At Comic-Con, shortly after some very crowded press conferences and showing fans the first footage from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, I was able to sit down with Ashley Greene for an exclusive interview. We talked about being at Comic-Con, working for director Bill Condon, what was it like to make the final two Twilight films, what kind of projects is she looking to do next, her other upcoming movies (Butter, LOL, and The Apparition), and, of course, I asked what’s her karaoke song. Hit the jump to either read or listen to the interview.
Finally, if you missed our Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn coverage from Comic-Con, here’s the press conference with Elizabeth Reaser, Greene, Nikki Reed, Julia Jones and BooBoo Stewart. Here’s the press conference with Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner and director Bill Condon. And here’s our recap of the Hall H Twilight panel.
Collider: You’ve answered the same 50 questions in different orders this whole time so I’m going to start with my staple question: What is your go to karaoke song?
Ashley Greene: Oh, gosh. It’s probably the same as everyone else. I mean, I feel like Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing is the one that always….I don’t really karaoke, but I feel if that comes on I will begin singing very loudly. That is the one that starts everything and the unraveling of me.
This is the last Comic Con for you guys. Is it something that you look at like, “Oh, my god. I get to do this.” or is it an overwhelming pressure to please the fans and meet everyone’s expectations?
Greene: Yeah. I feel like…wait, are we not coming to comic to Comic Con next year?
My bad. Maybe you are.
Greene: I was just like, “Oh, no!” So assuming that this would be the last one…
I could be very wrong. Can you talk about coming to Comic Con? Is it something that you truly look forward to? There are a lot of fans here that are very passionate. How do you take that pressure?
Greene: You know what? I feel like there hasn’t been pressure for the past few years. Even before Twilight came out the fans started really embracing us. They were really amazing. That made me a little bit nervous because I really didn’t want to disappoint them but it’s gotten to a point where they are year after year are very gracious to me and they are really amazing. They are extremely passionate. So I think it’s now just very fun and it’s very exciting to see how passionate they are because it makes me want to do a better job. It makes me want to bring this character to life even more. So coming to stuff like this is really fun and exciting. I think there is a big difference in hearing people talk about your fans and actually getting to go down, meet them, shake hands with them, give them hugs, and really interact with them. It’s a really crazy and contagious energy that they have.
I think a lot of people and non Twilight fans are excited about Bill Condon. He is a phenomenal director and is definitely a huge surprise to be taking over the last two films. What was your reaction when you found out that he was directing? How was it like on set with him? Was it different preparing for this one?
Greene: Okay. Maybe that made me a little nervous. [laughs] I was like, “Oh, my god. Seriously? Bill Condon? This is….” I feel like, “How much better can it get?” You’re part of this franchise, you have these amazing fans, and you’re getting to start and finish something, which I feel like you don’t often get to do. Then to be able to work with these incredible directors each time is kind of like a crash course for acting especially for me. So when Bill Condon came on board I was just so excited. I couldn’t believe it. I think he is an incredible director and I definitely respect his work. I was a little nervous to meet him because I didn’t know what he was going to be like – you never know. I heard good things and then I met him and I was just like, “Oh, my god. This is going to be amazing.” He is so collaborative and very giving as a director. His communication skills are amazing. So we literally just sat down and talked about what I had done with Alice, what I thought about her, and what his ideas were with her. We kind of just went back and forth and came up with ideas. It was a really fun experience for me. It was a growing experience, you know?
Totally. I’m curious about hearing how he was on set and how it was like interacting with him. Did you find for example that he had a lot more tracking shots or a different way of filming the film than what you were expecting?
Greene: Yeah. He doesn’t have a ton of tracking shots, but he was really great about just rolling with it. He would say, “This is a great idea.” We would try something or someone would have a different idea about what would be beautiful, what would be awesome to do, or where their character should go. He was very open about trying different things and letting beautiful movie god magic happen. I think that was one of the really surprising things for me. It was that I had a director of this caliber be so open to your interpretation.
In the last year you have branched out into some other film projects. I believe that you haveButter, LOL, and The Apparition coming up. How has the last year been like for you with these other film projects?
Greene: It’s been really exciting. It has been equally terrifying and exhilarating. With Twilight at least you are basically growing with this character. So doing something like LOL that is a comedy, which I have never done before, with an incredible cast and a really great director was very intimidating. But I feel like if it wasn’t that way there would be a problem. Everything I do I am a little bit afraid of because I care about it and I want to do a great job. It’s a new territory and it’s uncharted. It was a little scary, but it’s been so fantastic. Doing that was a really great experience and it has definitely inspired me to do more comedy and more characters. In LOL I play the kind of “bad girl” and that is something that I had never done before. I think it’s a lot easier to play the super sweet perky character because I relate more to that I think. So that was certainly a departure. I wanted to make sure that people and fans would respond to it. I wanted to make sure that she had reasons behind the way she was acting. So that was kind of a tricky film situation. Then The Apparition was my first lead in a studio film. So it’s kind of on your shoulders. So if it doesn’t do well…that is not good. So I was nervous about doing that one. But I put a lot of hard work into them and I think they all turned out really well. I’m very proud of something in each of them.
What are you looking at now in terms of what you want to do in the future? Are you getting ready to start filming anything right now?
Greene: Right now I am doing a lot of post stuff like ADR, reshoots, and fun stuff like that. There are a couple of projects that have caught my eye. Right now it’s a lot of reading. I’m looking into developing stuff with people as well. I think that is a different side that I haven’t explored yet. That would be really fun – to understand different sides of filmmaking. I’m dipping my foot a little bit in that. I definitely want to do another action film because I had a ton of fun when we did stunt work on this. I have a martial arts background and I’m very athletic. So I think if I can find a film where a female is a badass in it – that would just be amazing. They are sometimes hard to find, but I definitely want to do something like that. I think it would be really fun to do a 300 kind of epic film.
They are doing a prequel.
Greene: Oh, really? Great! I don’t know if I would fit into that movie. [laughs] But that sounds fun. I definitely want to do another comedy because I literally came to set when I wasn’t working because it was so much fun being there.
They are doing the 300 prequel at Warner Bros and I believe that The Apparition might be related to Warner Bros.
Greene: It is!
I am just throwing that out there.
Greene: Connecting those dots. [laughs]
When are we going to see a trailer for The Apparition? Do you know?
Greene: Hopefully soon. We are working out some stuff in editing right now. We are doing ADR and all of that fun stuff. But it will hopefully be very soon. I know we are all anxious for everyone to see it.
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