14 DAY TRIAL // “New Moon,” the sequel to last year’s extremely successful “Twilight,” drops on November 20. Aside from the gorgeous Cullens, fans also know to expect new faces in the film, like the Volturi we were telling you about the other day and the Wolf Pack, the Quileutes, who protect the town from the vampires. Three of the young stars playing the wolves sat down with MTV at the recent Twilight convention and dished plenty of details on the upcoming vampire flick.
Of them, Alex Meraz was the most talkative, especially when it came to revealing the details of an incident he had with female lead Kristen Stewart. Caught up in the moment – Meraz plays the tempered, highly volatile and always-suspicious wolf Paul –, the actor got carried away and actually became aggressive towards Stewart in the scene in which Jacob (Taylor Lautner) introduced her to his new, extended “family.” He’s not sorry, though, Meraz says, although he was very embarrassed at the moment.
“I decided, all right, the Wolf Pack stay up all night looking for who’s killing people on the res, so we don’t sleep very much. So I thought it would be a great idea if I stayed up for 10 days straight.” Alex tells MTV. He started thinking of his scene as his “Brando moment” and overplayed it, screaming his lines and even grabbing Stewart by the throat at one point. “[Director] Chris Weitz comes off-set like, ‘Yeah, I like the energy Alex, but just take it down a little.’ Meanwhile the producers are freaking out back there. ‘Cause nobody touches Kristen Stewart.” the actor further explains.
However, not all was jokes and laughter on the set of “New Moon,” the trio adds. For Spencer, preparing for the role of pack leader Sam meant doing a lot of reading and watching many documentaries with army generals. Meraz had some issues when phasing into a wolf, until director Chris Weitz told them all to think of a “pop like popcorn” for all shapeshifting scenes, which means the actors only had to shudder a bit until the CGI team took over. Meraz and Spencer even did some of their own stunts, including the cliff-diving scene of which they are extremely proud.
What they learned from the “Twilight” experience is, as Alex puts it, never to pay attention to the media (and the blogs), while keeping in mind they’re doing this for the fans. “For the first two weeks, when it came out I was in the Wolf Pack, I did it [read blogs]. I was in my trailer [saying], ‘People like me! People like me!’” the actor explains. Within weeks, he realized the negative comments would come no matter what he did and, most importantly, he came to know they bothered him a lot. “By Googling myself, I’m not going to find anything I like. I’m arguing with an 8-year-old!” the star says about his determination to stay away from the Internet for as long as he can.