Intervju + scans på Ashley - Esquire México (Nov 2011)
Ashley Greene, “the hottest girl in twilight” and “the most huggable person on earth”:
One time Jodie Foster told me she felt bad for the young Twilight cast, because there’s no time to get used to that amount of success so suddenly. They’re normal kids, and the next day their phones are inundated with phone calls, there’s paparazzi everywhere, and their computers are victims of hackers. My question is – what is it like to go from working at a bowling alley, to being part of a worldwide phenomenon adored by millions and millions of people, and being featured in the lists of the sexiest people alive? I caught up with Ashley at the Chateau Marmont to find that out. I didn’t find a random starlet, but a 24 year old woman that even Jodie Foster herself would’ve loved to hug.
What were you like as a child?
I was rough. My parents would be like “don’t go on the trampoline, or you’ll break something” and I would go for it anyway and break a bone. And I would break the same bone again.
My friend’s brother was 14, I was 10. The difference in size is huge at that age. He jumped, landed on his back, and when he bounced back up his knee hit me in the leg so strongly that it actually broke. He broke my femur, which is the longest, hardest bone to break in a human body. I knew it was broken because I had broken my arm twice before. But it didn’t end there. When my femur was healing, my brother was taking me out on a wheelchair. Baggy pants were in style, so his pants dropped, he let go of my chair to pull them up and I flew across the street. The first thing he said was “Don’t tell mom!” but he broke my femur again and I had to wear a full body cast. Luckily we had insurance, poor mom. I’ve broken my skull twice. One time trying to do a back flip in a pool. Instead of jumping backward I jumped forward, hit my head on the floor, knocked myself unconscious and then fell on the pool. Mom had to jump in and save me. The second time my brother was chasing me around the house. I turned around to see if he was behind me and I smashed my head against a wall. I feel like I shouldn’t tell people these things, they don’t make me sound very smart.
Well, you were lucky nothing worse happened.
I still have the four scars from when I broke my femur. I had to get special nails. I thought maybe I should have them fixed, but I’m okay with who I am.
When did you get your big break?
As the year was ending I got the role of stabbing victim in Crossing Jordan. That’s a hard thing to do as your first job ever. In the scene I’m dating a guy, who stabs me. I didn’t tell my mom I died on the show. She was so angry “You have to tell me if they’re killing my daughter on TV!”. I didn’t think about it, but it must be hard to watch that as a parent.
You did a lot of little roles. How did you get the role in Twilight?
My agent got me an audition for one of the big casting companies. They told me I had to focus. They were not worried with me getting the role; they wanted me to make a good impression so I would get call backs for other projects. They would never want to see me again if I sucked. The description of the character read “17 year old girl” and that’s it. What could I do with that? So I asked for the script and my agent said I couldn’t have it. “So you’re telling me not to blow it but I don’t even have something to work on?”. That’s when she told me it was based on a series of books. I didn’t know Twilight, so I bought the books, read them and read the first in a day and a half. I was obsessed. I had to read the second book. All the girls want to be Bella, and find their Edward. Vampires are alluring. They wanted me to audition for Edward’s sister, Alice. It was my favorite character. She was fun, had a crazy past. I auditioned a few times, I couldn’t think of anything else. And they held back their decision. So my agent called me and said “I’m so sorry…. you’re going to have to cut your hair. You got the role”. I screamed so loud I probably scared everybody. I called my mom. My dad almost cried, he knew how much I wanted the role. A week before going on location my friend told me “this is going to change your life”. We didn’t know exactly what that meant, but soon enough I found out. I started to have fansites. I thought “fansites? But the movie is not even out yet!” The book was already very popular. People loved the characters, so they transferred that love to us.
What did you do after Twilight?
I took a different turn and did The Apparition. It’s a thriller. During one scene I actually lost myself. I was so into the scene that I reacted like the character would. Ashley wasn’t there anymore. It had never happened to me before. I had never connected that emotionally to a character. I was crying on the set. I was proud of that, because guarding yourself comes naturally. Nobody wants to suffer. Making yourself feel real pain is a crazy thing to do. At lunch I asked myself if I was ready to go through that again. It’s horrible but awesome at the same time. Part of me thought: I don’t want to do this again. It hurts so much. And I would cry again. You don’t know how happy I was when it was over. But I’m happy I did it.
CIRCA 1996: IN THE FLORIDA KEYS “This brings back really great memories. My family would take us to the Keys every year. We were in one of these little pop-out homes, and I was just so happy. But, man, look at my hair—it was blonde. You wouldn’t even recognize me. Makes me miss Florida.”
2008: ON A MODEL VISIT AT ALLURE “Wait, was this when I used to model? Oh, wow. My fashion sense has certainly evolved. Man, I’m a hot mess. I look so young. I’m sure I thought that was cool at the time.”
2008: WITH JACKSON RATHBONE, KELLAN LUTZ, NIKKI REED, AND ROBERT PATTINSON IN TWILIGHT “Especially with the male [characters] and teenage girls…they go gaga. Absolutely crazy. With the female characters, you have a fan base. They want to be your best friend. With [Pattinson], they want a lock of hair.”
2009: WITH KELLAN LUTZ AT A PARTY IN LAS VEGAS “Kellan and I have been best friends since before Twilight.People used to say, ‘Oh, you have to be romantically involved, you have to be.’ But now I think they really get it.
2010: IN A SOBE AD “Oh, sorry, Dad. Um, yes, they basically painted on a skin suit. Anything that is not with a teddy bear, I think he has a hard time seeing because he still sees me as his little girl. This is something that I definitely thought about. It ended up being such a blast, but I will say that that thing took 12 hours to paint on.”>
2010: WITH NICK JONAS AT THE YOUNG HOLLYWOOD AWARDS IN LOS ANGELES “They put us together, and we didn’t know each other. This was pre-anything [with Joe].”
2010: WITH MILEY CYRUS IN PARIS “This was the first time I’d been to Paris. She’s supersweet. We’re friends. We don’t hang out on a daily basis, but everyone in the film [LOL] was really young. So we all kind of hung out and ran around Paris.”
2011: WITH JOE JONAS IN LAS VEGAS “This is my second birthday in Vegas, and for whatever reason, I wanted it to be Candy Land–themed. They did this cake, and it was all edible—a Candy Land cake. It was a huge party with super-really-good friends, and it was a fun, fun time.”
2011: WITH JACKSON RATHBONE IN VANCOUVER “We are buddies. Actually, I think this is the picture that sparked all the rumors that we were dating. That rumor has since killed itself, because everyone was like, ‘They’ve been doing movies together for five years.’”
2011: AT THE COSTUME INSTITUTE BALL AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART IN NEW YORK CITY> “I felt like a princess. It was a Donna Karan dress that she specifically made for me. I had a blast. I was beside myself.”
2011: WITH KRISTEN STEWART IN THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 1 “My hair’s better, right? [Laughs] This picture is of Alice and Bella getting ready for a wedding, which is of course a huge, fun thing for Alice; not so much for Bella. It was a little bit awkward, because I was putting makeup on for her, but I had to look straight forward. I’m actually really good at putting on my own makeup, and my girlfriends always ask me to do theirs. I’ve worked with so many makeup artists that I pick up things. But that doesn’t mean I can do someone else’s face. I always get nervous because I’m like, ‘I don’t want to mess with your face!’”
2011: WITH SEBASTIAN STAN IN THE APPARITION “I’m pretty sure if they could have put me in lingerie in every scene, they would have. I went to the battlefield, saying, ‘Give me a reason why this girl would run around naked all the time.’ No one does that. [My character was] basically
