Moviefone New Moon Unscripted Interview with Dakota Fanning, Michael Sheen and Jamie Campbell Bower

'New Moon' Volturi Dakota Fanning, Michael Sheen and Jamie Campbell Bower discuss the obsession surrounding the 'Twilight Saga' and its impact on their lives. Jamie Campbell Bower talk about how comfortable he is with nude scenes.

New Moon World Premiere: Red Carpet Interviews with New Moon actors

Watch the interview with the New Moon stars during Premiere of Twiligjht Saga: Newmoon Cameron Bright (Alec), Gil Birmingham (Billy Black), and Justine Wachsberger (Gianna).

Extra Quizzes to New Moon Volturi Cast Members

New 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon' Stills

Summit Entertainment has just newly released outdoor poster artwork for New Moon!


Source

Weitz Talks 'New Moon'

It started with a pie. Once Chris Weitz and brother Paul deflowered the dessert in 1999's American Pie, they became two of the most sought-after directors in Hollywood. Though he was barely out of his twenties, Chris Weitz was smart enough not to squander the opportunity, and instead of signing on to keep the sequels coming (seven, counting the straight-to-DVD installments), he held out to direct more literally adult fare like Chris Rock's Down to Earth and About a Boy, the Hugh Grant-led adaptation of the Nick Hornby novel. Weitz invested the next several years in his passion project—the big budget fantasy film The Golden Compass—but the film's irreligious subtext coupled with Weitz's high ambitions and the studio's anxiety doomed the American release. Though worldwide grosses of $372 million justified the estimated $180 million budget, its comparatively small US take left everyone involved backing away from what had once considered a surefire franchise. But with The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Weitz has taken the reins of another hit franchise, and he's certain to steer this one to box office success. Weitz talks to BOXOFFICE about the power of break-up stories and his family's gratitude to vampires—a lineage that stretches back to his grandparents.

How do you direct a film when everyone knows the story and ending?

In a way, that's an advantage. That people know and love the book means that people know and want to see the movie, which is what you hope for when you're making a film. It's a fine balance between being as faithful as possible to the spirit of the book, and bringing changes. I regard myself as fan as much as any other, and the way that I see the book in my head is just like any other fan's ability, except that I happen to have tens of millions of dollars at my disposal to realize that vision. One hopes that it's a strong enough envisioning of the book that people will be amused and entertained and excited even though they know how things are going to end.

One of my favorite New Moon conspiracy theories is that the producers are ordering Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson to keep their love hidden because it will affect the way people will perceive the story, even though the story is already known even until the next two books.

The fans know what the Volturi look like or what Taylor Lautner as Jacob's amazing bod is going to look like—the producers know these things are big points of curiosity about whether we've been able to be faithful to people's notions. And they want to parse these things out over time. [Laughs] It is a conspiracy, but the conspiracy is called marketing.

There are so many films about vampires, vampire romances, teenage romances—what is it about Twilight's love triangle that's catalyzed this phenomenon?

To me, it has a lot less to do with vampires and werewolves than with readily identifiable emotional situations. Bella has a choice between the loving friend who's nearby and the distant, unattainable object of her affections. That's a pretty common scenario, and unfortunately also, so is being dumped. I know I've experienced it—pretty much anybody except the incredibly lucky has experienced it—and the supernatural element of things just allows for a degree of wish fulfillment. We can play out these scenarios on a grand scale. When you get broken up with, you'd like to think that if you just did something brave enough, something amazing enough, you could rescue the relationship that's been broken. And you would like to think that the person who's left you has left you for your own good against their heart. That's usually not the case, but in New Moon it happens to be, so that's a lovely way to fulfill one's wishes. A great thing that Summit as a studio understands is that there are dark places that the movie has to go in order for it all to work. They're not afraid of the angst and the sorrow that's in the book. In a way, the film can be kind of a throwback to weepies as well as very cutting edge in terms of visual effects.

It's got this operatic tone that's like soma for anyone with a broken heart.

We're probably going to put out one of the greatest breakup mix albums of all time on the soundtrack. Alexandre Desplat doing the music means there's this sense of French Romanticism that goes back to Alexandre's mentor Maurice Jarre and everything he did for David Lean's movies—going back to Debussy and Ravel and that kind of stuff. There is a lot of luxuriating in the emotionalism of the piece. I think I'm probably now supposed to add at this point that there's great stuff for guys as well. But leave that aside for the moment.

You talked a minute ago about Pattinson being an 'unattainable male.' We always see stories about men pursuing a woman. It's rare to see stories where a woman really pursues a man, and when you do, it's usually handled like All About Steve, where it teeters into comic stalking.

Farce.

Exactly. You always hear about the male gaze in films, but this seems to have such a strong female gaze. One of the prerequisites is how many times Pattinson and Lautner take off their shirts.

It's there in the script, and that's one for the ladies, really. Women have been objectified plenty in Hollywood films. And there's still sort of a chasteness to the objectification in Twilight and New Moon. One approaches it hopefully with a bit of tact—not just an exercise in beefcake peddling. You hope when you're shooting any kind of above-the-waist nudity that it suits the demand of the moment, it isn't just in there for the hell of it. That being said, I think we did come to Comic-Con with a lot of muscles and it was really fun to see the reaction to it. I've tried to make films that take into account the female members of the audience. Even American Pie, which comes from a genre that is notoriously misogynist.

I would agree with that. In American Pie, you make a point to show the girl's side of why she would or wouldn't do it on Prom Night—it was fair.

We were trying to say, too, that they were really in control of the scenario, and the guys were more or less hopeless schlubs just trying to navigate these waters. The girls were in control of what happened when.

American Pie—like Twilight—was one of those films that made stars of everyone in the cast. This time around, do you find yourself wanting to give this new generation career or life advice?

I don't particularly feel qualified because I'm not in their situation. I don't have to deal with that fame; I'm able to turn it on or off—or rather, the publicity department is able to turn it on and off. I don’t walk around and get recognized. I'm recognized in inverse proportion to my nearness to Rob. There's some kind of equation I could work out. Basically if I'm within 50 yards of Rob, I matter. If not, I just don't. I think that they don't really need my advice because they are determined to remain true to their own life, in spite of anything that might turn their heads. That's the only advice I could give them: that they stay the clever and decent people who they already are. And I don't think they're manifesting any problems in that regard.

I heard that the on-set experience has been like living in A Hard Days Night.

It was like that in Italy. Although it wasn't so much running and chasing. I'd compare it more to The Birds. You look around and then there's suddenly ten girls over there. And then there's 20. Then 30, then 40. And then suddenly the street you're intending to walk down to get to your next location or lunch is just blocked and there's no way to get through. Or you will get through, but it'll take you hours because you'll take pictures and sign autographs. Which is fair enough because they've come all this way and they're really the reason that we're there. Or you'll have to be a real meanie and just run past. I've developed a preoccupied look that sometimes works. I try to seem as though there's something going really badly at a different location, and sometimes that gets me out of situations.

Have there been any crazy fan experiences?

The crazy thing has been how extraordinarily supportive, friendly and enthusiastic people are. They really want this to be done right, but they're not hyper-critical. There's a degree of good faith between the people making the movie and the people who want to see it, and we are innocent until proven guilty. And that's great because that's not always the case with fan boys. I did encounter this Italian girl in Montepulciano who then appeared in Vancouver who speaks impeccable English. That's one of the reasons I recognized her. She came up to me and said, 'Do you remember me?' and I said yes, I did. And then her mom was there and I sort of wanted to ask her mom what else she and her kid were up to because it seemed like she should be in school, but it's really not my place.

Which other book would you love to film?

To be honest, I would love to film The Golden Compass. I would love to have been allowed to do my own cut of The Golden Compass because I did film that book and there could be a real version of it, but it would cost millions of dollars to complete with the special effects. The cut was taken away from me and that was a devastating experience. That's the other book that I would like to film. I wouldn't have the strength to go through another three years to do it, but it is a great shame that the fear of the ideas in the book led the studio to do a version which I think caused its own downfall.

It was a beautiful film, the look of it.

It's a good-looking film. And there are moments where it's precisely the way I wanted it to look or to feel. But it's been put through a blender so that the interesting ideas that it had in it and the real emotional heft of the story was lost. And that's a shame because I take very seriously my responsibilities to an author in trying to represent their vision on film. Failing Philip Pullman in that regard is a big sadness for me because he's one of the authors I most admire in the world.

Between the author and the studio, that can be a lot of weight.

It is, and I have to say that Summit understands that the fans want to see the book in the film, not just a popcorn movie.

It's almost a safety net, having that many people know the book already very well, more than American audiences knew The Golden Compass.

Yes, American audiences weren't that familiar with The Golden Compass. Once you start monkeying around with the plot and characters and key concepts in the film, you really lose what made the book appeal to anyone in the first place. If you take the example of The Lord of the Rings, it wasn't that it made everybody into a geek overnight. People were able to see what had been great about it in the first place, and the adherence to story and character really paid off, even though a lot of people went to see it who hadn't read Lord of the Rings in the first place and didn't know anything else.

What can you tell me about The Game, the film adaptation of the Neil Strauss guide to picking up women?

I can tell you that Rawson Thurber [director of Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story] is going to direct it, and that he is rewriting it now. It's an attempt to walk a very fine line with a project like this. It has things to say about the relationships between men and women and it could be perceived as misogynistic or as a textbook in how to manipulate women. But it's really not about that—it's about the weaknesses of men and women more than anything else.

And your brother Paul also has a high school vampire movie coming out?

He does. That was not planned at all. It's very funny. A week before I was offered New Moon, I was wondering why there were so many vampire movies around. Paul had wanted to indulge a long-standing love of the grotesque, which the Cirque du Freak series allowed with its visuals and that sort of perversity—not perversion, but perversity—of the books and the script. It's a funny coincidence. Actually, if you want to take it one step further, my grandmother was a silent film actress in the Mexican version of Dracula. They shot it on the same sets as the Todd Browning version, but they started shooting at midnight. My grandfather, who was a producer for Universal at the time, was courting my grandmother, and when talkies came out, there were no parts for women with strong Mexican accents. He convinced Carl Laemmle at Universal that you could make a profit by using the same sets during the night and making Spanish-language versions of the same film. Hence, the Spanish Dracula. It's a film geek delight to compare the Todd Browning version to the Mexican version.

And if your grandfather hadn't done that, you might not exist.

This is true. If it weren't for vampires...

Source

'New Moon' Trailer: What's Missing?

Where are the Volturi? Or Jacob's wingman Quil Ateara? We give you a rundown of what we want to see more of in 'New Moon.'

Shirtless Taylor Lautner? In-costume Dakota Fanning? Strung-out-looking Robert Pattinson? Check, check and check. But although the "New Moon" trailer entitled "Meet Jacob Black" gave us plenty of fun things to look at — again, and again, and again — it also continued to omit plenty.

Depending on your point of view, the two "New Moon" trailers have either held back all the best stuff or done a good job of giving us glimpses at just enough to get our butts in theater seats. But at the risk of paraphrasing Veruca Salt: We want it all, and we want it now! Here's our list of the Top Five Things We Still Need to See From "New Moon."

The Cliff Dive — Kristen Stewart told us long ago that Bella's pivotal cinematic near-suicide will be CGI, and we've got to admit: We're still a bit concerned. Fan-made videos like this one give us an idea of some things to expect from what could be the most powerful moment in "New Moon," but so far, nothing official. Come on, Chris Weitz — cough it up!

Fight Scenes — Although Catherine Hardwicke's "Twilight" won the hearts of millions of women, it won't be stealing men away from sports and "Star Trek" sequels anytime soon. Now, with male directors in place for the next two films — and increasingly darker, more action-oriented plotlines to come — it's time to start convincing the dudes that seeing "New Moon" will do more than put you in your lady's good graces. But what have we glimpsed so far? Shirtless Jacob, shirt-open Edward, shirtless wolf pack. "Fight Club" gave the same number of abs, but also brought along just as many punches to the face — so bring back the honey and chicken, already!

The Vanishing Volturi — As any good Twilighter knows, the Volturi feature prominently not only in "New Moon," but also in the overall arc of the "Twilight" saga. So, why have they become the J.D. Salinger of the film series? We want full-on, official shots of Aro, Caius, Marcus and the rest. No more slowing down video clips to see if that's Michael Sheen in the background — it's time to bring out the big guns.

Quil Be Seeing You — Everybody's got their own favorite quasi-obscure "Twilight" character, and mine is Jacob's "wingman" Quil Ateara. We know he's played by Tyson Houseman in the film, but we haven't seen so much as a publicity shot yet. Sure, some might laugh — but I'll be wearing a "Team Quil" shirt when I see the film on opening night. Which reminds me of a second complaint: Why has no one invented "Team Quil" T-shirts yet?

It Ain't Easy Being Human— They're the nicest people in the world and the backbone of the "Twilight" film series: Mike Welch, Christian Serratos, Justin Chon, Anna Kendrick, Billy Burke and others. But although these fan favorites are among the most visible at "Twilight" conventions and other events, we haven't seen so much as a glimpse of them in the "New Moon" trailers. It's bad enough that these guys don't get to pretend they have superhuman powers, the ability to live forever or even a clue as to all the craziness going on in Forks. "Twilight" is nothing without the humanity that Stephenie Meyer injected into it — here's hoping that Weitz remembers that element as he's working all those long hours and late nights in the "New Moon" editing bay.


Source

Exclusive Interview: From New Moon to Nurse Jackie with Peter Facinelli

Best known for his portrayal of Carlisle Cullen, the patriarch of the Cullen vampire clan in the hugely successful Twilight saga films, Peter Facinelli is also currently starring in the popular Showtime television series Nurse Jackie, opposite Edie Falco.

Juggling fatherhood (he and his wife, actress Jennie Garth, have three young daughters) with a film and television career, the New York native has proven his versatility, doing comedy, drama and action, on both the big and small screen. Getting ready to start filming the third installment of the Twilight saga, Eclipse, with director David Slade, Peter Facinelli spoke to IESB for this exclusive interview about what it's like to have the job security of a successful film franchise and a critically acclaimed TV show.

IESB: What initially attracted you to acting? Was there someone or something that inspired you to do it, or did you just know that you wanted to be a performer?

Peter: No, I was the opposite of a performer. I was really shy, when I was growing up. I saw a movie called Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in third grade, and I thought Paul Newman and Robert Redford looked like they were having a really good time, and I said, "That's what I want to do, when I grow up." I always was inspired by Paul Newman and Robert Redford to want to be an actor, but I never really did anything about it because I was shy. So, all through high school, I never did a play.

Not until college, did I start to do acting. I transferred into NYU from St. John's University and started studying theater. I was going to take law because it seemed to impress people in my family when I said, "I want to be a lawyer when I grow up." One time, I told them that I wanted to be an actor and they all looked at me like I had five heads. The next time they asked me what I wanted to be, I said, "A lawyer," and I got a lot of oohs and aahs in the family. When you watch movies and you watch Law & Order, it looks so interesting.

IESB: When did you realize that you were not meant for a law career?

Peter: I did one year at St. John's University, and I studied pre-law and I worked for a law firm, and I realized that lawyers spend most of their time trying not to go to court. They look for precedents so they don't have to go to court. They told me that court was the last place you want to be. I was like, "Well, that's what I want to do. I like the courtroom drama," and they were like, "Well, then you need to do something else."

So, I threw away the courtroom drama and just went straight for the drama, and I transferred to NYU. I told my parents, "To be a good lawyer, I have to be a good actor, so I'm going to take acting classes at NYU and study theater there," and they bought it. And then, I started working, right out of NYU. So, when my parents realized it was something that I could do, they were behind it.
IESB: What was the point where you realized that you could actually make a living and a career out of acting?

Peter: I don't think I ever thought I wouldn't make a living or a career out of it. I never had a back-up plan. For me, it was always a do or die kind of thing. When people ask me if there's any advice that I'd give them, I say, "Don't have a back-up plan ‘cause you'll use it." I didn't have a back-up plan. I started working, out of college, and I just went from job to job and never looked back. I always made my living, from that point on, as an actor. I never thought that I wouldn't.

IESB: You seem to constantly be working now, and yet you manage to successfully maintain a marriage and family in an industry where that seems impossible. Do you feel like you've succeeded at finding a balance between work and family, or is it a constant juggling act?

Peter: It's always a constant juggling act. While I'm doing this interview with you, I'm standing in the Empire State Building with my kids, who are hanging out, waiting for me, so I can take them up to the top. You're always juggling, back and forth. I just take it day-by-day, and then all those days add up, and you look back and that's your life.

IESB: How did you get involved with Nurse Jackie? Was it just a regular audition, or did they ask to see you? Had you been looking to do more television?

Peter: I had just finished Twilight, and I knew the writers from Nurse Jackie, so they called my agent and said, "Hey, there's a part in here that we like Peter for." But, I wasn't looking to do television. Also, because I have a family, I have a steadfast rule that, if a TV show doesn't shoot in L.A., I won't do it. But, the previous year, I had done Damages and I realized that, if it's a cable show and only has 13 episodes, I could do it because it's like going to do a movie. You're only going to work for two or three months and then you're back, and you can go back and forth.

I wasn't looking for a 23-episode commitment ‘cause then you're just gone for nine months out of the year. So, when they called my agent, my agent just told them, "Oh, he won't do it because it doesn't shoot in L.A.," and they passed on it for me, without asking me. And then, I actually got a copy of it. My agents told me, "Hey, we passed on this for you, but if you want to read it, read it." The cover of it said, "Untitled Edie Falco Project," and right there, I knew it was going to be special because Edie Falco was attached and, if she was coming back to TV, then it had to be good.

IESB: What did you think, once you'd had a chance to read the script?

Peter: I was already a fan of the writers because I had done a pilot with them the year before, called Insatiable, for Showtime, which didn't get picked up. It was very well-received, when they did the test scoring, but they could only pick up one show and they ended up picking up the David Duchovny show, Californication, over it. So, I had a relationship with the writers, I was a big fan of Edie Falco's, and I read it and it was unlike anything I had seen.

I'm not a huge medical television show kind of person. I've never seen Grey's Anatomy, E.R. or Scrubs. It just wasn't my genre of things that I watch. I just thought it was an interesting show, and I liked the concept that it was telling the hospital story from a nurse's point of view, and I liked the characters. I called up and said, "I'd love to meet with them," so they called the writers, Linda Wallem and Liz Brixius, and they said, "We're testing people for that role on Monday," and that was on Friday, so I thought, "Oh, well. That ship has sailed." So, I sent an email to one of the writers saying, "Hey, I just read your script. It's fantastic. If this show goes, give me a ring and maybe I'll come and do an arc. I'd love to work with you guys ‘cause I think it's a special show."

IESB: Then, how did you end up actually getting cast?

Peter: Well, none of the guys that they tested on that Monday were right for it, so they realized then, by getting my email, that I liked it and they came after me. I had lunch with them. I'm not a huge fan of auditioning, but in this case, I actually asked them if I could audition. They're friends of mine and I wanted to make sure that what I was doing was along those same lines of what they wanted. It's a very tricky tone. It's a tone that I had never seen before on a show, so I wanted to make sure that my tone of comedy and what I was going to bring to the table was something that was going to work for them. I didn't want to say, "Let's sign the deal," and then get on the set and have them be like, "This isn't what we wanted at all." And so, I went in and read with them. They put it on tape and were like, "That's what we want. That's perfect." And, they sent the tape to Edie and Edie put the stamp of approval on it and, within two or three days, I had the role.

IESB: Is it hard to find ways to identify with a character like Dr. Cooper, or to make him likeable?

Peter: If you play anybody who is seen from the outside from the outside as a bad guy or a jerk, nobody walks around trying to be a jerk or trying to be a bad guy. They always have motives. Maybe those motives don't line up and the end result is that their character is perceived as a jerk or a bad guy. So, I'm very careful not to try to play people as jerks or evil or bad. When I took on this role, I tried to look at the qualities in him that are likeable. Even though, on paper, the end result was sometimes unlikeable, I tried to find the reasons why he does things.

IESB: What, specifically, did you find likeable about Dr. Cooper?

Peter: For me, I find him very loveable. I like that character. I find him very sympathetic and I feel sorry for him, at times. Because he's so oblivious to his surroundings and because he's so unaware that people don't really like him, he thinks everybody likes him. He walks around thinking he's the most charming guy in the world, and everyone thinks he's full of it and dislikes him. He also has a lot of issues on the inside, which give him a lot of layers.

He's not as confident as he tries to be, and so, a lot of times, he overcompensates because he's not confident. I find that the most confident people don't have to try to be confident. You look at them and they appear confident because they are. And, he has to go the extra mile of trying to look confident because he's not. I look at those characteristics and, when he's around people and he tries to get people to like him and they don't, I feel sorry for him. He's very lonely. He doesn't have a lot of friends. I liken him to a puppy dog in a room full of people who don't like dogs. He's jumping all over people's legs and wants to be liked by everybody, wagging his tail, and everybody is kicking him.

When you look at him like that, I find him very sympathetic, very lovable and very likeable. He's fun to laugh at because he's so unaware of his surroundings. He has no idea that the pharmacist character, Eddie, doesn't want to be friends with him. My character, Coop, wants to be best friends with Eddie, and Eddie wants nothing to do with him, but he has no idea. That makes it funny to the outside public, but to me, as the character, it's pretty sad. It's a hard character to hate. Even Nurse Jackie wants to hate this guy, but she can't. There's part of her that just can't hate him.

IESB: How has it been to work with Edie Falco? What does she bring to the scenes, when you guys work together?

Peter: What Edie brings is that she's just genuine, as a person, and is so real and honest that it just carries over into her acting. Whenever Peter_facinelli_smallI'm acting with her, I don't have to do anything, but react off of what she's doing. When the scene starts, there is no break between action and right before action. She's just as genuine and real before as right after. It just sucks you in. I've worked with actors that are very special like that, like Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito and Burt Reynolds, and they all have this quality that, when action hits, they just suck you into the scene because they're so honest and real, and it makes your job, as an actor, a lot easier. That's how I feel with Edie.

IESB: Was it nice to have this to do, in between doing Twilight and New Moon, to give you a break from playing that character?

Peter: Yeah. I enjoy the fact that these characters are both doctors, and they're completely different people. The contrast between these two roles, when you put them side by side, visually and in personality, is so great that, as an actor, I'm proud to say, "Hey, look at these two people. Even though they have the same occupation, they're worlds apart." The fun of it for me, as an actor, is to be able to step into other people's shoes and play different characters. These two characters are so opposite that it's an opportunity to show people what I can do and the range that I have. It's a nice break because you have this one commercial franchise that's become this cultural phenomenon and, on the other hand, you have this great actor's piece that the critics love and it got great ratings. Nurse Jackie is a little bit more of a mature audience, so as an actor, it brings me a whole other audience for my work.

IESB: In regard to making the Twilight films, at what point did you get the sense that you were part of something that would become so huge?

Peter: Not until the premiere of the movie, did I realize how huge it had become. When we finished filming, it was an independent film that was based on a book that had a good size fan base. But, somewhere between the end of filming and the premiere, it just snowballed into this cultural phenomenon. I was on the beach, over the summer, that year and people were reading the books. I couldn't count, on one hand, how many people were reading the books on the beach. And, I thought, "Wow, a lot of people are into this book." People were coming up to me, before the movie was out, saying, "You play Carlisle Cullen." They were already on the Internet, checking out who the characters were.

I remember being on the beach in Hawaii and some fan of the books knew that I was playing that character, even before the movie came out. And then, when the movie came out, on the night of the premiere, it was just completely surreal. There were five lots of screaming fans, and I'd never seen anything like it before. It was really weird because they hadn't seen the movie yet, and they were screaming and cheering. I thought, "Well, this could become an angry mob, if they don't like the movie." But, thankfully, they did, and now it's only gotten even bigger.

I did a charity autograph session in West Virginia recently and people flew out from, like, Ohio to come to a signing, and that's pretty amazing. To get people on an airplane, to fly somewhere to go get an autograph from somebody, just shows the power of that fanbase, and how loyal and faithful and amazing they are.

IESB: Was there a certain comfort level, in returning to this character again for New Moon, having already played him before?

Peter: Definitely. It's like putting on an old pair of jeans, the second time around. You feel like you already know this character and you've created him, and you know the other actors and you know the relationships, but you're always looking to dig a little deeper and find more because you don't want to keep churning out the same thing. You try to keep finding different layers. With the first movie, I did a lot more research on how this character was. For the second movie, I worked more on his relationships within the family structure.

IESB: Does it help to have those other actors to go through this whole crazy process with?

Peter: Definitely. There's a definite comfort when you see the other actors. You feel like you're all in it together. It's a very family-oriented group. We go for dinners, and we like being with each other. I don't think there's one person who doesn't get along with the others, in the group, and it really has become a family. When you see the other person, even if it's for a non-Twilight event, there's a comfort level there. When you look across and see them, they make you smile. Some of my favorite scenes are when all of the Cullens are together. When I'm doing a scene and I look across and see that whole group of actors together, in one scene, it just makes me happy. It makes me feel like the whole gang is there and the whole family is together.

IESB: Does it make things more exciting to have different directors for each film, since they bring their own vision each time?

Peter: Yeah. I love Catherine Hardwicke. I loved working with her. She cast us, so we owe her a lot because she was the one who hand-picked us to play those roles. Then, we had another director, Chris Weitz, come in, who put his spin on it and gave us his vision, and came up with things that we hadn't thought about, in the first one. And, David Slade is going to do the same for Eclipse. It does keep it new and fresh. I'm used to it because I've done television and, in television, like with Nurse Jackie or Damages, we had different directors for every episode. The tone is always the same, with those shows, but the director brings a new flavor, and it keeps it fresh and exciting.

IESB: Have you been doing any research into David Slade and his work, to see what kind of director he'll be to work with?

Peter: I've seen Hard Candy, and I think he did a great job on that. And, I'm going to rent 30 Days of Night. Once he was hired, I sent him an email saying that I'm excited to work with him, and he sent me back one saying, "Ditto."

IESB: Are you looking forward to getting back into this character again so quickly?

Peter: Yeah. It's been a nice enough break. I had the summer off, to spend with my family, and now I hit the ground running. In August, I go straight into Eclipse, and then, after Eclipse, I go straight to Season 2 of Nurse Jackie, so the Fall is pretty busy. And, in between that, I'll be flying back and forth, playing the role of dad.

IESB: Isn't it nice, as an actor, to have the security of a successful film franchise and a critically acclaimed TV show?

Peter: I couldn't feel more blessed right now, especially in this economic period where I have so many friends and family members that it's really having an impact on. I have two jobs to go to. It's a nice time to be working. My family is always there for me. I try not to go more than two weeks without seeing them, when I am on location, so either they fly to me or I fly to them. There are ways that we make it work. I have Skype and we eat dinner together on Skype. It's important to me to keep it all connected.

IESB: You've done really varied projects, throughout your career, and played very different characters, that appeal to all different demographics and genres. Has that been intentional, on your part?

Peter: It's all been intentional. When I first started, I had the last name Facinelli and I thought, "Okay, I'm not going to do any Italian roles." When I first started, all the auditions I got were for The Sopranos, and I decided I wasn't going to do any Italian roles. I have this fear of being typecast as one thing or another, and I didn't want to be typecast because I wanted to continue playing different roles. And so, whenever I finished a role, I would always do something completely different.

I remember I did Can't Hardly Wait and I got offered a teen movie right after that, and I passed on it and did a movie, called Supernova, where I shaved my head, grew a beard, put on 20 pounds and was the main bad guy in this $60 million Walter Hill movie. I was like, "If they're going to want me to be a teen, I'm going to go completely opposite." If you look at the characters I've played, and you put the character from The Big Kahuna with Kevin Spacey next to Van Ray from Fastlane, and you put that next to the character I did in Riding in Cars with Boys, and you put that next to Damages, and you put that next to Twilight, and then you put that next to Dr. Cooper in Nurse Jackie, what I'm proud of, as an actor, is that they're all different visually, the way they appear on screen, and in their personalities.

That's all intentional, for me. I didn't want to be the actor where, when you walk into their movie, you know what to expect. As much as it was done on purpose, it's actually easier when you do one thing really well because studio executives look and say, "Oh that guy? Get him. He does romantic comedies." For me, I've always had to prove myself and say, "Hey, look, I can do the comedy. I can do the action. I can do the drama." I've gone back and forth so many times that, as much as I didn't want to be stereotyped, it hurts because I'm not put in a box and people don't know what to do with me. I have to continually go in and prove that I can play something. But, it's been a great career and I'm proud of the work. When you line up all those different characters I've played, I find that's what drives me, as an actor.

IESB: You seem to also have fans that connect to each of the projects you've done. Does that surprise you?

Peter: It's really funny to me. Because I've looked so different in things, a lot of times, people come up to me and say, "You look so familiar." And then they, realize I'm an actor and they'll ask me what I was in, and I have to look at them and guess what they would know me from. Sometimes, they completely throw me because I'll think they must watch Damages and they'll be like, "No, I've seen Can't Hardly Wait." It's fun to meet my audience and learn what think I've done that's connected with them. One time, I walked down the block and I met somebody who said, "Hey, I loved you in Can't Hardly Wait." And, a block later, someone said, "Hey, I loved you in The Lather Effect," and I was like, "You saw that?" It's funny to meet people and have them know me from different things.

IESB: Are there any types of roles or specific genres that you'd like to do, in your career, that you haven't gotten the chance to do yet?

Peter: One of my favorite things, and I know it didn't last, was Fastlane, only because I got to do action, drama and comedy, all in one. That was a fun show to do. I haven't done a romantic comedy yet. That might be fun to do.

Source

'New Moon' Italy Shoot Had 'Amazing Energy,' Ashley Greene Recalls

'The whole movie is going to be gorgeous,' actress promises at the Teen Choice Awards.
After months of watching everyone else take home the accolades, "Twilight" saga star Ashley Greene had an extra bounce in her step Sunday night, when she attended the Teen Choice Awards. For the first time, she had been nominated for something by herself — Choice Fresh Face Female — an award she would take home before the evening was over.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

When we caught up with the 22-year-old beauty on the red carpet, she was eager to talk about getting some recognition — and the work in "New Moon" that seems certain to raise her profile even higher.

"[The only thing I've been nominated for until now] is just ensemble," Greene said. "Oh my gosh, it's so cool. I got the phone call, and I was like, 'Are you serious?' It's exciting."

Twilighters have been similarly excited ever since Ashley and crew invaded San Diego's Comic-Con a few weeks back to preview November's "New Moon." During their panel in Hall H, the "Twilight" saga stars unveiled two new scenes — one of which had Greene's Alice dropping Kristen Stewart's Bella on a cobblestoned Italy street for a climactic confrontation with Robert Pattinson's Edward.

"We were in Italy for those four or five days, and it was nutty," Greene remembered of the shoot, which director Chris Weitz has said had a Twilighter in virtually every spot that wasn't on camera, watching them film. "The amount of people that were in this tiny little town, it took 45 minutes to go, like, 5 feet."

The scene, which features a black-clad Bella running through a procession of red-robed people to stop Edward from stepping into the sunlight, effectively uses slow-motion and music to build drama for a pivotal moment in the epic saga. And much like the fans, Greene said she couldn't believe how beautifully the sequence came together.

"Javier and Chris are just amazing, amazing men. Javier [Aguirresarobe] is the [director of photography], and Chris is the director," she explained. "And the whole movie is going to be gorgeous.

"But it was a great experience, amazing energy," she remembered of the shoot, as well as the multiple takes it took to pull it off. "And Kristen that day — the poor girl just ran and ran and ran and ran."

Source

'New Moon' Actor Jamie Campbell Bower Gets 'Crazy' With Caius

While at Comic-Con this past week, we were privileged to get a visit from the "Twilight" saga's sexiest new star, British heartthrob Jamie Campbell Bower. The 21-year-old actor was in town to promote three huge upcoming projects: TV's "The Prisoner," "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" and "New Moon." Every bit as funny, charming and self-deprecating as his good friend Rob Pattinson, Jamie was eager to talk about his new place in the "Twilight" universe. And when it comes to Stephenie Meyer's vampire series, who doesn't love some fresh blood?

MTV: Welcome to Comic-Con and to "Twilight," Jamie. How does it feel to be here?

Jamie Campbell Bower: Pretty good, man. I got off a plane at 5:30 last night and went straight to the Gaslamp theater and did hellos [to the Twilighters]. It was nuts. It was craziness.

MTV: Did you get to introduce the movie to the fans?

Bower: Yeah, we did all together. It was the entire cast. We went around to say hello to everyone who was watching, because they were doing a screening of "Twilight," and so we all went in. ... I swear to God, I saw, like, four people have a heart attack.

MTV: How does it feel to know that you are now a member of the "Twilight" saga group and have the power to make people lose it?

Bower: It's good. I think I might use that, in a bad way.

MTV: Tell us about your character in "New Moon."

Bower: I play Caius, who is the leader of the Volturi. They are a coven and effectively run the vampire community. They make the laws up. It's me, Michael Sheen who plays Aro, and a guy called Christopher Heyerdahl who plays Marcus. We try to kill Bella and convince Edward to come and live with us — because Peter's character [Carlisle Cullen] had come and lived with us before — and we love the Cullens deeply.

MTV: Director Chris Weitz is new to most of these guys, but so are you. What kind of discussions did you two newbies have before filming began?

Bower: He gave us a lot of freedom. We sat down prior to it and just bounced ideas around. The backstory for Caius is already there, as it is for the Volturi. It's all fairly self-explanatory. We sat down and I said, "I think he's got this deep-rooted anger. He doesn't have a power, and he's pretty pissed off about that, because the rest of them have powers." And then, once we got on set, he was just like, "Go for it." We'd do a couple of takes of the same thing, and then we'd change it up and I'd do something crazy.

MTV: Give us an example of one of the crazy takes.

Bower: We'd do different accents, different styles. There would be one that would be very introverted, and then there would be another one that would be completely theatrical. It was good fun.

MTV: Unfortunately, we don't see you in the "New Moon" trailer. So maybe you could give us a sneak peek at Caius? Look into the camera and give us your favorite line, in-character.

Bower: [Gets into character] "We don't offer second chances. I would advise that you follow through on your promise soon."

Source