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TWILIGHTACTORS.COM EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH EDI GATHEGI
Edi Gathegi recently came down to Miami, Florida for the Florida SuperCon Convention and TwilightActors.com had the amazing change to interview Edi!
Below is the transcript of the interview and I'll have the video up soon! Images from the convention can be seen in our gallery here!
How did you hear about Twilight and get involved?
The casting director has put me on several movies so when I heard she was casting a movie, it didn't concern me what movie it was but was just the fact that I had a relationship with her. So I asked my managers to submit me for this movie called Twilight and then I got the material and my character was saying very strange things like "Whats your hunting range?" and other worldly terms. I wasn't interested but I wanted to go in anyways. So when I get in the room, Catherine Hardwicke is there and she's got the most incredible energy and she's just so enthusiastic and playing all the parts. When I left there, I wanted to work with her, and when I found out they were considering me to play Laurent, I read the books, and I fell in love with the books.
What was your initial reaction when you got the role and how did you feel going into it?
When I first got the role, I mean, I was aware that there were 3 books so the first thing that went into my mind was "I'm going to be in a trilogy!", "I'm going to be famous!", "I've made it!", then you have to shoot the movie and realize they're not going to make a second one unless the first one does well, so your expectations have to be managed immediately and there are so many other factors that knock you off your horse. But I was really excited, so I went up and down with feeling amazing. Then when the movie came out and we saw the fan base, or even at comicon before the movie came out, we saw the dedicated people, and it was just special to be a part of something that has caught on as a full pop blown culture phenomenon.
No one knew Twilight would explode to what it is today. What do you think about all that?
Well, I mean, there was evidence with all the websites, like yours, and the number of copies of all the books sold before the movie was made. There was evidence that if the core fan base of the Twilight books, if they were just to see the movie, it would still be successful. So the fact that it made as much money as it did and it's being so popular is pretty amazing.
So, you said that you have a lot of really good friends on the set of Twilight. Do you hang out with people outside the set?
Taylor [Lautner] and I hang out with Kellan [Lutz], and Peter Facinelli hosts game night, we play poker at his house. Rachelle [Lefevre] and I are food junkies so we meet for brunch and cake for brunch. So on the Twilight movies, it is like a Twilight family, we all get along and we all understand each other. It's fun. Vamp-camp is what we named it. Welcome to Vamp Camp!
Speaking of vampires, what is your favorite part of playing a vampire?
For some reason, people think vampires are sexy, so its cool to be sexy. I don't know, they have super strength and speed. To have that kind of power there's no rules: you can do what you want to.
How did you prepare for your role?
The main thing for me was exercising stillness because vampires are dead and don't have blood flowing through their veins and don't have to blink. They have to actually cautiously think to be human or to come across as human. A vampire can just ---sits very stil-- all day and night, so they have nuances that's thought out for it. For me, it was the more still I am the more vampire. So in everything I ended up doing, I just stayed with the actual character deciding what to do.
Did Stephanie help you with it at all or did you just go with the flow?
She helped me in the sense that she wrote it for me. It's the source material, if I follow this I can't go wrong.
Is that how you prepare for most of your roles? You read the scripts, read the books, and try to find out what to do?
If there's a book then absolutely. I do my background research. If I'm playing a historical figure I'll try to find media files and do my research. But if it's something without source material then I'll just pull from the script and try be influenced by others as well.
Were you influenced by your other costars? Like from the other vampires, such as James?
Not so much because I came to the first day of rehearsal with my preparation and I didn't know them and they came on the first day of rehearsal with their preparation, so I mean, I guess we played off of each other in the moment but my choices are independent of the other actors.
Well you did a great job in it.
Thank you, I appreciate that.
Well, Laurent obviously dies in the second book.
Wait, what do you mean? He does?
Yes, Jacob kills him.
*Edi fake cries*
I'm sorry.
SPOILER ALERT!
In the movie, do you have a death scene?
Well in the books, there's no death scene. Jacob just talks about it and was like that blood sucker was easy to kill, which isn't true. It's just a 16 year boy who's cocky. Yeah, it took you 5 werewolves to kill 1 vampire! So come on, how easy could have it have been? Because Laurent is awesome! But what I was really hoping for was to go out with a bang. I kept saying to everybody, I'm going to go out with a bang and be punching werewolves and running through forests, so I wasn't disappointed when I go the script, but I don't want to give too much away.
Is there anything you can tell us about New Moon the movie that people may not know?
That it's going to be awesome *sings* it's going to be awesome. Have you seen the trailer?
You're half the trailer!
Well I was in Italy so I don't know. I've seen it by now but I didn't know it premiered at the MTV movie awards until recently!
So many people saw you!
Whats incredible about that is that I just got in to Miami yesterday from Italy, like last night, and I am going back tomorrow, so right now I can't even deal with what's going on in the states. I've been really out of touch over there, but I heard the trailer was the most downloaded media file in the history of the internet and the most downloaded media file and trailer ever.
How does it feel to be one of the main people in the biggest trailer ever?
Well you're just seeing it now, I'm just processing it. To think about what that means, I don't think I'll ever process it. It's cool though! But it's just a statistic, I don't really feel it. I'm just like oh, okay, that's cool.
When do you feel your stardom the most?
Right now, when I'm talking to you. When you're smiling and all excited and you know about the books and get to talk to your fans. Your followers. That's when I feel it.
Last question, what is lined up for the future for you?
Well I mentioned Italy like 6 times in this interview. I am going back to Italy to work on a workshop media production of a Shakespeare play, and after that I don't want to talk about it because it's not finalized, but I could be flying to a continent far, far away to work on something else. But then I had a pilot that may or may not be caught, but is being released as a 2 hour TV movie. It's a medical drama where I play a religious doctor.
Like on House?
Yes, it's very similar to House. Very similar in the sense that the main doctor is a genius doctor, and it's a female lead and I play a religious doctor. So it's very similar in that sense. Charlie Cole.
We'll have to watch out for that. Well I love Twilight and I loved House.
This is Kristen from twilight actors.com and
This is Edi Gathegi from twilight dot...the movie.
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