Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Twilight Watch: A Conversation With Peter Facinelli
Peter Facinelli, as Dr. Carlisle Cullen, tends to a temptingly bleeding Bella (Kristen Stewart).
Having featured the members of Twilight’s Wolf Pack last week, VF.com is switching its allegiance to vampires. On a frigid day in New York City, I caught up with actor Peter Facinelli in between his “medical” commitments—he plays a human doctor on Showtime’s Nurse Jackie and a bloodsucking one, the 400-year-old Dr. Carlisle Cullen, in the Twilight saga—to discuss how New Moon differs from the first Twilight movie, his role as a father figure on and off the set, and what he really thinks of his fellow vampires.
As the patriarch of the Cullen clan, have you assumed a similar fatherly role with the cast?
You know, on Twilight I feel like they looked to me as the father figure, but because we became so close, I’m more of an older brother now.
Has there been a difference in the way you interact as a cast since you filmed Twilight?
Rob[ert Pattinson] has more security guards hanging around him! [Laughs] Other than that, not really. We really enjoy each other’s company, and we’ve been working so much on this movie that we really haven’t had as much time to hang out with each other. We’re putting in these long hours and then just heading home. Usually we just try to catch dinner with each other then get back up the next morning and do it all over again.
What would you say is the one major thing that has changed about your life since starting the franchise?
I’m traveling a lot more than I used to and interacting with a lot more people. The fan base on this, I don’t know how else to explain it … it’s a cultural phenomenon. People will actually hop on a plane to see you. Sometimes I do these charity events, and people fly in to come and see me. I’m just really, really impressed with [the fan] dedication to these books and to the movies. I’ve always had a fan base with the work I’ve done, but never as rabid as this.
You seem pretty dedicated to them, too, judging by your Twitter page.
You know, I love connecting with the fans because I’m a fan of the books myself. They’re all so dedicated and wonderful to me that I love to be able to give back. So if stopping for a picture or signing a book of theirs puts a smile on their face, then that makes me happy, too. I kind of go out of my way to make sure—if there are fans hanging around the set—to try to stop and say hello to them before I get in the van. It takes five minutes to make people happy. I love interacting with them.
You’ve been working steadily since your early twenties—the same age that some of the Twilight cast members are now. Have you been able to offer any advice to any of them, especially at a time when they’ve suddenly been thrust into the spotlight?
I’ve had some conversations with some of the cast about careers because I’ve been working for fifteen years. They’re just starting out with their careers, and for a lot of them this is their first big break. I think they look to me and ask, How do you sustain that? It’s still a mystery to me, too! I feel very lucky. For me it’s about longevity and not about just one movie. It’s got to be a scary time for them because this movie is giving them lots of opportunities. It’s up to them to steer this journey into a career, and not just be part of Twilight and be gone. I look at them, and it’s got to be pretty scary to have that much on their shoulders pretty quick, but I think they’re really talented, really smart, and I think that they’re going to be fine.
What has this done for your career?
I’ve done a lot of movies and different roles, and this is another role that I love to play. I look forward to continue doing a lot more. It’s definitely broadened my fan base even with my own kids. For a long time, they didn’t get to see any of the work I’ve done because of the mature content.
Have any of your daughters seen Twilight?
All three of them have seen it! They’re ages twelve, six, and three. They love it. The 12-year-old has read the first two books, so she loves the movie. My 6-year-old loves it even more; she wants to watch it all the time! Now the 3-year-old, because the 6 year-old likes it, wants to watch it all the time, too. I asked her what she liked about it and she said, “I like the scary parts.”
Have they met the cast? Did they get excited?
My kids are pretty unaffected. They don’t get too star-struck. To them it’s just “Dad’s friends,” which is kind of nice.
How does New Moon differ from Twilight?
You know, Twilight was an independent movie. It was shot very documentary style, the way Catherine [Hardwicke, Twilight’s director] shoots. It has a rawness to it, which I think is nice. New Moon’s a little bit crisper, it has a little bit more of a studio feel, but it still has that edge.
What’s it like playing the same character for three different directors?
That gets interesting. It’s exciting in one way because every director brings their own flavor to the movie. Each director’s personality is different so you kind of have to adapt to their way of working, but I’ve had really good experiences on all three. Sometimes it’s nice working with the same person over and over because there’s a familiarity, but I’m used to working with different directors. On Nurse Jackie we get different directors on each episode. I like it because they bring different ideas and make you think of things you might not have thought of before—pushing you to look at it from different angles. I think it’s harder on the directors to come in and try to make these movies as grand as Twilight was and take on the responsibility of getting the story accurate in terms of telling it from the book. Then they have a whole cast that they haven’t dealt with before, so I think it would be more daunting for the director.
You have so many new cast members coming into it, too …
Our group is such a great bunch that we’re all so welcoming. It’s like broadening your family base. With open arms, we were there waiting. They came out to dinners with us and just became part of the family.
Speaking of family, will you please give me one word to describe each of the Cullen clan actors starting with Kellan Lutz?
Ok. [Laughs] Goofy!
Nikki Reed:
Complex.
Jackson Rathbone:
Artistic.
Kristen Stewart:
Sweet.
Elizabeth Reaser:
Awesome.
Ashley Greene:
Pixie-ish, she’s like a fairy—she’s so light on her feet. Bubbly, that’s the word.
Rob Pattinson:
Mmm, Rob. Rob’s a good one. It’s hard to narrow down to one. So many words come to mind! Brooding, tortured … but he’s a good kid. What’s the word for a solidly good guy?
New Moon Star Talks About Rob, Kristen and Security
Filming for Eclipse, the third installment in the Twilight Saga is almost complete, but have you forgotten about New Moon? Neither did we! The sequel to Twilight introduces fans to the royal vampire family, the Volturi, and we joined New Moon star Justine Wachsberger at a photo shoot were she exclusively told RadarOnline.com about her role as Gianna in the movie. However, we don’t have any spoilers for you since Justine hasn’t seen the movie yet. “I can’t reveal my scene, but it’s pretty true to the book, they didn’t really change anything,” she told us as she had her hair and makeup done for a glamorous photo shoot.
For fans who are just getting to know the French born beauty, she gave a glimmer of hope that she might be back, despite Stephenie Meyer revealing that she did die. “I’m hoping they’ll bring me back in Breaking Dawn to see me die,” Justine said. Stephenie was on set while Justine was filming and even paid her a huge compliment. “She told me, oh you look so pretty,” Justine told RadarOnline.com
Justine is in a pivotal scene in the movie with Rob Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, and she told us that having Rob go from his real British accent to his faux American accent wasn’t difficult on the set. “I like him with his British accent,” she said. So does everyone else, including his co-star and rumored love interest Kristen Stewart. “She was actually really funny,” Justine told us about working with Kristen, who she said was one of her favorite people on set. “She does have that side to her where she’s kind of shy, but at the same time she’s pretty funny.”
While some of the cast have become recognizable household names, that recognition hasn’t happened quite yet for Justine. The first day she went to the set she told us she had a problem with security. “They thought I was a fan,” she said. “Security arrived all around and said this is a closed set, you can’t be on set.” Luckily for her she was able to convince them she was in fact in the movie, and was able to start work!
Rob will be on Letterman on Nov 18
Morning shows are nice, but “New Moon” belongs at night – and Gossip Cop can exclusively reveal some major appearances its stars will make long after twilight.
Inside sources tell us Kristen Stewart will visit Conan O’Brien and “The Tonight Show” on November 16, while Robert Pattinson will guest on “The Late Show with David Letterman” on November 18.
Gossip Cop has ALSO learned that Stewart, Taylor Lautner, and Ashley Greene are all booked for Jimmy Fallon’s “Late Night” program. Exact dates have yet to be confirmed.
And if you still need a Cullen family fix, Greene is scheduled to join Letterman on November 23.
Gossip Cop already broke the news about Pattinson’s imminent “Ellen” turn, as well as the “Today Show” schedule for him, Stewart, and Lautner. We will work to confirm any additional “New Moon” cast appearances as soon as possible.
New Interview - Talks about his next movies and Sam
He's bigger than Ben-Hur at the moment, if you believe all the hype. Yet to come face-to-face with Robert Pattinson is to meet a serious artist, a multi-talented individual who could as easily have been a classical or funky musician as a movie star.
The Twilight juggernaut is propelling the 23-year-old British actor to the heights of mega stardom and, having previously only played minor roles, most notably as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, he is making the most of it.
The small independent movie, Remember Me, was able to go ahead as the result of his casting and Pattinson is now in Unbound Captives, a western set in 1859, where the world's sexiest youngster gets to act alongside the "Sexiest Man Alive", Hugh Jackman.
"The Twilight fans are so devoted, even fanatical, that I'm now able to do so many films," Pattinson says. "The economy is just so bad at the moment. I don't care if they think I'm right for the part or not. I can get their movie made, which is great."
The trim actor says what has happened to him has been "pure luck." After all, handsome Henry Cavill, who made a dashing impression in TV's The Tudors as Henry's friend, the Duke of Suffolk, had been Twilight author Stephanie Meyer's original choice to play Edward Cullen, the lovelorn vampire who falls in love with the human Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart).
But Cavill was too old by the time the blockbuster movie went ahead and Pattinson won the role instead. "I never set out to achieve anything, certainly not fame like this," he admits. "I still have to deal with how to actually make my life work."
The obvious comparison regarding his ascent to stardom is with Daniel Radcliffe who, even if he gets his gear off on stage, will forever be known as Harry Potter. Like his fellow Briton, Pattinson has gone against the puerile grain of Twilight to appear in gay sex scenes for his portrayal of the Spanish painter Salvador Dali in Little Ashes.
Pattinson hopes his Twilight role will leave him without the typecasting that Radcliffe will surely face. "I worked on Harry Potter for 11 months and I couldn't imagine doing that for all those years. I don't know how those guys have stayed sane. I would go completely crazy, hardly being able to do anything else for so long."
Pattinson was contracted to do the four Twilight movies and once Eclipse wraps up in Vancouver, only Breaking Dawn remains to be filmed. "They were all filmed quickly and painlessly," he says.
The much-anticipated second instalment, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, is in cinemas next month. In the flesh, Pattinson only vaguely resembles Edward Cullen because he is far from being a tortured soul himself. A lot of the image is created through posturing, make-up and that mop of tousled hair. "I wear contact lenses for the character and in the first movie I wore a bit of lipstick but in New Moon I don't. They've changed my look in this one. I don't pluck my eyebrows so much in this one, either."
Is he wearing make-up today? "Naaa," he replies disdainfully, and seems pleased that New Moon is aimed more towards males. "This was always my favourite book. New Moon will be a lot more relatable for guys, whereas it was quite difficult for me to express all those emotions in Twilight. I think it's difficult for guys to accept those kind of emotions."
Given that expectations are running so high, he approached reprising the role with trepidation. "I was really worried I wouldn't know how to do it again, but I have a natural chemistry going on with Kristen and doing the sequel was so easy. She always says she pretty much got me the part, but I don't really believe her," he says with a smile.
Pattinson also could relax because he has a smaller role in New Moon. This time werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner) takes centre stage. In the third movie Eclipse, the two have to jostle over who wins Bella's heart – if she still has one by then.
Pattinson seems the most unlikely heart-throb material as he really has grungy tastes and disdain for the high life. But, while he maintains he doesn't like fast cars (his father used to sell them) and that he is single, he was photographed driving a Porsche leaving his co-star Kristen Stewart's house. Maybe they were learning their lines or it could even be a set-up. It wouldn't be the first relationship created to sell a movie.
Though the idea of his being single seems all the more likely given that he probably hasn't any energy for a relationship. (Twilight cast member, Anna Kendrick, confirmed his single status in an interview last month.) Pattinson has so little time to do anything but work. "I'm working almost every day this year," he confirms.
"I had three days off between Remember Me and Eclipse and then I've had to start learning Comanche and bareback riding for Unbound Captives. I don't only want to do the same part. I'm doing Bel Ami, based on the Guy de Maupassant novel in January as well, and I don't really know how I'm going to fit that in. I have to gain weight – but I don't think they'll let me put on much as I have to shoot the final Twilight movie afterwards. I have to look older, as the character Georges Duroy has been living hard for a good six years just getting drunk all the time. So I want to look a bit haggard."
While he says that in Remember Me he is basically playing himself, Georges Duroy probably is also closer to his own reality. Currently Pattinson lives out of three suitcases. "I live in hotel rooms," he admits. He had a grungy rented flat in London's Soho but let it go when it essentially became a crash pad for his buddies.
The young London-born star has kept his close friends close, and his family, too. "The fame thing's been good for one thing. My friends I grew up with are musicians and they were involved with a few songs on the Twilight soundtrack and it's amazing what's happened to them. They're doing tours of America and they're selling out every single show. My friend Sam Bradley did a show at the Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles and it sold out quicker on telephone presales than any show that's been there. Sam's unsigned [to a record deal] and there was no advertising, nothing. It's insane what you can do just by that connection."
Pattinson, who composes and sings, performed two songs for the Twilight soundtrack. He has been playing the piano since he was 5. Raised with two elder sisters – Lizzy, a musician, who's in the band Aurora; and Victoria, who's in advertising – Pattinson grew up in comfortable family surrounds.
His mother, Clare, used to work in a modelling agency, but it was his father Richard who suggested he become involved with amateur productions at Barnes Theatre Company. "That was only because he saw a bunch of pretty girls who were going there, and he said: 'Hey Rob, you've got to go do that.'"
Pattinson's parents are now both retired and live vicariously through their son's fame. "It's funny; I think they expect me to be reacting differently. They think it's more impressive than I think it is. Ultimately everyone in my life knows what's real – apart from my mother, who seems to believe every negative thing that's written about me."
Such as? "Oh, it was about sleeping with people and swearing and I wasn't even in the city at the time. She's like, 'No, I don't believe you; I bet you did say that.' She believes a gossip magazine over her own son. "My sister Lizzy just finds it bizarre. She was in America in May and sent me a text saying, 'It's ridiculous how famous you are!' It's weird, the mags print stuff every week even if I don't do anything."
Initially the fanaticism was stronger in the US, he says. "I came back to the UK at Christmas and was mostly left alone. Now it's everywhere," he shudders, laughing. "I keep waiting for the day when I wake up and I'm just an asshole to everybody."
The security is so tight around Pattinson now that he leads his life in a kind of bubble. "I'm usually half-carried in and out of buildings by bodyguards," he says. "It was driving me a little bit nuts at first, but you just learn to deal with it. If you keep being negative, if you keep saying, 'I hate this, I hate this' then you'd go crazy."
If only he could come up with an answer to the burning press pack question: "What does he look for in a girl?"
"Errr, money," he replies, "and an unbelievable amount of patience." Is it true that famous women try to hit on him? "That's all bullshit. Maybe I don't even realise that they're doing it ..."
He says he doesn't have a perfect girl, though admits, "she would have to be down-to-earth." So is there a celebrity he's adored? "Um," he stutters, struggling for an answer to yet another trite question. "I like Patricia Arquette in True Romance. She was always my pin-up. I like Linda Blair [from The Exorcist] as well."
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