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So we're on set in Oregon, it's a little cold right? |
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Yeah, it's a little chilly and rainy outside but it's ok. |
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Taylor you play a very important character in "Twilight," you play Jacob Black. |
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Yes I do play Jacob Black and its pretty interesting he's a fun character to play and I'm up here at the beach scene right now where I spill the secret about the Cullens and its been wet and rainy and chilly all day so we're just trying to keep warm in the tents with the fire to keep cozy. |
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This seems like a lot of fun to work on with all the stunts, tell us your experience on the set. |
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Yeah I was up here about two weeks ago when I was filming a scene with Kristen and Billy Burke who plays Charlie and Gil Birmingham who plays my dad and I was filming a scene where I drop Bella's car off to her in the beginning and that was pretty fun you know, that was the first time I got to meet Billy Burke and Billy Black who's Gil Birmingham and you know they're great people, um I filmed another scene where there's like 'evil eye action' goin on between Billy Black and Edward and now I'm just back doing this scene. If you get some shots it's a really beautiful place, its crazy how cool this is.
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So, we had to get an umbrella because it started pouring... |
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Yes it did. Its starting to pour now, and the tide is coming in high. Uh...our feet got soaked so now we're up on higher ground. |
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The reason the story takes place here is because vampires love this kind of weather, right? |
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Exactly, ya know, I think its very interesting because, ya know, usually in the past when I filmed movies, we cant film when it rains outside. Ya know, we've got to wait for the sun, but here whenever the sun comes out, that's when we cant film. So, ya know, we...for our continuity we have to keep it dark and gloomy and rainy. So, this is actually what we love. |
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Another fascination was your hair... |
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Yeah. |
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How is it having long hair? |
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Yeah. I've never had it long before so this is very interesting
for me. Um...I've actually by now gotten a lot more use to it. At
first it was just itchy, and it was like ugh, I just want to take it
off, but um...its not too bad now. I'm starting to get used to it when
I look at myself in the mirror, and I see I'm like wow, that is me.
At first I would look at myself, and I'd be like what? Who is that?
But um...its getting better now. |
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Now you know how girls feel when we have to deal with long hair... |
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I was actually saying that to Kristen. I was like, how do you guys live with this? Its always like blowing in my mouth and stuff. I'm like saying my lines... |
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Are you ready for what will come for you after the movie comes out? |
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Ya know, I'm just excited. I'm thrilled to be a part of a project like this. Ya know, like you said, the fans are amazing. I've never seen anything like it before. So, ya know, I'm very excited to be a part of it, and uh...ya know, I'm looking forward to bringing all their Jacob Black, ya know, character to life. So... |
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Tell us more about the Jacob Black character.... |
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Yeah. Um...he's very interesting. I love the way Stephanie wrote him is...In the first movie, ya know, he's a native American. He's very friendly, and easy to talk with, ya know, he's just a, ya know, he's a great, ya know, young boy, then in the second one it becomes interesting because, ya know, he turns into a werewolf, and what I find cool is like, ya know, he has this native American side who's just this, ya know, happy go lucky kid, then he has this werewolf side where, ya know, he's trying to hold back his, ya know, he just...he has a temper, and ya know, he wants to be violent so, all that stuff going on inside a teenage boy has to just be insane. |
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There is buzz about this being competition for the new Potter movie... |
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Yeah, its very interesting, ya know, they're coming out like three week...Twilight comes out three weeks after Harry Potter, and ya know, they both have amazing fans, ya know, I don't think you could've picked two better, ya know, movies, and ya know, both scary films to come out. Um...so, ya know, I'm very interested. Um...I think Twilight, ya know, I know the cast and crew on here is, ya know, just doing amazing, ya know, we're putting our heart and souls into it, and uh...I think its gonna be very good, and ya know, the fans are definitely gonna be pleased with it. |
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Why do you think there is such a big fan base for these fantasy films like Harry Potter and Twilight? |
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Yeah. I definitely, ya know, what I think with Twilight, ya know, the whole series, there's a bit of everything in it, ya know, there's romance, there's action-adventure, there's like a little horror in it, ya know, there's everything. So, I think that's why it attracts so many people because, ya know, it's a little mix of everything in one movie. So, its gonna be interesting to see on the screen December twelfth. |
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What is your favorite movie? |
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Ok. What's up guys, I'm Taylor Lautner. I'm playing Jacob Black. My favorite movie would probably have to be Braveheart, ya know, I have a lot, but uh...Braveheart was just, ya know, a classic, and uh...its just, ya know, it drew so many different emotions out of me. So, I'd have to go with Braveheart for my favorite movie. |
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We got rained on... |
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Yes. Today is our day at the beach, and every young kid wants to go to the beach in the rain today, right? I mean, why not. That's what we're dealing with today. It wasn't part of the plan, but that's part of movie making. You solve problems everyday and we're gonna make it work in the rain today. |
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Did you know that this was such a phenomenon when you signed on for it? |
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Absolutely not. It wasn't a phenomenon. When I first read the book it wasn't even published yet. So, I had absolutely no idea that it would be a readership of any kind. It was written by...it was a first time author, and books, especially young adult books basically intend to sell on the reputation of the author, and this author had no reputation because she had never written a book before. So, we had absolutely no idea what we were getting into in terms of a phenomenon. We just knew we found a great piece of material, and a really incredible story. |
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A lot of people are saying that she is JK Rowlings competition... |
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Again, that's just good fortune. You uh...when you're reading a pre-published manuscript as I had, you have no idea that there will ever be a readership, and that's really not my job to project if there's gonna be a readership. For me, my job is to fall in love with the piece of material, and uh...and then fight like hell to make it happen, and turn it into a movie. So, I read this book. If I was the only one who would've ever read this book, I still would've fought every bit as hard as I did to get the movie made. The fact that it turned into a phenomenon is what made it possible and so easy for us to get it made. |
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Has Madonna had anything to say to this... |
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No. She hasn't really put an imprint on it. We'll see in post. Perhaps we can uh...get some sort of influence, but no...really um...the producers I'm with, there are three and myself are here really trying to make sure everything comes out uh...the way the fan base is so desperately hoping that it will. |
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What's your take on the Twilight versus Harry Potter buzz? |
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Uh...I think they are two wonderful franchises that will live a completely separate life. I think our movie is scheduled to come out three weeks after the final Harry Potter movie so, uh...I think there's plenty of room especially around Christmas time for more than one movie to really thrive, and uh...I hope that's the case. I love the Harry Potter franchise, but by no means do I see a competition. If our movie gets to the place where we're truly competitive with the Harry Potter franchise, nothing would make me happier. |
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Have some of these actors signed on to do sequels? |
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Yes. Absolutely. We have made deals with all of our actors to continue with hopes that we're gonna make many more of these. |
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Anything else you'd like to say? |
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Uh...come and see us December twelfth. I really think everybody's gonna be happy. I think we deliver everything the book promises, and I think that we do a little bit extra. So, I really cant wait for everyone to come out and see us. |
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In a nutshell what is Twilight about? |
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Twilight is...in very simple form is a story of a girl who falls in love with a vampire. The story who falls in love with an immortal. Of course, when she meets him and falls in love with him she doesn't know that. She just sees a guy across the way who, ya know, there's the boy that when you were growing up your parents probably wanted you to be with, and then there's that other guy that you just couldn't stay away from no matter what, that's sort of the experience that she has here. Uh...and the author very eloquently uses vampirism as a uh...tool to express teen lust. Its about that I want, I want, I want. I want this person. I must have them when I cant have them, and rather than using directly sexuality, its using vampirism as I want to consume this girl. I want her so badly yet I cant have her. So, it's a really eloquent metaphor that she uses, and uh...again, its just a really special love story. |
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What scene are you guys getting ready to shoot right now? |
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The sunny beach scene we're shooting today. Yeah, and we're
hoping that the sun is gonna come out at any moment. |
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How exciting is it to direct this? |
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Its very exciting and we just wish that the weather was almost as
excited as we are. |
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Have you received any emails from the Twilight fans? |
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Yeah, people seem to be pretty interested in what we're doing. I
wish that they'd send emails up to the sky today. |
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How was reteaming with Nikki Reed? |
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Nikki's back. She's...yeah, its great to have Nikki back. She was in Thirteen and Doggy town with me. So, its my third movie with her. She's Leslie. She learned how to like hit left handed, bat like a superstar, ya know, she's like a Babe Ruth bat, and then she's got a...and then she slides in, ya know, she does a lot of cool stuff. |
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Is it fun directing all of the stunts in this movie? |
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Yeah. We like doing the stunts. We had a lot of fun like on Dogtown, the skateboard cam and everything. Now, we're doing vampire cam. |
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This is basically a vampire love story, right? |
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Well, vampire, human love story, interracial, ya know, situation, yeah. |
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Why do you think there's such a huge fan base for this? |
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Its such a romantic piece. Its exciting. Edwards such a bad boy. Bella is like feisty and awesome, ya know, and its just this tale of like unrequited love. Its super cool. |
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Tell us about the role you play in the movie.... |
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Uh...I'm Sam Uli, head of the werewolf pack the first phase, and... |
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I'm Embry Uli, and I'm just one of the younger brothers. I'm his younger brother. |
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Possibly my younger brother. Yeah uh...if its our dad, our dad is promiscuous. |
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Tell us about the werewolf storyline... |
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Um...the werewolf storyline is kind of like its loosely based off of uh...Quillio tribal legend that uh...we're descendants from wolves, and uh...at some point its not known at what point um...one of the tribal elders had figured out how to um...change into a spirit form like, leave his body, and at some point um another tribal member that was jealous of him killed his body so he couldn't get back into it, then, still in the spirit form he merged with a wolf and then that's when it really began the whole phasing into a wolf, and so, when the boys come of age like, his descendants, they will turn into wolves when threatened. Um...and in Twilight, the coming of the Cullens brings about the change again. So, when the Cullens come back to...or come near uh...the reservation or are just in the area um...the young boys start phasing again, or phasing means turning into a wolf. So, its not your average uh...werewolf. We're not like humans turning into a werewolf. Its like a split second boom, there's an explosion, you rip through your skin, and you're a wolf like, literally just a large massive, about four times the size your own weight wolf. |
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Hormone raging...hormone raging. |
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You don't have to be a werewolf to be hormone raging... |
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Yeah, but it typically doesn't happen until the boys come of age and they hit puberty, and like around....they have the inner coming danger, and that's why in the first movie we're gonna have our hair longer, but in the second you'll see us with shorter hair cuz when you change to werewolf form, your hair is as long as your natural hair, and of course you don't wanna be like ugh...tripping on your hair. |
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So, its not a Shaggy Dog film reenactment or anything like that. |
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Have you guys signed on for the second movie? |
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Um...there hasn't been...we don't, we don't know anything about anything right now. We know as much as you do. In fact, we've actually learned a lot being here today about what the hell's going on. Yeah. They're leaving everyone in the dark. |
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This is the first of four books, and the werewolf storyline is more prominent in the second and third ones... |
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Yeah um...I hope they make other ones cuz I would love to turn into a wolf. I'm telling you right now. Its gonna be pretty sweet. I've never had short hair in my life. I don't know what its gonna be like cutting it. Its gonna be. |
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I look so funny with short hair. I look ridiculous. Eighth
grade, like this, went there, nobody liked me, grew the long hair
they're like, you're cool man, but cool is what you think is cool. |
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Yeah, but what I wont miss is living in Portland there's a lot of uh...there's a huge hippy population, and they think that its ok to touch my hair. I get a lot of hippies pulling on my hair. So, I wont miss that if I have to cut it, but anyways... |
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Tell us about the scene today... |
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Um...today um...its really...Bella comes to the res uh...she reunites with uh...Jacob Black. Um...Taylor Lautner, and um...its...I say something that kind of like...intrigues her a little bit, makes her think that uh Edward Cullen is possibly not human, and then she kind of like forces out um...some of the legends, some of the Quillio legends from um...Jacob...kind of connivingly, yeah. So, that's the scene that we're shooting today. |
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Was this your first acting job? |
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Um...I've done uh...I did a public service announcement and two commercials, but by no means am I a veteran. This is pretty new to me, yeah. |
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No, this is the first time ever acting, no acting experience. |
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You know a native tribal language, right? |
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Yeah um...I speak a few of my words. I know a lot of prayers. Uh...I'm Lacota, as is he, and we've been working on our own language together um...since we met, and also, I've been working with a woman named Charlotte Clairmote, and Miss Anne. Shoutout, but uh...we've been working with them. Uh...learned Quillio words and things like that...been trying to get phrases down. No, its been a rush like with the dates changing and the weather um...but uh...we're trying to save most of the words for the film, and we're not like really speaking it out loud like um...in an interviews, but you'll hopefully see some of it in the movie. We're trying to bring as much of the uh...as much of the authenticity as we can. |
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Tell us about your role in Twilight. |
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I play a character named uh...Mike Newton. I'm uh...one of the humans. I'm not a vampire. I'm a high school kid, and uh...I'm pretty much uh...in love, at least in high school terms with uh...with Bella, and uh...do anything I can uh...to get her, but uh...ya know, of course, she's in love with Edward. So, that doesn't work out so well for me, but uh...so, yeah. I mean, that's basically my role. |
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Why do you think this has such a big fan base? |
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Well, ya know um...I had no idea how uh...I guess sort of popular the book was, or the series of books were. Um...before I got involved with this, and uh...ya know, and as soon as I found out that on IMDB the day it was announced, there were over fifty thousand posts. I was just like, that's incredible. So, I knew from right there that I was a part of something potentially pretty big uh...and pretty cool, and um...uh...ya know, and I just think uh...I just think it's a great story. I mean, ya know, you sort of have the regular elements of a high school drama, ya know, and uh...the natural dynamics that sort of form out of that, and then you have this vampiric element. Its just really cool, and ya know uh...and Stephanie has really just combined those in really interesting ways, and put together some great characters, and come up with this great story, ya know, I've only read the first book so far because in case they did make more movies, I didn't wanna get ahead of the story. I didn't wanna know what happens. Um....but uh...but I did read the first book, and uh...yeah, its just a great story. I mean, you can see... |
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Tell us about your character. |
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Uh...I play Bella Swan. She's the protagonist in the story um...and ya know, not the subject of many girl's obsession, but uh...ya know, sort of like their eyes, you see the story through her eyes. Um yeah. |
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You also play someone that falls in love with a vampire... |
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I do. |
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This has kind of a twist, right? |
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Yeah in that um...well, I...ya know, they're not the bad guys. Um...the vampires are, ya know, they should be, but ya know, um...the thing about Bella is she figures she's like a fairly logical girl in the beginning, and she has no like real connections with people, and then all of a sudden its like there's this...she meets this guy who's not a guy, and there's like a physiological...I mean, like such a strong chemistry connection. Um...which cannot be ignored except its like very dangerous for them. Its like very detrimental to both of their existences, and so its like uh...Romeo and Juliet story. They would die for one another. |
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The writers a woman, the stars a woman, the main character is a woman... |
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Is my contact like slipping of my eye? I don't have brown eyes by the way. |
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In this movie it seems like theres a lot of female influence... |
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Right. Um...well, yeah, there are lots of uh...girls in um...high positions. Um...but like, when you're on set you're all the same. I mean, like...plus the movie is not like girl power movie either. I mean, a love story is like pretty fundamental. Its human period, relates everybody. No. |
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Are you aware of the fan base? |
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Yeah I know. People are obsessed. Its crazy. Um...I hope we don't disappoint them. I don't think we will. |
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Tell us about your character... |
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Um...I play Jessica Stanley and I'm one of Bella's friends in school. Um...and I uh...am a little jealous that um...Mike Newton likes her and not me. |
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But you work it out.... |
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Uh...yeah well, in the end um...Bella obviously doesn't go for Mike Newton. Um...and so she kind of, ya know, pushes him in my direction, and so um...it kind of, ya know is my wingman a little bit. So uh...I get to go to prom with him. |
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Were you aware of the phenomenon behind this movie? |
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No, not at all. Um...I mean, when I was still kind of in the process of coming onto this movie um....I mentioned it, and um...some friends of a friend overheard me talking about it and immediately were like, what like, ya know, its such a big deal, and I was like oh, I had no idea, and then more and more everyday we're here I'm like, I had no idea that um...it had this kind of following. I think its great. |
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How do you feel about people saying it will be the competition
for Harry Potter? |
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Um...I can definitely see where people would obviously, ya know, draw that comparison, but um...ya know, it's a little more mature, and obviously very different, and I don't know that the...same people who love Harry Potter will necessarily be the people who love Twilight, and there will probably be some crossovers, but um...yeah, and why is it a competition like, why cant everybody just see both? They're both good. |
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Why do you think people like supernatural thrillers like this? |
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Um...cuz they're awesome. I mean, um...I actually watched uh...the fifth Harry Potter on DVD with my roommate like two nights ago, and its just awesome. It just is. I don't know why. |
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In this movie you guys do a lot of stunts... |
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No, the humans...yeah. Yeah, the friends don't do very many stunts. Um...but yeah um...uh...we haven't uh...seen a bunch of the stunts, but um....I'm told they look awesome. I'm really excited to see how they end up looking. |
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What scene were you guys filming today? |
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Uh...today we're just at um...the push beach, which is not really the push beach. Um...but uh...we are just um....coming out here to surf, and um...we meet well, the human friends meet uh...Jacob for the first time, and um...Bella kind of tries to get it out of him like, ya know, the legends about um...the Quillios and about the Cullens. |
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And that's what's happening today...? |
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Yeah... |
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Tell us about your character? |
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Uh my characters name is Eric Yorkie and he's sort of a, he' sort of like a real kind of load mouth diplomatic annoying kind of character and he a first person that Bella meets at school so yah know he's trying to swoon her and trying to be friend with her before anybody else get their hands on her. |
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Have you heard of the series before you signed on to the movie? |
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actually yeah, one of my friends read the books so he told me about the series I haven't read the books until I had booked the movie then I read the first one and I started to read the second and third one. |
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How would you describe the movie? |
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I think it's everything rolled into one. Yah know there's some comedy, there's some seriousness some romantic stuff going on and action and yeah everything, it's real good. |
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Tell us about being here in Oregon. |
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Oregon is awesome it's real beautiful, it's real green uh I don't know the rain is kind of getting to me but other then that it's a really beautiful place. I actually have a cousin who I didn't know lived here so yeah it's really cool. |
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What else do you think fan would expect from Twilight? |
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A lot of I don't know, most twilight fans have read the book so I'm sure they have expectations vut I think, I think yah know the way it's being shot is going to be it's gonna be a very interesting movie yah know like cinematically and yeah it think it should be real good. |
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And your role is? |
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Tyler yes. Tylers my role. |
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Describe that character. |
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Well Tyler's basically a he's an outgoing guy yah know he wants to be in everything, mischievous he um of course crashes into Isabella um as you can see, um he's just a spontaneous guy, he yah know he's messing with stuff all the time yah know he's like the guy you have to tell more then once to do something of course and yah know. |
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And you almost accidentally killed Bella. |
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I did, I did, it was intentional, nah I'm joking, I'm joking um yeah it was yeah I did that's were I feel like I stand in this movie is basically me, that accident without that happening she would have never found out Edwards true power I mean he stopped my van yah know what I mean. |
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Is it normal for you to dress like this? |