Rob in Asian Movie magazine

ROBERT IS IN THE NEW ISSUE OF FIRST-Asia

Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Rodeo Drive – locations that are often associated with the rich and famous in Hollywood. So when you’re told that Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson will be meeting you at the Beverly Wilshire on Rodeo Drive, you
can’t help but wonder if these two starlets have already arrived in Hollywood.

Who are Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, you ask? They are the stars of the upcoming vampire romance Twilight, the film adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s bestseller (think Anne Rice meets The O.C.) of the same name. The four-book series (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn) has enjoyed more than 60 weeks at the top of The New York Times bestseller list and has sold over 50 million copies worldwide since 2005. This hugely-popular saga tells a Romeo and Juliet-like tale of pretty but awkward 17-year-old Bella (Stewart) who moves to a small town and falls in love with Edward (Pattinson), an astonishingly beautiful vampire. Both enter into a passionate yet dangerous relationship, where Edward agonises constantly over his urge to suck the life out of Bella.

Not since Harry Potter has there been as fanatical a reception to a book-to-film adaptation. Still relatively new to the business, Stewart and Pattinson have already received attention befitting of rock stars; thousands of screaming fans showed up at the recent Comic-Con, an annual comic-book convention, just to catch a glimpse of them. The frenzied turnout caught the Twilight cast by surprise. Every actor who came on stage generated ear-piercing screams from the audience, comprised mostly of the fairer sex.

So what’s the big deal about these two upstarts? Dressed in a plaid shirt over a T-shirt-and-jeans combination, the svelte Stewart looks like someone on the street. Pattinson is similarly togged out, with the addition of a leather jacket. Granted, they are an extremely attractive pair, and as you talk to them, you can sense there’s something intriguing about them; perhaps it’s their innate chemistry, or what they call the “X-Factor”.

“All this attention that I’m getting now is weird because you’re not really in control of it,” Pattinson says. “It’s being generated by the fans who love Stephenie Meyer’s books. I only realised what I got myself into when we were at Comic-Con. There were just so many people, and the movie wasn’t even going to be out for months,” Pattinson recalls. “I thought that they were nuts. I just realised the extent of the whole thing.”

His co-star Stewart agrees: “From what’s happening on the Internet, we knew Twilight was big, but it was only at Comic-Con that we grasped what a huge deal it is. That was the first physical manifestation of the madness!”

Twilight opens Dec 18. Read more of our exclusive interview with Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson in the Nov issue.