Admit it: you’re a total Twi-hard. Well, so are we. Street sat down with Elizabeth Reaser, who plays vampire mom Esme in the smash-hit series. She discussed crazy Twilight fans, the on-set experience and why vampires don’t hang out with werewolves.
Street: Which character in New Moon do you feel you can relate to the most? Elizabeth Reaser: I think Bella, actually. She’s heartbroken; I think it’s really just a devastating, huge heartbreak for her. Edward leaves, and she doesn’t understand why he left, and I think we can all relate to that sort of heartbreak, when you kind of just can’t get out of bed and have to find your way back into the world.
Street: If you could play any character other than Esme in the movie, who would you choose? ER: To play? I think Jane is a great character, the Dakota Fanning character. I love her.
Street: What is the chemistry of the cast members like on set? ER: It really is like a family, even in the sense that we don’t hang out with werewolves, for the most part. The vampires hang out — although we do hang out with Taylor [Lautner, who plays a werewolf]; he’s sweet. But for the most part, it’s very segregated: the wolves hang out, the humans hang out, the vampires hang out.
Street: Have you had any memorable experiences with overly enthusiastic fans? ER: Yeah, I have, but I’m a woman, so it’s not like people are trying to rip my clothes off. I think if you asked Rob [Pattinson] or Taylor [Lautner] or Jackson [Rathbone], there might be a different response, but I’ve always had really great experiences with the fans. I’m moved when I see girls standing on the side of the road after 16 hours in the middle of nowhere just wanting to say hi.
Street: How did you get involved with the Twilight films in the first place? ER: I just went to an audition, like an everyday audition, and the director, Catherine Hardwicke, was there. I didn’t even know that they were books. I had no idea. I didn’t even have a script, I just had a couple of pages — obviously because it was top-secret, but I didn’t know that — and I just went in and read the scene a couple of times with Catherine. As soon as it was announced that I was cast, there was all this stuff online with people commenting on it, and I suddenly realized like, “Oh, this is crazy. This is kind of a big deal.”
