New
Moon Over Comic Con!
We interview Rob, Kristen and Taylor!
By: Christina Radish
 Our
reporter attended this year's big convention in San Diego and got the
scoop on New Moon from the key actors. We'll be bringing you
all the complete interviews.
To kick off
their appearance at this year’s massive San Diego Comic-Con, Robert
Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner, the three lead stars of
The Twilight Saga: New Moon actors took questions from members
of the press and spoke about what fans can expect from the eagerly anticipated
next installment.
Clearly one
of the biggest attractions at the Con, the event drew fans by the thousands
who camped out (some from as early as Tuesday, when the panel didn’t
take place until Thursday afternoon), waiting to catch just a glimpse
of the actors bringing their favorite book characters to life on the big
screen. Admittedly overwhelmed by the unexpected reaction they received
last year, the more-prepared actors expressed their appreciation and shared
some insight into New Moon, due out on November 20th.
AGW: How does
it feel for all three of you to be back at Comic-Con this year?
Taylor: It’s
good. It’s exciting. I think last year Comic-Con was the big eye
opener for us, so it’s awesome to be back and embrace all of our
fans again, for everything they’ve done this past year.
AGW: Rob,
can you talk about why teenagers love vampires?
Robert: I
think we’re the worst people to ask about it. The problem is that,
when I looked at it, I never looked at it as a vampire story, right from
the beginning. When I try to play it, I try to eliminate the vampire element,
as much as I can, and just see it as a tool to make their relationship
a little more fraught. Right after the audition, I found myself bizarrely
invested in the story and I hadn’t even read the books, at that
point. I’ve gotten more and more attached to it. I’ve been
talking about the script for Eclipse to people, over the last
few weeks, and I find myself getting very argumentative, which I’m
not usually. They definitely have some kind of power.
AGW: Which
of the novels resonates the most for you, as a reader or as an actor,
and which are you most enthused about working in?
Taylor: My
favorite book was actually Eclipse. I’m pretty excited
that. It’s gotten action. The action levels continue to build, in
this series. Also, Twilight sets up the romance between Bella
and Edward, and then Bella and Jacob’s friendship grows in New
Moon. But, in Eclipse, it’s actually the three of
them physically together, and we have to team up and make this decision
to try and be friends to protect Bella. I think the love triangle in Eclipse
is the ultimate high point of the series, so I’m excited to get
going.
Kristen: I
liked New Moon, just in terms of how far I can push myself within
the series. I feel like, after New Moon, it’s smooth sailing
for Bella. She’s very, very solid, content and happy. But, in the
second one, she’s nothing. She’s literally just lost. I got
to find her again.
Robert: I
think that New Moon was my favorite book as well, mainly because
I like the juxtaposition. Edward is such a hyped character, and there
are so many people looking at him like a romantic hero. In New Moon,
the way that I read it anyway, he’s just so humbled. It’s
a character who’s looking at Bella and thinking that he loves something
too much, but he can’t be around. He deliberately starts breaking
up their relationship, which I think is a very relatable thing that is
very painful.
And, in the
fight sequence at the end, Bella ends up saving Edward, as she does in
every single one of the books. It’s really funny how everyone looks
at Edward as the hero, and he’s continuously saved by the damsel
in distress. I think he really realizes that in New Moon. Eclipse
is really him trying to catch up with Jacob because he’s so out
of the loop and he can’t speak in superlatives anymore. He’s
accepted being alive and he needs to catch up to Jacob. So, I always liked
New Moon.
AGW: Rob,
in the book, even though you leave Bella, you’re very much an integral
part of her thoughts, which must be a challenge to represent onscreen.
How did you and director Chris Weitz accomplish that?
 Robert:
Well, it’s through a process. It’s just a voice. Edward’s
just a voice in the book, and so I guess it would look pretty cheesy if
it were just my voice, so they’ve done these hallucinations, that
are these semi-visible apparitions.
Kristen: It’s
suggestive. It’s how she remembers him, not necessarily how he actually
is.
AGW: Taylor,
can you talk about Jacob’s transformation in this movie, and your
personal transformation that you had to go through to play the role?
Taylor: Yeah.
When I was filming Twilight, I knew that Jacob’s character
changed a lot, so if I wanted to continue portraying him correctly, I
had a lot of work ahead of myself. So, as soon as I finished filming Twilight,
I started hitting the gym. I got a personal trainer. I started eating
a lot of food, which good food, of course, like proteins and good carbs,
and cut the sugars. It was a lot of work, but it was definitely worth
it.
AGW: Kristen,
in the Twilight series, Bella’s story arc really starts
to develop in New Moon and she becomes an active protagonist. Was it more
difficult to prepare for the role, this time around, or vice versa?
Kristen: I
wouldn’t say that one was more difficult than the other. This is
a severely emotional movie. That’s the one big difference. This
movie is not about discovery or falling in love, which is just an intense
emotion, but this is low, and there high points for her, too. She’s
a manic depressive, basically. To have a character be able to pull her
out of that is a hefty feat, which I think we pulled off. But, for me,
there was no difference. It was just heavier and it was more to think
about. It’s a more mature part, strictly because she’s older
and she has more to deal with.
AGW: Can you
talk a little bit about how your lives have changed since we saw you here
last summer?
Robert: I
don’t know. I’d like to think that I haven’t changed
that much. Within myself, I don’t think I’ve changed. I think
I look down a lot more now. It’s kind of extraordinary. I don’t
think that any of us expected any of this to happen, and especially that
the magnitude of this franchise seems to keep building and building. Comic-Con
really was the eye opener, and it’s just gotten bigger and bigger.
It’s an interesting thing to deal with.
Taylor: Another
thing that’s changed for me is that my schedule has gotten really,
really busy, doing publicity and working on other things. It’s crazy.
None of us saw it coming and, since last year, it’s definitely been
a ride, for all of us.
Kristen: I
cut my hair off.
AGW: What
would say have been the highs and the lows of this whole experience?
Kristen: Well,
this is definitely a high. There’s only been a couple of images
from the movie that have been released, and they’ve all been received
really well, so I’m really excited for people to see some of it.
It’s a little overwhelming to have so many people here, but I guess
that’s good.
 Taylor:
It’s awesome because this is our opportunity to come out and thank
our fans for everything that they’ve done for us and for Twilight.
We get to embrace them again. We’re so thankful for them. So, it’s
awesome that we get to see them all waiting for us, again, a year later
with the same, if not definitely more passion and dedication. It’s
really exciting. I’m a little nervous, but it’s good.
Robert: I
don’t know. I think it’s still so young, to me, anyway. I
can’t claim anything to be a low. I pretty live an almost identical
life, apart from being recognized. That’s not exactly the worst
thing in the world.
AGW: With
all the attention and all the paparazzi following you, how do you manage
to get anything normal done in your everyday life?
Robert: I
never do anything normal, anyway. I just get other people to do it now.
AGW: How does
this massive embracing of Team Edward and Team Jacob plays into your performances?
Taylor: I
think that everything is kind of crazy about this franchise. That’s
why we love it so much, and that’s why the fans do as well. But,
yeah, there are definitely a lot of fans who are on the two separate teams.
Sometimes, it gets me a little nervous because I’m trying to live
up to the fans’ expectations and represent Team Jacob, in the right
way. I don’t want to disappoint them, so that’s why I worked
so hard, not only mentally and emotionally, but physically as well because
this guy is some pretty good competition. I’ve done a lot of hard
work
AGW: How did
you guys address that fact that Rob’s not in this film as much as
Twilight, which might be disappointing to fans?
Kristen: He’s
in it a lot.
Robert: They
won’t be disappointed either. If he doesn’t go, you can’t
miss him, and that’s what this whole movie is about. It’s
that empty, completely dark place where Edward is absent.
Taylor: If
he was absent, they would miss him very deeply.
AGW: Rob,
with the experience of working with a new director and a new vibe on set,
how has it been, this time around?
Robert: It
wasn’t just the director that made this one different. It was so
different as well because we kind of knew what type of animal that we
were dealing. I was much more of a supporting role, in this one. I started
three weeks after they started shooting and I did a lot of my first scenes
doing the apparition scenes. That was a lot of me doing, maybe, one word.
It was actually one of the most relaxing jobs that I’ve ever done.
Chris has a really peaceful presence and I got on really well with him.
I pretty much had a stress-free job, for three months. It was great for
me. All the pressure was on Taylor.
AGW: Taylor,
when you saw the trailer for the first time and watched yourself morph,
what went through your mind?
Taylor: I
thought that they did a pretty good job with the wolf transformation.
I’m excited that there are werewolves involved now because the werewolves
definitely step up the action in the movie. There is double the action
in this movie than there was before and there’s also a different
dynamic. Now, it’s not just this romance between a human girl and
a vampire, but it’s the beginning of a love triangle, so that’s
exciting.
AGW: How much
of the final film have you guys seen, and what was your feeling after
seeing what you’ve seen so far?
Taylor: We’ve
seen just about as much as the fans have seen.
 AGW:
Are you anxious to see the final movie then?
Kristen: I
think it’s a different kind of anxious, but yeah, definitely.
Robert: Aesthetically,
it looks very different. The script was very different. It’s a completely
different mood. So, I’m really interested to see how it works out.
AGW: Do you
have a favorite scene from this film, that stands out as your favorite
one to shoot?
Kristen: Taylor’s
favorite scene before we shot the movie didn’t turn out to be his
favorite.
Taylor: I
have a lot of favorite scenes, so that’s a really difficult question
for me. I like a lot of the cool action scenes I get to do because I just
had a lot of fun with those. My original favorite scene was a really small
scene that I just thought was kind of cute. It was the scene where I walk
her up to Bella’s door and say goodbye to her. I’m going off
to fight in the woods and she’s worried. She’s scared for
me. I thought that it was kind of cute, but I also like the break-up scene.
Kristen: Yeah,
that’s my favorite scene in the movie. We call it a break-up scene
because he basically tells her that they can’t be friends anymore
and he’s transforming. If Taylor ever, ever treated me like that,
it would kill me.
Taylor: It
was also painful to shoot because it was 35 degrees and we had rain poured
on us. It was rain tower rain, which is straight from the spring and it
was freezing. It was bad.
Robert: I
think my break-up scene was my favorite scene. Hopefully, it’ll
come off as having quite a few more levels than the relationship in Twilight.
It was interesting. It was a five page long dialogue scene. That didn’t
happen at all, in the first one, and it’s quite an interesting little
moment. It completely bypasses all the supernatural elements of the story
as well.
AGW: Why do
you think people embrace these stories? Is it the themes, the characters,
the subject, the darkness, the romance?
Kristen: I
don’t know. That’s the most common question and we get that
all the time.
Taylor: I
think a lot of the characters are relatable, and there are so many different
ones. People can relate to different characters and their experiences.
Kristen: It’s
just like anything else, like any movie. You could say that about anything.
You relate to the characters. I always say that it’s because it’s
first person narrative and you’re so very much inside of Bella’s
head that it’s closer to home. You feel like it’s not happening
to someone else. You feel like it’s sort of happening to you.
AGW: What
is the one Twilight question that you never want to answer again?
Robert: (Joking)
What’s it like kissing Taylor Lautner.
Taylor: To
growl. Fans actually ask me to growl for them, and I really don’t
enjoy doing that. So, please don’t ask me to growl. Just wait for
the movie.
Kristen: You
can ask me anything you want.
AGW: Rob,
did you read Midnight Sun to help you understand Edward’s
perspective?
Robert: Yes,
but that was more in relation to Twilight. It was, literally,
what the entire storyline was in Twilight, just from Edward’s
perspective. I didn’t really look too much at that for New Moon
because, for whatever reason, I could connect a lot more to New Moon
than I could to Twilight.
AGW: Will
there be any musical contributions from you in New Moon?
Robert: No.
all pictures
courtesy of and copyright Christina Radish Agency/Photo, 2009
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