Post by Bella Cullen on Apr 3, 2010 16:58:08 GMT 2
Cameron Bright is a young Canadian actor with a future as promising as his surname. We recently sat down with him to talk about his role as Alec in the Twilight series. We also learned his thoughts on the great vampires vs. werewolves debate, on-set chemistry between Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner’s pecs.
Could you tell me a bit about your role in Eclipse?
My role in Eclipse? I can’t really tell you what I do or anything like that. I mean, as far as who I am, you guys know that. I play Alec. He’s one of the Volturi from New Moon and all that kind of stuff. But you know, it’s pretty secretive, so I’m not going to be telling you exactly what I do, ‘cause I want you guys to go and watch the movie.
Well, I’ll ask you something else then. Twilight actors often talk about feeling like you’re all part of one big family. Could you speak to that?
I wouldn’t say one big family. I’d say more like partners in crime, friends, you know. Oh, we are great buds. I’d say I’m friends with a lot of them and I’m glad I’ve met a lot of the people from this movie, but you know, technically they’re just colleagues, right? They’re doing the same thing as me, and that’s what I like about them.
I understand that your character has some special powers, and it seems to me like it might be a challenge to portray something that no one can see. I wonder how do you act something that isn’t visually obvious?
If anything I cut people’s senses off, so you know, I’m the kind of guy that you don’t want to make pissed off because you won’t know what’s coming to you. But you know, it’s also a cool power when you think about it. You know, it’s a different one. I’m not the normal, like, read minds or anything like that. I cut off people’s senses. You want to be able to hear? No, no you can’t. You know, that kind of stuff.
Was it challenging to get into that, into portraying that power?
Well, so far I’ve never had to use my power, so I can’t say it was hard. I can’t say it was easy, because I haven’t had to do it. But, as in portraying the character? It wasn’t hard at all, it was fun, you know, because you get to do whatever you want with it. You know, a book’s a book. You can picture the person in your head, but as soon as you turn it into a movie, it’s a totally different world, because you’re seeing it come to life. As far as my character goes, the books never really bar him down to a certain person, you know? Like they never said ‘This is how he acts, this is what he does, yadda yadda yadda’. But it was when I got to film in the movie they said ‘Fave fun! You’re a vampire now. Be a vampire.’ And, nobody knows how to play a vampire, because, has anybody met a vampire before? No. But, you know, that’s what I like about it, [that] I can do whatever I want with it.
So how did you prepare?
I didn’t. I just showed up and did whatever I wanted.
Did you have any inspiration?
No. Preparation for me on set is fairly easy. I don’t really go through a lot of things, and I don’t do a lot of exercises with my lines or anything. I show up and I just get it done. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain. You know, I’ve been doing it for two thirds of my life, and it’s just what I do now. I know when I, I know how to, what’s the word? I know how to analyze a character and just…it’s one of those things that you just do. Hard to explain.
Okay. Fair enough. So…
But, everybody does it differently, and I just, I just show up on set and you know, the director will say, ‘This is how I want you to see it, this is how…’ You know, it’s a process. Like, you don’t just step into the room and automatically do it. There’s so many things that go into it and you’re playing off people and luckily in this movie, I’m playing off people like Dakota Fanning and Michael Sheen…[and] they just make it so much more easier. And the people on set are so nice, and a lot of them are friends. Like Daniel I knew before, and Chris is great. All they do is joke around on set. I mean you’re joking around, it’s a job. It’s not the set of this huge movie, it’s just another set. You show up, you have fun, you do what you do, and that’s how I see it.
Who’s your favourite Twilight character?
Twilight character period? I don’t know. To be honest with you, from seeing New Moon, I like Michael Sheen’s character. That’s because he’s nuts, and I like crazy people. Crazy people are some of the best in the world. You know, you have the most interesting conversations with crazy people. And, so his character I really like.
If you were Bella, who would you choose?
If I was Bella, who would I choose? Oh, I’m gonna have to say I’d go with the body, most likely. For me I’d go with the body, so it’d be Jacob.
You’re a man after my own heart. Me too.
I know you did a lot of work with Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. Could you feel any chemistry on set between the two of them?
No. I mean, there’s always chemistry between any guy and girl who are friends, but as far as the chemistry between those two? I had so many people asking that…No! Personally it’s not my business so I stayed out of it. They said ‘Oh, don’t say anything about Rob and Kristen’, and I basically told them straight out, ‘You don’t have to worry about me talking about other people’s lives, I’ll talk about mine but I won’t talk about anybody else’s, you know?’ But as far as them, they looked like friends, and that’s all that I can say. They joked around just as much as anybody else did, and we all had fun.
Were you intimidated by Taylor Lautner’s pecs?
Was I…pardon me? By his pecs? (laughs) Oh no. Vampires aren’t supposed to look nice. They’re supposed to look mean. You know what I said? ‘Cause I’m friends with all the wolf pack, and whenever we go to Twilight conventions that’s what they always say—all the werewolves are like ‘You know what? We have the body.’ But at the end of the day, dogs are a man’s best friend, and diamonds are a girl’s best friend.
That’s funny.
Yeah, that was thought of by me. So I just get them with that and all the werewolves laugh for a second and then they realize what I said, and they’re like, ‘What? Oh, I guess it’s true.’
So if you had to choose between being a vampire or a werewolf in real life, which one would you choose?
In real life I’d say a vampire, ‘cause vampires, you know, we could look nice—I could look nice, I could have a nice body if I wanted to. At least I don’t turn into a dog or anything like that. And I like the eyes. I like the clothes, too. The clothes are really nice.
Yeah, they are. So your character is a henchman for the Volturi. If you had to describe yourself as a leader, follower or henchman, which do you think would best represent you?
Oh, in real life, I don’t know. I’d say, in amongst me and my friends, I’m a leader, because I’m the one that… I’m more of an adult than any of my friends. I’m not saying that they’re childish or anything like that, but it’s just, I understand business. Like, I’ve been paying taxes since I was 7 years old, and I’ve been supporting my family, being the father in my family. You know, putting food on the table, that kind of stuff—since I was 6 or 7, you know?
So are you the main breadwinner in your family?
I can help my friends. That’s what I see, and a lot of my friends come to me and they’re like ‘What would you do? What do I do in this situation?’, and I’m like, you know, I offer my help if I can. I wouldn’t say I’m a leader in a way that everybody looks up to me and all that kind of stuff, but in my own mind I like to be there for somebody as much as I can, and I’m definitely not a follower. If somebody told me to jump off a bridge I’d laugh and tell them, “you first”.
Source: Twilight Moms
