Twilight stars reveal how they landed their iconic roles

In 2006, thousands of young people auditioned for roles in Twilight. The books were already a global phenomenon, and a role in the franchise could transform a struggling young actor into a star.

So, how do you prepare for an audition that could change your life?

The Star Tracker was there when Twilight Stars Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, Ashley Greene, Peter Facinelli, Kellan Lutz and Julia Jones shared how they won their roles in the legendary vampire films at the Anaheim Nostalgia Con 

While he’s best known to Twilight fans as the cunning Jasper Hale, Jackson Rathbone was actually one of the finalists for an even bigger role.

“I actually auditioned originally for Edward,” he told hundreds of fans. “I got pretty close, though, and they actually flew me to Philadelphia to screen test with Kristen Stewart, and I screen tested a few other actresses in LA for Catherine Hardwicke (the director) and for Summit Entertainment.”

Despite auditioning several times, Hardwicke and the producers thought Robert Pattinson had stronger chemistry with Stewart, and Rathbone didn’t land the role.

“They told me, ' We love you and thank you so much for helping us with the casting process, but we’re going to go with the guy from Harry Potter and I was like Daniel Radcliffe is an interesting choice,” he joked.

When he wasn’t cast as Edward, Rathbone was ready to walk away from the film entirely.

“Catherine brought me into the office, and she said, 'Hey, listen, I want you to be Jasper.' And I know you don't want to do it. Why?” 

He told her that he thought Jasper wasn’t an interesting part, but Hardwick convinced him to take a second look.

“So she said, 'Take a look at Eclipse. It's the third book. Give that a read and get back to me.' And I read it, and the chapter 'Newborn' talks about Jasper, talks about his past. And to me, it was a story of redemption. It's a story of somebody who has had a really horrible past and didn't believe he could be redeemed, and then finding somebody that says, 'I know that you can be redeemed because I can see the future and I see that you do.'… That's what got me into the Jasper character.”

Ashley Greene played Rathbone’s wife, Alice Cullen, but if things had worked out differently, they might have been the stars of Twilight.

Green said, “I auditioned for Bella originally, which I was not a Bella, but that’s how my whole process started, and after Catherine saw me, she goes, ' Oh no, no, no, she’s an Alice, so they brought me back in for Alice and then I think I auditioned four times before I actually got the role.”

She added that she had to perform a stunt to finally secure the role. 

“I went in with Catherine, and she made me do the whole scene where I met Bella and jumped off a branch, and I jumped off a chair.”

Green said that winning the role felt like a vindication. 

“It was between me and two other girls who always booked roles over me, and finally, you know, it was my turn.”

Emmet was cast while Kellen Lutz was busy with another show, but when the original actor didn’t work out, the production needed a new actor fast.

Lutz said, “I think I was just the biggest guy in the room, honestly, because you walk in, there’s a waiting room, there’s guys doing pushups. You walk past them, and you’re like, aw crap. You know that feeling? I’ve had that same feeling with other big guys. Chris Hemsworth walks by, it's like, aw crap. But Chris was busy,” he joked, “And so I think I was next in line.”

It took more than brawn for Lutz to land the role, though. He credits Greene with helping him get the part when Hardwicke asked the cast who should play Emmett. 

“Ashley really advocated for me. I’ve known Ashley since we were wee babies at KSA, our agency. And she was like, ‘Oh my God, I love Kellen; he’s great.”

Lutz added, “Catherine is very emotional, so she really received that excitement as like, oh, ok cool.”

And that’s how, with only days to go before filming started, Twilight landed its Emmett.  

Facinelli admitted he wasn’t initially interested in the role of Carlisle. 

He told the audience, “My agent said, ‘Hey, do you want to do a vampire movie?’ and I said no. I thought it was like dumb bats in caves.”

Everything changed when he learned that Hardwicke was directing, and he agreed to read for the part.

“I said, ‘When’s the audition?’ and they said, ‘Tomorrow.’...So I went out and bought the book, and then I started reading it, and I thought, I’ll just read to Carlisle.”

Facinelli dove into the book, and suddenly, the part became something he had to have. 

“It was so good that I read it from the beginning, and then I was up until like 3 AM reading the book, and I went into the audition the next day, and I had bloodshot eyes from being up all night, and they were like, ‘You’re perfect’”

Julia Jones, who played the werewolf Leah Clearwater, lived every actor’s worst nightmare in her audition for Eclipse. 

“I remember, I was so in character that I totally forgot the words,” she said, laughing. “I left the audition, and it was like, 'I paraphrased my entire audition.’ It's pretty mortifying.”

But in a bizarre coincidence, she said she ran into Eclipse’s director, David Slade, when they both boarded the same plane the next day.

“I kind of compulsively tapped him on his shoulder and said, 'Hi. I auditioned for you yesterday.' He looked at me like he had no idea who I was.”

Jones was sure she hadn’t booked the part, but then something happened that gave her hope.

“And then halfway through the flight, he (Slade) came over to where I was sitting and said, 'You know, you did a great job. And we have to see like a thousand people, but fingers crossed. Those were his words.”

Another Twilight star nearly missed the franchise entirely: Nikki Reed turned down a leading role twice for a $13-an-hour retail job.

Watch the video here.