An Interview With Twilight’s Bella & James: Kristen Stewart & Cam Gigandet

In an insightful interview with “El Mundo” on October 27, 2008, Kristen Stewart and Cam Gigandet, key players in the “Twilight” saga, share their experiences and insights from the making of a film that became a cultural phenomenon. Stewart, known for her portrayal of Bella Swan, and Gigandet, who brought to life the menacing vampire James, delve into the nuances of their characters and the challenges they faced on set. From discussing the intensity of pivotal scenes to exploring the dynamics of their roles within the intricate world of “Twilight,” both actors offer a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process that shaped this iconic series.

What do you like the most of your characters?

Kristen: What I like most about Bella is that she’s not the typical fragile and weak girl. Bella is strong, even when she doesn’t look like one so much when she’s next to a vampire.

Cam: For me, the fact that James sees the love of Edward and Bella and he doesn’t understand it, and do everything he can to destroy it. I think that, a lot of time, we all act in that way, when we don’t understand something, we try to destroy it.

Had you read the books? Before or after you knew about the movie?

Cam: I had. I was working in other movie and they gave me the book. I loved it! Even before I knew that it was gonna be a movie. In fact, I thought that if nobody wanted to make it into a movie, I was going to do it myself, with the resources I had. Luckily, a short time after, I got called to be James, how lucky!

Kristen: I hadn’t, any. In fact, at this moment, I’ve only read the first one. It was a pretty hard and long experience to road a movie, so I didn’t have time to read the other books. Besides, I didn’t want to read them because I didn’t want to be aware of things that Bella didn’t know about her future. For the second movie, if it gets to be filmed, I’ll do the same.

Tell us about an anecdote or an embarrassing moment during filming.

Kristen: Well, in my case there are a lot, because the script has a lot of cheesy phrases, that, in the story they fit perfectly, but it was very difficult for me to say them. Look at a shirtless Rob, on a mound of sand and mud, looking at me and me having to say: “Oh you’re so beautiful…”, was very hard and funny. We couldn’t stop laughing!

Cam: For me, the worst happened while our training as vampires. After Catherine made us watch documentaries about animals hunting in order to take notes of how they acted, she also brought us a professional dancing teacher, and obliged us to take classes with her. I swear I’m the worst dancer in the planet and I had a really bad time.

When you were kids, you were afraid of vampires? What do you think of immortality?

Kristen: Not at all! Since I was a kid, I’ve loved them!, in fact, when I was 12 years old, I got dressed up as Dracula for Halloween.

Cam: No, now I watch scary movies and I love thinking that they could be real. I love the mysteries. I’d love to be a superhero.

Kristen, what do you think of immortality?

Kristen: Actually, Rob and I talked a lot about that and I came to the conclusion that I don’t want to be immortal. I think we’re in earth the time that we have to be.

What do you have in common with your characters?

Kristen: Well, Bella is the one who tells the story, and she’s a normal girl. That’s why I think I have in common with her the same as the other girls who reads the book. She’s a very logical person, and she doesn’t like fantasy. She’s very self confident, more than I am, besides, she’s a very honest character.

Cam: I think we all can feel a bit identified with James. As I said before, at some point of our lives, we haven’t understood something and we’ve tried to destroy it, the difference is that he has the ability to do it.

Kristen, during filming, who did you feel more connected with? Robert or Cam?

Kristen: Definitely Rob. With Cam, I barely had to film with. I only got to see him during the first month of filming and his unique intention was to kill me.

Cam: There’s some kind of barrier between our characters, not only physical but also mental that keep us away from each other. Besides, the climax of the movie, the final shot was filmed the first day. Imagine coming to the set and they tell you: Ok, now you gotta try to kill her. It was pretty hard!

Do you think it’s an only for teenagers movie?

Kristen: It’s a movie about universal love, and some of the characters are more than 100 years old, so I don’t think it’s only for teenagers.

How was a normal day of shooting?

Cam: I only filmed during the first month. We worked all day long! More than twelve hours, sometimes. And what’s more, there was such a cold weather. We filmed in Oregon and it was so hard. Between scenes, all we tried to do was to keep ourselves warm.

Kristen: Well, I turned 18 during filming. So, until that day I could only film 5 and a half hours per day. Now, in my birthday I was filming more than 18 hours!