This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The horror movies were right: Vampires do make women scream.
More than 1,000 fans of the "Twilight" movies, most of them women and girls, screamed in delight Friday night at The Rail Event Center in downtown Salt Lake City, as five of the movie series' cast — four relatives of undead teen Edward Cullen, and one member of the ruling Volturi clan — blew kisses from the stage and took questions from nervous teens.
In a 25-minute question-and-answer session, actors Charlie Bewley, Peter Facinelli, Ashley Greene, Jackson Rathbone and Nikki Reed talked about what they like and don't like about being a vampire, how they reacted when they learned they landed their roles, and whether vampires could beat werewolves in a fair fight.
Greene, who plays the clairvoyant Alice Cullen, said the worst thing about being a vampire was "two and a half hours in the make-up chair."
Reed — who plays Alice's sister, Rosalie Hale — agreed, adding that the actresses weren't the only ones who suffered. "It sucks for the guys, too," she said.
The good part about being a vampire, joked Facinelli, who plays the patriarch Dr. Carlisle Cullen, is that "you get to live forever. … 350 is the new 250, so I feel good about that."
"You sparkle in the sun," said Rathbone, who plays Alice's husband, Jasper Hale. "It makes you feel like David Bowie."
All five actors said their vampire characters would prevail over werewolves. "Werewolves are just big overgrown dogs, really," Rathbone joked.
For the fans — some of whom braved a snowstorm the previous weekend to snag free tickets — the event was a chance to see the portrayers of their favorite characters in the flesh.
Sometimes the line between reality and fantasy blurred. Fans were as likely to yell, "We love you, Jasper" as "We love you, Jackson." Rathbone happily acknowledged both his own name and his character's.
The event was the last stop of a five-city, five-day publicity tour for "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1," which opens nationwide Nov. 18.
"Salt Lake, you're our biggest crowd so far," Reed told the fans, who screamed at the news.
Reed even played with the crowd's reactions. "What would happen if I said Robert Pattinson?" she asked, and the mention of "Twilight's" star bloodsucker elicited more screams.
Before the actors took the stage, three musical acts with songs on the "Breaking Dawn" soundtrack — singers Matt Hales (aka Aqualung) and Lucy Schwartz, and the band Sleeping at Last — performed short sets of mood music.
Hales introduced one song, one he wrote for the movie and performed with Schwartz by saying, "We'd like you all to imagine you're about to give your immortal soul to a very pale English person."
The "Twilight" fans could imagine that, and again they screamed.