Alex Meraz: The bad-boy of the wolf pack

Entertainment Weekly has a new interview with Alex Meraz, who plays the werewolf Paul in the Twilight movies. Here is an excerpt of his interview:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: It’s probably been crazy for you lately, running around to premieres everywhere.
ALEX MERAZ: Yeah, it has been actually. Meeting a lot of fans and shaking a lot of different hands. So there’s been a lot of hand sanitizer.

Were you a fan of the books before you got the role?
No. I didn’t really know what it was. I’d go to Borders in Arizona and see it everywhere, because the writer [Stephenie Meyer] is from there. I remember seeing these pasty hands and a red apple. And I didn’t even know what it was until after it came out and it was [successful]. And then thought, I’d like to try out for the next role.

What about the movie made you want to be a part of the franchise?
The fact that it’s the first time you see Natives portrayed in a contemporary setting. It’s not a period piece. I had been doing other independent films and things like that where I’m in a breechcloth running around on horseback hooting and hollering. There was something just really cool to know that it’s a global sensation, and now Natives are going to have the spotlight.

You are Native American, so this is probably refreshing.
It definitely was. I personally was shocked when I heard that the books had a huge Native component in them. It was the whole part of the wolf pack, and I didn’t know how big the wolf pack was until I read about it. I was just shocked that people were interested, you know what I mean? So I thought, “Wow, that’s amazing. I totally want to be part of something like that.”

What did you have to do for your audition? Did you perform a certain scene?
Well, first I went out for Sam Uley, the wolf pack leader. We did this whole scene from the book that they took out, because they weren’t releasing anything from the script. So it was a scene where we’re at Emily’s house and we discover Victoria — who’s a vampire — had been killing on the reservation. So we figure out who’s been killing all these people and hikers and bikers on the reservation, and we figure out it’s a vampire. So it was that scene, and I had to kind of like play a quarterback and tell people what they needed to do. The hard thing about that, in the book, Sam is described as 6’4” and with a deep voice. You know, like a leader. And I’m 5’11?. I don’t have a deep voice. So I was trying to act like something bigger. Then luckily enough, Joseph said, “Let’s try this.” And he gave me one single line. He gave me a [lede-in], “Come in Bella, we won’t bite.” And I had to look at the camera and say, “Speak for yourself.” But the way I did it, it was so naughty. I blew a kiss, gave a little wink. Like, really naughty. And it was based off of that one line that I got the role of Paul.

To read the rest of his interview, click on the link above.

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