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Robert Pattinson is Edward Cullen
. With the third chapter of the Twilight series, Eclipse
, hitting theaters June 30, Robert Pattinson in person is as smoldering as he is on screen as Edward Cullen.
In Eclipse, Pattinson’s Edward has grown more into his vampire skin. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse star sat down with SheKnows at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons, and was dressed casually and had a new haircut! What would Edward think?
"I didn’t even think about that," Robert Pattinson said and laughed. "Vampires can get haircuts. Can’t they?"
Robert Pattinson dishes Eclipse
SheKnows: Taylor Lautner, as Jacob, has the best line in the film when he says, "I’m hotter than you." How badly did you want a comeback line?
Robert Pattinson: [Laughing] There’s nothing you can say. "Yeah, you are!" or "At least I’m not hotter than you!" I don’t know. Yeah, it was quite fun. Jacob has quite a few catch phrase type of lines, with me especially. For some reason, I find it quite funny when I’m doing stuff with Taylor.
SheKnows: You get to work with Taylor Lautner more in Eclipse than in the past. Although you are at each other’s throats, so to speak, working with Taylor more closely must have been a nice change.
Robert Pattinson: There are a couple confrontational scenes, where I push him around a little bit, and I thought I’d really scare him and grab him, and it would freak him out and turn the whole scene upside down. Then, I grabbed his shoulder and it was too big to actually get a grip on, so I just dropped my hand [laughs]. It was embarrassing. I got him badly, though. He kept having to dress up in a little gray spandex wolf suit and try to be intimidating with Kristen patting him on the head. That was quite fun.
SheKnows: You and Kristen Stewart bring so much to any film you’re working on, how does your process differ when preparing for Eclipse and frankly, the entire Twilight Saga?
Robert Pattinson: For some reason, I can’t understand anything and I think I’m going really into the depth of the character, when it just seems so obvious to Kristen. Her mind works completely differently. She can just feel things immediately, and I like to be more cerebral about things, in completely the opposite way of Kristen. I don’t feel confident unless I know more about the reasons why I’m doing things. I don’t really do that for other parts. That’s what I do for Edward.
Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart: The obsession
SheKnows: Do you two understand why there is an obsession about whether or not you and Kristen Stewart are dating in real life?
Robert Pattinson: No, not really. Well, I guess people like stories. My basic conclusion is that they just want everything to be about Twilight.
SheKnows: You were on the first soundtrack and when we spoke for the first Twilight, you felt you could no longer go and do amateur music nights. Have you been able to play much anymore and will we see you on the Breaking Dawn soundtrack?
Robert Pattinson: I’ve done a couple of things. I’ve always just been playing around. It was nice to be involved in the first one. I just saw Twilight on TV, for the first time, a few days ago, and when my song came on, I was just thinking that is so bizarre that I actually had a song in the movie. I’m amazed Catherine [Hardwicke] did. It really shows how none of us thought it was going to be so massive. I never thought people would buy the soundtrack. So, it’s a little more nerve-wracking now. I don’t know. Maybe.
Up next...Robert Pattinson dishes his new haircut and the battle between Edward and Jacob!
Robert Pattinson is Edward Cullen. With the third chapter of the Twilight series, Eclipse, hitting theaters June 30, Robert Pattinson in person is as smoldering as he is on screen as Edward Cullen.
RobPat cuts his hair!
SheKnows: We can’t help but notice you’ve cut your legendary hair. Any plans to incorporate the new short look into Edward’s persona for Breaking Dawn?
Robert Pattinson: I’m thinking maybe Edward got a haircut. That might be easier. But, yeah, I didn’t even think about that when I got it cut. That is a bit silly. Vampires can cut their hair. I like the idea of Edward having a shaved head in the last film. That’s pretty cool.
SheKnows: There is a new director for each of the Twilight films. What unique perspective did David Slade bring to Eclipse?
Robert Pattinson: I guess he was really fighting to make it not so solemn. In my eyes, Edward has been so calculated and everything is not rash, and David wanted to speed up the whole thing and make him more vulnerable.
SheKnows: Is it difficult for you as an actor to work with a new director when you guys kind of have a well-oiled Twilight machine?
Robert Pattinson: It’s interesting. With the first Twilight film, everyone had very specific ideas and everyone was butting heads the entire time. Then, when Chris Weitz came in for New Moon, he basically came in with the opinion that he liked the first one and he liked what the actors were doing, so he just followed along that road. Then, when David Slade came, he was like, "I want to do everything completely different and not like the first two. Let’s just do something completely different," which is good because then it’s challenging. It’s easy to get stagnant, if you play the same character. In New Moon, I felt like I was going a little bit deeper. And then, with Eclipse, I felt like I was doing a completely different movie and a completely different character.
Robert Pattinson: Edward versus Jacob
SheKnows: We love the scene in the tent with Edward and Jacob talking while Bella is sleeping. That’s where Jacob gets the "I’m hotter than you" line, but seriously, how was it filming that important scene while Kristen Stewart was just supposed to be sleeping?
Robert Pattinson: The first time we did that tent scene, I was really freaking out. I don’t know why. I think it had to do with claustrophobia because we were actually shooting in a tent. I just couldn’t get it together. I kept forgetting my lines and I was so nervous. I just wanted to punch anyone who was near me. We did about three takes and Kristen was supposed to be asleep on the floor, and she saw that I was freaking out. Halfway through the take, she suddenly opened her eyes and was just staring at me and kept trying to make me laugh.
SheKnows: Vampires, because they are dead, are accused in this film and across film history, as not having a soul. Do you think Edward Cullen has a soul?
Robert Pattinson: Yeah, definitely. I can’t remember who said it, but a soul and a heaven must exist because good people aren’t rewarded enough on earth. I always liked that idea, if that makes sense.
Bree only appears in a couple pages of Eclipse. What was it about the character that made you want to explore her story further?
In the beginning, I wasn’t fascinated specifically by Bree—it was the newborns in general. While I was writing Eclipse, there was a lot going on behind the scenes, of course, things Bella didn’t know about. Because I was focused on Bella, I couldn’t delve too deeply into the newborns’ story, however, there was always in my mind a general idea of what they were up to. I had to think about that while I was pacing the plot: Bella is at this point, the newborns are doing this. To keep it all straight, eventually I made a calendar of the months of May and June—which is all Eclipse deals with—and wrote down on each square what was going on with Bella that day and what was happening in Seattle. So the story of the newborns was always a big part of the story of Eclipse
. And it made me kind of sad that there was no way to express any of that in the book.
Bree is the only newborn mentioned by name in Eclipse
, the only newborn who has contact with the Cullens (aside from being killed by them), and the only newborn who encounters the Volturi in the clearing. She lives the longest, so she is the narrator who can tell the full story. She was a natural choice to chronicle the story of the newborns. Once I started writing from her perspective, she really came alive. So much so that, as the inevitable end got closer, it was really depressing going ahead. It was harder for me to kill Bree than any other fiction character I’ve ever killed, even though I was killing her for the second time. (Before Bree, the saddest was Walter in The Host.)
At what point did you realize that the “short story” you were working on for The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide
was going to be a separate book?
I didn’t realize my “short” story was a novella until I handed it into my publisher. All I knew was that it was 80,000 words less than most of my novels. I was surprised when I was told it was almost 200 pages long and couldn’t fit into the Guide. However, I had always wished that people would be able to read Bree’s story before the movie came out. So when I was approached by the idea of publishing it as a standalone novella, it seemed like a great opportunity.
Why do you feel it is important for people to read Bree’s story prior to the release of the Eclipse movie?
Eclipse
is told from only Bella’s perspective. That has some limitations; when there is so much going on off-stage (so to speak), it leaves a lot of mysteries. The films have the advantage of seeing the story from outside of Bella’s head. The viewer can see things—like the wolves hunting Victoria in New Moon
—that the reader only gets hints of. Of all the Twilight
books, Eclipse has the most going on outside of Bella’s view. For the movie to work, we have to see and understand some of these things.
Knowing that elements of Bree’s story were being incorporated into the movie, I hoped the story could somehow get out first. Personally, I always want to read a book before seeing the movie. I like to make my own mental pictures before someone else’s picture intrudes. Probably most of my readers don’t have the same hang up, but for those who do, I wanted to give them the chance to create their own mental pictures of Bree and the gang.
How did the story in the novella influence the Eclipse movie?
Around the time I started working on the story for the Guide, Melissa Rosenberg, the screenplay writer for the Twilight
movies, began work on the Eclipse movie. She came to me with a ton of questions about what was going on in Seattle. Because the movie wasn’t tied to Bella’s perspective the way the book was, she was free to explore the newborns, but she wanted to keep it consistent with the story in my head. I told her about the piece of Bree’s story I’d written, and she was very excited to see it. Her enthusiasm was contagious, and I started really focusing on that story. By the time pre-production had begun on the Eclipse movie, the Bree story was finished. I sent it to the David Slade, the director, and he asked if I would also let the actors involved in the newborn’s part of the movie read it. Of course I said yes.
So the novella wasn’t responsible for there being scenes about the newborns in the Eclipse movie, but it was responsible for those scenes matching up somewhat with the story in my head. Hopefully it also gave Xavier, Bryce, and Jodelle some extra insight into their characters.
We know Bree dies before we begin the story. How did it feel to explore the Twilight 
universe from a darker angle?
At first I thought it would be fun. I was focused more on the plot than on the character—very rare for me—and I was looking forward to spending time with some real vampire-y vampires. I had a lot of scenes of destruction in my head that I wanted to get down on paper. But as I started looking at those scenes through Bree’s eyes, the character started to become more important than the fun destruction. The more I fell in love with Bree and her friends, the more heartbreaking it felt to go forward. It ended up feeling dark in an entirely different way than I expected.
What was it like writing from a different Twilight character’s point of view? Did it cause you to see anything about Eclipse/the previous novels differently?
This is the third time I’ve written from the perspective of a Twilight character other than Bella—I’ve also written from Edward’s and Jacob’s perspectives. All three times, this has felt really natural; when I write from Bella’s perspective, I always know the thoughts of the other characters involved, I just don’t get to share them. So it’s fun for me to let those other voices out. One of the things that I enjoy most when writing from another perspective is looking at the characters I already know through new eyes. Things really came together when I got to the clearing with Bree. I loved being able to describe Bella and the Cullen’s from her perception.
In Breaking Dawn, Bella feels what it’s like to be a newborn and now readers will get to see Bree do the same. Were you thinking about Bella’s experience while writing Bree’s, or vice versa?
Absolutely—I was always comparing the two in my head as I wrote, because they have very different experiences as newborns. Bella goes into her new vampire life with a ton of preparation, expectation, and stubborn determination. Bree didn’t have any idea of what was happening to her; she goes in blind. But both do exceptionally well given their circumstances. I imagine Bella’s behavior would have been very similar to Bree’s if she had been changed in a similar way.
Over the course of the Twilight Saga, we are introduced to a rich hierarchy of vampires. Is Bree the only vampire outside of the core Twilight cast you’ve established such a firm story for? Is there any other character you would enjoy exploring in a similarly involved way?
Given all the time in the world and no distractions, I could write a short story for every one of my characters; some would turn into novellas and some would turn into novels and some would turn into series. Some of the stories are pretty firm—Aro’s early days for example, Marcus and Didyme, Jane and Alec, Charlotte and Peter, Alistair, the Denalis—and some I haven’t given as much thought to. Most of these stories don’t feel as necessary as Bree’s, because Bree’s story affects the central story so directly. I don’t know that I’ll ever do a companion story like this again. It was a lot of fun, though.
Was it easier or more difficult to write about the Twilight universe after seeing it brought to life in a movie?
All of the core Twilight story was written before the first movie came out, so I can’t really say. The movies are a fun and interesting supplement to the books, but they’ve never affected the look of the story in my head.
In which order would you recommend one read The Twilight Saga with the addition of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
? Should they follow Eclipse with the novella or finish Breaking Dawn before cracking the pages of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner?
If I were going to read the Saga for the first time, I would probably read Bella’s story straight through before launching into other perspectives.
It's the franchise that has fans everywhere thirsty for any bloody detail.
The latest installment, "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse," in theaters Wednesday, sees Seattle plagued by an army of newborn vampires controlled by the vengeful Victoria, who is out to destroy Bella Swan, whom she holds responsible for her lover's death. To safeguard Bella from the oncoming threat, her boyfriend, Edward, and his family, the Cullens, must band together and join forces with their shape-shifting foes, the wolf pack, who are sworn to defend humans from the blood suckers.
But it's not all fang baring and claw clenching; there's also an explosive love triangle this time around. And lots - lots - of shirtless roaming by the muscled members of the wolf pack.
To gear up for the third feature to be adapted from the wildly popular Stephenie Meyer books, here's a guide for Twi-hards and the uninitiated alike. Learn who's who, read about their favorite scenes and time travel with their characters into the future.
The love triangle:
-KRISTEN STEWART
Character: Isabella "Bella" Marie Swan, the object of Edward Cullen's affection and best friend of Jacob Black.
Back story: The only sticking point in what otherwise appears to be a perfect relationship is that Bella desperately wants to be changed into a vampire so she and Edward can share their love for eternity. Edward, though, is determined to keep her human to save her soul. It's a dilemma made only worse when the ruling vampire body called the Volturi discovers that the human Bella knows of their existence. They force a vow from the Cullen family to turn Bella within a year or they will kill her. Bella is also being hunted by the vampire Victoria, after the Cullens killed her sadistic mate James.
Favorite "Eclipse" scene: "There were two scenes that just were very important to me and they happen one after the other," Stewart says. "It's when Jacob and Bella kiss and then she goes and talks to Edward about it. It was just so different from anything that I've played in this series so far. The movie is so very much about ultimate devotion, so to stray from that was just weird and cool and sort of makes the relationship between Edward and Bella a little bit more real because now she's seen another side and she can actually consider something else for five seconds of her life."
-ROBERT PATTINSON
Character: Edward Cullen, the adopted son of Esme and Carlisle, adoptive brother of Emmett, Alice, Rosalie and Jasper, and Bella Swan's beau. He has the ability to read minds, with the exception of Bella's.
Back story: It has taken the brooding Edward generations to fall in love and now that he has, he feels responsible for Bella's life, and soul, so he resists turning her into a vampire, though outside forces are weighing on him to do so. In "New Moon
," after a brief birthday fiasco put Bella in mortal danger, Edward broke up with her and the Cullens moved away to protect her from further potential harm from their kind. However, he soon finds it difficult to live without her and returns only to find that Bella is in renewed danger and, in his absence, has developed a close relationship with her friend Jacob. Needless to say, Edward and Jacob do not care for each other.
Where is Edward 100 years from now? "Oh, God, I don't know," Pattinson says. "I mean, it seems like he's gone through so many problems, and the series is only over a period of, like, two years or something - or three years, maybe, for the whole thing. I mean, you can't keep living like that ... it's just craziness the entire time. (Edward's) probably been killed or something."
-TAYLOR LAUTNER
Character: Jacob Black is Bella's best friend. He is a Quileute Native American and a member of the wolf pack.
Back story: Though Bella is still clearly in love with Edward, Jacob's feelings toward her have grown. He has also discovered that he is one in an ancient line of Quileute werewolves - mortal enemies of the Cullens, though sworn to a long-standing treaty with the family as long as the vampires don't harm humans. Suspecting Bella's desire to become a vampire, Jacob reminds Edward of the Quileute-Cullen treaty, implying there could be trouble if she is bitten.
Favorite "Eclipse" scene: "I liked the tent scene a lot," Lautner says. "I had a lot of fun filming it. But another really fun one occurred right in front of Bella's house after I kissed her for the first time ... and she punched me. Edward and Jacob get into a huge fight and we're yelling at each other and he grabs my shoulder and (Bella's father) Charlie comes storming out and breaks up the fight. It was really a funny scene to film."
Good vs. evil:
-PETER FACINELLI
Character: Carlisle Cullen, patriarch of the Cullen family.
Back story: In "Twilight," we're introduced to Carlisle, a doctor in Forks, who, over the last century or so, "created" his happy, vegetarian clan of vampires (they feed on animal blood only). Pleased that Edward has finally found love, Carlisle is steadfast in his willingness to protect Bella from all threats and is in favor of turning Bella into a vampire as she has long desired.
Favorite "Eclipse" scene: "I liked all the action stuff. For me, the training sequence and the battle scene were the ultimate," Facinelli says. "I mean, we did six months of training and we were finally able to take all that and put it to use. It was exciting. I'm sure the wolf pack is jealous; they have all those muscles and abs, but it's for nothing! They don't even get to do stunts."
Where is Carlisle 100 years from now? "Carlisle is still doing doctor work somewhere ... maybe back in Forks."
-BRYCE DALLAS HOWARD
Character: Victoria, a red-headed blood sucker who, after her mate James is killed by the Cullens, seeks revenge on Edward by killing Bella.
Favorite "Eclipse" scene: "The ending. The battle scene," Howard says. "There was so much preparation that went into doing that - the choreography of the fight. When you finally get there, it's kind of an anticipation ... we've prepared for this and how is it actually going to turn out? It was such a fun thing to shoot."
Where is Victoria 100 years from now? "It depends what happens with Edward and Bella. I think she's so devastated by the loss of James that she would not stop until the Cullens were finished."
-DAKOTA FANNING
Character: Jane, a member of the ruling Volturi vampire guard who has the ability to create illusions of intense pain.
Favorite scene to film: "I actually enjoyed the scene where the Volturi is floating through the trees," Fanning says. "It was so fun. It was like the only stunt that I got to do."
Where is Jane 100 years from now? "Jane, 100 years from now, is probably still going to be in Italy, still using her power on the next little young girl that comes in. More of the same."
-ASHLEY GREENE
Character: Alice Cullen, the adopted daughter of Carlisle and Esme, adoptive sister of Edward, Rosalie and Emmett, and wife of Jasper. She has the ability to see the future, a holdover from her human premonitions.
Back story: With her precognition powers, Alice is able to foresee potential danger and proves invaluable in saving Bella from the vicious vampire James. But her visions can be misleading: She once thought Bella was dead because she couldn't see the Quileute tribe saving her - the wolf pack is blocked from her special sight. Will she be able to help again as Victoria closes in on Bella?
Favorite "Eclipse" scene: "I very much enjoyed both fight sequences," Greene says. "I kind of like the training sequence as well because you get to see us really interact with each other and there's kind of this cat and mouse game. You get to see the Cullens be very playful with one another. It's really adorable. There are really cute moments between Jasper and Alice ... but then, of course, the end sequence where we really got to show what we had, they pretty much let us do all our own stunts. We worked our tails off."
-ELIZABETH REASER
Character: Esme Cullen, the matriarch of the Cullen clan.
Favorite "Eclipse" scene: "It'd have to be the battle scene, because I was just so terrified of it - of hitting someone or getting hurt," Reaser says. "It was fun to get to a point where I could just get crazy on camera in a way that I never have and trying to make it believable. It was a huge step forward for me."
Where is Esme 100 years from now? "I want (Esme and Carlisle) to adopt more babies!"
Article courtesy of Los Angeles Times, by YVONNE VILLARREAL
