In a recent interview with Noel Fisher (aka Vladimir/Romanian Coven) with Rebecca Murray with About.com, Noel talked about filming Breaking Dawn!
I know you’re not allowed to say much about Breaking Dawn, but have you shot your scenes yet?
Noel Fisher: “Yes, actually. I’m back in Los Angeles because I have a two week break. We are done with the Louisiana portion – we’re all done with that. The biggest part of my character stuff is done. We have some more stuff; I get to go back home to Vancouver for the first time to work. That will be kind of fun – it’s a nice way to go back home. So, we’re going to go up and shoot a couple more things up there. That’s been a lot of fun. Everyone’s really cool.”
The returning cast all know each other well, but there’s a huge group of new actors for Breaking Dawn. How are you being accepted by the veterans?
Noel Fisher: “Oh, completely. Completely. That’s the really nice thing about that set is that everyone is really inviting. You hang out with anyone that happens to be on the set with you at work, you get advice some of the veteran Volturi, you know what I mean? It’s just a big hang out. We took over the Hilton in Baton Rouge downtown. It was literally like 60 or 70 people all staying at this one hotel. It was just a big frat room.”
More of Noel’s interview after the break!
What advice did they give you?
Noel Fisher: “Like where the coolest places to go are for, say, conventions. You know, because a lot of them have gotten to do some great traveling, they’ve traveled the world to visit all these wonderful fans all over the place. Just cool things to do in different cities. They’ve been part of this whole kind of really big world that the Twilight phenomenon is and they just wanted to welcome the newcomers and say, ‘Hey, here are some of the things that you might want to check out while you’re here.’”
I would imagine that of all your roles, this is the one that’ll be the most scrutinized and talked about because of Twilight‘s huge fan base. How are you handling that pressure?
Noel Fisher: “Well, I approach it as kind of any other part, you know? It is definitely a different level of exposure, but really I try and concern myself with the stuff that I’m responsible for. I think that if I can bring a very cool character…I was fortunate enough to get cast as a very cool character and I get to really bring a lot that I don’t think has been seen yet. So I think that if I do that, my job, that the rest kind of takes care of itself.”
Is it tough to get into the mindset of an extremely powerful vampire? How do you find that within yourself to play?
Noel Fisher: “You know what’s really funny is actually the lenses help a lot. The lenses help quite a lot because you see yourself in the mirror and you just kind of feel very vampirish.”
Without fangs, is it harder to imagine yourself as a vampire? Did you question Stephenie Meyer’s choice of creating vampires without fangs?
Noel Fisher: “No. I think it is very interesting specifically because the vampires in Stephenie’s world are so different from the other vampires that we’ve seen. You do get the wardrobe, which is really amazing for everyone. All the newcomers look really cool, and all the veterans have always looked cool so they just kind of continued that trend. They let us look really cool, so you get in your outfit, you have your makeup and your hair done and your eyes in, and you feel it. You definitely feel it. Just like with Battle: Los Angeles, you really feel it when you put on all this gear and you’re walking around with an M4, and that make you feel like a Marine.”
Did you get more of a backstory on Vladimir? Did you get any notes from Stephenie Meyer that include info we didn’t learn in the book?
Noel Fisher: “I had a sit-down with Bill Condon, but no. It’s kind of like you just want to make sure that you’ve read the book – or at least I did. I wanted to make sure that I read the book and that I knew anything. I also did a little bit of online searching. One of the great things is that there’s so many [sites], this big world that you get to explore online. All these other people have done all this research and know all these things, and have spent a lot of time. You Google ‘Vladimir’ and a bunch of stuff’s going to come up, and you get to have the backstory.”
I would imagine the books are not something you would have read had you not been involved in the film. Is that true, or are you into vampires?
Noel Fisher: “I hadn’t read them. My mother’s actually a librarian so I had heard about them before, but I hadn’t had a lot of time to do a lot of reading. But, no, I had watched all the movies and then this one is the one that I really made sure I read the book and really got as deep into it as I could.”
Did you do anything special to bond with the actor who plays Stefan?
Noel Fisher: “Well, fortunately for me, Guri Weinberg plays Stefan and we have actually just a really natural kind of friendship that just kind of came right at our first meeting. So that really helped. We actually just got along.”
Did you go through any of the auditions together or did you just get thrown together when you got to the set?
Noel Fisher: “Thrown together when we got to set during the makeup and hair test. But it was one of those really nice things where you meet somebody and you just naturally really click. We have a similar sense of humor and we like to kind of bug each other and mess around on set. It’s really fun.”
So does it follow the book where you finish each other’s sentences?
Noel Fisher: [Laughing] “We’re not quite there. Give us a couple of years.”
Are you ready for the PR tour? It’s going to be crazy.
Noel Fisher: “Yeah. I enjoy PR. You know, I like meeting people who are excited about the projects that I’m in because I’m excited about the projects I’m in. I love to get to talk about them. So, yeah, I’m excited for all of it.”
Director Bill Condon isn’t known for this sort of movie. How do you think he handled the action scenes?
Noel Fisher: “I think he handled them very well. The stuff that I’ve seen…unfortunately I haven’t gotten to see the action sequence stuff, but I’ve heard that – the rumor mill on set is that it looks amazing. No, correct that. I did get to see one of my fight sequences. They’re really, really…I think it’s going to be very cool.”
[Note: Fisher returned to the subject to clarify what he's seen] “The stuff that I got to see, my footage on Twilight, it’s not too much a fight scene. It’s just kind of like a cool…there’s some cool visual effects stuff that they’re telling me what they’re going to do with.”
Does it closely follow the book?
Noel Fisher: “Yes, it does. Absolutely.”
So that means we’ll hear Jacob Black [Taylor Lautner] call you Dracula #1?
Noel Fisher: [Laughing] “Can’t tell you that!”
I had to try.
Noel Fisher: “Absolutely.”
Oh PLEASE let Taylor say Dracula One in Breaking Dawn ! I thought that was funny! Great interview with Noel! Can’t wait to see him as Vladimir! Creeptacular!
