They've monopolized magazine covers and encouraged moviegoers around the world to spend more than $1 billion at the box office. Surely, the three young stars of the Twilight franchise —Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart— have earned a break in between big-screen installments of their supernatural saga.
Not if they desire careers that require more than just being a brooding vampire, a hard-bodied werewolf and the sulky girl who loves them. When it comes to life after multi-part blockbusters such as the Star Wars trilogies, opportunity often awaits. But so does type-casting, poor decision-making and outright rejection. Only a chosen few rise to Harrison Ford heights.
That might explain why each of the Twilight trio has at least one film coming long before the third outing based on Stephenie Meyer's literary phenom, Eclipse, arrives June 30.
Not exactly newcomers
Lautner, 18, got a head start in the romantic comedy Valentine's Day, which has collected $87.4 million in 10 days. Fellow heartthrob Pattinson, 23, stars as a James Dean for the Twitter generation in the romantic drama Remember Me, opening March 12.
Meanwhile, Stewart, 19, leaves behind all traces of chaste heroine Bella Swan as she dons black leather as Joan Jett in the rock 'n' roll bioThe Runaways, due March 19 — but not until she joins William Hurt on a road trip in The Yellow Handkerchief this Friday.
It's not as if all three don't have a résumé of sorts. Stewart is the most experienced, playing Jodie Foster's daughter in the 2002 thriller Panic Room and appearing in Into the Wild in 2007. Lautner starred in 2005's Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D, and Pattinson was in 2005's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
But Twilight's cultural stronghold tends to overwhelm any other credits. "Being associated with one thing for so long can be detrimental," says Paul Dergarabedian, box-office tracker for Hollywood.com. Also, the massive popularity of such works as The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter books can undercut the importance of the actors.
Developing an identity beyond the Twilight zone will depend on the future projects the actors pick and the company they keep. "Look at Anna Kendrick," Dergarabedian says, referring to the actress who plays Stewart's friend in the Twilight films. "She earned instant credibility after working with George Clooney and director Jason Reitman in Up in the Air. Now she's Oscar-nominated."
It helps that older male filmmakers tend to be clueless about Twilight mania. Valentine's Day's Garry Marshall had never heard of Lautner or werewolf Jacob when the studio suggested the ab-crunched lad for his ensemble cast. "I'm about 107," says the director, 75. "I don't know who is popping."
Lautner's schedule was free only after shooting began, so Marshall quickly checked out the trailer for last fall's New Moon. "I saw he could jump around and that his shirt was never on, which we turned into a joke. Who could guess he was a fine actor?"
Marshall soon realized the benefits of squeezing in a Twilight lead among the more established performers, who include Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba, Ashton Kutcher, Bradley Cooper and both McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey) and McSteamy (Eric Dane) from TV's Grey's Anatomy. For one thing, the brief real-life relationship that developed between the two Taylors — Lautner and Swift — grabbed gossip headlines and produced pre-opening buzz.
Plus, "he gets the biggest yell-out during the opening titles," says Marshall, who wisely padded Lautner's part after noticing his flair for comedy — as well as after hearing the screams of the hundred or so fans on the film's high school set. "He's a sweet kid, unspoiled by Hollywood so far."
Pattison was 'limited'
Remember Me director Allen Coulter is relieved that he had little awareness of Edward Cullen, Pattinson's bloodsucking alter ego, when he signed up the British actor. Instead, he was impressed by how bright Pattinson is and his instinctive understanding of the role.
"If I had seen Twilight," he says, "I might not have hired him. He is so limited by the kinds of traits he has to express. It's not that psychologically complex."
Not only does Remember Me offer Pattinson a chance to play a mere mortal with a keener sense of irony and humor than his oft-tortured Twilight hero ("He shows his playful side," Coulter says), he also gets to hold his own with such adult actors as Pierce Brosnan as his distant father and Chris Cooper as a hard-nosed cop who misjudges him.
Considering the New York-based drama centers on a touching love story between Pattinson's emotionally adrift young man and a fellow college student (Emilie de Ravin of Lost), Coulter isn't adverse to capitalizing on his star's status as a messy-haired, swoony-eyed sex symbol. "I hope the rabid interest in Rob as a personality helps the box office. It would be foolish to say otherwise." And, unlike the Twilight films, in which Bella and Edward's passion remains unconsummated because of his vampire issues, Pattinson is free to engage in PG-13 boudoir action.
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