When the actors signed on to make Twilight, they had no idea the phenomenon that the franchise would become. But, having the experience with the first film has helped better prepare them for the release of future chapters in the saga, including New Moon, which opens on November 20th.
At the film's press day, Kellan Lutz ("Emmett"), Ashley Greene ("Alice"), Nikki Reed ("Rosalie") and Elizabeth Reaser ("Esme"), who make up part of the Cullen vampire clan, talked about living their lives with so much attention from the public and the importance of focusing on the work.
Q: How was it to make New Moon with a new director and a new story that has a whole different emphasis?
Ashley: This go-around, I think we were all a little bit more prepared, which was nice. In the first film, we were all going, "What's going on? What's happening?" And, we had the support of the fans behind us. In the first one, we were going, "Oh, God, we hope they don't hate us," and they completely embraced us. So, going into the second one, I think it was a much more fun, relaxed experience, at least for me.
Kellan: Yeah. It's nice to have that weight off your shoulders. We were all stepping in and giving a face to our characters, which fans already had celebrities and actors, who they envisioned as Emmett, Alice or Bella. It's nice to have their support, so it was a huge weight off our shoulders shooting New Moon and then Eclipse.
And then, we had Chris Weitz, who's such a laid-back, easy-going director and who really had everything so organized. It trickles down. We felt at ease, with knowing what the scene is and what he wants out of us, and then allowing ourselves to go to Chris and be like, "I want to try it this way," or "What do you think of this?" He's so open to all the actors' decisions. It's nice to feel like an actor and not a robot, so it felt so easy.
Q: How was that different from working with Catherine Hardwicke?
Kellan: I loved Hardwicke.
Elizabeth: There's a big difference.
Nikki: All directors have a different approach.
Ashley: I think Catherine was thrown into it just as much as the rest of us. So, as the rest of us, she was kind of going, "Oh, my gosh, what's happening?"
Q: Ashley, did you have any input into Alice's wardrobe because she's so stylish?
Ashley: Yeah, they definitely ask our input. We have a little bit of input in it. I don't think it's any secret that I really adore Audrey Hepburn, so I asked that maybe they throw that in there a little bit. And, I think Jackie O. was thrown in there a little bit. I loved it. I wanted to take my wardrobe home with me, each day.
Q: Was that you driving that car? What was that like?
Ashley: It was me driving the car, which scared all of the producers. Two takes and it was over.
Q: Did you notice that you were reading, watching or listening to anything different to get into your characters at all? Since these characters are so eternal, do they listen to new music? Do they change with the times?
Elizabeth: I think they do. I personally think that they're trying to fit in to the human world. So, I think it's important to them, in every way, that they look normal, that they have normal clothes and that they listen to music. They have a lot of time on their hands, too. They're up all night, so they work on their hairdos a lot.
Nikki: We've found a way to justify why we're wearing like a lot of Nike and also why our hair and make-up is totally flawless. We always find a way to justify it. We're up all night, so we have time for that. They want to be contemporary and cool. They wear a lot of Nike. Sometimes head to toe Nike. We just love Nike.
Q: Since they don't sleep, what do they do at night?
Ashley: Alice plans lots of parties.
Nikki: Rosalie looks at herself all night.
Elizabeth: I think Esme goes out and tears apart a mountain lion, every other night.
Kellan: Emmet likes bears.
Nikki: It's funny because we've all become friends, so it does change your approach and the dynamic between all of our characters on set. Elizabeth and I became very close while shooting Eclipse. We were housed right next to each other, and we were very isolated in Vancouver this time. I felt very isolated. So, we decided that Esme and Rosalie tear apart mountain lions together. We somehow found a way to stand next to each other, in certain scenes.
Ashley: Where we place ourselves is like a dance.
Elizabeth: At one point, Nikki said that Rosalie didn't dig Esme.
Nikki: No, she's feeling at little bit funny about Carlisle.
Elizabeth: She has issues with Carlisle, and she wasn't feeling Esme so much.
Nikki: I just didn't really understand. She was trying to crack the whip and Rosalie really didn't understand why she thought she could do that. But, they've come to an understanding. We hunt together. We don't speak, we just hunt.
Elizabeth: Yeah, we don't have all this chit-chat. I think Alice and Esme hang out and maybe go shopping and do girly stuff.
Ashley: Emmett and Jasper spar.
Q: In the last year and a half, all of you have been thrust into this celebrity spotlight and you have such an avid fan base. Where do you think the public and fans' right to know about your private life starts and stops?
Nikki: I had like a really interesting start because the first film I did was marketed as being autobiographical, so there weren't ever boundaries set between me and the public, or between journalists and interviewers and myself. I'm still trying to find that balance, honestly.
Ashley: It's a fine line, definitely. I think it's hard because the reason that we are here is because of our fans, and they want to know everything about us because they adore us and they support us. And so, you do want to give them a little, but there is a certain point to where it's not normal for everyone to know everything about you. Not all of my friends know every single thing about me. Different people know different things, so it gets a little tough there. And then, on the flip side, you never, ever know what someone's going to write about you. Maybe an interviewer likes you and maybe they don't. That's where it becomes tough because you do want to be open and honest, but then you still have to protect yourself.
Kellan: I think it's great to adopt a dog that bites. That's where the paparazzi will stop. Ashley has a lovely dog, Marlow, which is kind of small but hurts. My dog, Kola, does not like anyone that she's not friendly with, so the paparazzi stops at my front gate. It's usually crazy to have paparazzi step outside your house. The coolest thing with the Vancouver guys is that they are respectable. They will just ask for a signature or photo and let us go have a cast dinner, away from set, where we can feel human, and we're out of the white make-up and the contacts.
It's a double-edged sword. We're blessed to be actors and have such a loving fan base, and the fans are always so great. They give us presents, which is so crazy since we're allowed to work because of them. The time they put into making dolls or buying gummy bears, or anything like that, is very humbling. It's really nice to have everyone be respectful and just understand that it's a job, at the end of the day. We aren't really these characters, in life. I just thank them for everything.
Nikki: It's weird to be a part of this new wave. This whole online gossip situation is a cultural phenomenon, on its own. People have always been obsessed with celebrity, but there was a disconnect and separation. People were on a screen. There were even filters. Now, I feel like your success is almost determined a little bit by how exposed you are to the world, but yet you're recycled really fast, especially women. You're hot while you're literally hot, and then you're out.
I think an ideal career for me would be to slide under the radar, so that I know that I'll always work and people will always wonder. There's mystery still. There's just no mystery anymore. But, then again, producers actually cast based on things like this. If you're not known in a small town in Italy or wherever, they don't want to cast you because they need to finance their films. We're trying to figure it out. There's a new system of law right now.
Kellan: I think that's what's really cool. We didn't know what this would become. We were just actors who fell in love with a script. It wasn't about a Marvel hero that you know, like Green Lantern or Captain America. Whoever plays those characters is gonna be famous, right off the bat. With us, we fell in love with our characters and looked at this as just another job. I know for myself that I didn't know it was a book series. It's just great to be a part of something for the reasons that we are a part of it.
Q: What are some of the things that you like to do in Vancouver? What are some of your favorite spots?
Ashley: In the beginning, I definitely took advantage of the shopping. There's a lot of people filming out there, so it was nice to have different friends that were filming different things be out there. I don't want to say what the restaurants were because there's a possibility that we'll be back there again, but there were a couple of spots that we definitely found that we could go and have dinner and there consistently was never fans outside because the actual restaurant didn't call the press. Whenever something like that happens, we definitely revisit it. And then, apart from that, we're constantly having people over in our rooms. Most of us were all housed in the same place, so there were a lot of game nights and we'd cook dinner at home, and stuff like that.
Q: Was it the Cullens hanging out together in a group, and the Wolf Pack hanging out in a group?
Ashley: Sometimes. It wasn't intentional, but there was a lot of First Unit and Second Unit work. During Eclipse, there were a lot of times that we were doing Second Unit because there's so many stunts.
Nikki: It was segregated.
Ashley: I felt like we were making different movies and we didn't see each other. Sometimes we were grouped together, but there were no hard feelings and there was no intention behind it.
Q: Kellan, can you talk about your experience making A Nightmare on Elm Street?
Kellan: It's such a blessing to be a part of something that I grew up with. A lot of things scared me growing up, mainly my brothers picking on me, but as far as Jason or Chucky, those things didn't scare me. I had a Chucky doll. But, Freddy Krueger scared me. It's this psychological thriller that can take you in your dreams. It's something that you can't physically take care of on your own.
Working with the Platinum Dunes guys, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form was great, as was working with Sam Bayer, the director, and the great cast. Thomas Dekker was always pumped on Red Bull, every day. Rooney Mara's great. Kate Cassidy has been a great friend of mine, forever. And, meeting Michael Bay was so cool. It's really cool to be a part of something like that.
Since all our minds are so corrupted with blood, guts and gore, it takes something special to scare our generation now. It's revamped. Where, 10 years ago, someone just knocking on the door was scary, what A Nightmare on Elm Street is gonna show is scary. It's a great psychological thriller. It's basically a revamped version of the first one, but it is different, in a lot of aspects. If you like the first one, this is going to be a new, cool spin on it.
Q: Did they find a way to streamline the make-up process for you, to make it easier, or did you just get used to it?
Nikki: I look much better in the films to come.
Elizabeth: There's just no way to tighten that up. We've had the most amazing make-up artists. It just takes time. It's really hard to lighten skin. It's much easier to make someone tan. So, it's always gonna be a couple hours in the chair. It's just what it is.
Nikki: Four hours.
Ashley: It's worth it, though. We look good.
Kellan: It's in our control to not be in the sun. I didn't go to the beach that much, so I saved probably an hour in the make-up chair.
Elizabeth: You're also a man.
Q: This book has struck a chord with so many fans. Is there anything that you have been obsessed about, in your life?
Nikki: I loved the Spice Girls. No, I'm serious. When I was 11, my brother told me that if we took a bus, we would find the Spice Girls. My brother, who is a year older, and I got on the bus in Culver City with a suitcase, we took the bus all the way down to the beach, and the Spice Girls weren't there. He was watching the news and it said they were on some highway, and he thought he could put it together. My mom found us. That didn't work out.
Ashley: I just pretended to be a Spice Girl in middle school.
Kellan: I'm just obsessed with candy and animals. I love safaris now. I can't go to a zoo. When I was in Africa, I went on a safari and giant white lions and tigers were walking right by our place. Baboons were trying to break in our car and steal my candy, which isn't nice. But, I'm a huge animal advocate. I just love animals.
Elizabeth: I'm currently obsessed with Jay-Z. That's all I can listen to.
Q: It seems America is now obsessed with vampires. Why do you think the culture is so obsessed with the undead right now?
Ashley: In Hollywood, if anything is a success, there's always that tendency to create a trend and take the ride. It's a common thing that happens in Hollywood, and we definitely have witnessed that. And then, with vampires, I think that it's because they're so mysterious. There's something dangerous about them, and they're sexy and unattainable. I definitely think that sparks people's interest.
Elizabeth: I think it's just 'cause they're sexy. If they were just a bunch of dorks, sitting around, I don't know if people would be as interested.
Q: What question are you most tired of answering?
All: Do you know Rob Pattinson?
Elizabeth: Where's Rob?
Nikki: Have you talked to Rob? Do you work with him? He actually doesn't work with the rest of the actors.
Elizabeth: Sometimes he says hi, once in a while.
Kellan: He doesn't act. He just has this cardboard cut-out there.
Q: Elizabeth, even though you're nowhere near the age to be the parent of these other actors, did you feel a maternal instinct toward them, on or off the set?
Elizabeth: Sometimes, yeah, I feel protective, I think just being an older actress. I've been on a lot of sets and I feel protective of younger actors, not that there's anything I need to protect 'cause Summit is awesome. But, sometimes, you're just looking out for them. I really feel like Nikki is way more maternal than me. She's much more of a caretaker.
Nikki: Just because I made Elizabeth dinner every night.
Elizabeth: She would cook me dinner and make me coffee. She was so sweet.
Nikki: Okay, I did mother Elizabeth. That's true.
Elizabeth: So, I don't feel very mature. I think it's weird that I play mothers and pregnant people. It's so bizarre to me because it's not my personality at all.
Q: What do you wish that they would let your characters do?
Kellan: All my stunts with no stuntmen.
Elizabeth: Have sex.
Ashley: My character gets to do a lot of cool stuff.
Nikki: I don't know. Smile and interact. The scenes that we're in are lacking warmth, for obvious reasons. It's nice when you see the Wolf Pack come in because it's needed. They wrestle around like a bunch of kids, and you want that. It doesn't feel natural to watch all of us. The fact that we don't touch in the scenes and we don't touch ourselves is intentional. We're not retards. We've got white make-up all over us. It's a skill, on its own, to learn how to function in our hair and make-up. I just want a hug, all the time.
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