IESB: NEW INTERVIEW WITH PETER FACINELLI

IESB recently caught up with Twilight series star Peter Facinelli to talk about everything from New Moon to his TV show ‘Nurse Jackie’. In this new interview, Peter discusses how he got involved with ‘Nurse Jackie’, the level of comfort he felt going back into the role of Carlisle for New Moon, how it is working with a new director for each Twilight series film, and much more:

IESB: In regard to making the Twilight films, at what point did you get the sense that you were part of something that would become so huge?

Peter: Not until the premiere of the movie, did I realize how huge it had become. When we finished filming, it was an independent film that was based on a book that had a good size fan base. But, somewhere between the end of filming and the premiere, it just snowballed into this cultural phenomenon. I was on the beach, over the summer, that year and people were reading the books. I couldn’t count, on one hand, how many people were reading the books on the beach. And, I thought, “Wow, a lot of people are into this book.” People were coming up to me, before the movie was out, saying, “You play Carlisle Cullen.” They were already on the Internet, checking out who the characters were.

I remember being on the beach in Hawaii and some fan of the books knew that I was playing that character, even before the movie came out. And then, when the movie came out, on the night of the premiere, it was just completely surreal. There were five lots of screaming fans, and I’d never seen anything like it before. It was really weird because they hadn’t seen the movie yet, and they were screaming and cheering. I thought, “Well, this could become an angry mob, if they don’t like the movie.” But, thankfully, they did, and now it’s only gotten even bigger.

I did a charity autograph session in West Virginia recently and people flew out from, like, Ohio to come to a signing, and that’s pretty amazing. To get people on an airplane, to fly somewhere to go get an autograph from somebody, just shows the power of that fanbase, and how loyal and faithful and amazing they are.

IESB: Was there a certain comfort level, in returning to this character again for New Moon, having already played him before?

Peter: Definitely. It’s like putting on an old pair of jeans, the second time around. You feel like you already know this character and you’ve created him, and you know the other actors and you know the relationships, but you’re always looking to dig a little deeper and find more because you don’t want to keep churning out the same thing. You try to keep finding different layers. With the first movie, I did a lot more research on how this character was. For the second movie, I worked more on his relationships within the family structure.

IESB: Does it help to have those other actors to go through this whole crazy process with?

Peter: Definitely. There’s a definite comfort when you see the other actors. You feel like you’re all in it together. It’s a very family-oriented group. We go for dinners, and we like being with each other. I don’t think there’s one person who doesn’t get along with the others, in the group, and it really has become a family. When you see the other person, even if it’s for a non-Twilight event, there’s a comfort level there. When you look across and see them, they make you smile. Some of my favorite scenes are when all of the Cullens are together. When I’m doing a scene and I look across and see that whole group of actors together, in one scene, it just makes me happy. It makes me feel like the whole gang is there and the whole family is together.

IESB: Does it make things more exciting to have different directors for each film, since they bring their own vision each time?

Peter: Yeah. I love Catherine Hardwicke. I loved working with her. She cast us, so we owe her a lot because she was the one who hand-picked us to play those roles. Then, we had another director, Chris Weitz, come in, who put his spin on it and gave us his vision, and came up with things that we hadn’t thought about, in the first one. And, David Slade is going to do the same for Eclipse. It does keep it new and fresh. I’m used to it because I’ve done television and, in television, like with Nurse Jackie or Damages, we had different directors for every episode. The tone is always the same, with those shows, but the director brings a new flavor, and it keeps it fresh and exciting.

Check out the full interview with Peter Facinelli here.