Cam Gigandet is the big bad in 'Twilight'
Posted by Lorrie Lynch 
Say what you will about Bella, Edward, forbidden romance and all that mushy stuff in Twilight. Cam Gigandet instead relishes the role of bad guy in the movie adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's popular book, in theaters Friday. In it, he plays James, the evil leader of a coven of vampires who tracks the good-guy Cullens to Washington state and, once he gets a whiff of Bella (Kristen Stewart), he has to kill her. Scary! But actually, for all the ne'er-do-wells he's played — he also was the broody surfing malcontent Volchok on the last two seasons of The O.C. — Gigandet's actually a really pleasant guy, as our Brian Truitt found out when he interviewed the Twilight star at Comic-Con. Click read more for Gigandet's thoughts on vampires, fight scenes and channeling his inner supervillain. And if you haven't gotten your exclusive USA WEEKEND poster yet — featuring Gigandet, Stewart and other cast members — go here to order one online!
On playing the villainous James: It doesn't really get any better than that. Bad guys just have more freedom with everything — they can do things that the good guys just can't. They survive by a different set of rules, and they can have fun while doing it.
On Twilight the book and its literary ilk: I love vampires and I love love stories. At the end of the day, all that really matters — to me at least, it doesn't matter if it's horror, thriller, sci-fi — is that the story being told is something relatable and interesting, and then I enjoy it.
On working with director Catherine Hardwicke: From the very beginning, she had this energy that was infectious. Even on days where we had such weather problems and so many problems with mud, no matter what, even if it's 25 degrees, her energy made you want to push forward and keep powering through and gave you that extra lift. You just wanted it. She could say two words, and even if I didn't understand, I would do everything that I possibly could think.
On going from shooting the martial-arts movie Never Back Down to
Twilight, in which he throws down with Robert Pattinson: It's such a roller coaster ride. Once Never Back Down was done, I would easily
stay away from the gym by at least seven miles. That was like the
closest I could get. And once this happened, even mentally it's hard to
get back on that commitment.
On the vampire elements in the action sequences: Literally, I went from a mixed martial-arts movie to a movie with people who had superhuman speed and strength. It was very different. There was a lot of wire work because these people, they can't have normal fights because every punch and every kick would cause the other to go up into the rafters, really. All the wire work and all the planning, we had to be very specific: If someone's gonna hit someone here, what would that actually do? You're looking at every little thing, whereas with a fight with humans, it's just a fight with humans. Every last thing was judged and turned around and upside down and just tried to figure it out. And then once we actually executed it all, the wire work was 90 percent of the fight. Even watching it, it's unreal. It's real but it's extreme.
(Photos by Peter Sorel)
Comments (5)
Stop trying to make Twilight happen! It's not going to happen!
That being said, Cam Gigandet was fierce in the OC. It's sad he's in this filth.
I loved Twilight!!
:]
James was goregous.
Edward was adorable.
Yall can suck it.
Stephanie Meyer, she's perfect.
Because the book had no meat to it whatsoever, James was probably the best character, simply because he WAS the bad guy, and therefore wasn't supposed to conform to the book's ideas of "good." (Twilight's good guys were dull as rocks.) It sounds like Cam had fun with his role, and I hope it translates on screen when I go to see the movie on Saturday. (I never review anything unless I've read/seen it first hand myself.)
Who knows; maybe Cam/James will get a lucky shot in and end up victorious instead!
Now THAT is a twist I'd like to see in Twilight!
thats why i havent seen the scenes through spoilers and interviews and stuff. i havent even watched all the trailers. i kept jumping them,i think i can enjoy the movie better of this way.
Oh God, enough Twilight. This movie was completely over-marketed... most people are sick of it and it hasn't even come out yet. I would have liked to see it months ago, but now with all the clips and interviews, we've pretty much seen the whole movie. I'll just save my $10 for the epicness that will be Watchmen.