The conference began with a request from a Summit Entertainment rep for press to keep questions strictly New Moon related. Inquiries about the cast’s personal lives, (Does Robert love Kristen? Does Kristen love Robert? Does Taylor care?), were off limits. This appeal was honored, almost.
How does it feel for all three of you to be back at Comic-Con this year?
Lautner: It’s good. It’s exciting. I think last year Comic-Con was the big eye opener for us and so it’s awesome to be back and embrace all of our fans again for everything they’ve done this past year.
In the book, even though you leave Bella you’re very much an integral part of her thoughts. I know that can be a challenge to represent onscreen. How did you and director Chris Weitz try to accomplish this?
Pattinson: Well, it’s through a kind of process. It’s just a voice. Edward’s just a voice in the book, and so I guess it would look pretty cheesy if it were just my voice. They’ve done these hallucinations, these semi-visible apparitions.
Stewart: It’s suggestive. It’s how she remembers him, not necessarily how he actually is.
Taylor, can you talk about Jacob’s transformation in this movie and your personal transformation that you had to go through to play the role?
Lautner: Yeah, okay. When I was filming Twilight I knew that Jacob’s character changed a lot so if I wanted to continue portraying him correctly I had a lot of work ahead of myself. So as soon as I finished filming Twilight I started hitting the gym. I got a personal trainer. I started eating a lot of food, good food of course; proteins, good carbs, cut the sugars. It was a lot of work but it was definitely worth it.
Kristen, in the Twilight series Bella’s story arc really starts to develop in New Moon, in the second book and film. She becomes an active protagonist. Was it more difficult to prepare for this role this time around or vice versa?
Stewart: I wouldn’t say that one was more difficult than the other. This is a severely emotional movie. That’s the one big difference. This movie is not about discovery or falling in love which is sort of just an intense emotion but this is like low and there high points for her, too. She’s a manic depressive basically. To have a character be able to pull her out of that, it’s a hefty feat which I think we pulled off. But for me, like, I don’t know. There was no difference. It was just sort of heavier and it was more to think about. It’s a more mature part strictly because she’s older and she has more to deal with.
How does this massive embracing of Team Edward and Team Jacob plays into your performances?
Lautner: I think that everything is kind of crazy about this franchise and that’s why we love it so much and that’s why the fans do as well. But yeah, there definitely a lot of fans who are on the two separate teams. I don’t know. I mean, sometimes it gets me a little nervous because I’m trying to live up to the fan’s expectations and trying to represent Team Jacob in the right way. I don’t want to disappoint them so that’s why I worked so hard to not only mentally and emotionally but physically change as well for this role because this guy is some pretty good competition. So I’ve done a lot of hard work.
How did you guys address that fact that Robert’s not in this film as much as Twilight which might be disappointing to fans?
Stewart: He’s in it a lot.
Pattinson: They won’t be disappointed either. I just watched a clip which they’re going to play later, and like, people will forget immediately [inaudbile]…’Why is he wasting our time?’ If he doesn’t go you can’t miss him and that’s what this whole movie is about, that like empty, completely dark place where Edward is absent.
Lautner: If he was absent they would miss him very deeply.
Taylor, when you see the trailer for the first time and watch yourself morph, what goes through your mind? You turn into a fan, I’m sure.
Lautner: I don’t know. I thought that they did a pretty good job with the wolf transformation. I’m excited that there are werewolves involved now because the werewolves definitely step up the action in the movie. There is double the action in this movie than there was before and there’s also a different dynamic. Now it’s not just this romance between a human girl and a vampire, but it’s the beginning of a love triangle and so that’s exciting.
Do you have a favorite scene from this film that stands out as your favorite one to shoot and why?
Stewart: Well, your favorite scene didn’t turn out to be your favorite.
Lautner: Oh, right. I have a lot of favorite scenes so that’s a really difficult question for me. I like a lot of the cool action scenes I get to do because I just had a lot of fun with those. Anyway [laughs], my original favorite scene was a really small scene that I just thought was kind of cute.
Stewart: What was it?
Lautner: It was the scene where I walk her up to her door and say goodbye to her and I’m going off to fight in the woods and she’s worried. She’s scared for me. I thought that it was kind of cute, but I also like the breakup scene.
Stewart: Yeah, that’s my favorite scene in the movie. We call it a breakup scene because he basically tells her that they can’t be friends anymore and he’s transforming. If you ever, ever treated me like that you would kill me.
Lautner: It was also painful to shoot because it was thirty five degrees and we were poured rain on, rain tower rain which is straight from the spring.
Lautner: Yeah, it was bad.
Rob, do you have a favorite scene or moment?
Pattinson: I think my breakup scene was my favorite scene. I mean, hopefully it’ll come off as having quite a few more levels than the relationship in ‘Twilight’. It was interesting. It was like a five page long dialogue scene. That didn’t happen at all in the first one and it’s quite an interesting little moment. It completely bypasses all the supernatural elements of the story, as well, which I found quite interesting.
Which of the novels resonates the most for you as a reader or as an actor and which are you most enthused about working in?
Lautner: My favorite book was actually ‘Eclipse’. I’m pretty excited that, yeah, it’s gotten action. The action levels continue to build in this series. So I think that I enjoy that but also the fact that ‘Twilight’ sets up the romance between Bella and Edward and then Bella and Jacob’s friendship grows in ‘New Moon’. But in ‘Eclipse’ it’s actually the three of them physically together and we have to team up and make this decision to try and be friends to protect her. I think that is like the ultimate high point of the series where it’s the love triangle in ‘Eclipse’. So I’m excited to get going.
Stewart: I liked ‘New Moon’ just in terms of how far I can push myself within the series. I feel like after New Moon it’s sort of smooth sailing for her. She’s very, very solid and content and happy. But in the second one she’s nothing, literally just lost. I got to find her again. But yeah, the second one for sure.
Pattinson: I think that New Moon was my favorite book as well mainly because I like the juxtaposition of all sudden people being…it’s such a hyped character, Edward, and there are so many people looking at him like a romantic hero. In ‘New Moon’, the way that I read it anyway, he’s just so humbled. It’s a character who’s looking at Bella and thinking that he loves something too much but he can’t be around. He deliberately starts breaking up their relationship which I think is a very relatable thing and I think is very kind of painful. Yeah, the fight sequence at the end, Bella ends up saving Edward as she does in every single one of the books. So it’s really funny how everyone looks at Edward as the hero and he’s been continuously saved by the damsel in distress. I think he really realizes that in ‘New Moon’. ‘Eclipse’ is really him trying to catch up with Jacob because he’s so out of the loop and he can’t speak in superlatives anymore. He’s accepted being who he is and he needs to catch up to Jacob. So I always liked ‘New Moon’.
