In part one of this series Peter talked about his new Vampire Transformer IPhone app. In part two Peter talked about New Moon, a bit of Eclipse, and his hopes for Breaking Dawn. Now Peter talks about Carlisle’s motivations and just what would happen if Carlisle ever met Cooper from Nurse Jackie! If you’ve ever wondered if the cast really understands their characters, this is the interview to listen to!
We want to thank Peter for taking the time out of a busy day to talk to us and share these amazing stories with us!
***NOTE: We’re having trouble with the audio file and will get it posted later today probably around 4 EST.
For now you can read the transcript under the cut.
Lori: What has been the biggest challenge switching directors so quickly between the three movies that have been filmed so far? Or has there been a challenge?
Peter: The challenge is a learning curve of figuring out their personalities and figuring out how to work with them. They all have different personalities. When you’re working with the directors they set the tone of the whole movie set. Every tone trickles down from the top. If you have an anxious director, you’re going to have an anxious set. If you have a calm director, you’re going to have a calm set. So they were all different, but it was just a matter of, “Okay, how does this person like to work?” as much as you come in, you’re like, “Okay, I know my character now, and now I’m working on relationship stuff and story line stuff. How do I work with this director and what is he like? What is his approach?” And so they were all different and I enjoyed all of them. You know, the cast was always there so it was always enjoyable because they were always around.
Lori: About New Moon specifically – Carlisle really gets to show off his ability to handle the blood. We see him in the hospital in Twilight but in New Moon he’s got blood on his hands and everything. Did you and Chris Weitz talk about any of that? About Carlisle’s possibly internal struggle or lack of internal struggle before you did that scene at all?
Peter: No.
Lori: Or did you just go into as “This doesn’t bother me at all?”
Peter: I kind of went into it as – at this point he’s kind of numb to it. Even if he was, he would never show it. Carlisle – you know the whole deodorant thing: Never let them see you sweat?
Lori and Laura: (laughing)
Lori: Never let them see you crave!
Peter: Even if I was, I had to be strong for the family, especially in that moment. And the most important thing for me, in that moment, was protecting Bella and making sure that the family stayed together.
Laura: That’s great.
Lori: Okay, so we have one –
Peter: I’ll tell you one thing that was scary. I remember landing in that spot and looking up at every body and not knowing which way this was going to go. You know what I mean?
Lori: Oh really?
Peter: Had they not had the restraint, it would have been really difficult to fight off five, well five of my family members. You know what I mean? So I remember having that kind of panic of looking up and seeing my family there and not knowing if this was going to be a bad situation. I mean, scripted, you know.
Laura: Right, right.
Peter: As Carlisle playing it – there was a moment where I would look up and see in their eyes that they aren’t who they normally are. Just like there’s a moment in Twilight where I try to – where Rob is
Lori: Where he’s drinking her blood?
Peter: No, in the fight battle sequence with James at the end with Cam….
Lori: Oh okay.
Peter: Gigandet. I was thinking of the actor. But he has James up against the wall, and I have to come to him and basically – Edward’s in this rage where he could basically kill James in a heartbeat. And I stop him from doing it. And listen, James gets killed in the next sequence by the other Cullens, you know. But it’s done in a different way. I mean, had Edward killed James out of rage, he would have been a different person.
Laura: Right.
Lori: Yeah.
Peter: I don’t know if he would have been able to come back from there. It’s like this teetering – you’re teetering between vampire and human. And I’m trying to lean the whole family towards, “Hey, we’re humans.” We’re trying to be human – like, and he was so far on the vampire scale that had he killed him (James) it wouldn’t have been Edward Cullen killing James. It would have been Edward the vampire killing James. And I knew that if he out of rage killed James, it would have set him back.
Laura: Exactly.
Peter: Which is why he couldn’t do it. The other Cullens could do it because they are doing it out of this need to get rid of this bad vampire that’s causing trouble for our family. It’s a logical thing. It’s not out of any kind of emotion or rage or vampire rage. But Edward couldn’t do it.
Laura: Right.
Peter: It would have been bad if he did it, so I had to stop him. And it was the same thing when I look at that room full of Cullens, I wasn’t seeing the Cullen family, it was like hungry animals. You know, I didn’t recognize them as my family at that moment. You know?
Laura: Yeah, absolutely. That’s great.
Lori: I’d never thought of that scene from that perspective.
Peter: I had to basically snap them back into the reality of, “You’re my family” when I said…
Laura: Take them out of there.
Peter: Because I was trying to remind them who they were, the same way I was trying to remind Edward who he was before he kills James.
Lori: I’m glad you talked about that because in Twilight that’s one of the moments in the movie I remember thinking to myself, “Why is it okay for everyone else to kill James, but not Edward?”
Peter: they weren’t doing it out of some kind of rage.
Lori: You see the motivation behind it.
Peter: It was a completely different motivation. They were doing it as a family trying to protect their family, not from this vampire rage. Once he does that, I don’t know if I can –
Lori: He loses part of that humanity that he’s been working for.
Peter: He loses part of that humanity. Exactly.
Lori: Wow, that’s really good. Okay, we have one final questions that’s kind of fun, and it’s one that I’ve been wondering for a while. You and I kind of talked about Nurse Jackie right before the conversation began. So right now the two characters you’re most well known for are Carlisle and Cooper. And those two doctors could not be any more different than night and day. So I’ve always wondered how you think Carlisle would respond if he had to work with Cooper and vice versa.
Peter: Well I’ll tell ya, Carlisle wouldn’t bite Cooper because he wouldn’t want him around for eternity.
Laughing!
Lori: Would Cooper think Carlisle is just too stuffy or …
Peter: No, Coop would be trying to be his friend all the time. And Carlisle would just avoid him like the plague. I don’t even know if Carlisle has the patience for Cooper.
Lori: I can picture Cooper going, “Man, that’s a cool ring! Where’d you get that? Can I have one?”
Peter: No, he’d be like, “You wanna bite of my Twinkie? You need to get outside, man. You’re looking a little pale there.”
Lori: Let’s go get some sun this week end!
Peter: “You wanna go to (can’t understand) this weekend? No? Come on, I’m driving!” And then he’d show up at his house. “Oh, Cooper!”
Lori: And then jasper would walk in and scare him away. But that’s got to be fun to play two characters that are just so completely different.
Peter: Oh, it’s a blast because they are so different. One is so contained and one runs around like he’s just had six red bulls.
Lori: Cooper is like a ten year old in a grown up body. He has no filter really from brain to mouth – or brain to hand!
Peter: That’s the perfect way of saying it – no filter. And he’s the worst liar and he just – he can’t stop himself. That’s why I actually feel sorry for him. Sometimes people think he’s like a jerk and I’m like – he’s so pathetic. I feel bad for the guy because he has no ill intentions, but he’s literally like a child who can’t NOT say what he feels.
Lori: And I don’t think he realizes that part of the things he says are so inappropriate.
Peter: Oh, he’s so oblivious to it all. He thinks everybody likes him, and nobody like him. He just like never gets it. I actually shot Eclipse – when I was shoot Eclipse, there was a whole month where I was shooting Eclipse and Nurse Jackie at the same time.
Laura: Oh wow.
Peter: I was flying back and forth and playing these two different people so it was just kind of fun.
Lori: Did you wear a wig in Eclipse?
Peter: Yeah, I had to because I was filming both of those. But if Carlisle ends up grabbing anyone’s boobs…
Lori and Laura: (Laughing) Blame it on Cooper!
Peter: Blame it on the fact that I was shooting two at the same time!
Lori: Maybe we can check and make sure they edit that moment out! Save it for the blooper reel.
Peter: Yeah, no, it never happened.
Lori: Well, we certainly appreciate you taking the time to talk to us.
Peter: Thank you guys. Thanks for sitting down and talking to me.
Lori: And have a very happy holiday with your family.
Peter: I will, same to you guys. Same to you.
Lori: Thank you!
Laura: Bye-bye!
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