St. Augustine resident Kalani Aponte recently got the chance millions of ‘Twilight’ movie fans across the country only dream of: Getting cheek to cheek with the stars.
The books and movies focus on the lives and love of a vampire named Edwards Cullen and a human named Bella Swan and are wildly popular with young adults, particularly those in their teens and early 20s.
And all it took to meet the stars, said Aponte, 19, was camping out in a tent city for five days in downtown Los Angeles with 900 or so other people.
“I’m totally obsessed with the movies and the books, and they’re never going to come to St. Augustine,” Aponte said. “It was definitely one of the best experiences ever.”
She got to meet and mug on the red carpet with many of the stars in “Breaking Dawn: Part One,” including Taylor Lautner (character Jacob Black), Robert Pattinson (Edward Cullen) and Kiowa Gordon (Embry Call) as well as other stars attending the premiere as guests.
Those stars included Bruno Mars, Heather Locklear, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Ashley Tisdale.
The L.A. Times reported that the movie, the fourth installment in the “Twilight” franchise, had the fifth-best domestic opening of all time at the box office, bringing in $139.5 million on its Nov. 18 opening date.
It had raked in $221.3 million total as of Tuesday, the L.A. Times reported.
In order to see the movie before anybody else during the film’s premiere Nov. 14, Aponte slept in a tent, bathed at a relative’s house, ate out a lot and used the bathroom in a nearby Marriott and in a nearby Starbucks.
The coffee shop eventually got irritated about that, though, she said.
“Eventually, they put a sign on the back of the door that said ‘No more Twilight fans, please,’” Aponte said.
At night, the Jumbotron screen displayed previous “Twilight” movies.
There were a lot of bright moments even before the stars lined up to take photos with their fans.
One night, Kiowa Gordon brought his band and played music for the fans and hung out with them.
After two hours, when they ran out of music, they all played capture the flag.
That was one of the best parts.
“The worst part of the experience was the drunk hockey fans screaming, ‘Twilight sucks’” as they came out of the Staples Center nearby, she said.
“That’s brave because even though we were mostly girls, there are 900 of us and we can take you down,” Aponte said with a laugh.
And while it was cool to meet all the stars, Aponte described herself as a true fan.
Why?
“The best part was seeing the movie,” she said.
She said she plans to go to the opening of “Breaking Dawn: Part II,” possibly meeting up with some of the fans she met this time around.
That movie will be released in theaters on Nov. 16 in the United States.
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Want the experience?
Kalani Aponte, 19, of St. Augustine, spent five days in a tent city in anticipation of meeting the stars of “Breaking Dawn,” the latest installment of the “Twilight” vampire movie series and watching the movie at its premiere.
She said the opportunity will probably come again, when part two comes out.
If you want to go, she suggests doing a search for groups on facebook that plan to attend the event.
That’s what she did, and it kept her from “going in there blind.”
“Definitely get connected with people who have gone before,” she said, because they can offer tips and information about the campouts.
Source staugustine
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