exorcism stuff is such a real thing in a way. Bringing the religion to demonic creatures and beings like that is just scary. I feel like when I do watch Exorcism of Emily Rose I can’t sleep, because I felt like I had really seen something I shouldn’t have seen. They’re great movies. It’s funny, what scared me then and what scares me now. I watch Leprechaun now and I’m like, “Why did I like this?” There’s Puppetmaster. I wanted some of those demonic little dolls.

LEFEVRE: Chucky?

LUTZ: But it’s just funny now.

LEFEVRE: I don’t find it funny. I find it creepy. [Laughs.]

Getting back to New Moon… Do you guys find the script to be very similar to the book?

GATHEGI: I read New Moon before I started filming Twilight, so I can’t recall scene by scene but I know the care that Summit is taking care to bring to life the vision and make the fans happy. Chris cares about that too, so I’m sure it will be very close in the same way that Twilight was very close.

LEFEVRE: It’s really similar to what they did for Twilight in a sense that it’s really condensed time. There are certain things that just didn’t make it in or got added. It’s not new. It’s just an amalgamation of things they needed to condense. It’s just a way to move the story forward. Those are the only real changes, in the same way that Twilight was. They take the center of the story, which is the love triangle between Bella, Edward and Jacob and then everything is tailored to fit.

You get to fight werewolves, Rachelle.

LEFEVRE: Uh, yeah!

Are you looking forward to that?

LEFEVRE: Somewhat. Edi and I definitely have some encounters, so I’ll be back at the gym working out, working on the wires.

Will there be even more stunt work for you guys?

GATHEGI: Definitely for me. I didn’t get to do wire work last time.

LEFEVRE: I had some but. All my major fight stuff is in Eclipse. [To Lutz.] You always have fight stuff. You’re the fighter.

LUTZ: I love it.

What do you like best about playing a vampire?

LUTZ: For me, with Twilight, we were these supernatural creatures portraying humans in civilization. I think it’s brilliant and it makes it that much more real. I was having a discussion with, I think it was you Edi, and we were talking about how in Push they had special powers but they weren’t wearing special suits, so I could relate to that. With Twilight you can’t tell we’re different from anyone else in high school. They just think we’re weird and have pale skin.

GATHEGI: I like playing characters of status, kings or people that demand attention. They don’t do much but people respect them. I think it takes it to another level: the evil vampire.

LEFEVRE: Plus it’s closer to how you think people should treat you in your real life. [Laughs.]

GATHEGI: Right. [Laughs.]

Edi, you also recently did My Bloody Valentine. Are you a fan of the genre in general?

GATHEGI: I’m not a fan of the genre in general because I often feel things aren’t plausible in the worlds that they create. I just can’t get into it. If there’s a plausible storyline and things are realistic but there happens to be this fear, I’m a fan of that. That’s why I wanted to do My Bloody Valentine. That’s why I wanted to do Twilight — because it wasn’t about vampires it was about romance.

In general, how do you feel about the rumors of well-established stars joining the film series? Since you guys seem like a tight family unit at this point, are you at all apprehensive ?

GATHEGI: I think it’s cool that we’ve been a part of something that stars are attracted to and want to be apart of.

LUTZ: Yeah that’s really cool. Dakota Fanning, Madonna…

GATHEGI: That’s awesome. I welcome them. The more stars we have the cooler the project can be. I’m not threatened. I’ve got mine, now come get yours.

LEFEVRE: I think also we spent so much time together filming, doing press, hanging out. We’ve really gotten to know each other. The perfect example is…  Rob, for us, isn’t Rob Pattinson. He’s just dorky Rob. That whole thing has been an indication that it doesn’t matter who comes in. We get along, we do our thing, and we have a great time. I think that energy is infectious. No matter who comes on board, even if they come from a bigger status, I think they’d be welcomed.

LUTZ: We do hazing.

LEFEVRE: I don’t care who you are. We will haze you. There’s no hierarchy.

What’s the worst thing you’ve done to a cast member?

GATHEGI: Killed them.

LEFEVRE: Edi named Taylor “two-times-eight” because he’s only 16. He’s the youngest cast member. We never called him by his name, we’d just say “What’s up two-times-eight?” And by the end the press tour he just looked like he was going to throttle us.

GATHEGI: By then we learned that he’s a karate champion two times over so I had to tone that down. Plus he’s not two-times-eight anymore – he’s 17.

LEFEVRE: About Kellan too… Whenever anyone would say, “Where’s Kellan?” I’d say, “I don’t know. Probably bench-pressing the hotel.”

LUTZ: [Laughs.]

LEFEVRE: Where’s Kellan? “Oh, I don’t know. He’s changing the tire on my trailer, on his back.” [Laughs.]

What’s your biggest fear?

GATHEGI: Never working again.

C’mon now — a realistic one.

GATHEGI: Oh, thank you. I’ll go last on this one…

LUTZ: It used to be death but now it’s… I guess losing someone, or not being able to help someone out because they have a disease or something that you can’t do anything about. It’s that waiting period and you can’t fix it. Helplessness.

LEFEVRE: That’s a thoughtful answer and now I’ll be a bit dark. I don’t know what it is, but we’re pushing the racy envelope, and as a woman I feel like everyday I’m bombarded with images of women being attacked, whether it’s sexually or domestic. I don’t know. I just feel like everywhere on TV and movies, it’s just so pervasive. It’s the woman, or the lone woman, being stalked and then attacked. It started to really get under my skin, and I notice just walking down my street I started to feel afraid everywhere I went. Now I just won’t watch things that have those pervasive images in it. As soon as I eliminated watching those things I started to regain a sense of self. The world isn’t as safe as we want it to be, but its okay to walk my dog around the park.

GATHEGI: Barnacles.

LEFEVRE: [Laughs.] That they’ll attach onto your ankles?

GATHEGI: I just get the heebie-jeebies when I see things with raised surfaces and patches. The hair on the back of my neck stands up and I get very incapacitated. I hate barnacles. Anything that looks like a barnacle. You burn a bagel and it gets bubbly and raised. It freaks me out. Otherwise I’m not scared of anything. [Laughs.]

As we all know by now, Twilight was one of last year’s biggest hits, New Moon starts shooting any minute now, and the studio most recently announced they’ve officially started work on developing Eclipse.

“We all really hope there is going to be a number four,” Stewart, 18, told me yesterday afternoon when we sat down to chat in a suite at L.A.’s Sofitel hotel. “I’m pretty confident that the fans aren’t going to all of a sudden lose interest. The only case that a fourth one wouldn’t be made is if all of a sudden people stopped caring, and I really don’t think that’s going to happen.”

And that’s not about to happen for Stewart, either. In fact, she’d like to set the record straight about critics who have come to attack her as some sort of Hollywood ingrate who doesn’t think very highly of Twilight or its more dedicated—some would say obsessed—fan base.

“I love the fans,” she insists. “I feel like I am one of the fans and any direct interaction I’ve ever had with them has been the most warm and pleasant and enthusiastic. If anything, it’s the biggest driving force that could propel you to do something.”

That doesn’t mean all the new attention—OK, hysteria—can’t be overwhelming at times. But when she was recently quoted in a magazine as describing some of these experiences as “psychotic,” some felt she was taking a dig at the fans. “It’s not normal for me to be in a situation that Twilight puts you in,” she explains. “It’s not personally normal for me to see 5,000 screaming girls. But I’m not criticizing them for being ‘crazy’ about me. I’m sort of going, “Wow, this is just crazy!’ ”

Crazy too are the yet to be proven rumors that she and Robert Pattinson are more than just friends. “Rob and I are great friends,” Stewart says. “But I understand why you would assume that when we lean on each other for support, there must be something more…And I’m not criticizing anyone for thinking it either. If anything, they’re really perceptive, because they can see a closeness.” (Her longtime boyfriend, actor Michael Angarano, isn’t fazed by the talk either. “We laugh about it,” Stewart says.)

When Stewart wasn’t at the Oscars last month, critics pounced again. Did she dislike Twilight so much that she wasn’t willing to support it like Pattinson, who was a first-time presenter? Was she scared the supposed secret romance between her and her costar would be too hard to hide if they appeared together on the same stage on Hollywood’s biggest night?

Um, no! She had a very good reason for not being there—she wasn’t asked. “If I was invited to the Oscars, I would be there in a nanosecond,” she says. “If I got an invitation to the Oscars, I wouldn’t turn it down!”

Perhaps next year she and Pattinson could sing together at the Oscars? Late last month, the two engaged in some late-night karaoke while promoting Twilight in Tokyo. Stewart and Pattinson covered Elton John’s “Your Song.” “Rob could definitely do a musical,” Stewart says.

Also belting out tunes were Hugh Jackman and director Baz Luhrmann, who were in Tokyo for the local premiere of Australia. When Stewart first arrived at the bar, Pattinson and Jackman were already engaged in a “really, really elaborate ABBA moment.” Later on, Luhrmann joined Pattinson at the mic. “It was really funny seeing Baz Luhrmann and Rob singing a David Bowie song,” Stewart says. “It was a talky one so they both could sort of talk to each other, and they were riffing back and forth.”

She adds with a laugh, “They were looking longingly into each other’s eyes.”

As for Stewart, she starts rehearsals for New Moon next week, followed by about four months of filming in Vancouver and Italy with new director Chris Weitz. Then she’s off to play Joan Jett in a biopic about her 1970s all-girl band, The Runaways. Stewart plans to do her own singing. “I don’t see any reason not to,” she says. “If it’s not going to be Joan, it’s going to be me.”

Her research included spending New Year’s Eve with Jett. “We were in a little city in Washington and she played through midnight,” Stewart says. “And then we spent, like, hours into the morning talking.”

On her plate right now are two upcoming indies. In the quirky and very sweet Adventureland, from Superbad director Greg Mottola, she’s an angst-ridden coed spending her summer working at her hometown amusement park, where she finds herself torn between a married man (Ryan Reynolds) and a lovable nerd (Jesse Eisenberg). In first-time director Mary Stuart Masterson’s The Cake Eaters, she’s a high school student with a fatal neurological disorder trying to find love before it’s too late.

“I get to do something that literally if I didn’t get to do I would implode,” Stewart says of acting. “There’s really no better position for me to be in right now in my life, and I am entirely grateful.”

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When asked what she thought about the bad press she’s been getting in the wake of her Nylon interview, Stewart is adamant that her words are being taken out of context—professing, believably might I add—to having nothing but the utmost respect and care for the Twilight story and situation as a whole. “I love the Twilight fans. I have literally never said anything remotely negative about them,” she told us.

So all the hullaballoo? She attributed that to learning the ropes about what is going to read in print and what isn’t. “You have to stay away from certain key words that can be twisted in a negative connotation. Like the word ‘psychotic’ apparently is really bad,” she said, provoking laughter around the table.

“I feel like it’s a really humble position to take that it’s not normal—you know what I mean?—to find yourself in a situation where there are 5,000 screaming girls. I feel like that’s not normal and it’s not something I should just say, ‘Oh yeah, it’s really cool, I love them,’” she continued. “I feel like everything I said in that Nylon interview, if you actually read the whole thing, was very honest and genuine and talking about something that I am so immersed in and I have absolutely no control over. And I’m just trying to stay honest and true to something that I care about.”

According to Stewart, cameras are set to start rolling on the next installment of the Twilight saga, New Moon, on March 23rd and she’s eager to dive back in. “It’s a completely different story. It’s like it completely undermines the first,” she explained. “Edward’s gone and for me that was the whole story. It’s hard for me to get past—I don’t know how Bella’s going to deal with that. She matures. A lot. And it’s a much more painful story than the first one. It’s actually quite devastating. It’s a smaller scale as well. She’s very solitary for quite a while, so that will be interesting. I’m excited about that.”

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