Without going into it in great detail, the two Twilight movies have so far tapped into my inner-squeally 15-year-old pretty succinctly. For a few hours, it’s a great place to be. New Moon focuses on the growing friendship and affection between Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Jacob (Taylor Lautner), after Edward (Robert Pattinson) mysteriously leaves Bella, as well as the realization that Jacob is turning into a werewolf, ready to run with his fellow Native American wolf pack. Yes, there is a lot of shirtless-ness and rock-hard abs, which isn’t a bad thing at all.
Even though I had to sit through four hours of press conferences with the New Moon folks – from the three leads, to the Cullen family, to the Volturi to the wolf pack, to director Chris Weitz – it was worth it just to see all the hunky men parade through the ballroom. So, without further ado, here’s what the boys had to say [the girls will get their turn tomorrow]:
Step 1: Team Jacob or Team Edward?
Chris Weitz: “Making Jacob too appealing… It’s a balance, isn’t it, in terms of how he’s written and how Edward’s written, and how they’re shot. I think that for the diehard Twilight fans, nothing will ever beat Edward and so you’ve got this kind of very strong, simple fact that they know that he is the one, which allows you to push as hard as you possibly can and make Jacob as winning as Taylor has been able to be. Which gives me a lot of latitude. We didn’t have to suddenly have a scene in which Jacob acted like a creep so that we’re reminded that we needed to love Edward. It’s just a love-fest.”
Taylor Lautner: “Honestly, I think it depends on what kind of girl you are, what kind of guy you like. Edward and Jacob are complete opposite guys. They’re hot and cold, literally. I personally love Jacob and Bella’s relationship, how they begin as best friends and it starts to grow into something more and more. Both guys are in love with Bella, both guys are always going to be there for Bella and they’re protective. I just think it’s what kind of guy you like.”
Robert Pattinson: “It was weird because I hardly did any scenes with Taylor. We just did the scenes at the beginning and the scenes at the end, and he had his entire storyline develop without me being around, which is interesting because I had no idea where his performance was going. It wasn’t really a competition or anything. It was independent. Whereas, in Eclipse, we did scenes together, all the time, with Bella. It really shows the dynamic in that film.”
Step 2: This isn’t just for girls … well, at least Robert Pattinson doesn’t think so
Pattinson: “It’s weird. I keep getting told by people, ‘Pump up all the stuff about the action, so the guys will go and see it,’ but it’s ridiculous. It’s like saying that guys can’t appreciate romance. I don’t think you can say that about Gone with the Wind. I’ve watched Titanic and I didn’t think, ‘Oh, this is a girl’s film.’ Especially in New Moon, and actually in the whole series, I’ve never played it thinking, ‘Oh, I’m in a series of girls’ films and I’m doing something just for girls.’ I don’t feel like I’m doing an animated Tiger Beat every week. I like doing romantic scenes. I felt like a lot of the storyline in New Moon is very heartbreaking and true. I didn’t think I was doing something, just for the sake of romance. I thought, in a lot of ways, that it was a really sad story.”
Weitz: “I think that there’s this wonderful audience that appreciates what we do, wants us to do well, and really wants to engage in an emotional experience. And so to me it made sense to be unashamed of the emotionality of the piece. And there’s werewolves fighting each other, vampires fighting each other, vampires fighting werewolves, and all sorts of great stuff for boys as well, but the girls needed to be given their due. And we, I think, deliver.”
Step 3: Focus on the role, Taylor, and it will be yours
Weitz: “I’d say there was a big possibility [Lautner wouldn’t get the role of Jacob], but I was always convinced that he was going to be able to do it. The doubts came up because he had very few scenes in the first movie. Also because he’s described as being 6’5″ in the second book, some reasonable facts that we had to come to grip 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 6’5″ Native American and somehow turn him into that very sweet-natured persona that Taylor brings out so well.”
Lautner: “Honestly, I knew where my character went in New Moon and that’s all I tried to stay focused on. I couldn’t control the things outside, I couldn’t control the media, but I could control what I was doing to portray Jacob Black correctly, and that’s what I stayed focused on the entire time.”
Step 4: Then rip those shirts OFF, especially when Bella’s head is bleeding
Lautner: [laughs] “I start laughing every time I see that scene. ‘Oh, you’re bleeding? Let me fix that …’ Here’s the thing: There’s a reason [Jacob] is not wearing many clothes in the movie. 1) When he transforms, his clothes get shredded, he can’t help it. And when he goes into the woods to put something one so he’s not naked, it’s a ripped pair of jean shorts. 2) He’s also hot, he’s 108 degrees, so that’s another reason. I love this character, this story and putting on the weight and not wearing much clothing was required for the role. In a year’s time, if I love a story and a character that required me to lose 40 pounds, I’m ready to do it.”
Weitz: “I like to say it’s all essentially economics. You see, the Quileutes [the Native American tribe in the film] don’t have very high average income and they can’t afford the T-shirts they would need, given the amount of times they turn into wolves on short notice and their clothes burst. So, really, they’d have to go to Wal-Mart every 10 minutes. They just go around in shorts for that reason.”
Step 5: Join a werewolf boot camp to get those six-pack abs
Chaske Spencer [who plays Sam, the leader of the wolf pack]: “It was an hour of training, they got us a trainer. We went in, it was a guy who helped out on 300. It was a lot of circuit training and muscle confusion. We also ate a lot. We ate six meals a day, three protein shakes a day.”
Lautner: “I was in the gym about five days a week because it was important to get your recovery time. And not overworking yourself. I was trying to put on and if I was in the gym too much, I would be burning the calories I was trying to take in. The most important thing was the eating side. Everyone thinks it’s the gym but that was the easy part for me; I was motivated. But the eating was pretty hard. We found out I needed to eat at least 3,200 calories a day just to maintain, but I needed to gain and not just maintain, so I had to eat more than that, putting something in my mouth every two hours. And I’m busy, going downtown L.A. for meetings, so there wasn’t any time for me to eat. So I’d carry around a baggie full of meat patties, raw almonds, sweet potatoes. It’s not like every two hours I was eating ice cream. It was difficult.”
Pattinson: “I didn’t see Taylor until just a little bit before we started shooting, so when he came back, I had the same reaction as everybody else. I was like, ‘Now I have to go to the gym.’”
Alex Meraz [who plays wolf pack member Paul]: “It was definitely crucial to the bonding, too. That’s really what helped out with building the chemistry on set and even during filming, I think it really helped out a lot. We had a blast. We supported each other, we even made fun of each other – you know, like who could do the most push-ups or whatever. It really helped out with our characterizations.”
Spencer: “We helped [Jacob] phase. He doesn’t want to become a werewolf. No one wants this. It just happens, this is what we’re dealt. When the Cullens came around, that’s when we started phasing. My character, he was the first one to phase, so my relationship to these guys – I’m sort of the big brother, the mentor, the father figure to help them. We are like a band of brothers, like a rock band, and suddenly Jacob starts to phase, and he has some choices to make and he has to join us. We surround him and tell him it’s not that bad.”
Lautner: “It was a lot fun. Did you talk to them already? Oh boy, that must have been a fun room. They are great guys, and they each fit their characters perfectly. We had lots of fun on set, they made it exciting.”
Step 6: Throw down between Edward and Jacob, who would win?
Pattinson: “I don’t know. I think it’s actually a fact that Edward would win, if I read the books correctly. So, I guess I can hold onto that, for my ego.”
Lautner: “We were actually discussing this on set, like who WOULD win? Because there’s a scene outside Bella’s house in which Edward grabs Jacob’s shoulder, he’s mad and Jacob doesn’t take that, rips his arm off. At that moment, Jacob would transform into a wolf, but we’re having this discussion and get really deep, ‘If I were to poof into a wolf right now, what would happen? Who would win?’ Our discussion points were like, usually I’m with my pack so if I’m without my pack, am I going to be weaker? That discussion is still up in the air. You could probably get Stephanie Meyer on the line and ask her.”
Step 7: Throw down between Rob and Taylor, who would win?
Pattinson: “I did hear, the other day, that Taylor had agreed to an interview where the interviewer was going to fight him. I don’t think I’d ever agree to that. And, after looking at Taylor’s martial arts videos from when he was like nine, I wouldn’t really want to do anything. Maybe if I had some kind of weapon.”
Lautner: “I don’t know about Rob. He actually does a lot of boxing in his time off, so it could be a good match.”
Step 8: Appreciate how TORTURED Edward is
Pattinson: “When I read New Moon, it gave me ideas about how to play him in the first film. It’s the one I connected to the most, and 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. Also, he is totally undermined by more powerful creatures, and he’s undermined emotionally by people as well. That’s what humanized it. Since I read that book, I always liked him as a character, and I’ve tried to play that same feeling throughout the films. He’s the hero of the story that just refuses to accept that he’s the hero, and I think that’s kind of admirable.”
Step 9: Understand that vampires definitely dress better
Michael Sheen [who plays Aro, head of the Volturi, the vampire government and who also played the werewolf Lucian in the Underworld series]: “The tailoring is so much better as a vampire. I’ve been observing vampires for some time now and I finally got to give my own fang, although we don’t have fangs, do we? But no, it was great to be on the other side for a bit … I lose days just with my Lucian figure and my Aro action-figure fighting. They have their tea parties together. They like to fight and then they come back. I’m losing jobs because of it.”
Step 10: Be part of the Twihard fan machine
Pattinson: “Recently, I have less direct interaction with people because there’s way more security and stuff on set. But I always find it funny when older people come up. There was a woman who came up to me the other day who must have been in her 90s. It’s very unusual. And, they say exactly the same things as 12-year-old girls. That is kind of bizarre.”
Sheen: “I haven’t really experienced much of the Twilight fan stuff yet. But I did go into a store in L.A. to buy a pair of jeans and I went into the little cubicle to try my jeans on. It’s always a quite nerve-wracking time when I come out of the cubicle to look in the mirror anyway and I like that to be a private moment. As I came out, there was a woman shaking, going ‘You’re Aro, aren’t you?!’ and I just hid in my cubicle again. Whooo! That’s been really my only experience with that. Apart from also going into my daughter’s bedroom — she’s just got pictures from Twilight and New Moon everywhere — and seeing my own little picture, which I think she did out of pity. Have Dad up there as well.”
Lautner: “I don’t think there is any way to prepare yourself for this phenomenon. None of us expected it. When we were filming Twilight, we didn’t expect anything. We were just making a movie we wanted the fans to enjoy. And then it kind of blew into this whole other world. You can definitely say I felt a little bit of the pressure to bring Jacob’s character and Jacob and Bella’s relationship alive for the fans. This movie builds that relationship and sets up the love triangle, so it’s a very important story.”
Step 11: Just say the craziest thing you can think of about these Twilight stars
Lautner: “Honestly, I try and stay away from what’s been written about me because if you let that stuff get to you, that’s not true, it can drive you crazy. One thing that I have heard recently, which is NOT true, that I didn’t say, was that I’d never take off my shirt for a movie again. I didn’t say that. If I have to, if the character requires it, I will. Who knows in 10 years, I’ll do it. Like I said, if a character requires me to lose 40 pounds, I’ll do it. That was interesting to see.”
Pattinson: “Recently, some magazine had on the cover that I was pregnant. I was just like, ‘Wow!’ And, it was without a hint of irony or anything. I didn’t really know what to make of that one. I don’t even know if that qualifies as libelous because they can just say, ‘Well, it’s obviously fiction,’ but it’s written in a non-fiction magazine. I saw a couple comments under the article saying, ‘That’s why he always wears jackets. He always wears layers to hide it.’”
Step 12: Gives us a glimpse on the next Twilight movie, Eclipse
Lautner: “Eclipse was my favorite book, so I was really excited about filming the movie. I just love that it’s the height of the love triangle. Twilight develops Edward and Bella’s relationship; New Moon develops Jacob and Bella’s relationship, and in Eclipse, the three of them are PHYSICALLY together. It has one my favorite scenes in that movie – the tent scene, where Edward is forced, and I guess it was a choice of his, to let me to sleep in the same sleeping bag as Bella just so she doesn’t die because she’s shivering to death. And I’m warm and the only thing that can keep her alive at that moment. It’s a funny scene, there’s a lot of ribbing going on between Edward and Jacob. It’s going to be a really good movie, and visually stunning, [director] David Slade is incredible visually.”