Twilight Questions...Answered

Meet the cast of the action-packed, modern love story

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Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Kellan Lutz, and Michael Welch all weighed in on their Twilight experiences. Check out what they have to say about each other, their characters, and life on the set of the biggest hit movie of the season!

ROBERT PATTINSON (Edward)

Scholastic News Online (SNO): Did you and Kristen click from the beginning? Right when you first were cast, when you first auditioned together?
Robert: Yeah, I think so. . . . I definitely had a reaction to her, which I really wasn't expecting.

SNO: What was the hardest thing to learn for the role of Edward—playing baseball or the wire work for the flying scenes?
Robert: I can't play baseball at all [LAUGHTER]. It was pretty intense. I mean, I'm really not an action-movie kind of guy at all. And so doing these kind of [scenes]—a lot of the scenes were like kung fu movies. That kind of Hong Kong, wire kung fu movies.

SNO: Is that hard to master?
Robert: Yeah. I've done wire work before. But just getting hit [when on the wire], is easy. You don't have to do anything. But trying to maintain your center of gravity and stuff—that's tough. It can look really fake, really easily. I didn't have that much time to practice. I mean, they took a pretty big risk letting me do a lot of it.

SNO: Once you put the makeup on—is that the final step in slipping into this character?
Robert: No. It really wasn't so much about the makeup. There were a lot of scenes where I had to be scary and intimidating. And just having a bouffant haircut and stuff isn't really that intimidating. It wasn't really one of those parts where you could put on the coat or put on the shoes and you kind of feel different. I didn't really feel any different. [To help me get in character], I didn't talk to any of the cast about anything other than the film for at least a month and a half of the shoot. And it creates a strange aura around you, and people don't really know what to make of you.

SNO: Did you sign up for all three movies of the Twilight series?
Robert: Yeah, I've signed on for three.

SNO: Are you looking forward to doing the sequels?
Robert: Yeah. It's such a sort of intimate story. In this [one], it's just like a character study for a trilogy, which is very, very, very strange.

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KRISTEN STEWART (Bella)

SNO: Were you a fan of the Twilight book series before you auditioned for the role of Bella?
Kristen: I didn't know about them. I stick to used bookstores. I just never saw them. How do I relate to her? You experience the whole story through her. You project yourself onto her; you put yourself on her. Bella was very, very close to myself. There weren't any distinguishing characteristics that were different. I really just had to be an impulse—like, I was playing this girl who gets caught up in this extravagant situation.

Kristen Stewart (Bella) and Robert Pattison (Edward) from the movie, Twilight. (Photo courtesy Summit Entertainment, LLC)

SNO: Did you read the online blogs about you being cast as Bella?
Kristen: Yeah, it's kind of amusing. And anyone who says they don't read their stuff online is lying.

SNO: What did you read that was bizarre?
Kristen: Like I walk funny. I think that's hilarious. Stuff like that. "She walks funny, she's just not right." They all see themselves as Bella.  

SNO: You were young when you started working in the movie business. What's the toughest part of growing up as a child actor?
Kristen: I haven't had too many problems. I had to stop going to school because I worked too much. . . I got so much out of home schooling. I really loved home school. Independent study is for me.

SNO: Did you miss the social aspect of going to school with kids your age?
Kristen: No, because the [movie] business is not just adults and age is a relative thing with me.

SNO: Why do you think readers—and now movie goers—have connected so strongly with the Twilight series?
Kristen: [The books] are such a firsthand account that it's like you're doing it yourself, and at the same time it's like you're reading somebody's private thoughts. You're not supposed to know what people are fixated on and in this, that's the whole story. It's a very epic, high-stakes, ultimate love story, and [I think] that is fundamentally what drives us to do everything in life.

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TAYLOR LAUTNER (Jacob)

SNO: Describe your character, Jacob.
Taylor: Jacob is an outgoing, happy, Native-American kid who develops a crush on his childhood friend named Bella. He's very devoted to taking care of his dad who is in a wheelchair.   

SNO: How did you prepare for the role?
Taylor: To prepare for my role, I felt it would be helpful to learn as much as I could about the Quileute tribe. So I met with a few Quileute Native-American kids from the area to learn about thier culture. I also did some research and read about the Quileute heritage.

SNO: Are you and Jacob similar?
Taylor: Jacob and I are a lot alike. Jacob enjoys people, he finds himself having a good time wherever he goes, and he's very outgoing and friendly. Jacob also loves to be outdoors, just like I do.  

SNO: Had you read the books before your audition?
Taylor: I hadn't heard of Twilight before I was cast in the movie, but as soon as I was cast, I went out and bought the Twilight book, and because of the great story, it didn't take me long to finish.

SNO: Was it hard playing a literary character?
Taylor: This is the first time I played a character in a book series. It is more difficult than I had expected. Everyone that has read the books is very aware of my character, Jacob Black, and they have their own ideas of what the character should look like and act like. So it is an added challenge to bring the character to life the way they believe the character should be. I really hope I will be able to do that for the fans.

SNO: Who do you think should win Bella's love—Jacob or Edward?
Taylor: Well, since I didn't read Twilight until after I was offered the role, I think I might have just a little bias for rooting for Jacob. He is the underdog, so of course I was rooting for him. Who's Edward by the way—I'm just kidding . . . .

SNO: Silly question—did you grow out your hair or was that a wig?
Taylor: It is a wig.

SNO: Was the wig a problem?
Taylor: Yes, a very big problem. It was very itchy, and I was telling Rachelle [Lefevre], who plays Victoria, I can't fathom how you live with the hair. It is always getting in my mouth. I just can't have a meal. I'm trying to eat lunch and it is in my food.

SNO: Why didn't you put it in a ponytail?
Taylor: They didn't want me to. When I'm doing my lines and doing my scenes and I'm trying to talk to Bella it is [getting in my mouth] constantly. It is like they weren't looking for the best acting take, they were looking for the take where I wasn't pulling hair out of my mouth.

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KELLAN LUTZ (Emmet)

SNO: Have you had any crazy fan encounters?
Kellan: It's definitely crazy being Emmett and being a part of this amazing experience of Twilight and having the fans. When we were in Oregon, somehow [the fans] found our hotel rooms, especially mine. We were going to get some dinner and I just got out of the shower so I wasn't prepared to answer the door. I heard a shaking voice, "Emmett, we're your fans," so I threw some clothes on as fast as I could and there were two lovely ladies with a basket of goodies for all of us. They were staying in the room across from me.

SNO: Did any of you meet with Twilight series author Stephenie Meyer to talk about your character?
Kellan: I think we all did. She was always there for us. I had a lot of questions. There was one passage that was left out, about Emmet and the bear, and it told a lot about Emmet and Edward's relationship and how close they really are. For me to read that really helped me understand that relationship. When Rob and I are acting, I really feel that we're brothers. Without that I don't think I would have had that connection. Stephenie just gave me so much info.
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MICHAEL WELCH (Mike)

SNO: Had you read Twilight before you were cast in the movie?
Michael: I had not read or heard of Twilight before auditioning.  Which is good. If I had known how popular the book was [I think] it would have changed [my] audition. I think part of the reason I got this job is because I went in with this very relaxed attitude and just came from myself and just had fun. Of course as soon as I got the role, I that within 48 hours of the film being announced there were over 50,000 posts on Internet Movie Database (IMDB). That's when I realized that I was a part of something potentially really great. So I did read the book after I got the role, and it was really good, and I was excited to get the work.

Michael Welch who plays the character "Mike" in Twilight the movie. (Photo courtesy Summit Entertainment, LLC)

SNO: How close do you feel the film is to the book?
Michael: I think it's very close. It's tricky turning a book into a film, because obviously you don't have enough time to get everything in there, but I really felt that this was a really nice condensed version of the book. I don't know what else they could have done.

SNO: Tell us about Mike.
Michael: I love Mike. First of all, Mike and I shared a very similar high school experience in terms of having a crush on a girl who was probably a little out of our league and then her being interested in someone else. So it was interesting to delve back to that part of my life when I was like 15, 16 maybe and re-explore those feelings and see what that would bring up. In fact in the scene where Mike asks Bella to the prom, it almost started to get kind of painful after doing it a few times. All those old feelings and all those old high school feelings that you put off to the side and wish to never have to revisit again—they all just kind of came flooding back.  

SNO: Describe Robert in three or four words.  
Michael: Cool, dry, "British dude," I would say is the best way to describe Robert.  

SNO: What about Kristen?
Michael:  Oh, Kristen—mysterious, interesting, remarkably talented young lady.

Gerri Miller is a contributing writer for Scholastic News Online.