Can vampires dance? They can according to actress Marisa Quinn, who witnessed a whole vampire flashmob while filming the climatic sequence for the final installment in the Twilight franchise. Dancing aside, being a vampire is hard work but Quinn enjoyed her time playing Huilen, a friend of the Cullens. While Breaking Dawn: Part 2 is the last film detailing the love story between vampire Edward Cullen and former human Bella Swan, pop culture’s Twilight mania shows no signs of stopping.
BuddyTV was lucky enough to speak with Quinn about her time in Forks, vampire flashmobs, and the age-old question: Team Edward or Team Jacob?
So tell us a little bit about your character in Breaking Dawn: Part 2.
I play Huilen, she is a South American Indian vampire and she comes to the aid of the Cullens at the very end of the movie. It’s the pivotal part, the confrontation between the good guys and the bad guys. That’s where we come in and I can’t really say more about what happens because that would be a spoiler. But if you read the books you know what’s going down.
Had you read the books? Were you a fan of Twilight before getting the part?
Yes I was! So when I got the audition I was out of my mind nervous. I was thinking it was a huge opportunity, and I just love the books. It’s a character I’d imagined in my head a thousand times before. So it was really exciting! I just felt honored to be able to read for it. And it was really easy; the process was painless compared to other auditions. It was just one and that was it! I didn’t even have to get called back.
So Twilight is obviously a huge phenomenon right now. What was it like working on a movie that big, under so much scrutiny?
I feel like nothing can compare you for it and you just have to be open and excited. The minute I got cast, I don’t know how the fans found out, but they did. They reached out to me on Twitter and on Facebook and I just felt so much love coming at me from the get-go. People were getting on message boards talking about my casting, and luckily they were really excited about it. Everyone thought I looked like the character they had imagined or that was described in the book.
I just can’t say enough about how amazing the fans are, their support and their love is incredible. It inspires us all on set, when you get tired or when you’ve done the same scene for like 20 days. We get on our Twitter accounts and we have all this love from the fans, and we’re reminded we’re doing it for them. It’s very cool.
What was it like working with the cast? Clearly they’ve all been working with each other for a long time, since the first film.
With them all being such huge stars, I was fully expecting them to be assholes, to be frank. I was like “oh god, they’re young and they probably think that they’re the best ever. They’re going to be completely awful and spoiled.” But they were absolutely the opposite! They were kind and cool and laid-back. The second I stepped on set people were coming up to me and welcoming me and introducing themselves. I can’t say enough good things. I’ve been on several sets and the warmth on this one was out of control, it was so amazing.
Could you tell us something fun about filming the movie? Any behind the scenes dish to share?
There are so many cool things! I feel like my favorite behind the scenes moment was off set. JD [Pardo] and I, JD plays my nephew Nahuel, were just getting to the hotel and we stopped at the bar for a celebratory drink. We saw one of the vampires at the bar and he was like “hey are you guys in the movie?” and we were like “we play Huilen and Nahuel” and he said “you’re coming with me”. There was a party down the road and all of the vampires were there. As a fan of the books I’ve imagined all of these characters in my head and I know what they look like to me in my imagination. I walked into this party and there they all were in real life. I was like “Oh my god, you’re Charlotte! You’re Peter!” You know? It was so fantastic to see all the characters come to life. And they’re all dancing in front of me! [laughs]
When you were filming was there anything funny that happened? Were there any pranks?
Yea there was tons of stuff that went on! Did you hear about the big flash mob that we did? It was so cool! I believe Mia Maestro was the mastermind behind it all. We had been shooting that confrontation scene for weeks. It’s a very long, complicated scene and everyone is in it. Good guys, bad guys, the Cullens, Volturi, all the new vampires, everyone. And like I said we’d been doing it forever and we kind of wanted to spice things up, so Mia choreographed this dance and she taught it to everybody.
For three days we were sneaking off behind screens and things like that where we’d be hidden and we were practicing. So we all got it down. We even got the crew involved. We were in the middle of this scene and then out of nowhere the music starts blaring over the loudspeakers and all the vampires just start dancing this choreographed dance. It was so crazy! It was epic! I’m pretty sure that the cameras were rolling because we were in the middle of shooting. I honestly hope it’s going to be on the DVD, because it was priceless. Bill Condon’s face was just like “whoa!” So it was great!
So I know this is one of the major Twilight questions, but are you Team Edward or Team Jacob?
Oh girl, I have a story about that one! [laughs] I was Team Edward from the beginning, I saw the first movie and I was like Edward, Edward, Edward! My sister sent me home with the books on the plane since I saw the movie over Christmas break and I was in love. I never thought I would ever go Team Jacob, even though my sisters are Team Jacob.
And I got onto set and I wasn’t even expecting to meet Taylor Lautner because he’s a wolf in the scene that I’m in. I was just working with his cardboard cutout. So I’m walking to craft services to get something to drink and I literally ran into Taylor Lautner. He was on set, I don’t know why he was there, but I wasn’t looking where I was going and I just bumped into him. I was completely taken aback and he literally took my breath away! He smiled and was like “I’m sorry are you ok?” and I was like “[indecipherable sounds]”. It was crazy! [laughs]
I couldn’t believe I was star-struck like that, I wasn’t expecting that at all. I just went back to my seat and I was in a daze. My costar JD asked what happened to me and I was like “I think I’m Team Jacob!”
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 2 comes out in theaters November 16.
Find out where you can marathon through the previous Twilight films with the free BuddyTV Guide app for iOS.
(Image courtesy of Chris Jones)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
