Vanity Fair Twilight Watch: A Conversation With Kellan Lutz

You’re currently on a break. What do you usually love to do on your downtime?

I love to read. I have a Kindle, and it’s nice to be able to download books that people refer. Rob[ert Pattinson] reads all of the time and he refers so many great books, Jackson [Rathbone], as well, and Kristen [Stewart]. It’s nice to just download books because we have so much downtime. I have close to eight hours a day to read. I finish so many books it’s amazing. I’m also doing Rosetta Stone, learning some French.

What books are you reading?
Right now, Letters from the Earth by Mark Twain. Also Jessica Bendinger, I did a movie with her called Stick It—she’s the director—and she wrote her first novel, The Seven Rays. I have an advanced copy and it’s amazing.

What books have your cast members recommended to you that you would recommend to others?

[Addressing Jackson Rathbone, who is also in the room:] Jackson, what’s that book that you recommended? Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis, which I’m going to read next. Jackson’s reading my Kindle right now; I’m passing along Letters from the Earth.

What’s the one thing that has changed in your life since Twilight came out?

I’ve never been so busy in my life. I’ve never gotten my frequent flyer miles so high that I feel like I can travel around the world for free. I’ve been on a plane every weekend trying to come back to L.A. to see my dog. I feel like I’ve been so blessed to be working, but everything I shoot is out of L.A., so I don’t really have too much time to spend with my number one love: my puppy. (She’s not really a puppy—she’s five—but she’s close to my heart.) We have so much press stuff that we get to do—I love doing the conventions and meeting the fans. November’s going to be pretty crazy, what with being on a plane every day, landing, appearances, flying to another city that night … It’s a roller coaster.

How do you guys cope with all of this?

We all have our passions that we enjoy. Rob and Jackson will bring their guitars everywhere. As long as you have that passion where you can just disappear and be normal, feel normal, bring your iPod or favorite books, and just do the things that you would do when Twilight wasn’t around—that’s all keeping us who we are. We’re all really blessed, and we’re humble and down to earth, anyway.

Do you find that as a cast you’re leaning on each other even more?

Yeah, definitely. It’s one of those things where we kind of are this family, especially going through all this. We’re all going on this insane adventure and fantasy as an actor with Twilight, and it’s nice to do it with someone. We’re all friends, which is nice, so we can all go out to dinner, have a great time, relax, play games, go out to concerts. Kings of Leon have been up here, Jason Mraz … It’s nice to disappear and do stuff together. All of our friends are back home, and we try to have our friends come up here and hang out. But realistically it’s kind of tough to do that, so it’s nice to have the cast members to count on. That’s the great thing about this franchise—we hopefully get to look forward to making all of the books, so you never have to really say goodbye [to each other] like you do with other projects. You get to say, “See you soon,” or, “See you in L.A.” We get to pick up where we left off.

How do the Cullens rev each other up before shooting a scene?

We really have everything down. We dissect it through rehearsals before we go about it. When we’re on set, we kind of joke around, and when we’re rehearsing, we change up the scenes and make each other laugh. We lighten up the mood. The blooper reel is going to be amazing on New Moon.

Is there going to be a blooper reel?

Vanity Fair had a chat with Kellan Lutz:

Hopefully. They probably have more material for the blooper reel than they have movie material. (Laughs)

What scenes have been the most fun to shoot?

Well, the scenes that the Cullens are in are very crucial and epic. The scenes in New Moon are very close to the book. What we Cullens deal with—like the birthday scene—are very crucial for the audience; they’re going to be there with us. They’re all my favorites, but particularly Jackson, when he turns bloodthirsty in the birthday scene.

Have you seen New Moon yet?

Yeah, I love it. Chris Weitz did an amazing job, and I love the werewolves. There’s so much action, and I’m an action junkie, so the wolves really do a great job. Taylor [Lautner] is amazing. He’s a movie star. Fans are going to see this over and over again because of what he brings to the movie.

What’s your take on the millions of fans who are getting rabidly excited about the release?

It’s really fun to be these characters, bring them to life, and have them [the fans] accept us. It’s very humbling to have fans that spend so much money to come and see us, which is great to give them a piece of what they’re allowing us to do. We’re so blessed that our fans are so loving. It’s fun talking to them about how they relate to characters in the story. My sister and my mom, for instance—it’s great to see how these books really draw mothers and daughters together. It’s an adventure they can all go on. Then they bring the husbands, and the brothers, and everyone gets swooped up into this magical experience.

Are your mom and sister big fans of the saga?

Very much. My sister is one of the most popular girls in school now because she has a brother in Twilight (laughs), and she’s sharing stories about me, which are kind of funny. It’s really an actor’s dream to be a part of this. It’s opened up a lot of doors.

In regards to your career, you just did the remake of A Nightmare On Elm Street. What was that like?

I looooove that movie. I was just excited to be a part of it. It’s Freddy! it’s one of those characters that frightened me growing up. Jason [from Friday the 13th] didn’t really scare me; Chucky [from Child’s Play] didn’t scare me. But there’s something about Freddy. It’s more of a psychological thriller.

Is the new one going to take it to a different level?

Definitely. It’s great that all of these movies are coming back. For my generation—ten years ago when this came out—it was really scary. I think everything has to step it up to the tenth degree to scare the new generation because there’s all this gore, now. You have the Saw movies, all of these twisted movies that are done to scare you. Now you have Paranormal Activity—these new types of scary movies—and they have to push the limit so you can actually feel the fear. That’s what A Nightmare on Elm Street is going to do. It’s a cool remake of the story, with great actors, directors, and producers …

And Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy, which is awesome.

Jackie’s such a nice guy. It’s an honor to work with him, too. I’ve been a big fan of his for a while.

So, before you go, let’s do some wordplay. I’m going to give you the name of one of your fellow actors, and I need you to give me one word to describe them, starting with Jackson Rathbone [“Jasper Hale”].

Ah, mysterious.

Nikki Reed [“Rosalie Hale”].
Spicy.

Elizabeth Reaser [“Esme Cullen”].
Beautiful.

Peter Facinelli [“Dr. Carlisle Cullen”].
Jokester.
Do you want to guess what word Peter chose for you?

Meathead. Something to do with working out or playing jokes.
He chose “goofy.”
Goofy. (Laughs)

Ok, Ashley Greene [“Alice Cullen”].
Best friend.

Kristen Stewart [“Bella Swan”].
Adventurous.

Taylor Lautner [“Jacob Black”].
Brother-like.

Rob Pattinson [“Edward Cullen”].
Immensely blessed and talented. If you can just hyphen those into one word.