Now that the Twilight faithful have gotten the chance to see the cast in posters, trailers, and still images, the overall reaction to the casting choices is positive. But this was far from the case at the get-go.
Message boards, fan sites, and blogs were awash with venom when the largely unknown cast was first announced for the adaptation of book one of Stephenie Meyer's wildly popular Twilight series. As any regular Internet surfer has surely observed, the more rabid the fan base, the more outright cruel the comments tend to get.
Speaking to the cast of Twilight this weekend, I found the group has managed to emerge unscathed, winning over the fans bit by bit in the months leading up to the November 21st release. But each has had their fair share of mixed emotions about first being introduced to the fan base.
"I've had girls move down autograph tables and look at me with a severe amount of disdain," says star Kristen Stewart, who portrays the story's heroine, Bella. "That is a little unnerving. [They say to me] 'Just [write] your name. Can you not write anything besides your name?'"
"You can go online and cry about what's posted on IMDb or you can read it and get a kick out of it. I have to say, honestly, genuinely, it really doesn't bother me."
Perhaps no one had a tougher time of it than Robert Pattinson, described in the novels by Meyer as being almost impossibly beautiful.
"All my [reactions were] like, 'He looks like a bum,'" Pattinson says with a chuckle.
"I was expecting that, though. I would have had the same reaction. I was embarrassed even going into the audition. I thought I'd be judged. You look on the synopsis and it's like 'Edward is the perfect man. He has impeccable face, body -- everything about him is amazing.' I was quite happy when it was 100 percent negative. I was like, 'Thank you, I'm not perfect. I'm rugged.'"
Edi Gathegi, who portrays the vampire Laurent, decided to face his attackers head-on, using humor to win them over. "The fans were sort of disgruntled about my casting choice," says Gathegi. "Stephenie doesn't necessarily have an African-American in the book and Laurent is described as being 'olive-toned.' So what I did is I decided to address the issue head on. I said, 'Listen, she describes this character as being olive-toned, but there are many different types of olives. Black olives, anyone?'"