Friday, June 25, 2010
EW Interviews Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner
by Nicole Sperling
Kristen Stewart comes bearing a gift. The actress — who’s gangly, strikingly beautiful, and still only 20 despite having made movies for nearly a decade — has baked her interviewer a little loquat pie, which she carries in a mini-aluminum tin, like one you’d find in a child’s Easy-Bake oven set. Stewart and costars Taylor Lautner, 18, and Robert Pattinson, 24, have gathered to talk about Eclipse, which opens June 30 and is, of course, the third installment in the phenomenally successful Twilight saga. The movie, rated PG-13 and directed by David Slade, finds Jacob (Lautner) and his werewolf pals joining forces with Edward (Pattinson) and his vampire clan to defend Bella (Stewart) against an army of new vampires. At the moment, however, no one wants to talk about the movie — the darkest and most compelling of the franchise so far. They just want to try the pie, which features fruit from Stewart’s own backyard. “It’s not warm and there’s no ice cream, and those are really the two things that would make it exceptional,” she says. “But it will be fine.”
When Twilight hit theaters a year and a half ago, Stewart never would have baked something for a reporter. Back then, she was a nervous 18-year-old who fretted over every syllable that escaped her lips and seemed terrified of the publicity circuit. Today, Stewart and her costars exude considerably more confidence.
The last two Twilight movies have earned more than $1 billion worldwide and supercharged their careers. Stewart is about to shoot an adaption of a Jack Kerouac;s ‘On the Road’, Lautner’s embarking on John Singleton’s action thriller ‘Abduction’, and Pattinson’s starring alongside Reese Witherspoon as a veterinarian in a traveling circus in ‘Water for Elephants’. The actors make an extremely tight trio: honest, protective of each other, and warmly familial. In person, as on screen, Pattinson and Lautner’s mutual affection for Stewart is the tie that binds.
-How do you think Eclipse ranks against the other two films?
Taylor Lautner: It is definitely my favorite.
Robert Pattinson: I don’t like it as much. {Laughs} Could you imagine if I meant that?
Kristen Stewart: It’s always hard because you’re so close to it. I run this really intense list of, like, checks and balances to make sure everything has come across. But I know I pulled less of my hair out {watching} it.
MORE AFTER THE JUMP
“Eclipse” Cast Interview with The Telegraph (UK)
COPIED AND PASTE
Across the globe, armies of teenage girls – and more than a few of their middle-aged mothers – are gearing up for the movie event of the summer. Eclipse, the third film adaptation of author Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga, is not released for another fortnight yet, thanks to the franchise’s countless, indefatigable fans – the self-styled Twilighters and Twihards – the film has already racked up impressive advance ticket sales and its success is pretty much guaranteed.
Before it was transmuted into box office gold, Meyer’s tale, which recounts the romantic travails of Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), a teenage girl who moves to a Pacific Northwest town populated by vampires and werewolves, captured the imagination of a generation of young female readers. They, like Bella, have given their hearts to a benign bloodsucker called Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson, or RPattz to his fans), a beautiful and surprisingly honourable hero.
Last year, Meyer’s series of four Twilight books sold copies to the value of more than £29 million in Britain alone, accounting for one tenth of the entire children’s market according to analysts Nielsen, while the first two chapters in the movie franchise, Twilight (2008) and New Moon (2009), have together taken more than £750 million at the international box office. Add in DVD and merchandising sales and that figure will more than double.
“I think the success of the Twilight movies, not just the books, comes down to Stephenie Meyer,” says Bryce Dallas Howard, who joins the cast of Eclipse as the vengeful vampire Victoria (replacing Rachel Lefevre, who played the character in the first film). The 29-year-old actress, daughter of Oscar-winning director Ron Howard, fell for the novels before being approached for the movie because she thought Meyer’s account of Bella’s romantic struggles felt authentic, even though the object of her affections is a vampire.
“You really see the world through Bella’s eyes,” says Howard, who initially turned down the role of Victoria in the first Twilight movie, because she felt the part was too small, “and you fall in love with Edward, and then get your heart broken, and fall in love with Jacob [Black, a werewolf played by Taylor Lautner], and then you’re in danger.
“It’s like you’re feeling these things yourself, and the way that she expresses Bella’s emotions just feels so honest and true. Stephenie Meyer has taken us on an extraordinary ride, and I think that they’ve captured that in the movies. The film-makers listen to what the fans are saying, and it’s a rare instance where you’re making a film for an audience that you know really well.”
MORE AFTER THE JUMP
Before it was transmuted into box office gold, Meyer’s tale, which recounts the romantic travails of Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), a teenage girl who moves to a Pacific Northwest town populated by vampires and werewolves, captured the imagination of a generation of young female readers. They, like Bella, have given their hearts to a benign bloodsucker called Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson, or RPattz to his fans), a beautiful and surprisingly honourable hero.
Last year, Meyer’s series of four Twilight books sold copies to the value of more than £29 million in Britain alone, accounting for one tenth of the entire children’s market according to analysts Nielsen, while the first two chapters in the movie franchise, Twilight (2008) and New Moon (2009), have together taken more than £750 million at the international box office. Add in DVD and merchandising sales and that figure will more than double.
“I think the success of the Twilight movies, not just the books, comes down to Stephenie Meyer,” says Bryce Dallas Howard, who joins the cast of Eclipse as the vengeful vampire Victoria (replacing Rachel Lefevre, who played the character in the first film). The 29-year-old actress, daughter of Oscar-winning director Ron Howard, fell for the novels before being approached for the movie because she thought Meyer’s account of Bella’s romantic struggles felt authentic, even though the object of her affections is a vampire.
“You really see the world through Bella’s eyes,” says Howard, who initially turned down the role of Victoria in the first Twilight movie, because she felt the part was too small, “and you fall in love with Edward, and then get your heart broken, and fall in love with Jacob [Black, a werewolf played by Taylor Lautner], and then you’re in danger.
“It’s like you’re feeling these things yourself, and the way that she expresses Bella’s emotions just feels so honest and true. Stephenie Meyer has taken us on an extraordinary ride, and I think that they’ve captured that in the movies. The film-makers listen to what the fans are saying, and it’s a rare instance where you’re making a film for an audience that you know really well.”
MORE AFTER THE JUMP
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