Actress Ashley Greene plays mind-reading vampire Alice Cullen in the Twilight series. In her latest film, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Ashley’s character Alice teams up with her family and some local werewolves to do battle against a vampire army. She was recently in London where she spoke about Eclipse, plus her favourite book in the Twilight series, her heavy-duty fight training and more.
Can you believe, looking back to the first film, that this franchise has become what it’s now become?
Ashley Greene (AG): No, I don’t think any of could have predicted how big this would become. I certainly understand why it has, because the book series is incredible, and it kind of takes you into this whole other world. But I think at the time we were doing Twilight, it really had this independent feel to it and we were just really happy to be working on a project. I think each time we’re very pleasantly surprised at just how passionate the fans are and how excited they get over this.
You’ve been able to travel all over the world as part of the Twilight franchise. So, what’s your favourite city? And why?
AG: I think at this point I really enjoyed being in Montepulciano in Tuscany. It was just absolutely breathtaking waking up every morning and being able to look out. The way of life there is very different to anything I’ve ever experienced in the States. I really, really enjoyed it. But that’s coupled with the fact that I have really, really great memories there when we were filming New Moon. I have a lot of fond memories.
Do you have a favourite book in the series?
AG: I think my favourite book to read was probably Twilight; my favourite book to film was Eclipse, though. I think I had more fun on that set than I have on the previous ones. The action packed stunt fight training was really nice. It’s always nice whenever we get to interact and be playful with each other because a lot of the time you see us with pained looks on our faces, so it was really nice to be able to have a lot of interaction with everyone.
What kind of diet and exercise regime did you have?
AG: There was lots of circuit training, lots of competitions. We did some really fun competitions, too... like we tried to see who could do the circuit in the least amount of time. It was tonnes and tonnes of fight training, which was actually fun because it kept us in shape. But it was very cool as well because we had to learn different choreography and stuff. And then, at that point, you could eat whatever you wanted because we were working out so much.
If you could switch roles, who would you choose and why?
AG: I think I would choose Victoria. She’s such a departure from Alice, who’s so sweet and has this innocence about her. I think it would be really fun to play the evil character.
If you could have a special power, what would it be?
AG: I think immunity. I think not being able to be affected by anyone would be pretty cool.
Do you get chance to socialise much off set?
AG: Yeah, we do. Surprisingly enough we all like each other. So, we have cast dinners and play the telephone game. One cast member calls three people and someone else calls three people... we do a lot of game nights. A lot of the cast members are also musically inclined, so we have jam sessions and just kind of hang.