New interview with Charlie Bewley aka Demetri from the volturi.
New Moon is your first screen credit. Can you tell us how you got the role?
Charlie Bewley: How I got involved in Twilight is that I just auditioned. And you know what? I went on to TwilightersAnonymous.com, and I asked them about my character … for the first audition stage. They gave me some insight into who he was and everything, I read the book really quickly to find out about the character, and I just realized that a lot of him is about me.
He’s this tracker. He obviously does a lot of running, and I do loads of running, so I just worked out of it. It was very easy for me to play the character, as opposed to building the character from the bottom up … it’s a lot easier when you’re acting, to do that. So I just made the character myself, and when I got called back for the second audition, it was in front of Chris [Weitz] and it was in front of Wyck [Godfrey], and I was just myself. [Laughs] I was just, you know, charming and smiles and everything. I wasn’t typically vampiric, in that sense. And I think Chris liked it; he started laughing.
In Stephenie Meyer’s book, Demetri is described as polite …
CB: Very polite, yeah. And I’m just a nice English guy. I’ve had my trouble, and it’s gone. I’m just a nice guy who doesn’t want any trouble. [Laughs] I think Demetri is someone who ... seeks out trouble and adventure. He’s getting very bored, having been alive for thousands of years. I think he’s interested in trouble -- nonspecific -- or adventure -- nonspecific -- or any kind of action. I think being a vampire, or being alive for 3000 years, just makes you very bored. Look at Marcus’ character; he’s very apathetic, and he just sat there … he just wants to die.
Do you actually know Demetri’s backstory, based on what’s in the book?
CB: I made it up.
Tell us!
CB: Demetri was obviously Italian. And at a young age, he was orphaned. He was living in the foothills of Mt. Vesuvius -- the big, volcanic mountain -- and in 900 A.D., it erupts. Lava starts pouring down, and his parents get caught in it. Their house gets taken apart. I outrun the lava, into the foothills, where I found a place where I was safe, essentially. But I couldn’t provide for myself, so I was thrown into slavery. I went through various masters but they couldn’t pin me down, because I was so nonchalant and arrogant and just ran away from everyone; it was really frustrating. I kept getting sold on to the next guy -- the next master, for the best price they could get -- and I was too nice for someone just to kill me.
So eventually I got sold to a merchant trader in Rome, who dealt specifically in fighters, and I found myself in front of the Coliseum with these baying, bloodthirsty Romans, desperate for gladiatorial combat. I didn’t have any fighting skills, so I just ran around for three hours and no one could catch me -- until somebody shot me with an arrow. I was lying on the floor, I was about to die, I was waiting for Commodus’ verdict of thumbs up or thumbs down, and he’s about to give it a down when Aro comes in and whispers in his ear and says, “Don’t kill him, I’ll take him.” Aro converts me in the depths of the Coliseum himself, and I’ve been working loyally for him ever since.
Read the rest of the interview at Hollywood.com
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