Twilight may be an easy target to hate on with its sparkly vampires, strange logic, and occasionally poor writing, but many people love the books and movies for their complex love story and unforgettable characters.
Even in the cast of Twilight, there were those who admitted that they disliked the series and those who praised it. While some have been more public about their frustration than others, some actors wish to no longer be associated with the franchise.
Likewise, there are the other actors who praise the stories and were thrilled to appear in them.
Twilight fans themselves also had a divisive reaction about the cast of Twilight. On the one hand, there were sine actors who loved fans’ passion and enthusiasm for the characters and universe. However, on the other hand, there were some actors who thought that their presence was intimidating and overwhelming.
Becoming one of the most recognized faces in the world after appearing in the franchise was another pressure that several stars faced. While this allowed some to have a successful career, it also stressed out some cast members who were only just out of college.
Here are the 10 Actors Who Regretted Being In Twilight Movies (And 10 Who Adored It).
20. Regretted: Robert Pattinson
Robert Pattinson has not exactly been subtle about his dislike for the movies that made him a star. In several press interviews, where he was meant to be promoting Twilight, he spent time ridiculing them instead.
Despite the fact that the movies helped launch his career, he faulted the central love story and ripped apart the logic of his own character.
Famously, as Hypable reports, he stated: “I could never legitimize why a 108-year-old guy would want to still be in high school.”
Perhaps by being the first one to attack the franchise, he was trying to be taken seriously as an actor. However, derogatorily referring to Twilight fans in Germany’s Interview magazine as people who “sit in front of their computers and comment on anything… to do with Twilight” got him a lot of hate.
19. Adored: Michael Sheen
Michael Sheen was tasked with playing the main leader of the Volturi, Aro, the cruel villain of the franchise. However, he did not choose to do the role for the benefit of his own career.
He explained to Daily Record, “I was mainly excited about it because I knew I would make my daughter very happy.”
To make his daughter, who was clearly a huge Twilight fan, happy, he agreed to join the franchise. However, in the same interview, he went on to admit “I read the books and I really enjoyed them. I didn’t think I was going to, but I really did.”
Sheen may be one of the most unlikely Twilight fans, but his love for the series is apparent in interviews and his fondness for the character.
18. Regretted: Anna Kendrick
It’s incredible to think that Hollywood A-Lister Anna Kendrick was once just a background character in the Twilight franchise.
When talking about her time on set, Anna Kendrick has cited the weather as being a nightmare to film through. She stated: “Imagine if the first four weeks of a new job were spent outdoors in the freezing rain.”
Considering that Jessica Stanley was absent from the final movie, it appeared that no one was more relieved about this than Kendrick.
“I can tell you this… I’m not in it! So I don’t have to talk about it,” she said in an interview about Breaking Dawn: Part 2.
17. Adored: Billy Burke
Charlie Swan may be the world’s most clueless father in cinema, but Billy Burke makes him an endearing character.
Despite being a minor character, one thing that Burke learned on set was how to act as a father. He even told MTV News that it made him a better father to his newborn child, Bluesy LaRue Burke.
Bluesy was born after Twilight, which allowed Burke to transfer his skills of being a protective father to real life.
He also told MTV News that Bella would be a good role model for Bluesy. “I would like her to be a worldly person,” he said.
Who would have thought that Twilight would be an instructive guide on how to be a good parent? Probably not Billy Burke, but he’s extremely thankful for the movies for teaching him how to be a better dad.
16. Regretted: Kristen Stewart
Kristen Stewart has been fairly vocal about her disdain of the franchise. However, her problems with Twilight appear to be that she struggled with the celebrity attention that came with the role.
She told The Hollywood Reporter that “a whole lot of other baggage” came with the franchise, though she did note that it was “really cool baggage.”
Achieving this kind stardom at 17-years-old seems to have left a bad taste in Stewart’s mouth. In several interviews, she criticizes the logic of Stephenie Meyer’s writing.
She summarized her character on The Graham Norton Show, saying “as soon as she becomes a vampire they kind of ignore their duties instantly, they just wanna bone.”
“It’s the most ridiculous situation,” she stated, which could just as easily be her assessment of her time as Bella.
15. Adored: Peter Facinelli
When asked if he would miss Twilight, Peter Facinelli told Vanity Fair: “I’m going to dress up like Carlisle and do birthdays and Bar Mitzvahs.”
As the patriarch of the Cullen family, Peter Facinelli’s portrayal of Carlisle Cullen was memorable and he quickly became a fan-favourite. It seemed that he had fun too and was sad to say goodbye to his character.
“It’s a little sad. I’m going to miss the fans,” he went on to say. “They’ve treated us so well…[b]ut just because the movies are over, doesn’t mean the fans will disappear.”
While some of the Twilight cast, Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart in particular, struggled with the fan attention, Facinelli seemed to love it.
His respect for the fans shows his respect for the franchise and how he felt privileged to be a part of the Twilight saga.
14. Regretted: Taylor Lautner
Unlike his co-stars, Taylor Lautner doesn’t appear to have criticized his characters’ logic, but that doesn’t mean that he enjoyed filming Twilight.
As Jacob Black, the ripped werewolf, Lautner spent most of the movies without his shirt on. While this may have been enjoyable for some fans, according to Lautner, “taking the shirt off… it’s not fun.”
Considering that all of the Twilight movies are filmed in grey-skied Seattle, this posed problems for Lautner. He went on to tell E! News, “in the books, it’s always supposed to be cold and gloomy and the sun can never be out so that’s not fun.”
Another problem that Lautner had while filming was sharing scenes with a co-star he publicly hated: his long black wig from the first movie.
“There was hatred between both of us,” he told MTV News. “It did not like me, I did not like it. Not fond memories”.
13. Adored: Anna Kendrick
Despite her dislike for the bad weather, Kendrick was thankful for some aspects of the franchise.
She wrote in her memoir, Scrappy Little Nobody: “[the Twilight movies] kept me in room and board while I did (other) movies for no money. It was like the world’s most ridiculous day job.”
Despite starring in Oscar-nominated Up in the Air, cult classic Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and the hugely successful Pitch Perfect, they were not enough to support her. So while Kendrick was trying to make a name for herself outside the Twilight universe, she was able to use the hefty Twilight paycheques to live on.
As she concluded in Scrappy Little Nobody: “I got all the fun [of working on the movies] with none of the consequences.”
12. Regretted: Elizabeth Reaser
Elizabeth Reaser played Esme Cullen for all five movies in the franchise but has spoken out against Twilight.
In particular, she has criticized the more mature female fans who harassed Taylor Lautner throughout the series.
She told Fox News, “Taylor was 16 and still a boy when much older ladies would be asking me about his body. It was just really inappropriate.”
Among the specific incidents that Taylor has gone through, he admitted to being “freaked out” as a 40-year-old female fan struggled to remove her pants so he could sign them.
While obviously this does not represent all of Twilight’s fans, this example would be reason enough for Elizabeth Reaser to disassociate herself with the franchise alone.
11. Adored: Mackenzie Foy
Considering the fact that Breaking Dawn: Part 1 and 2 helped establish this young child actress, it is no wonder that she is grateful to have been a part of the franchise.
The movies helped establish Mackenzie Foy as a talented actress and helped her obtain roles in The Conjuring and Interstellar.
According to an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, playing Renesmee Cullen was “an amazing experience.” Foy went on in the interview to describe Kristen Stewart as “the sweetest person I have ever met” and Robert Pattinson as “funny, silly and I just loved being with him.”
Working with such established actors in a popular franchise appears to have been the best thing for her acting career.
Considering that she is the now star of the upcoming Nutcracker movie, Foy can attribute her success to her role in Twilight.
10. Regretted: Nikki Reed
Nikki Reed will always be Rosalie Hale for many, but she doesn’t want to be recognized as a character from the Twilight movies. Her comments about the films sound like she viewed them as a necessary evil to move further with her career.
When asked by Popcorn Biz magazine if she was sad to move on from the franchise, she stated, “I don’t feel particularly sentimental. I feel like we’re all sort of ready to graduate middle school and move on to whatever the next chapter is.”
She also hinted towards a fallout among the co-stars of Twilight in a Seventeen magazine interview.
Reed claimed that, “in the beginning, it was innocent and fun, and we were like one big happy family.” However, in the same interview she went on to say “And then success comes along and changes the dynamic.”
9. Adored: Jackson Rathbone
If there was an actor who was excited about working within the Twilight universe, it would be Jackson Rathbone. Rathbone is better known as Jasper Hale, the agitated Cullen family member who must resist his urge to harm Bella.
When summarizing to Vanity Fair what he loved about his character, Rathbone was unable to stop listing qualities that he admired.
“He’s a vampire barely able to control himself, but he does it for love. Basically, his nobility and sense of honor. Plus, he’s from Texas,” Rathbone stated.
His description of his co-stars also shines a light on his fun experience with the franchise.
“We were truly like a family on and off set. We would go out to dinner, hang out at the hotel, work out together in the hotel gym, and we even had family sing-a-longs,” he said.
8. Regretted: Kellan Lutz
Emmett Cullen doesn’t have a lot to do in the movies and maybe this annoyed Kellan Lutz, the actor who played him.
Lutz has been extremely public about his distaste for the franchise that he starred in. As he made clear in an interview with Document Journal, “I didn’t like the script… How scary would a glimmering vampire really be? It just doesn’t make sense.”
While he does have the right to criticize the script, which by no means was a masterpiece, Lutz seems to have missed the point if he thought that Twilight was meant to be a horror movie.
Yes, the sparkly vampires have gained a lot of criticism, but the books focus more on the love story between Edward and Bella than on supernatural horror.
7. Adored: Elizabeth Reaser
While Elizabeth Reaser disliked the fans harassment of Taylor Lautner, she seemed to love being a part of the franchise overall.
She loved the character of Esme, even expressing surprise to MTV News that she was chosen to play her. “It’s interesting to me that I get cast as mothers and really maternal, sweet, nice people,”she said.
She also went on to tell MTV News that she appreciates Meyer’s original books, which she read in preparation for playing Esme.
“I think the success of the saga is the books. The books are just beautiful, amazing, great storytelling, and Stephenie is a great writer,” she said.
While authors like Stephen King, who famously stated that Meyer “can’t write worth a darn,” have dismissed the Twilight author’s writing, they ignore that her target audience is young adults.
Reaser recognizes that the series fulfils a certain type of fan.
6. Regretted: Ashley Greene
Alice Cullen is a fan-favourite, and her portrayal by Ashley Greene may be a part of this.
However, Greene has rather dramatically claimed to Wonderwall that “Twilight has ruined me” in regards to her future career and previous friendships.
Greene went on to claim that “It was a hard adjustment to go from zero to 100 in a day. But it was also hard to talk to [friends], because you don’t want to be a jerk.”
While the Twilight movies are responsible for this unwanted attention, this is as much the product of a celebrity status rather than one specific franchise.
However, Greene has only appeared in a handful of movies after Twilight and never entered another franchise. This might not be a coincidence.
5. Adored: Gil Birmingham
Although Gil Birmingham’s Billy Black was not a main character, he was still an extremely important part.
In an interview with Neyom Friday, he stated that the story “speaks to the longing that I think we all have, to love and to wanna be loved.”
Birmingham also notes the similarities between himself and his character, which allowed him to immersive himself in the role.
In regards to representation, Birmingham points out the importance of the Native Americans in Twilight.
He also told Neyom Friday, “the beauty of Stephenie Meyers and her writing and the way she’s integrated the Native Americans into this plot is that the only reason they even transform [into werewolves] is to protect the people and to protect the land, which is one of the major values of the Native culture in general, and always has been”.
4. Regretted: Rachel Lefevre
If there was any cast member of Twilight that had a reason to be upset, it is Rachel Lefevre.
Despite playing Victoria in the first two movies, Lefevre was not asked back to reprise her role in Eclipse. She publicly expressed her surprise in a statement that recorded by MTV News: “I was stunned by Summit’s decision to recast the role of Victoria for Eclipse.”
Part of the reason to recast the role may have been to secure the bigger name of Bryce Dallas Howard.
However, this lack of notice for Lefevre was strange, particularly considering her devotion to the role. “I was happy with my contract with Summit and was fully prepared to continue to honor it. Summit chose simply to recast the part,” she said.
In hindsight, Lefevre appears to have regretted the role of Victoria and holds a grudge against the franchise.
3. Adored: Rami Malek
Another unexpected star who appeared in the Twilight movies is Rami Malek, who played Benjamin, an Egyptian Coven vampire.
Long before Mr. Robot or the upcoming biopic about Freddie Mercury, Bohemian Rhapsody, Breaking Dawn: Part 2 introduced Malek to audiences.
Talking about his time on set filming Breaking Dawn, he stated that “I had a great time” and cited his fellow cast and crew members for making it enjoyable.
The small but vital role could be credited for making him the star he is today.
In interviews, he has noted the intense nature of the fans that Twilight attracts but he does appreciate their support. Though it didn’t allow audiences to see his full acting range, Breaking Dawn was instrumental in Malek’s recent success.
2. Regretted: Stephenie Meyer
Stephenie Meyer is responsible for Twilight, so it was only fitting she had two brief “blink and you’ll miss it” cameos in the movies.
However, of all the people to criticize her series, she would surely be the most unlikely to join the bandwagon. However, she confessed to Variety “I am so over it. For me, it’s not a happy place to be.”
Despite creating the world in which Bella and Edward inhabit, even Meyer seems reluctant to revisit it.
Of course it’s natural for authors to disregard their first novel, but when it’s spanned a fanatical fan base and multi-million dollar movies, it is unusual.
Regarding sequels, Meyer told Variety that she would only ever type “three paragraphs on my blog saying which of the characters [passed away].”
1. Adored: Bryce Dallas Howard
If there was a prize for the biggest Twilight fan in the cast, Bryce Dallas Howard would win it quite easily.
In an interview with The Telegraph, she claims that all her friends asked her “‘Why are you so obsessed?’ I was just like, ‘It’s so dangerous. Their love is so dangerous.’"
However, considering that she was replacing Rachel Lefevre as Victoria, she was understandably nervous.
Howard told The Telegraph, “I felt so lucky to get to meet this group of people. It’s a group of people that have genuine friendships and are so deeply committed to doing justice to these stories, and who always put the character and the story first.”
Howard arguably had the hardest job of any actor in the franchise, as she replaced an established actress. However, her passion for the character ultimately shone through.
Can you think of any other Twilight actors who regretted or adored being in the movies? Sound off in the comments!
