Twilight
Trio
Rachelle Lefevre, Taylor Lautner and Edi Gathegi
by Lynn Barker
 Who
turns out to be the most fun of the Twilight cast members to
interview? Two vamps and a wolfboy! We sat down with feisty red-head Rachelle
Lefevre (Victoria), funny and well-spoken Edi Gathegi (Laurent) and very
cute Taylor Lautner (Jacob) in Beverly Hills recently and got the impression
that these actors enjoy each other's company and had a blast on their
Portland, Oregon shoot for the film.
Rachel told
us about a very early fan encounter, Edi talked about Laurent's elegant
"look" and Taylor convinced us that teen Quileute Indian guys
are questing for girls in bikinis just like every other guy their age.
Join our wacky and fun chat and paint a mental picture of gorgeous, red-haired
Rachelle in black jacket, tee and shorts, high black mary-jane heels and
a long gold pendant necklace. Edi was wearing casual baseball cap, tee
and jeans, the total opposite of the Laurent look, Taylor, whose hair
is still black but short and spikey-cute, in jeans, white tennies and
a white long-sleeved tee with gold crest design.
AGW: Rachelle,
Victoria has some interesting clothes in the movie. Did you have any say
into Victoria's costumes at all?
Rachelle:
Oh yeah! Catherine (Hardwicke, the director) and I were in a room with
racks and racks of clothing and we started telling each other what we
thought about the character based on the three books. We got as much information
as we could and then, from there, it unfolded in this three hour fitting
where I was in all kinds of crazy things; leather pants to jeans to cut-off
shorts and all kinds of crazy outfits and we just played and made sure
that we had a story for everything. Everything had a purpose. Yeah, I
felt really involved in the costume process.
Edi: I remember
Catherine was really hands on. She brought in a belt from her personal
wardrobe for me to wear but we couldn't use it because I had a stunt double
and you needed to have two of everything and she only had that one belt.
Rachelle:
She'll give you the shirt off her back. Anything for the film, totally.
Edi: And it
my case, no shirt off her back (we all laugh).
Rachelle:
Which was the best thing for the film (more laughter).
AGW: Taylor,
did you have fun with Jacob's long hair?
Taylor: Oh
yes, tons of fun. No! (laughs). When I first found out I was going to
be wearing a wig, I was really excited. I was like 'Oh, cool! and, after
the first day, I was done with it.
AGW: The '80's
rocker vibe just wore off, huh?
Taylor: (laughs).
Yeah. It was itchy. It was in my mouth when I was trying to eat. When
I was doing the scenes, it was in my mouth when I was trying to talk so
yeah.
AGW: Did you
guys refrain from looking at any of the blog stuff at all or did you check
it out and go 'what did they say about me and my character'?
 Edi:
At the beginning, I think all of us were very, very curious because I
don't think any of us had been a part of anything this big before and
I saw that the fans were sort of disgruntled about my casting choice because
Stephenie doesn't necessarily have an African-American in the book but
Laurent is described as being 'olive-toned' so what I did is I decided
to address the issue head on, I said 'listen, she describes this character
as being 'olive-toned' but there are many different types of olives. Black
olives anyone? (laughter). Then the next day the fans read it and they
became instant supporters and believers saying things like 'As far as
I'm concerned, black olives are the only olives in my world and he's perfect
for the job'.
Rachelle:
He's a genius, by the way.
Taylor: It's
hard for the fans because they're just so in love and dedicated to the
series. They have this really detailed picture of what their favorite
character is supposed to look like and act like. So, it's hard for them.
I try and stay away from it. I'd say the weirdest thing I have seen on
the internet is a friend of mine or family member sent me a link and asked
me what this was. I clicked on the link and there was women's thongs being
sold on the internet with my name imprinted on the front of it 'Team Taylor".
Rachelle:
Welcome to your new life.
AGW: Taylor,
did you study any werewolf lore or anything about Indians in that part
of the country?
Taylor: Yeah,
I actually did. Before I went up to Portland, I did some research on the
internet about the Quileute tribe and I learned some of their legends;
very interesting. I made a booklet and brought that booklet up with me
to Portland and I got to meet like eight or ten Quileute tribal members.
They came down to Portland to meet me. I just had dinner with them and
talked with them and the biggest surprise was learning that the kids are
just like me. Their hobbies are football and, quote, 'checking out girls
on the beach'. (laughter) Pretty fun to learn.
Rachelle:
At which point, he knew he could play the role perfectly (laughter).
AGW: Edi,
you play your character Laurent as very classy and royal in the way you
carry yourself. When you created your character did you re-read those
parts of the book or just create your own stance and look?
Edi: The book
was the source material. That's where I started from and I did my own
personal research and imaginative work. I was trying to model parts of
my character after Saint George (Monsieur de Saint-George) who was this
famous French black man who was a fencer and a renowned lover and a general
of an army who was like the Renaissance man; very regal. And I thought
maybe Laurent, in his human form, was like friends with this guy and that
was the circle that he traveled in.
AGW: Very
cool! Have any of you had problems with fans rushing up to you yet?
Taylor: I
think we've all encountered it.
Rachelle:
I had one that caught me off guard. We had just finished filming and I
had been back in L.A. for a month or two and I went to a very, very small
bar to have a drink with a girlfriend and celebrate her birthday. After
three or four songs, I went outside to get some air and I hear (intake
of breath) 'Are you playing Victoria in "Twilight?' I was like 'Oh
my God, it's one in the morning'. I turned around and there were these
girls who must have been about twenty-two, that happened to be walking
by this tiny little bar at exactly the same time that I was going out
to get air. At that point they hadn't aired clips from the film. Nobody
had seen anything. There had just been the internet with our casting and
our photos and I thought 'oh, my God, if this is what's happening now....yeah,
and especially for the guys. We have such a strong female fan base.
AGW: How about
the guys? Anyone asking you out on dates or any marriage proposals?
Rachelle:
They were screaming things like that at them at Comic Con 'marry me!'
Edi: 'I wanna
have your babies!' (laughter)
Taylor: Yeah,
we had the babies incident.
Rachelle:
That's a good sound-byte, 'we had the babies incident'.
Edi: The panties
incident, the thong incident.
AGW: Taylor,
are you getting to use your martial arts?
 Taylor:
I'm doing a TV show called "My Own Worst Enemy" with Christian
Slater and I have the genetic make-up of his superspy side so I get to
use some of it in that. I've got a lot of cool action stuff.
Rachelle:
We'll TIVO it.
Edi: Let's
watch it together (the two guys high-five).
Rachelle:
I don't get invited? (pouting, then the guys hug her).
AGW: What
do you guys think the whole "Twilight" series of books and the
films do for the vampire legend?
Edi: I think
this is more of a romance story than anything else with the vampires as
a backdrop. The mythology is completely different. There's no fangs or
garlic or anything like that so I think it's bringing heart to a dark
world. That's what the new tint is, if you color it.
Rachelle:
The thing that I think is so interesting about it is that it's not an
alternate universe; vampires live among us in this world. Everything that
would make it possible to have this change, this virus, this infection,
is still live in the world. For me, I think the fact that Stephenie (Meyer)
did that, opens up all kinds of new possibilities for the genre because
vampires are no longer only at night. So, opening those doors creates
many new avenues for the whole genre.
AGW: Taylor,
did you build up more of a backstory in your head of how you knew Bella
as a kid? Did you expand that or talk with Kristen about it?
Taylor: Yeah,
I did in my own head and the series does explain it a little bit. What
I came up with is that Jacob and Bella, their fathers have been best friends
and they knew each other when they were younger and she moved to Phoenix
and then when she comes back to Forks, it's the first time he's seen her
in a long time since they were kids. Now she's older and she's lookin'
very good and Jacob has the hots for her.
AGW: Very
well said. What was Catherine like as a director? What was she to you
guys?
Taylor: Goofball!
Edi: She's
got a wonderful, childlike energy that's infectious. It's a joy to work
with somebody that eager to get things done and that happy to be there.
Rachelle:
I knew she was going to be amazing in my audition actually because somebody
had to read James so Catherine just jumped up and went, 'I'll do it' and
so my audition tape is actually me and Catherine. There was Catherine
crouching down and really getting into it. I was like 'who are you? You're
amazing'! So, I knew immediately and she carried that energy through the
whole thing.
AGW: Had Cam
(Gigandet) already been cast at that point?
Rachelle:
I don't know actually. It's very possible that he was but she could have
done it. She was like 'you brought a snack', with the voice and everything.
It was crazy and awesome.
All pictures
courtesy of and copyright Summit Entertainment, 2008
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