Q: Obviously New Moon is a really emotional journey for Bella. How did you prepare yourself for shooting the scenes in which she was really depressed and distraught?

Kristen: Right. I wish that there was a more solid way, prep for an actor, I mean just in terms of being sure that you’re ready to do what everybody expects you to do, but there’s just not. I was so completely intimidated by that scene. I mean in the book there’s nothing there’s literally nothing like it that I can think of in the real world that I could relate to. You know what I mean? Like I’ve been broken up with, I’ve had my heart broken whatever, like I think. But it was still higher than that. Like “oh, oh you think you know what it feels like to hurt? Have you ever died? You don’t know what you’re talking about.” You know what I mean? Yeah, so it was about being really comfortable with Chris and knowing I could say anything to him, ever. Chris is great and he is the most, like, I just feel very comfortable around him and he made us feel really safe and considering those parts of the book I actually don’t have any of the other actors to play off of so I was very much alone and terrified, absolutely intimidated by the material and he made it so much easier.

Q: We have heard so much about the physical activities that the guys had to go through, and the way they had to build up their muscles and just prepare for all their stunt work; but we haven’t really heard much about you. You’ve been cliff diving and under the water, and I was just wondering what sort of preparation you got to go through and then what stunts did you get to do yourself.
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Q. How do you think, the questions are all ‘New Moon’ focused so I’m going to get right into it, how do you think Rosalie in ‘New Moon’ is going to be different from Rosalie in ‘Twilight’? Are we going to see more of Rosalie’s other side?

Nikki: The Cullens aren’t really in ‘New Moon’ as I’m sure you guys know because of the books and Chris Weitz making it very clear that we’re going to stick to the storyline. So, we’re not really in ‘New Moon’ all that much, but I did have an opportunity in the voting scene to show a different aspect of her personality, just because we were sort of setting up for ‘Eclipse’, because that’s really my opportunity to explore Rosalie as a character. So I guess, I guess in the voting scene, I worked really close with Chris to make sure that the speech that I give conveys exactly what I want it to. I don’t know if that answers your question, I’m sorry.
[No, no; yeah.]
Nikki: It’s been a long day. I think that when you have eight hundred pages in a book you have the time to explore each character, and so although Stephenie didn’t write one –dimensional characters, I mean all of our characters are very full and colorful; when you’re trying to execute that in a screenplay it can be really difficult because they have to focus on the love story between Bella and Edward. So in ‘Twilight’, you know, Rosalie was written, I guess the few opportunities I had to be on screen I was angry or bitchy and I don’t think that that’s what Rosalie is. So I’ve been trying my best to incorporate other aspects of her personality.

Q. Following up on what you said about incorporating the different aspects of her personality, where do you find your inspiration to portray a character that is in some senses somewhat of an unlikeable character, but she has that other you know, really human side to her? Where do you find your inspiration to bring out some of that from?

Nikki: I think, I guess years of exploring my own personality in terms of understanding that most of the time anger is actually just a way to hide insecurities or you know, fear or sadness. And so I knew, I knew immediately sort of where Rosalie was coming from and I also have two siblings that I’m very protective of, two brothers. So I guess it sort of stems from that.

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Q: I just wanted to ask both of you guys, what was your favorite stunt to do?

Alex: For me, my favorite stunt to do was the cliff-diving scene. It’s pretty fun when you get the chance to jump off this fifty foot scaffolding just to practice the form, and it’s really exciting. I mean, it’s a good thing when an actor can actually perform your own stunts; it’s pretty rare.

Edi: I actually had a ton of fun on the second unit. The second unit director was extremely collaborative, and we actually created a shot together based on an idea that I had. And I can’t give it away, but the stunt that I do was something that I thought of and he said yes to, and it felt very wonderful to be able to have that sort of collaboration on a project of that scale.

Q: Alex, was it hard for you to come onto the New Moon set as one of the newcomers?

Edi: It was ‘cause I beat him up everyday [laughs].

Alex: There was no phase. Well, surrounded by the rest of the wolfpack, we’re all new to it, so we kind of relied on each other, you know, for support and whatnot, and we spent the most time together. So, when I saw any of the other actors, it was mostly in passing, but we did work together. It was all good, you know, we had a good time. No … I felt right at home.

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Q: In New Moon you have a kind of love triangle going on. I’m curious to see how that ended up playing out for you.

Michael Welch: There are a couple of different love triangles there. There’s obviously the one between Bella and Jacob and Edward that Mike is trying to squeeze into. More of a love rectangle. And I guess there’s the one between Mike and Jessica and Bella. You know, Jessica likes Mike. Mike likes Bella. Everybody likes Bella. And it sort of doesn’t turn out great for Mike or Jessica. A lot of this is very indicative of high school heart ache in general, but it’s sort of heightened with these supernatural characters.

Q: Both of you have a background in theatre. I wanted to know how that has helped you with your roles for Twilight and New Moon?

Anna Kendrick: Well on a logistical note, there was a scene when Jessica and Bella go to the movies, when we were shooting that outside there were like hundreds of girls standing and watching as we shot it. It was just a nice tool to have experience in front of a live audience. It seems like a silly comparison, but honestly it helped to kind of block out the fact that all these fans were watching us and to try to just focus on the scene and ignore the fact that they’re all kind of videotaping us from the side lines.

Q: What was your favorite scene to shoot?

Mickael Welch: My favorite scene by far was the kind of three way date that happened between Mike and Bella and Jacob. That horribly awkward moment when Mike asks Bella out to the movies and she tries to turn it into a group thing and then it ends up being the worst case scenario which is that that three way thing. You know, I’m sure it was certainly not a lot of fun for Mike to go through. I mean, I can relate, as I’m sure a lot of us can, but it was a lot of fun to do.

Anna Kendrick: And I would have to say that there is a scene where Jessica and Bella go to the movies. That was fun because Jessica really likes to talk about herself and Bella is really depressed. She’s not saying much. We were just kind of trying to do it all in one take, and Chris told me to just keep talking until we came to a natural stop. So I stopped and just kind of monologued as flighty, silly Jessica which was a blast.

Q: Does having different directors and different visions for different movies cause any confusion for how you should play your character?

Michael Welch: I think that the directors that we’ve had are very different in terms of style and process, but there seems to be a singular vision in terms of our characters. Everyone seems to be pretty unanimous about it, and that basically is that we are there to add levity to the franchise and to just represent normalcy in Bella’s life. Represent just kind of a real high school experience to give the story some grounding so that people are able to believe the more supernatural fantasy elements.

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