The Wolf Pack Eclipse Press Conference - Chaske Spencer, Alex Meraz, and Julia Jones
Julia, how is joining the wolf pack and being the only female member?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 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."
Were you a fan of the original two Twilight films? Did you know about it since you were thrown in so quickly?
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 was telling me about this role of Leah Clearwater in the Twilight movies. 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. 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."
For the guys, 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. Yeah, 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 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."
What was the hardest scene to do 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 [my face] 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."
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. And I like also, and it's kind of up to the media as well to accept us as other than being just the mystical figures and put on the leather and feather, and speaking like in a 'rez' accent all the time – because I've done that so many times. And the kids, 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 in the media trying to figure it out. Like, I'm not an actress yet, I'm a 'Native America actress'. And it's not quite normalized to most people who grew up watching movies, like most Native movies."
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: [Laughing] "It's a give and take."
