Greetings from Forks NJ where it was overcast and looking like Forks today for Day 2 of the Official Twilight Convention!  As we await the start of the Vampire Ball tonight, thought I’d give you news you can use to sink your teeth into LOL

Day two found the room more crowded with day trippers showing up to see some mythical creatures – wolves and a bad vamp, to be exact.  So we were in for major screaming, requests for the guests to “take your shirt off!” among other things.  Apologies to the younger generation but most of the craziness came from the 12-18 age group I think.  We did have some treats from the young fans though – we met the cutest 9 year old girl with a shirt that said “I’m an Alice” who had guts to ask the wolves a question all by herself and a couple of friends dressed up to portray Edward and Bella.  We also had a nice chat with the proprietors of noveljourneys.com, Lisa and Melissa, about their upcoming New Moon tours to Italy - please check out their site, this trip looks amazing!

I also met the very sweet Sara Allen who helps with Bella Bejeweled and also runs the Hillywood Show’s http://hillyfans.com/ – she loves this site and PB and was so excited to meet someone that worked with PB.  (I was flattered!!).  She has this awesome scrapbook of pics from the Dallas convention and this one – and tomorrow, we get to sign her scrapbook – WOO HOO!  Be sure to check out the previous post on Bella Bejeweled from PB.

WOLF PACK DESCENDS

The Hillywood Show welcomed us back this morning and their sense of smell told them some wolves were in the house! 

A trio of them took the stage to screaming fans (see note above) with big smiles, ready to take on our questions.  Gracing our presence were Sam, Embry and Paul: Chaske (ches-kay) Spencer, Kiowa (ky-owa) Gordon and Alex Meraz – and they bantered with each other like brothers.  They really formed a family on set and you could feel the love everytime they spoke and interacted with each other.  Chaske is 34, single, and although he described himself growing up as “the kid in the back of the class, not a leader,” he clearly exudes Sam with his deep voice and presence.  He took the left chair facing the audience. Kiowa took the middle – at 19 he’s the baby of the bunch (well, other than Taylor and Boo Boo) and the was the younger brother of the pack today - didn’t answer many questions but kept us giggling with his random howling and laid back demeanor.  Alex is the married guy, 24, soft spoken and centered, self-described as the opposite of Paul.  He credits his wife for his winning this role: “she’s a huge Twilight fan and kept saying, ‘you’d be great as Paul, you should audition!’ which he did and voila! Here he is!  Many questions were directed to Alex, and he also seemed to take the lead in the disucssions.  They talked about protecting Taylor like their little brother, laughing about his line about Jacob from the “wolfy” trailer – “30 pounds heavier.”and how they all bonded right away - “Chris did an amazing job casting real people for the pack, knowing we’d be a strong family,” Alex commented.  Chaske added he knew they’d be friends for life after working together, “which is rare in this business,” he said.  Kiowa piped in with “BFFs!!”

The day before Gil had shared a secret about an embarassing moment of Alex’s where he pretended to choke Kristen.  So someone asked about it and they sort of told the funny story together. Its the scene from the movie where she gets in their faces about Jacob (“what did you do to him?!”) and Alex decided to take some creative license.  He said at that point in the story, Paul’s up like 10 days straight so he wanted to channel that in his performance by staying up about that much himself (Chaske added “and he didn’t tell any of us!”).  At the point of rehearsing the scene, Kristen gets in their faces and Alex unleashes Paul on her – yelling in her face and grabbing her throat, which of course takes everyone by complete surprise!  Chaske said “so Kristen’s like, ‘uh, this isn’t working’ and Chris is like ‘ok, Alex, good but let’s take it down a notch, while Bronson and I are trying not to laugh at the guy!”  Alex adds, “so I literally walk away with my tail between my legs because no one touches Kristen of course!”  The storytelling was hilarious!

Favorite New Moon and Eclipse scenes:  Chaske – NM: kissing Emily (“we had a LOT of takes”) & ECL: didn’t answer.  Kiowa – NM: going to Emily & Sam’s after Jacob & Paul fight & ECL: around the fire hearing the legends.  Alex – NM: cliff diving, because they really got to do it (he added “Chaske had this amazing swan dive – it was the most graceful thing you’d ever see”) & ECL: fighting Emmett.  Though he did say he didn’t like losing in the fight to Jacob.

Looking at their photos on the screen, Alex said “Jeez I look mad!” Chaske said “I look sexy,” which led into Alex’s description of the photo shoot: “we walk in and everyone’s doing push ups, trying to look buff, and here comes Chaske, doing a few poses then he turns around and gives that look you see up there.  He was an animal in there!”  Asked about the tattoo – it was designed by Quileutes and shows two wolves.  They especially like the authenticity, which was echoed in their pride in playing these Native American roles (just like Gil said) – all are so proud of their heritages and proud to portray strong, contemporary Native American characters. Their tribes (from what I caught so please don’t quote me): Chaske, among other nationalities is North Dakota Sioux; Kiowa is Hualapai from northern Arizona (“our tribe is doing well since we built that skywalk at the Grand Canyon“); and Alex is from a southwestern tribe called the Purepecha (pur-a-pecha).  They are all also dedicated to putting the reach and vast popularity of Twilight as a platform for charity and other causes – and they encourage fans to do the same.  Chaske is particularly working to raise awareness of preserving the environment and our water supply through United Global Shift.

Other questions:

What were you doing when you got the call about the role: Chaske was hanging out in his room, got the call and immediately “hit my knees and kept saying ‘thank you! thank you! while I was tearing up – I was so happy.”  Kiowa (the laid back kiddo) was in his room playing video games when his mom got the email and he started yelling and screaming (Alex added “like Culkin in Home Alone” putting his hands on his face and yelling AHHHHHH).  Alex said he prayed every day for this opportunity “when I got it I gave thanks to the Creator and asked that I do the best I could to represent the Quileutes.”

What vamp would you play? Chaske: Carlisle (such a Sam answer I think), Kiowa: Jasper, and Alex: James “for the fight scene!”.

An adorable 4-year old submitted a question through her mom, so Chaske went into the audience to find her so she could ask them herself – it was so cute, but she was pretty scared at that point (what with all the flashes going off) – so mom asked for her” what is their fave food?” Kiowa said steak “because it makes me stronger.” Alex and Chaske said they always ate this steak and salmon combo from Vancouver’s Moxie’s and then apple pie ala mode. Following that, an equally adorable 9 year old – the one with the I’m an Alice shirt – was picked to ask her question and they told her to come up to the stage and ask them.  So she did, they handed her the mic and she stood right there and asked. (it was so adorable and she was so gutsy that I completely forgot to write down the question to tell you guys!).  Then they hugged her and took a picture with her right there.  So cool!

What do you do in your spare time: Chaske – charity work (see note above), Kiowa said plays video games and sings (to which the crowd chanted “SING FOR US” and Alex and Chaske got up to do some back up singer moves – but alas, Kiowa didn’t sing for us), and Alex shared he earned a scholarship in art to San Francisco Art Institute so he loves to paint and does a lot in his spare time because its so calming and helps him do something “for himself.”  He also has been into martial arts a while now and was a state wrestling champ. 

What other projects do you have going on: Chaske – “this opportunity has opened so many doors for us” and he’s got some projects going with his own production company, Urban Dreams.  “We’re going to go on and do more roles, and we’ll play other things outside of this type of role, so we hope our fans will keep foll0wing us!” Kiowa said “there’s no stopping this, [acting] is the most fun I’ve had in my whole life,” so he plans to continue doing it.  Alex has a movie coming out with Cam Gigante called “The Roomate” in which he plays “this obnoxious fraternity guy,” and another movie I think called “Four on the Floor” which will involve dancing – to which the crowd chanted “DANCE FOR US!”  (he didn’t)

There were many more questions and great answers from this group of true brothers, but I couldn’t capture everything.  So I’ll leave you with this – asked how long it took to get used to walking around and acting half naked all the time, they all said “not long at all, we really got used to it pretty quickly, though it was freezing!” So Alex shares another embarassing moment from the set: He goes to this trailer to change and thinking he’s the only one in there, strips down to his undies.  He suddenly looks up and there’s Taylor like “uh dude, this is my trailer.” (Alex re-enacts this like when he Jacob says to Bella at the prom, motioning to her dress, “NICE.”).  Alex said “so I’m going ‘oh, sorry dude!’ and its the first time I’m meeting him!”

I wish I could have audio taped it because the whole thing was so hilarious and fun to watch.  I am just amazed that these guys are so down to earth and REAL!  I know I keep saying that but seriously, its the only word that fits!

With that – I bid you a short farewell so we can go dance with the Hillywood Show gang, Edi and the Pack at the Vampire Ball.  Stay tuned for the Edi Gathegi report coming soon!