An Interview with Three Twilight Vampires

New Moon’s Kellan Lutz, Nikki Reed and Jackson Rathbone dish to BettyConfidential about Taylor Lautner’s abs, Twitter, booties and more.

- Anne M. Raso, BettyConfidential.com

You've probably seen these three talented New Moon actors outside of the vampire and werewolf zone — 24-year-old Kellan Lutz (who plays Robert Pattinson’s vampire brother, Emmett Cullen) was previously known as one of those scantily clad Abercrombie & Fitch models, while 22-year-old Nikki Reed (who plays his partner, Rosalie Hale) was acclaimed for Lords of Dogtown, Mini's First Time and Thirteen (which she co-wrote the screenplay for back in 2003) and 24-year-old Midland, Texas, boy Jackson Rathbone (Jasper Hale) is a former Disney Channel 411 star who just played a Norwegian heavy metal murderer in Lord of Chaos.

These Hollywood young guns gave BettyConfidential the inside scoop on the New Moon “bootie” shots, Jackson's Twitter imposter and Taylor Lautner’s shirtless scenes.

Read: Gotta Have It: Thirsty for New Moon

BettyConfidential: Hello everyone. Nice to talk to you all. I am dying to ask some general questions about New Moon. The first one is about the camaraderie between the cast members. I have spoken to some of your fellow actors and they say that you are like one big family. I know you’re all around the same age, but what do you think the real reason is?

Kellan: Well, I really think that Catherine [Hardwicke, the director of Twilight] did an amazing job with casting people who are similar to their characters and talented, but really, what it comes down to is that we are all really down-to-earth and have a great head on our shoulders. So it is really nice for all of us to stay humble and not get ego-tripped with everything that comes with the success of Twilight and the fans who have shown so much love and support. We are just a great group of actors and we're real and it is great to have that camaraderie and hang out on and off set in Vancouver, LA or Portland. It is a really close-knit family.

BC: I hear most of New Moon was shot outdoors so a lot of the cast ended up freezing even though they had to look warm. Did any of you end up in those scenes?

Kellan: Nikki's good on this!

Nikki: No, not on New Moon. We were not really in New Moon that much; we only had two scenes. We tried to stay as true to the book as possible and we weren't in the New Moon book. Um, so this movie is really about Jacob [Taylor Lautner] and Bella [Kristen Stewart] but I do know that Taylor had quite a few scenes outside, shirtless, in the rain and he is portraying a very warm-blooded character so I am sure that was quite a challenge!

BC: I am curious if there were any funny incidents that happened on the set. Like did anyone flub their lines?

Jackson: Well, we had a couple of things happen. It was funny because in the house we were filming the very serious, very dramatic birthday party scene, the owners were very concerned about their hardwood floors. So the entire crew and cast had to wear these hospital scrub-like booties that you had to tie around your shoes. So it was just kind of funny to see this bunch of vampires in these little boots.

BC: OK, I hope that they filmed from the ankles up so that no one sees the booties in the film!

Jackson: Yeah, we did see the movie and no booties were seen!

Kellan: Well, there are “bootie” shots but not of that type of bootie. [Laughs]

BC: So shooting on New Moon ended in April. When did you actually wrap and did you have a wrap party?

Jackson: As far as the Cullens go, we shot our stuff within a couple of weeks. The last shoot was in Italy, I believe, so I think they had a crew party before they left for Italy for that final week of filming, so I wasn't there. We had a cast dinner when all the Cullens were together, though.

BC: So I know you recently finished shooting Eclipse, what have you been working on since then?

Jackson: We have other projects going. I am producing my first film this year so it is my first time being behind the camera as a producer. I will also be in front of the camera as a lead actor — our film is called Girlfriend. I also have a band called 100 Monkeys and we will be releasing our first full-length album at the end of November. We have our website up and running — 100monkeysmusic.com. We have a good following and are just kind of riding that wave.

BC: Very cool. Kellan and Nikki, what do you have going on?

Kellan: I have two projects that are happening in 2010, so it is going to be really fun to hit those, and hopefully we'll be doing Breaking Dawn next year as well. So, hopefully New Moon and Eclipse will come out with a bang and all the fans will show the love and support they showed for Twilight with New Moon and Eclipse.

Nikki: I produced a new movie last summer after we finished Twilight. It is a tiny little movie but I look forward to seeing what happens with that. I actually discovered the joy of living this year. I've been working since I was a kid and it was always like constantly dreading ending a job because I didn't know when I was going to work next and it was a lot of pressure on me. I moved out I was 14 and it was always a lot of pressure thinking about work. I actually lived in Greece for three months this year and I have been to Australia and Africa. I have been doing a lot of traveling and honestly, I am not concerned about work right now. I want to enjoy my life a little bit.

BC: Nikki, while I was researching you on the web, I read that you are the producer of The Princess And The Pauper, which is supposed to come out in 2010.

Jackson: Did you even hear of that, Nikki?

Nikki: No, I didn't!

BC: OK, so you really didn't do that?

Kellan: You know what, I have stuff on my imdb page that I have never done, too. It's just funny what projects people put you on. The Internet is not perfect.

Jackson: I also want to clear up something — there is no Jackson Rathbone MySpace page or Facebook or anything like that. No Twitter, no MySpace, no Facebook!

Kellan: The same here! The same for all three of us, actually. So if you come across someone on the Internet saying they are one of us, they probably are really someone who's 40 or 50 years old and lives in their mother's basement! They are posing as us and then communicating between all our characters, so someone has a lot of time on their hands. [Laughs]

BC: Oops, the publicist is telling me to wind it up. Great talking to you guys!

All together: You, too! Bye!

Anne M. Raso is a NYC-based freelance entertainment journalist who has written for Time Out New York, Real Health, Today's Black Woman and other popular magazines.

To read more from BettyConfidential | Confessions of a Mom Who Loves Twilight