Chances are, if you are a woman — no matter how old — you know what “Twilight” is, or have at least heard of it.
The franchise has been so successful that the films’ stars — mainly Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner — have found themselves catapulted into stardom and wherever they go, they are adored by fans.
With the second film in the series, “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” coming to theaters on Friday, cast members admit they did not see themselves in this position when they signed up. It was not until the cast’s first appearance to promote “Twilight” at San Diego’s Comic-Con that they began to grasp what they had gotten into.
“I didn’t even really know how big it was at all back then,” cast member Edi Gathegi said in an interview with The Eagle. “At Comic-Con — that was the first time that I understood just how major this could be.”
Gathegi, who plays the vampire Laurent, just finished a five-city Hot Topic tour alongside co-star Jamie Campbell Bower to promote “New Moon.”
“My brain does not allow me to process that it’s actually happening to me,” Gathegi said.
The “Twilight” franchise is a well-oiled machine by now, a year after the first book in Stephenie Meyer’s popular vampire series was adapted to film. The four books in Meyer’s beloved series — “Twilight,” “New Moon,” “Eclipse” and “Breaking Dawn” — remain bestsellers four years after the first book was released.
“Twilight” broke records on its first weekend in theaters, grossing $69 million and giving director Catherine Hardwicke the biggest opening weekend a female director has ever had. “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” has broken records as well, even if it is not in theaters yet: Fandango reports that “New Moon’s” advance ticket sales are the highest ever for any movie.
After “Twilight,” controversy was sparked when Hardwicke was replaced with director Chris Weitz (“The Golden Compass”). Gathegi considers the tone of the films the biggest difference between Hardwicke and Weitz.
“Catherine had a very wonderful, childlike attitude about things,” he said. “She was very excited and ... in your face and she had that kind of energy ... and Chris was very reserved and intellectual. Both [are] very valid approaches; they’re different people.”
Many fans were worried about having a man direct “New Moon,” since the story is told from 18-year-old Bella Swan’s point of view, but Gathegi maintains Weitz has done a good job.
“I think the film is gonna be fantastic,” Gathegi said. “I’ve seen a version of it that I loved, and apparently it’s a million times better.”
Gathegi also spoke about the way his character has changed since the audience first saw him in “Twilight.”
“In the first movie, certain things are going on in [Laurent’s] world and then [by] the second movie different things have happened,” he said. “I think the difference is, he was intrigued by the Cullens’ vegetarian lifestyle; he’s gone to Alaska and tried it, fallen in love with Irina, comes back to Forks and he’s hungry. And he’s not really gonna apologize for it.”
Even though — spoiler alert — Laurent doesn’t survive “New Moon,” Bower is ready to leave Gathegi behind and seems excited to embody his character, Caius, again in “Breaking Dawn” once the film is green-lit.
“I’m really excited about being able to ‘sink my teeth’ into something a little more meaty,” Bower said. “What’s great about ‘New Moon’ is that all these characters are introduced and in ‘Breaking Dawn’ we actually get to go around and show what we’re made of, which is great.”
Gathegi has had a year to get used to the “Twilight” madness, but this is Bower’s first experience dealing with “Twilight” fans. For their first stop on the tour, about 1,000 fans showed up to see them, Bower said.
“Someone threw [a thong] at me yesterday,” he said. “That was pretty cool.”
“Twilight” fans range from the average “Twilighter” to the hardcore “Twihard,” who are famous for their fanaticism. When Pattinson went to San Francisco for last year’s Hot Topic “Twilight” tour, people were trampled, a girl broke her nose and the police intervened.
“I think it’s pretty standard for what happens when you put a lot of 14-year-olds in a room with anything that’s ‘Twilight,’” Gathegi said. “It just will get crazy.”
“It’s nice that people have so much dedication to something,” Bower said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a dedication to a specific thing in my life like the fans of ‘Twilight’ have, so it’s great.”
Gathegi has a theory on why fans are so passionate about the books and the films.
“It’s their love for each other that people attach to,” he said. “This character, Edward Cullen, who has waited his entire life to meet someone worth falling in love with, and he’s met her, and he doesn’t want to live without her; he’d, quite literally, kill himself without her. And that’s just as romantic as you can get.”
You can reach this staff writer at rgonzalez@theeagleonline.com.
