Ashley Greene and Peter Facinelli Look Back – The Hollywood Reporter

When director Catherine Hardwicke got the first draft of a movie twilightShe knew there was a problem. The script depicts Bella as a star athlete and she ends up on a chase with the FBI (on jet skis). “It just got out of control,” Hardwick says. “I say: No, no, no, that’s not what the book is about. It’s about this amazing, impossible love and this longing.

Hardwicke wanted to ditch the script and move closer to author Stephenie Meyer’s book. Those instincts proved correct. Fifteen years ago, on November 21, 2008, twilight A surprise hit for minor studio Summit Entertainment, it grossed $408.4 million worldwide and instantly turned stars Kristen Stewart (Bella Swan) and Robert Pattinson (Edward Cullen) into global stars. It will spawn four sequels, with a TV reboot on the way.

After working on a new screenplay with writer Melissa Rosenberg, Hardwicke became famous for thirteenshe goes on an arduous journey to choose Bella and Edward – an ordinary high school girl and the immortal vampire she falls in love with, respectively.

The director knew she found Bella in Stewart’s film when she saw her in the trailer for the 2007 film. To the wilderness. She ended up traveling to Pittsburgh where Stewart was filming a movie and supervised a screen test with Jackson Rathbone (who later took on the role of Jasper Cullen, Edward’s vampire brother). “At the end of the day, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, she’s really great and she’s got all this anxiety,'” Hardwick recalls.

Finding Edward proved much more difficult. As Harodik noted, the actors who were auditioning “didn’t look like they had been alive for nearly 100 years in the midst of all this deep anxiety and existential crisis. They didn’t feel that kind of spirit.

They narrowed the film down to four actors, including Rathbone, Shiloh Fernandez, Ben Barnes, and Pattinson, who bought his own flight from London because the production was on a limited budget. They all had chemistry with Stewart, but as soon as Pattinson woke up, Hardwicke knew he was the one because she felt an “electricity” between them. (The couple will become a real couple for several years.)

Ashley Greene auditioned for Bella, but Hardwicke saw her more in the role of Alice Cullen, Edward’s adopted sister. The actress recalls that she was “obsessed with this book, like a lot of people, and wanted to do anything possible to be a part of the movie,” even if it wasn’t the role of Bella. But it was also a special project for Green because it was her first big acting role she’d booked since moving to Los Angeles just two years earlier.

When an agent asked Peter Facinelli if he wanted to do a vampire movie, he said no. After all, he thought, good and bad vampire movies seemed to come in waves and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to jump on the next one. But once he heard who the director was, he said, “His ears perked up because I was a fan of Catherine’s work.”

Since there was no script yet, he went out to buy the book and gave it a quick look before an audition the next day, which involved very hands-on training for Hardwicke to land the role of Carlisle, the adoptive father of a family of vampires. “At some point, we got to the scene where (Hardwick) was actually playing Bella. So I put my hand around her leg and I’m crouching over her and I’m thinking, ‘If someone opens the door right now and looks in, it’s going to look really weird to me hovering over the exit,'” she said. You know.” With my hands on her legs. “And so it was fun,” the actor says.

After waiting for weeks, he was devastated to learn that he had not been selected. “They thought maybe you looked too small, and they went with someone who looked a little older,” he recalls his clients telling him.

As he moved on to other projects, he thought, “The universe is really rubbing this in because I didn’t get this role,” because he saw a book about “50 Years of the Hollywood Vampire Industry” on his coffee table while he was elsewhere. the test. But because he admired Hardwicke so much, he decided to give her a copy of the book and send her best wishes. twilight. Fortunately for him, the first actor they chose ended up playing Carlisle Cullen, which prompted Hardwicke to remember Facinelli.

“I always joke with Katherine that I bought Dory for $29.99,” said the actor, who has worked on shows like Nurse Jackie His latest cinematic project is a drama on firecurrently on streaming and VOD.

On the first day of filming, Hardwicke decided to “do the hardest thing first”, which was the fight scene in the ballet studio. Although the crew had already been rehearsing their stunts for a few weeks, the director says the day “was pretty wild,” especially since they were filming in a room with all the mirrors, making it difficult from a filming perspective. “I had to hold a mirror in front of me,” she added. She said it also worked in the end because some of the cast members really connected with their characters.

Pattinson and Facinelli “were writing letters and building their back story over the last 100 years and everyone was delving into the characters,” she recalls.

Facinelli notes that it was important for him to know what makes his character work. “When I sat down to write Carlyle’s character diary, I had about 350 years to fill out,” he says. “So it took me, it took me a minute.”

Facinelli also recalls meeting Pattinson, who later became famous for his role in the film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire A few years ago. “At the time, they were experimenting with long hair for that character (Edward),” he recalls. But he said Pattinson couldn’t stand his hair extensions, so he ripped them off one night, revealing the Edward hair that fans know and love now.

Another big scene they shot early on was the vampire baseball game — a scene that Greene, Facinelli, and Hadwick all agree was one of their favorites, but also one of the most difficult to film.

“I mean, you know, how many times in their career does anyone get to direct a vampire baseball scene?” Hardwick asked. “This is just crazy and fun. And it was a really cool set.”

The scene in which the Cullens show off their vampire powers and skills in a game set to the music of Muse’s “Supermassive Black Whole” was filmed in the Columbia River Gorge. Unfortunately for the actors, they were at the mercy of Mother Nature.

“We shot that scene first and it was pouring rain and everyone was miserable,” Facinelli recalls. “We were like wet ducks in the middle of the woods, like makeup was running down our faces, and people’s hair was tangled.” At one point, he said, Hardwicke just started putting baseball caps on cast members and telling them to roll with them.

Considering it was “a disaster on day one”, Facinelli even thought to himself at the time: “No one is going to see this movie – and I was wrong.”

For Greene, filming the baseball scene was very challenging, but watching it again, it was her favorite visually. She adds that Alice’s famous kick, when she was preparing to throw, “was not expected.” It just kind of happened.

“You wonder how these things are going to end,” she says. “And fortunately, you know, Katherine had a vision, and the newsroom was so kind to me, which was epic.”

Fifteen years later, Green says many members of the staff have become like family, and they still have a text thread where they now “schedule playdates for our kids to go on.”

“When you’re going through something that a lot of people can’t understand, and in the midst of it, you really have each other. It creates this amazing bond,” the actress adds.

Few expected the film to be a success, including those involved in it. Hardwicke says Summit was hoping to make at least $30 million during its run (in line with recent female-focused dramas). The Brotherhood of the Traveling PantsWhich grossed $42 million). It ended up being more than ten times that.

“I remember going to the first show and there were people camping out for about four days and I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is amazing. “But this could get ugly quickly if they don’t like this movie,” Facinelli joked.

For Greene, the impact her character Alice has on audiences is something she comes close to.

“There’s something about Alice that a lot of people really need, that’s helped a lot of people go through things in their lives because she kind of marches to her own drum,” Green says. “She doesn’t fit into those standards in this box and she’s just being herself.”

Hardwicke says she will always “remember and appreciate” all the “beautiful little personal moments” she created with the first film that launched The Twilight Saga. Although she only directed the first book in the series, she says it was by choice because she “had the most inspiration and vision for the first book. Not so much, the others.”

twilight He still lives. a twilight The TV show is still early in development, and although she’s not involved, Hardwicke thinks it will be “fun to see someone else do their interpretation” of the books.

Although little has been released about the potential story of the series, Green, who would have liked to feature Alice’s backstory in the original films, still likes the idea of ​​”getting back to what makes her (Alice) tick.” She added that she would be “really happy to see someone take on this role,” especially since the character “holds a special place in my heart.”

As for why the original? twilight It’s still watched today, and Hardwicke believes it’s because “everyone wants to have that first love. That’s undeniable. That’s just a rush in your head that makes you feel euphoric. A love that’s like a drug…and that’s what I was trying to create in the film.” “.