Image credit: The Star Tracker
Most young actresses work their entire lives for a starring role in a hit film. Nikki Reed turned one down…twice.
After breaking out as a teen actress in films like Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown, she decided she was happier earning near-minimum wage working in retail and twice rejected a part in one of Hollywood’s biggest franchises.
Speaking on a Twilight reunion panel at the Anaheim Nostalgia Con, Reed revealed why she turned her back on Hollywood and what it took to get her back in front of the camera.
Nikki Reed wanted a normal life
Reed’s career launched supernova-hot when she starred in the 2003 hit indie drama Thirteen, which was partially based on her own life as a young teen.
“I started working very young. I was thirteen years old when I co-wrote the first film that I was in. And it sort of catapulted me into this life and career that I spent my teenage years leaning into,” she said.
However, Reed admitted that despite her early success, she never saw acting as her true passion, and she wanted to explore the world.
“It's something that I've done my entire life, is sort of leave the things that feel comfortable to go explore new avenues and new places. I did it all throughout filming as well. Every time we would break instead of doing the smart thing, which would have been to focus on my career, I would take off and go live in different places.”
Nikki Reed turned down Rosalie to work in a clothing store
In 2008, Twilight was one of the hottest book properties in town, and actors were dying for the chance to audition for the film adaptation, but despite a personal request from Catherine Hardwicke, the film’s director, Reed simply wasn’t interested.
“This is gonna sound so wild, but I actually was working in a clothing store, making like thirteen dollars an hour in Hawaii when I got the call from Catherine about the books.”
Hardwicke had directed Reed in her breakout film Thirteen, and she wanted the actress to come back for a lead role in the first Twilight movie.
Reed passed on the offer, telling Hardwicke, “I love that, but I really love my job right now. I just made it as manager, so I don't want to leave. She said Well, maybe just come out and meet everybody and I passed a second time, not because I'm so cool or because I was above it, but because I was so deeply embedded in my life.”
Catherine Hardwicke wouldn’t give up on casting Reed
Despite Reed rejecting the part twice, Hardwicke refused to give up, and she asked Reed if she would at least take a look at the books
“The third time Catherine called and said, 'I really, really think that you are going to love these books.' This is going to be something very special. Mind you, we all thought we were going to make like kind of a little independent film at the time.”
Finally, Reed relented and agreed to read for the role of Rosalie.
“I went in, and I screen-tested for the role, and I think I might have been either the first or second person cast. I always found it so interesting that she thought that I was right for that role because, clearly, I look so different from Rosalie and just everything we're all opposites.”
Reed went on to star in all five Twilight films, which were the biggest hits of her career. However, she stayed true to herself, and after taking a few more roles, she’s largely retired from acting. She now lives on a working farm in Southern California with her husband, Ian Somerhalder and their two children.
Reed’s castmates have also shared how they landed their iconic Twilight roles.
Watch the video here.
