The Twilight World

And what do you like in Twilight’s Edward?

I loved the second book much more than the first, that’s when I first connected with the charac ter. You can be young or old, when you fall in love with some one at first you start to idolize her, then you put her on a pedestal, then the other is a mirror. But after a while, you see your faults in this mirror and the more you see them, the less you can bear it and in the end you destroy the love, saying you don’t need this. This is real, I can tell you that. It’s strange that a cheesy book for girls like this brought me to fame, but it happened and I won’t protest.

You became a sex symbol since then, and it’s not easy to find your soul mate now, even if you believe in them.

I’d like to believe that but I would be in trouble if I found her so soon, because I’m not mature enough so I’d probably screw up. And that other thing, being a sex symbol, no one should envy me, because 14 year old little girls admire me, it’s strange for me too. If I think about the fact that 2 years ago I couldn’t even get a date, and now every one is obsessed with me…strange.

If you gave up acting so easily, then why did you become an actor?

Accidentally. It was never in my blood, I didn’t go to acting class in school. I fell into acting because that girl I was obsessed with was there and they let me be there around the stage. They were rehearsing a musical and one day I thought that it’d be great to play the lead. I never sang before an audience but I went to the casting and although I didn’t get the role, I debuted as a Cuban dancer. Then the play was done and the good actors went away, then Thorn ton Wilder’s Our Town was chosen as the next play. And I was the only tall guy who seemed right for the role. After the premier, an agent came up to me and signed me. That agent is the reason why I had a role in Vanity Fair with Reese Witherspoon, then I got into Harry Potter. While I was doing these, I ran out of time to go to
university so I started calling myself an actor.

But you still haven’t moved to Holly wood, you still live in London, because they leave you alone there.

Can you still go down for a beer?

It depends on the district. London is a big enough city with enough pubs where they don’t give a damn about who I am.
You just have to find them. We went out recently with my friends and the waitress kept telling me that I looked like the guy from Twilight, asked me if I wasn’t his brother. But she never thought that I’d go to a laid-back pub like that. If some one recognizes me on the street, they usually look away; they are too shy to come up to me. Less fame would have been enough for me but that’s how it is and I look at the positives. Twilight opened the door for me to make movies like Remember Me and Bel Ami. I’m constantly working and the price is the crazi ness surrounds me every where I got. But every actor wants to be on screen, and if they get roles that make their hearts beat faster then it’s really worth it.

Does the hysteria around you have any effect on you?

Lon don is so different from America. I can live a normal life there and the fuss around me seems like a night mare
there. Some times I think it was just a dream and then I should quickly let it go. I can just go from one movie to the other, as if nothing happened. If I don’t care about it, then it’s simply not there.

You said it’s better to let it go?

Yes, it’s better to forget that I’m famous and act like I’m blind, I confess I’m still trying to figure out what to do with this quick popularity, because I’m scared that it will stop me from improving. Not just as an actor but as a person too. But maybe I’m wrong.

I can hear the question marks in your voice. Or am I wrong?

You hear the uncertainty, which is different from losing focus. Being uncertain is good, because you realize that you are not as stable as you thought you were and you start trying to find things to hold on to. At least this is what I realized, as my own psychologist. Those people who sit in their offices have every thing in their lives only for get to actually live. I rather vote for life and that means uncertainty at times.

Why?

Because every day has a lot more in it than what we realize. We don’t use our lives enough emo tionally. We don’t go deep enough.

I get the impression that they sent this fame thing to the wrong address.

Fame is a mythical thing, a strange value. You don’t need qualification, money, you can be born into it. Some people think that if you are famous, you have every thing that’s important in life. That’s under stand able even if I don’t agree with it, because there is no other choice to break out. My generation doesn’t want to hear that the only way to earn money is working until you are 70, if you are
lucky you don’t work for pennies, you can be a boss before retirement. My generation is greedy, people want to be rich and famous at 20. Every thing and now, that’s the key.

Not for you?

I don’t know. I would see it differently if I wasn’t famous. I never touched tabloids before and now…What they write about people, they totally destroy the performance of the actors. This whole celebrity culture is disgusting. The more famous you are, the more
tabloids write about you, the less people want to know about your movies, because what they see in the tabloids is more interesting than what they see on the screen. Actors lost that mystique. You can peek into their bed rooms, you can analyze their relationships, you can make fun of their pain, so they are not interesting on the screen any more if their lives are open books. I find it unbearable.

There’s this rumour about you that you and Kristen Stew art will be engaged soon.

This engagement thing is total bullshit, I don’t even know where it comes from. Kristen is my friend, I really like to work with her. She’s more mature than her age, a real professional, I couldn’t wish a better partner, because she makes my every move, every
sentence authentic. A big franchise like Twilight is a scary thing, because it put me on the map and I’ll have it for my whole life. So it’s important to get along with my partner, and Kris ten is the perfect partner. She sets the bar high, so I must deliver too.

But you didn’t answer my question, which means…

My only weapon for self-defense is to not care about the rumours. I concentrate on my work and on the positive sides of fame. You can’t even imagine how big it is that I don’t have to go to castings any more. They are the worst. Especially when you don’t
get the job in the end. Now I have lots of people around me, looking out for me, asking me if the script is ok with me. People say hi to me, smile at me on the street, come up to me to shake my hand. Lots of people stop me just to congrat ulate. That’s when I realize that there are so many good, nice, normal people. And they are the majority.

You still have to walk around with body guards. Does that bother you?

I only have the body guards when I’m shooting or when I have to go to some where. As long as they don’t know where I live there’s no problem. When there’s a crowd around me, that bothers me. Because when I’m shooting I wake up at 5am and by the time I
get home I don’t have the energy for any thing. I fall into the bed. I don’t really know normal life nowadays, but I can tell you which hotel has the nicer bathroom.

Sounds like you don’t have a life apart from acting.

There’s some thing in that. I have a boring life here and there, I read scripts, watch movies. And wait for the phone to ring. Once I say yes to some thing I give 100%. And since I really don’t have much of a life apart from my job, I get so lost in my actual roles, that I for get every thing out side of that. That’s how I create real characters on the screen.