Sex, Robsten, and vampire battles to the death were just a few of the juicy topics up for discussion at this weekend's press junket for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, where stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner fielded questions on the third film in the vampire romance series. Lucky for you, I was on the scene to bring you the ten juiciest truths the Big Three shared on the eve of the Twilight franchise's first summer opening. Who discussed sex and marriage? Who described "vicious" on-set fighting? And most shocking of all, who revealed the guiltiest of all guilty pleasures? Hit the jump to find out.
1. In the real world, Kristen Stewart wouldn't approve of Bella Swan's complicated love life.
Stewart has always been a staunch defender of her Twilight alter ego and the choices she makes throughout the saga. But in theory, she understands that Bella's relationships with both Edward and Jacob can be unhealthy at times -- never more so than in Eclipse -- and if she were Bella's friend, she'd give her a reality check. A reality check spoken in early '90s hip hop parlance.
"Our movie isn't perfect. None of our characters are perfect at all," began Stewart. "They're all so completely crazy and messed up and that's why they go well together. They don't make excuses for their weirdness and they accept each other for who they are. On paper I'm sure that if you were a friend of Bella's you'd be telling her, 'Yo, you better check your boy because he ain't treating you well or whatever,' and Jacob, too, because he's a nutcase."
That said, Stewart explained why it all works in the films. "I think if you're really in love with someone then it doesn't matter because that's such an overpowering feeling and you're willing to make sacrifices, and that's our whole story."
2. Robert Pattinson has seen Twilight twice, and the first time was… last week?
Describing how it felt to contribute his own songs to the first Twilight film, Robert Pattinson revealed that, aside from watching it to record the DVD commentary, he hadn't seen the entire film until recently.
"I just saw Twilight on TV for the first time a few days ago," he laughed. "Apart from the commentary. When my song came on I was just thinking that is so bizarre I actually had a song in the movie. I'm kind of amazed Catherine [Hardwicke] did it. It really shows how none of us thought it was going to be so massive, I never thought people would buy the soundtrack or anything."
Upon said viewing, even Pattinson thought reading the novel helped him follow the film. "Even when I was watching Twilight the other day, now that I've seen it, you do need to read the book to get it," he exclaimed. "I was like, what?? And I'm in it!" Pattinson also said that he hasn't yet read the fourth and final Twilight book, Breaking Dawn. Hey, Rob: It might be a good idea to start cracking Breaking Dawn before you start shooting this fall! Just sayin'…
3. Contrary to popular belief, Taylor Lautner isn't afraid of acting with a shirt on.
Thanks to Jacob Black's perpetual state of undress, Taylor Lautner has enabled the Twilightfranchise to save big on t-shirt expenses -- a habit that earns more than a few jokes in Eclipse. But despite the hard-earned attention, Lautner's abs are prepared to go into hiding for the right role.
"It all comes down to character," said Lautner. "If I love the character, I love the story, and the character requires me to be shirtless, or if it requires me to lose thirty pounds, I'm ready to do it."
4. Kristen can't wait to get married!
Married on film, that is. "There are a million [Breaking Dawn scenes to look forward to] and we haven't even shot it yet," she gushed. "I can't wait to see Renesmee and I can't wait to get married and have a kid. It's all of that. It's going to be crazy."
As for real life marriage and babies, Stewart's not in any rush. "I'm not ready to get married, but I have a pretty great family and I'd like that too, someday. Sure."
5. It's hard to hate Robert Pattinson.
Pattinson and Lautner may play mortal enemies fighting over the same girl in the Twilight Saga, but off-screen they have obvious love for one another. Lautner described the atmosphere on-set during his confrontational scenes with his on-screen rival.
"The hardest thing I found about working with Rob is that I usually have to hit him in the scenes, and it is difficult," Lautner explained. "He is such a funny, nice guy. It is literally like we are doing a scene where we are yelling and screaming at each other, and he is slapping my shoulder and I'm shoving him off me. We are screaming. We are spitting in each other's faces. Then as soon as they call cut we just bust out laughing. It is really hard to be mean to Rob."
6. Rob got a kick out of watching Taylor wolf it up in gray spandex.
For a tender scene in which Bella cozies up to Jacob in wolf form, Taylor Lautner took one for the team and wore a gray spandex body suit to give Stewart a real person to act against. And while she and director David Slade appreciated Lautner's gesture, Pattinson enjoyed teasing Lautner from the sidelines.
"There are a couple scenes, sort of confrontational scenes, [where] I sort of push him around a little bit," Pattinson began, "and I was supposed to grab his shoulder. It wasn't even in the script, I thought I'd really scare him and grab him and it would freak him out and turn the whole scene upside down! Then I grabbed his shoulder and it was too big to actually get a grip on. I just dropped my hand, so that was kind of embarrassing. I got him badly though; he kept having to dress up in a little grey spandex wolf suit all the time and try and be intimidating in that with Kristen patting him on the head and stuff. That was quite fun!"
7. Kissing Taylor is difficult. (Yeah, right.)
While Stewart gets plenty of make-out time with Pattinson in Eclipse, she also has two key kissing scenes with Lautner. (Cue mass squeeing.) Easiest job in the world, right? Think again.
"One of the most challenging scenes would probably be kissing Jacob for real, finally for the first time and seeing that there was a different road to go down that was desirable as well," said Stewart. "[Bella's] got such tunnel vision, [believing] that Edward is the only thing for her; that's a strange perspective. Then I have to go in and talk to Edward about it and it's such a different dynamic than we've ever had. It was a different Bella. I had never had to play somebody who would've done stuff like that, so that was hard. And I was nervous as hell."
8. Rob had fun fighting a girl.
Snarling vampires, life or death stakes -- Edward sees some ferocious, limb-shattering action inEclipse's action-heavy conclusion. Although Pattinson and Bryce Dallas Howard took it easy on each other in Edward's snowy showdown with Victoria, he unleashed his full fury on her stunt double:
"Weirdly, one of the producers told me, 'Wow, you look so enthusiastic in that fight scene' -- much more so than any one in the series! I did a bit of practice with Bryce; it's really hard to do stuff with her because she's the gentlest person and she's always laughing when you do anything, so we did a little bit kind of half heartedly, and then she'd be afraid of hurting me even though she'd only be hitting like [lightly taps the air]. Most of the vicious stuff I did was with a stunt double who was really, really tough. But the bits with Bryce -- we're just kind of rolling around and grabbing onto each other, but it was fun."
9. Tough, hunky werewolves -- they're just like us!
Asked if he has any guilty pleasures, Lautner dropped a bombshell:
"American Idol," Lautner blurted out with a smile tinged with embarrassment. "So You Think You Can Dance as well, but American Idol would definitely be number one for me. I haven't missed an episode in 8 or 9 years [laughs]. I can't believe I just said that."
10. Who's the better kisser, Rob, Taylor, or… Dakota?
Faced with offending either Team Edward or Team Jacob, Stewart took the diplomatic route when asked which of her Twilight co-stars locked lips the best: she chose Dakota Fanning, her co-star inThe Runaways who also plays Twilight's evil vampire, Jane. "Umm…. Dakota," she answered after a pause. "I'm just going to have to say that because it's easier."
Stewart was just as vague when another famous kiss came up -- her recent televised lip lock with Pattinson at the MTV Movie Awards. Asked about the kiss and her rumored off-screen romance with Pattinson, Stewart displayed powers of deflection and protection almost as powerful as Bella's inBreaking Dawn. Without confirming either the kiss or the relationship, Stewart would only say that fans will probably keep wondering until the Twilight Saga ends.
Sparkling with anticipation for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse? Stay tuned to FEARnet for exclusive cast and crew interviews throughout this week!