Kristen Stewart finds breaking up hard to do in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”
Kristen Stewart plays Bella Swan in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Kristen Stewart grows with ‘Twilight’ series, role in ‘New Moon’
LOS ANGELES — Breaking up is always hard to do, but Kristen Stewart learned on the set of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” that acting out an “iconic” split from a book adored by millions of fervent fans presents a special set of challenges.
“I know what’s it like to get broken up with, but I don’t know what it’s like to get broken up with by a vampire who I’ve now been physically and chemically altered by. Suddenly you take an addict, you take whatever they’re addicted to away from them and there’s withdrawal. So that was the most intimidating scene in the entire movie,” Stewart said in a press conference from the classy Four Seasons Hotel.
In “New Moon,” the sequel to last year’s blockbuster “Twilight,” human Bella Swan (Stewart) is heartbroken when her vampire boyfriend Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) ends their romance over concerns for her safety. The depressed Bella finds a new chance for love through her burgeoning friendship with Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), only to discover he is a werewolf.
While she called the actual break-up an “iconic” moment in the books, Stewart was even more anxious about the moment Edward leaves, in which the painful reality sets in for Bella.
“I was like, ‘How am I going to, by myself in the woods with a hundred guys standing around me, filming me, die?’ Basically, literally having the equivalent of like a death scene but stay alive and get up and keep walking. It was hard,” she said.
“I really like the movie but I don’t know if anyone ever really would’ve been able to bring that to life the way that Stephenie (Meyer) writes it.”
Based on Meyer’s best-selling four-book series, the “Twilight” franchise has made movie stars out of its young cast. But Stewart’s film career started at age 8, when an agent spotted her performing in a holiday play at her California elementary school. After a few non-speaking roles, she broke out at 11, when she played Jodie Foster’s daughter in David Fincher’s 2002 thriller “Panic Room.”
But the success of the “Twilight” series has catapulted the Stewart, 19, into A-list fame, and all the tabloid gossip, particularly about a rumored romance between her and Pattinson, and paparazzi photography that goes with it. She likened the tabloid situation to a “ridiculous show,” like an obviously false soap opera with her name in it.
“I totally understand why people have a hard time separating ourselves from our characters,” she said. “It’s also just sort of the way our world is going. People are obsessed. There’s an incredibly large group of people that spend most of their time considering other people’s lives. It’s strange to me.”
But the nonstop media circus surrounding the franchise has helped the teen actress become more self-assured in some ways. At last year’s “Twilight” press day, she came across as shy, awkward and a little moody.
“I think I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with talking about myself and knowing that what you say people are really going to take into consideration. And that always intimidated me so much that I minced every word that came out of my mouth. I couldn’t finish a sentence because I was so concerned about how it was going to sound,” said Stewart, dressed in her trademark grungy-cool style with a black T-shirt and jacket, dark eyeliner and her black hair casually pulled back.
In between playing Bella in “New Moon” and the third installment, “Eclipse,” which wrapped filming in October, Stewart portrayed Joan Jett in “The Runaways,” the upcoming biopic of the seminal all-girl rock band. She got to know Jett personally and studied footage of the ’70 band.
“I can only play characters that I feel like are real people and in a complete way and in such a whole way that if I fake any aspect of it I will have failed them,” she said. “I really wanted to do a good impersonation, but I also didn’t want it to be imitation. I wanted it to be natural.”
Although filming “New Moon” was an intense process, Stewart said she is at ease playing an ordinary teen who finds herself in paranormal circumstances. She is looking forward to taking Bella through to the series’ end with “Breaking Dawn.”
“I’m very protective of her. I feel a shared ownership. It’s weird. If you were talk about the character in a way that was not at all thought out or flippant I would be right there to say that you didn’t know what you were talking about. I’m so defensive of her,” she said.
-BAM
Robert Pattinson plays vision and vampire in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”
Robert Pattinson plays vampire Edward Cullen in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
‘New Moon’ rising for sexy vampire
Actor Robert Pattinson’s life changed by ‘Twilight’ series
LOS ANGELES — Robert Pattinson goes from vampire to vision in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.”
The British actor, 23, not only plays brooding vampire hunk Edward Cullen in the eagerly awaited sequel, opening today, he also appears as a flickering apparition to his human ex-girlfriend, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart).
“Those scenes were the hardest scenes,” Pattinson said in a press conference at the plush Four Seasons Hotel. “It’s not Edward. It’s a manifestation of Bella’s loneliness and desperation. … It was always very difficult. I asked Kristen, ‘How would you play it?’ It’s her opinion. So that was hard.”
Based on the second book in Stephenie Meyer’s popular saga, “New Moon” begins with the seeming fairytale romance between Edward and Bella. But when a minor accident puts Bella in mortal jeopardy, Edward breaks off their relationship and departs Forks, Wash. Bella is left reeling but soon learns she can hear Edward’s voice when she puts herself in danger.
Instead of just using Pattinson’s voice, the filmmakers opted to have Edward appear to Bella in adrenaline-induced visions. But the choice wasn’t just about film as a visual medium: Since starring in last year’s blockbuster “Twilight,” Pattinson has become an international heartthrob.
“It’s tricky. You don’t want too much Edward because then you lose the really important sense of missing him. On some level you don’t want too little because everyone loves Rob,” said “New Moon” director Chris Weitz.
Producer Wyck Godfrey said fighting the instinct to expand Pattinson’s role was vital to developing the saga’s supernatural love triangle. Edward has to be absent so that Bella’s friend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), who is a werewolf, emerges as a viable love interest.
The filmmakers used green screen to model the ghostly visions on the dynamics of candlelight.
“The way that he moves and flitters in and out is the way that a candle’s flame would behave. So “It’s very subjective to Bella’s experience,” Weitz said. “And I think it’s fair to cheat in that because it’s one of the powers available to a moviemaker as opposed to a novelist.”
Pattinson actually lobbied Weitz to cut out some of his ethereal appearances in post-production, arguing the fewer the visions, the more interesting and eerie they would become.
“Even before we started shooting, people were asking questions and saying, ‘Oh, are you worried that people will think there’s not enough Edward in it?’ But he’s not in the book. I was so worried that it was just going to be random scenes. There was talk, at the beginning, of showing his back story in South America, going around moping. That would have been terrifying for me, and I think it would have been catastrophic for the film as well. I fought as far as I could to keep it as limited as possible, mainly because it just doesn’t happen in the book. But then, at the same time, it’s scary just to do a voice-over because it could end up being very cheesy,” he said.
Although his character appears in it the least, Pattinson said “New Moon” is the “Twilight” book he connected to the most.
“It’s the one … that humanized Edward for me the most, as well. In the first one, he still does remain, from beginning to end, an idealistic character. But, in the second one, he makes a mistake that’s acknowledged by everybody, including himself,” said Pattinson, who looked movie star handsome in a plaid shirt, black jeans and black leather jacket with carefully mussed hair.
Filming one of the sequel’s most dramatic sequences in Italy, when Edward starts to reveal himself in the sunlight, also let the actor connect to fans’ fervor for the vampire hero.
“It was one of the closest moments I really felt to people’s emotional attachment to the character because there were so many extras there who were just ‘Twilight’ fans,” he said. “It’s been the one moment, since the first Comic-Con, where I’ve felt the whole weight of anticipation and responsibility to all the people who are so obsessed with the stories. It was a good moment. It was very nerve-wracking, but I probably felt the most in character that I’ve ever felt, throughout the whole series.”
The rising star has yet to truly connect with how much “Twilight” has changed his life. He has worked on three movies this year: “New Moon,” the next sequel “Eclipse” and the romantic drama “Remember Me.” And he likely will spend most of 2010 on sets, with plans to appear in the sexy period piece “Bel Ami,” the Western “Unbound Captives” and the fourth “Twilight” movie, “Breaking Dawn,” which he said is tentatively set to shoot in fall.
“I don’t know what doing errands and things is really like ‘cause I haven’t had a sustained period of time where I’ve been off. I don’t know how it’s really changed. I still feel like I’m pretty much exactly the same, which is maybe not a good thing,” he said.
-BAM
Taylor Lautner talks transformations for “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”
Taylor Lautner plays Jacob Black in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
‘New Moon’ cast talks transformations
Taylor Lautner transformed for sequel
LOS ANGELES — Dangling from wires 10 feet above the ground, “Twilight” actor Taylor Lautner had time this spring to ponder his transformation.
“The famous trailer shot when I’m running through the field and I jump up and try and fly in midair, I’m attached to wires and … I let the wires pull me up in the air and jerk me to a stop and I just have to freeze there and let them convert my body into a CGI wolf. The whole time I’m like, ‘I hope I look cool,’” Lautner said during a recent press conference at the swank Four Seasons Hotel ballroom.
For the anticipated sequel “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” opening in theaters today, Lautner, 17, metamorphosed in more ways than one. In the second film based on Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling book series, heroine Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is devastated when her vampire boyfriend Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) leaves her. Bella’s growing friendship childhood pal Jacob Black (Lautner) raises her spirits, but her life again gets supernaturally strange when Jacob turns into a werewolf.
“Jacob transforms a lot in ‘New Moon,’ not only physically but mentally and emotionally as well. So it was a matter of getting to the gym and eating the right food and a lot of it. But also reading and studying the book and the character over and over and over again so I could have his character down,” he said.
“Basically my job was to continue what I started in ‘Twilight,’ which was this extremely happy, friendly, outgoing guy, best friends with Bella. I had to continue that for the first half of the film, but as soon as I transform, I snap and I become a completely different person.”
Jacob plays a small part in the first film, but his role expands as the Quileute Indian teen takes his place in the series’ paranormal love triangle. While Stewart and Pattinson were already set for “New Moon,” Lautner had to earn his role in the sequel.
In the book, Jacob rapidly grows tall and muscular as he becomes a werewolf. So Lautner packed on 30 pounds of muscle to secure the part. Before that, recasting was a real possibility, said director Chris Weitz.
“But I was always convinced that he was going to be able to do it,” Weitz said. “The doubts came up because he had very few scenes in the first movie. Also because he’s described as being 6-foot-5 in the second book, (there were) some reasonable facts that we had to come to grips with. But I like the sort of sweetness of this character in the first movie, and I knew that it was easier to take an actor in the direction of anger and rage than it was to find someone who is kind of a hunk or 6-foot-5 Native American and somehow turn him into that very sweet-natured persona that Taylor brings out so well.”
To bulk up, Lautner spent five days a week in the gym. But the hard part was consuming more than 3,200 calories a day. which meant “putting something in your mouth every two hours.”
“I’m busy, I’m downtown L.A., I’m (going) from meeting to meeting. There’s not time for me to be eating,” he said. “So I literally would have to carry a little Baggie of beef patties, raw almonds, sweet potatoes.” So it’s not like every two hours I’m eating ice cream.”
Pattinson first saw Lautner’s new look when filming started in spring in Vancouver, British Columbia.
“I had the same reaction as everybody else. “I was like, ‘Now I have to go to the gym,’” he said.
The time spent shaping his physique paid off. when filming started. Despite the Canadian cold, Lautner spent most of the sequel shirtless.
“There’s a reason that he’s not wearing clothes all the time. One, when he transforms (into a werewolf), all his clothes get shredded. He can’t help it. And when he goes into the woods to get something to put on so he’s not naked, it’s just a ripped pair of jean shorts. He’s also hot. He’s 108 degrees,” said Lautner, who wore dark slacks, a white button-down shirt and gray jacket.
“The thing is, “I love this character, I love this story, and putting on the weight and not wearing much clothing was required by the role. A year from now, if I love a story and I love a character that requires me to lose 40 pounds, I’m ready to do it.”
“The Twilight Saga” also has transformed Lautner into a tabloid star. In between filming “New Moon” and making the next sequel, “Eclipse,” this fall, he starred opposite country music star Taylor Swift in the upcoming movie “Valentine’s Day.” He declined to address the rumored romance between them, but said she was great to work with on the film.
“I’d have to say the biggest transformation would be my schedule. I’m really, really busy, but it’s a lot of fun,” Lautner said. “It’s been a great experience. I’m really excited to be part of this.”
-BAM
Movie review: “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”
Carlisle (Peter Facinelli) comes to Bella’s (Kristen Stewart) aid after she is injured in an accident in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.”
A version of this review appears in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. 3 of 4 stars.
‘New Moon’ not as biting as book
‘Twilight’ fans will enjoy second installment in movie saga, but too much potential is left on novel’s pages
A bigger budget and a pack of charismatic werewolves work wonders for “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” the second film in the supernatural romance saga.
The sequel can’t avoid moments of awkward teen melodrama, made more painful by a few bad performances and an overbearing score from composer Alexandre Desplat. But fans of Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling book, especially those who align themselves with Team Jacob, will likely find the film a satisfying cinematic experience.
As with its predecessor, the 2008 blockbuster “Twilight,” “New Moon” leaves too much potential of Meyer’s addictive novels on the page. That may be unavoidable since so much of the books are set inside the head and heart of heroine Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart).
In “New Moon,” Bella remains blissfully in love with Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), a vampire who abstains from human blood. But she is haunted by dreams of growing old while he stays eternally young.
Her nightmares are just beginning. At her 18th birthday party, a minor accident puts Bella in serious jeopardy. Fearing for her safety, Edward breaks up with Bella and the Cullen coven leaves the town of Forks, Wash.
Bella plunges into a numbing depression, but starts to recover when she discovers she can conjure visions of Edward by putting herself in danger. The revelation leads her to She takes a pair of junker motorcycles to her childhood pal Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), a Quileute Indian teen and aspiring mechanic.
As her friendship with Jacob grows, Bella’s broken heart begins to heal. But her life gets supernaturally strange again when Jacob unintentionally taps into his tribe’s genetic ability to transform into werewolves and becomes part of the pack led by Sam Uley (Chaske Spencer).
Director Chris Weitz (“The Golden Compass”) takes the helm from “Twilight’s” Catherine Hardwicke, and his experience with computer-generated images proves invaluable. The lightning-fast werewolf transformations are impressive, and the hulking beasts are scary as they battle. The super-speed of the vampires remains problematic; “New Moon” uses more slow-mo than a 1980s rock video, which is still an improvement over the cheesy effects in “Twilight.”
Weitz greatly benefits from a less stingy budget, so the entire film, from the deathly white vampire makeup to the character’s clothes, looks much better. He and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg also make key plot changes to beef up the action, which may irritate “Twihard” purists but enhance the movie.
On the whole, the mostly young cast seems more at ease with their roles, particularly Lautner as Jacob, and the addition of gifted actors such as Michael Sheen and Dakota Fanning as the intimidating Volturi vampires boosts the talent level. But Jackson Rathbone’s horribly wooden performance as Jasper deflates one of the film’s most dramatic moments.
While the sequel should have fans squealing, “New Moon” probably won’t convert too many holdouts. Many of the teenage declarations of devotion are embarrassing, and the multitude of shirtless-young-men moments should induce cringes from anyone older than 16.
-BAM
Video: “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” sneak peek
Well, “Twihard” fans, we finally made it! “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” Week continues here on BAM’s Blog, and I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that today is the big opening day for the hotly anticipated sequel.
I recently traveled to Los Angeles to take part in the huge press day for “New Moon,” participating in news conferences with Taylor Lautner, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and many of the other stars and filmmakers attached to the film. I’ve shared many of those interviews with you in the past few days, with more to come.
Talented NewsOK videographer Grayson Cook assembled this special sneak peek video of “New Moon,” which also features greetings from yours truly from L.A.
Happy watching, “Twihards!”
-BAM
Oklahoma City’s first IMAX screen lights up Friday, grand opening planned for “Avatar”
Oklahoma City’s first IMAX theater will become operational Friday, showing the high-tech holiday adaptation “Disney’s A Christmas Carol,” reports The Oklahoman Business Writer Jennifer Palmer.
One of the 24 auditoriums in the AMC theater at Quail Springs Mall has been converted to an IMAX theater, complete with a larger, curved screen, the latest sound system and digital projector. To convert the auditorium, several rows of the front seats also were removed, reducing capacity from about 525 to 450.
Tickets will cost $4 for IMAX films than for regular movies, Jennifer reports. Movies shown in the IMAX theater also will be featured in a regular auditorium.
The Quail Springs theater will be the only AMC IMAX in the Oklahoma City market, an IMAX spokesman told Jennifer. Tulsa has boasted an IMAX theater for a few years, but the new auditorium will be Oklahoma City’s first IMAX outlet.
The grand opening for the Quail Springs IMAX auditorium will be Dec. 18, to coincide with the debut of James Cameron’s long-awaited sci-fi adventure “Avatar.”
-BAM
Jamie Campbell Bower compares “Twilight” and “Harry Potter” phenomena
Above, Jamie Campbell Bower plays vampire Caius in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.” Below, Jamie Campbell Bower poses at a photocall for “New Moon” at last month’s Rome Film Festival. (Associated Press photo)
Actor Jamie Campbell Bower (”Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”) joins the “Twilight” film franchise with the sequel “New Moon” as Caius, one of the leaders of the Volturi vampire coven.
“We are basically the vampire government, I guess. We’re there to sort of keep all the vampires in check. People keep describing us as evil. I wouldn’t say we’re evil necessarily. We’re the government and not everybody likes the government, which is fine. So, we’re there to keep everybody in check. Without us … it would be vampire anarchy,” he said during a recent “New Moon” press conference in Los Angeles.
The British actor also is a newcomer to the “Harry Potter” franchise. He is playing Gellert Grindelwald, an old wizarding friend of Albus Dumbledore, in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I” and “Part 2.”
“The ‘Twilight’ phenomenon cinematically is relatively young so there’s still a lot of growth there to go with the film and there’s still a lot of connections to be made between cast and crew and stuff, whereas with ‘Potter’ they’ve been going for 10 years now. It’s a machine, ‘Potter.’ You go in, you do your thing and then you go on, whereas with this, it’s a lot more finding out about everything and a lot more exploration to do in general,” he said.
Based on J.K. Rowling’s final novel in the “Harry Potter” series, his role will be a small but pivotal one.
“They’re still working on it. They’re shooting simultaneously because they’ve obviously got lots of time scheduled and they have to do both side by side,” he said.
“At the moment, I’ve only worked on it for about a week. I think I’ve got another week and a bit to go.”
“The Twilight Saga: New Moon” Week continues here on BAM’s Blog, and of course, Friday is the big day. Not only is the film opening, but I’ll have features on Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart, along with my review of the movie.
-BAM
Coen Brothers’ “True Grit” remake at center of Oklahoma film incentives debate
The Coen brothers hold the three Oscars they won for their 2007 film “No Country for Old Men.” (Associated Press photo)
Oscar-winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen are considering Oklahoma as a possible site for their remake of the 1969 Western “True Grit,” Jill Simpson, director of the Oklahoma Film and Music Office, told a state House committee Tuesday.
The Oklahoman’s State Capitol Reporter Michael McNutt reports that Simpson told the committee that shooting on the film is expected to start in March.
The state film incentive program is capped at $5 million a year. Simpson asked the House Economic Development and Financial Services Committee to remove the current $5 million annual cap, Michael reports.
Ten films that are shooting in Oklahoma are vowed to get about $5.5 million in rebates this fiscal year, she said.
Two movies already are committed to get rebates in fiscal year 2011, which starts July 1, she said. Those two commitments, plus a carryover of about $557,000 from this fiscal year, leaves only $1.2 million in rebates available next year for the high-profile Coen brothers’ project.
A state law that took effect July 1 boosted the program from a rebate of up to 15 percent on production expenditures in Oklahoma to 35 percent.
Simpson said that it is estimated “True Grit,” a film projected to cost about $35 million, would spend about $13 million in production costs in Oklahoma. That would make the filmmakers eligible for a rebate of $4.6 million from the state.
She told lawmakers that films shot in Oklahoma provide positive publicity, create jobs and help the economy.
“They come in because of the incentives and then they fall in love with the locations,” Simpson said, citing the filmmakers of “The Killer Inside Me,” which shot in several Oklahoma cities earlier this year and want to make thee more films in the state.
To read the rest of Michael’s interesting story, click here.
The Coen brothers have tapped stars Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin and Matt Damon to join their “True Grit” cast. The Coens have said they plan to make their version more faithful to Charles Portis’ novel than the 1969 film that won John Wayne his best actor Oscar.
-BAM
Wednesday Video Spotlight: “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”
“The Twilight Saga: New Moon” Week continues here on BAM’s Blog, and in this Wednesday Video Spotlight, I’m sharing some trailers, TV spots, featurettes, as well as Taylor Swift’s hilarious “Saturday Night Live” parody “Firelight.”
I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that “New Moon” opens in theaters on Friday.
-BAM
Kellan Lutz shares his strategy for dealing with paparazzi
Kellan Lutz, who plays Emmett Cullen in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” poses for photos with fans at the film’s premiere Monday night in Los Angeles. (Associated Press photo)
The pop-culture whirlwind swirling around “The Twilight Saga” has swept up the actors involved in the first film, last year’s “Twilight,” and the sequel “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” opening Friday.
Kellan Lutz, who plays vampire Emmett Cullen in the franchise, has developed a strategy for dealing with the paparazzi:
“I think it’s great to adopt a pet — a dog that bites. I mean, that’s where the paparazzi will stop. … My dog, Kola, does not like anyone that she’s not friendly with,” he said at a recent press conference with fellow Cullen coven actors Nikki Reed, Ashley Greene and Elizabeth Reaser at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles.
He noted that Greene also has a dog, Marlow, “which is kind of small but hurts.”
“So the paparazzi stops at my front gate. And it’s usually kind of crazy have paparazzi step outside your house. And the coolest thing with the Vancouver (where ’New Moon’ was filmed) guys (is that) are they’re respectable, and they will just ask for a signature or photo and let us go about and go and, you know, have a cast dinner away from set where we can feel human and we’re out of the white makeup and the contacts,” he said.
On the other hand, Lutz noted that being part of such a beloved franchise is gratifying.
“The fans are always so great, and they’re giving us presents, which is so crazy ‘cause we’re allowed to work because of them. And the time they put into making dolls or buying gummi bears or anything like that, it’s very humbling. So it’s really nice to just have everyone who is respectful just understand that it’s a job at the end of the day. We aren’t really these characters in life. And just thank them for everything.”
Gummi bears are probably among Lutz’s favorite gifts, since he admitted an obsession with candy, as well as with animals.
“I’m a huge animal advocate. And I just love animals,” he said.
To read my feature on Lutz, which appeared here on the blog Sunday, click here.
-BAM
