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A New Moon is Ignited: New Cast Members Enter the Twilight Saga

By Karli Morello

There is no doubt that if you have a teenage daughter, you’ve heard the name Edward Cullen or have noticed a slight, or should I say, humungous increase in an interest in vampires.

Well moms and dads everywhere, prepare for a whole New Moon of obsession on November 20th.

Part two of the Twilight saga, New Moon, hits theaters on November 20th, more appropriately, at midnight on the 19th.  This film is the second of four books written by Stephanie Meyer.

Joining the beloved cast of part one are Demetri and Felix of the Volturi Coven.  The Volturri Coven is based in Volterra, Italy.  They serve as the enforcers for all the existing vampires.  They make sure all laws are abided by in the vampire world and if they stray or disobey laws, the Volturi usually will kill them. Some members of this coven have special powers that enable them to enforce the vampire laws and in turn, cause fear in most other covens.  Demetri, for instance, is a tracker and can hunt down the vampires from all over the world.

According to Demetri and Felix – I mean, Charlie Bewley and Daniel Cudmore, their characters are close to that of human personalities.  “I built my character based on his emotions. Felix doesn’t have a special power so I feel like he would be jealous and I incorporated that into him,” explained Cudmore.  Bewley further explained that, “this is a contemporary, ‘real life’ take on vampires.  You are more of a real person.” He went on to add, “This is a modern, aesthetic version of vampires given by Stephanie Meyer.  It’s not generic with fangs; it focuses on the beauty in the [vampire’s] eye colors.” 

Bewley went on to tease Cudmore about his lack of powers in the series.  “I am a tracker, I am a servant, I am very fast and eat people…We have a lid on our powers, though,” he then looked at Cudmore with a smile and said, “Well, you don’t!  But I can’t wait to show how [mine] progress.”

With both of these men being fairly new to the industry, they wanted to elaborate on their eight days spent in Montepulciano, Italy filming six minutes worth of footage.  Montepulciano, a small, rustic village wrapping upward around the sides of a small mountain, was described by Bewley as simply, “wonderful.”  This setting served as Volterra.

Bewley took a different approach to his description and mentioned another aspect of their time in Montepulciano: “rabidly screaming girls.  No one can prepare you on how to absorb such a fan base.”  Although Bewley and Cudmore can definitely classify as eye-candy, clearly, the fans were hoping to catch a glimpse of the big ones: Robert Pattinson who plays Edward Cullen, Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella Swan or of course Taylor Lautner, who plays Jacob Black.  Although, some fans, I’m sure, were satisfied with what they saw.

Both Bewley and Cudmore joked about their status as actors.  “Security kept trying to stop us from getting to the set.  They didn’t know who we were,” Cudmore explained, laughing. “This is a new world to embrace; [the fans] go crazy!”  The men joked about the fact that the characters aren’t real people and “Rob and Kristen” as they referred to them, are usually called out as Edward and Bella. “People haven’t experienced us as our characters yet, so they aren’t confused with who we are,” added Cudmore.

Although this is Bewley’s big break, Cudmore has experienced the big screen as Colossus in X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand.  Cudmore joked that after filming, “it was tough to get through the metal detectors at the airport.”  Colossus was made of all metal and muscle and although Cudmore hasn’t lost his muscle – at all – it was hard to transform from such a specific role to another intricate role as a vampire.  “I wanted to learn about the [Twilight] series before I auditioned, so I went to the bookstore and told the girl [at the register] it was for my ‘girlfriend’.  She didn’t believe me.”

Although Cudmore played on the fact that Twilight’s audience is mainly female, Bewley explained the twist coming from New Moon.  “This is an epic, Hollywood action film.” He continued, “This is man stuff, it is testosterone fueled!”  With a movie that contains over 20 stuntmen, one can’t argue with that statement.

Of the numerous stunts performed for the film, Cudmore mentioned that he performs many of his own, himself.  This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, though, judging by the circumference of his biceps, his abilities aren’t too limited.

Both Charlie Bewley and Daniel Cudmore are thrilled to be a part of one of the biggest films this year.  Based on the book written by Stephanie Meyer, New Moon is sure to please the almighty Twilight audience with part two of a four part series.  A couple new, beautiful faces never hurts, either.  Until the Eclipse, enjoy this New Moon.