The Wolf Pack Twilight Eclipse Interview

MoviesOnline caught up with Chaske Spencer, Alex Meraz and Julia Jones at the Los Angeles press conference for their new film, “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.” Chaske and Alex are reprising their “New Moon” roles as Sam Uley and Paul, members of the Quileute Indian Nation. Julia, who is currently starring opposite Josh Brolin in “Jonah Hex,” is new to the Twilight cast. She plays Leah Clearwater, Sam Uley’s ex-girlfriend, and the first woman to phase into a wolf.

In “Eclipse,” the Wolf Pack allies with their ancestral enemy to defend Bella, who learns more about the wolf concept of imprinting as well as the Tribe’s legends. Leah does not want to be a werewolf and she projects a lot of her anger onto the Cullens for causing the situation. She is also tortured by the fact that Sam has imprinted on her cousin Emily (Tinsel Corey). Sam’s love for Emily brings an added dimension to Leah’s agony.

Chaske, Alex and Julia talked to us about their experiences working on the third installment of the internationally popular vampire story based on Stephenie Meyer’s phenomenally successful book series. They told us what it was like being part of a franchise with such a huge fan base, how The Twilight Saga is creating new opportunities for Native American actors, what it was like working with director David Slade, and the importance of being a role model. Here’s what they had to say:

Q: Julia, how is joining the wolf pack and being the only female member? Can you tell us about that?

Julia Jones: You know, it happened really fast. All of a sudden you're kind of thrown into this group of boys and, for me personally, I was a tomboy growing up so it felt really familiar. I have a younger brother who's about the same age as some of them. And so, I mean, there was something that resonated initially. But over the course of filming and some of the press that we've been doing, it's like home. It just feels like family now, and it's great.

Q: Were you a fan of the original two Twilight films? Did you know about it since you were thrown in so quickly? Were you excited about the role and did you know about the role at all?

Julia Jones: I have a lot of friends who are big fans. I had never read them before but I actually had a very good friend of mine [who] was telling me about this role of Leah Clearwater in the Twilight movies. And she said, 'They're going to make a movie out of it, and it's you. This is going to be your role.' And, you know, it's something you hear and it just went in one ear and out the other. Like, 'That's sweet. She wants the best for me,' or whatever. And then when I got the call for the audition, I've never had this happen before but it was about this time last year and I was watching, I think, the Boston Celtics/Lakers game at some crazy place, and I get this call for this audition. And all I heard was, 'You have an audition on Monday for Leah Clearwater in Twilight.' And I had this visceral reaction – my heart started beating really fast and I had to breathe. I don't know, it was very strange. And then I went to work.

Q: Which team were you rooting for?

Julia Jones: Oh, I don't know. No comment. (laughing)

Q: Are you a believer in the supernatural?

Julia Jones:  That's a really good question. Yeah, I am. If I had to say yes or no, I'd say yes for sure.

Q: How was working with David Slade this time compared to working with Chris Weitz last time?

Chaske Spencer: They're both really good directors. With David, he's very precise in what he wants. He knows exactly, and so did Chris. But what I liked about David is it's fast; it's quick. I like working with different directors. It keeps you on your toes. He's a sweet, charming man. I've seen his movies, the vampire [film] 30 Days or 40 Days of Night I think it was. 30. I saw that about a year before that. With him it was just real fast. It was really fast, for me anyway, my experience with him.

Alex Meraz: I enjoyed working with him for the fact that I just experiment doing short films and being a filmmaker, and seeing his process he's very much a filmmaker and not so much just a director. There's moments where he threatens to just actually get the camera himself and film it. He's so involved. He always has a camera wrapped around his neck and he's documenting the whole process. So that was really exciting to see, and inspiring. And Chris Weitz, he's just incredible. I mean, he's such a gentleman and for me, entering this phenomenon that is Twilight, it was really great to have someone at the helm like that to just kind of guide us into it smoothly. And now that we've transitioned into another film, we kind of know the gist. We know where to go with it, and David was just a great person to take on the franchise.

Q: What was the hardest scene and why?

Julia Jones: The hardest scene for me to film… Actually I think the hardest scene was also the most fun for me. There was a scene towards the end of the film in the midst of the big battle and it was raining, and it was cold. There were so many characters in it so it was pretty chaotic on set, and it all had to happen really, really fast. I think it was a scene that was originally scheduled to be completed in two days and it wound up taking at least twice that time to finish. And it was chaotic and it was demanding physically, and it was demanding because you were freezing and wearing very little. It was also demanding emotionally. That was the challenge, but after a certain point you just sort of enjoyed yourself because really it doesn't get better than that. You're with a bunch of great people and a gorgeous place doing what you love.

Alex Meraz: I think the hardest scene is the scene she's talking about. We're running and it's raining, and there's about a foot of water.

Julia Jones: Tell them what happened to you.

Alex Meraz: So I figured my background's in dancing and I feel like I'm really good on my feet. I told the rest of the cast, 'All right you guys, it's slippery out there. Don't put the weight on your heel. Go on the balls of your feet, you'll be able to dig into the floor better and you'll get more traction.' So we have to cut the corner, and everyone else does it great. And then me, of course, I slip and fall around. I'm like with mud all over, water everywhere. I get out and the scene that they used, it's after…you'll see it, there's a scene where Jacob gets his back crushed…and we run up to him. And if you look at me, I'm in the back, I have a smirk on because they used that take, the moment after me slipping so I'm trying not to laugh.

Julia Jones: I just remember getting where we all run out at the same time and we get to our mark, and I remember just being kind of like, 'Where's Alex?' And then Alex appears and I see he's like all muddy, and I hear David say, 'That's it! That's perfect!'

Alex Meraz: It was real.

Chaske Spencer: It was real. I heard you! When we were running out, I heard that [grunting noise]. I heard you slip and fall.

Alex Meraz: It was more of the f-bomb.

Chaske Spencer: I heard the f-bomb.

Q: Do you feel the franchise has created more opportunities for Native American actors outside of the franchise?

Chaske Spencer: Yes, it has. It has. What I like about it is it has brought us to pop culture in a way that's never been done before in film. We've been around for a while. I've been working for like 10 years and these two have also been around and working, and what I like about it is it's finally brought us to a place where we're not always playing with the leather and feather. That's how we paid our dues. It's up to the media as well to accept us as other than being just the mystical figures who put on the leather and feather and speaking in a 'rez' accent all the time – because I've done that so many times. And the kids are more accepting of us than anything else. That's what's really cool.

Julia Jones:  That's also what excites me is that we're being put in front of primarily children and people who are in the process of defining their ideas of what Native Americans are. I think that's probably the most valuable aspect of the way that Native Americans are portrayed in this film. Because I still feel a lot of adults and [people] in the media [are] trying to figure it out. Like, I'm not an actress yet, I'm a Native American actress. And it's not quite normalized to most people who grew up watching movies like most Native movies.

Chaske Spencer: Dances with Wolves...

Julia Jones: Dances with Wolves, Geronimo, all these things.

Alex Meraz: And speaking more on that is it's in a contemporary setting. Like Chaske was saying, leather and feather period piece, we don't have bows and arrows. We don't even have clothes though.

Julia Jones: It's a step in the right direction.

Chaske Spencer: It's a give and take.

Q: Have you heard from any of the tribes and in particular the one on which this was based?

Alex Meraz: The fascinating thing about portraying a tribe that actually does exist is that the stuff Stephenie had taken from the tribe, she kind of mixed it in the realm of fantasy. But now a lot of people are going to Washington State, they're going to La Push where the Quileute tribe actually does reside, and they're learning more. They're forced to ask questions, learn more about the culture. And I think that that's great that they're getting a spotlight to introduce and to tell the story, the real creation story. That's important. I think that fans are so into it that they want to learn where this germinated from, the root of where the wolf pack comes from.

Chaske Spencer: And all over Native country we're getting feedback. It's like they're saying it's about time. We've got mad support from our people on the reservations. It's just opened up a whole different door to us. And also, it's a little pressure, too, because it's almost like we have to be role models now. It's something that kind of scares me as well, because that's a big load to take on.

Julia Jones: It is so gratifying to hear from people who look up to you and see you in these places that they never thought they could ever dream to be. It's emotional [tearing up while talking]. You really feel like you're opening up people's minds who otherwise thought that they couldn't dream big. And that's such a huge opportunity. It's such a gift.

Chaske Spencer: Statistically, we're not supposed to be here. We grew up on reservations and I don't know if any of you have visited them, but it's a third-world country there. You know, there's a lot of poverty, lot of alcoholism, lot of drug addiction. So we're very fortunate to be here, and we know that. We're very lucky and grateful to be here.

Q: Julia, you're in Jonah Hex too. Can you talk about your role in that and how that compared to this film?

Julia Jones: That was also an incredible experience. My character's name is Cassie, she's Josh Brolin's [character’s] wife. She and our young son are killed early on in the film, and that's what motivates Jonah Hex. He gets very bitter and he goes around killing. He's a bounty hunter. That experience was so great because I was on set with Josh and with John Malkovich and with Michael Fassbender who is an incredible actor. I was not there for very long. The timing was awesome too because I had come off of this and then I had done a play, and then at the end of this experience, it was like, 'This is what I want to do. This is exactly the kind of thing, these are the kind of people, this is the type of set and the feeling that I want to have.' So, to have that in my mind at this point when all of a sudden I do feel opportunities coming as a result primarily of Eclipse and Twilight, just feeling like having an idea of where I want to go – that's really what Jonah Hex was [and] the experience of making that [was] good for me.

Alex Meraz: That doesn't say much about us. She's filming with us and, 'I don't like that, but I like this.'

Julia Jones: Alex!

Alex Meraz: I'm just kidding. We always tease each other.

Julia Jones: Sometimes he goes a little too far.

Q: Is there something about the creation of the wolf pack that is featured in the movie that is true?

Alex Meraz: It's taken from an actual creation story, but it's a bit turned around, you know? The mythology of the creation story is that the descendants of the Quileute came from wolves but they weren't able to transform back. And that's the part that Stephenie took and she made it into, used it in the book that we can transform back and forth. But she did a lot of research on it, even the name. I believe there's a certain creation story and mythology that in La Push the first Caucasian/white man that had ever been on the reservation, his last name was Swan. So she used little things like that, which I find really interesting that she did her homework.

Q: The love triangle between Sam, Leah and Emily – can you elaborate more on that?

Chaske Spencer: What happened was that when the vampires come back, Sam Uley…when they come, he becomes a werewolf and he didn't know what was going on with him. He didn't know why this was happening, and so he went through it all by himself. He had no one there to guide him. And what happened was that he was dating Leah but there was this thing called imprinting which is when you imprint on someone, it is that's you're mate – that's your soul mate. And it happened to be Emily, her cousin. And what happened is that as Sam was going through all these changes, there were other members of the tribe that were going through the same thing so he helps guide them through it and pretty much is like a coach or a sponsor of some sort to help guide them through. And that's what he does with Jacob in the books. And when he was going through these changes, one of the things unfortunately is he mauls Emily. That's why she has the scars on her face. So the love triangle is between them, and you'll see some in the movie as well where she gives me some dirty looks from time to time. It's a wonderful story. I liked it, and that's really what attracted me to Sam is that I like the fact that there's this tragedy there. He didn't want this in the beginning. No one would ever want that, and he had no choice. I think that separates us from the vampires as well, because at that last minute some of them have a choice. He didn't have a choice. I like that character.

Q: So Sam feels for Jacob's predicament?

Chaske Spencer: Oh yeah, he does. He has to, yeah. And actually Jacob is the rightful alpha male. He doesn't want it so he gave it to me. I'm the unfortunate one who has to lead the pack, you know. Sam's the unfortunate one who has to lead the pack, and as you continue with the books, you find out what happens.  So that's the story of Sam, Emily and Leah.

Julia Jones: It's also interesting because one of the major aspects of the wolves is that we hear each other's thoughts when we're wolves. So it's almost like there's this whole other world that's going on. It's in subtext in the film. I mean because I don't know how you could possibly portray people reading each other's thoughts, but there's so many layers operating for all of us on what he's thinking. I can hear Sam's thoughts about my best friend, and I can hear his thoughts of pity toward me.

Chaske Spencer: Wouldn't that suck? In real life, that would suck.

Q: How did it feel to join a franchise with such a huge fan base?

Alex Meraz: It's like jumping into a hot pan. You just know you're going to get cooked and hopefully it's cooked well. It's definitely exciting. I felt a great deal of responsibility. Going back on what we were talking about with being representatives and being role models for Natives, I used to go around to reservations and teach health and wellness conferences and teach art and dance, so I knew that I was going to be looked at as a role model, and that was scary to know that. But I just made sure first that I could represent myself in a good way. I tried to prepare for it as best as I could. And just made sure I read the books, did my homework, and luckily enough made some really great friends along the way which helped to make me really comfortable with all the fame or whatever that came with it.

Julia Jones: I was terrified, I still sometimes am. But in the beginning it's just almost like you're a certain size in your life and then all of a sudden you get much, much smaller. Like the rest of your life, every other aspect it's much bigger than you actually are. You have to just accept that and enjoy it because you're a part of something that means something to so many people. And I think that the thing that made it, I don't know, easier the fastest [was] I found that the cast, we all are so committed to our characters and to telling these stories. I was so surprised instantly at Taylor and Kristen's sort of grounded-ness. They were the first two people I met. I just feel like overall really, really grounded and I think it's because we just show up to work and we really care, and we want to do the best we can. I feel like that bonds us and makes work fun, and there's a lot of work. That also took away the fear.

Chaske Spencer: It's easy to work with this cast. Some of them have been working for a while, and some of them it's their big break, and they all know that. What I like about it is everyone's humble. Everyone really knows this is a gift we got. This is something that doesn’t come around too often. And when I joined this franchise, I knew it was going to be big but I didn't expect this. No one really gives you a book on how to do this, how to operate at this level. So I definitely, before I went in, was to put up boundaries and to know what I want to talk about and what I don't want to talk about. And there are ways to keep your life private. There are ways to do it and to conduct yourself, and to do good work. Because in the end, we're just actors – we're very lucky actors. This is a great franchise and it's going to be an amazing pop culture phenomenon as it is, but eventually the next thing's going to come along. We're trying to have good opportunities to get a hold of those opportunities. It's a fun ride. It's a fun ride to be on. I mean I have some amazing opportunities and amazing experiences. I get to share it with these two, so I'm pretty good.

Alex Meraz: I on the other hand, I got the book 'How to Make it in Hollywood 101.' You can get it at the library.

Chaske Spencer: It was written by me, wasn't it?

Q: Julia, you and BooBoo Stewart were the new additions to this seemingly tight-knit group of actors. Does the wolf pack have any hazing rituals either on or off the screen?

Julia Jones: I would say every five minutes someone was being hazed in the wolf pack, and it was me half the time. Hazing rituals? Alex, that is definitely your department.

Alex Meraz: No, no. What it really is, is you know when someone gets cast in these select few roles, you know they've gone through a lot. Because there's so many people who want to be in this franchise that instantly you're excited for them really. I mean when BooBoo got cast, even Xavier, you just know that it was like American Idol. Thousands of people were going out for it. The first reaction is you take your hat off: 'Good job, congratulations.' And then you just kind of get to know them more, but I don't think it's really hazing. Me personally, I just tease people a lot. That's the Paul thing.

Chaske Spencer: It was like, you know, in New Moon it was just boys. It was just us, and we tease each other a lot to keep us humble as well. The ego gets too big, we'd cut each other down.

Julia Jones: I kind of always have this feeling that there's something in my hair.

Chaske Spencer: Or something on your back.

Julia Jones: I was always feeling like things were touching me.

Q: For Breaking Dawn is there anything that you hope your character gets storyline-wise that doesn't get cut out?

Chaske Spencer: Like, more wolf pack. I think they've been really good about keeping storylines. And the fans, too, and Stephenie's on set so they're really good at keeping. And the fans obviously really like the movies because they're keeping a pretty straight line on it. But I think Breaking Dawn's going to be really the same thing. They're going to do justice by the fans.

Q: What Native American legend that you read about or heard about as a kid would you love to just play the part or see made into a movie someday?

Chaske Spencer: The character I would say for me personally, I've always had a fascination with Crazy Horse. He's from my tribe, Sioux, and I've read so many books about him. That's something I would really like to bring to screen. I don't want to be Crazy Horse, I think I'd like to direct it. It's just one of those movies that a lot of people don't know about. He's such a mythical figure and a warrior and a leader that he just fascinates me as a character, fascinates me.

Julia Jones: Sacajawea? Has there been a movie made on Sacajawea? She's been in a couple movies but…

Alex Meraz: Night at the Museum.

Julia Jones: That doesn't count. There aren't very many notable Native American female figures historically. That's the way that it's been. Pocahontas and Sacajawea. I've heard of stories of family members of mine that are interesting, but it's not quite the same for the girls.

Alex Meraz: I've never thought of it. That's a good question. I'll start thinking about it.

“The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” opens in theaters on June 30^th.