The men of Twilight

Team Edward. Team Jacob.
They're the characters that have split female audiences into teams and helped feed the frenzy of Twihards around the world. For Robert Pattinson, 25, and Taylor Lautner, 19, they're the characters that made them Hollywood heart throbs. But it's the beginning of the end for the male portion of the Twilight love triangle. The second last film in the billion dollar franchise, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1, is released next week and marks one year until the whole phenomenon is over.

Directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Bill Condon, this instalment features some of the most anticipated scenes for lovers of Stephenie Meyer's best-selling book series. From the wedding of Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Pattinson) to werewolf pack rivalries, Lautner says he sympathises with fans as it was too hard to pick a single favourite moment.
“I've always been able to choose one out of each of the movies every single time, but this one I couldn't,'' he says.
“There's so much going on in this movie and all of the characters are dealing with their own little things.
“Especially Jacob. He changes so much from beginning to end.'' The Breaking Dawn films, parts 1 and 2, see Lautner's Jacob Black go through perhaps the biggest transformations of any of the Twilight characters. This, Lautner says, was "exciting'' to bring to the big screen.
“The most interesting thing about Jacob in this movie is from the beginning to the end he becomes a totally different person,'' he says.
“At the start he's immature, he doesn't handle situations very well. Throughout the course (of it) he's forced to become a man, to mature.''

The final two halves of The Twilight Saga certainly deal with more adult issues than their predecessors. With everything from sex scenes to a bloody birth, there was a lot for its stars to be nervous about. For Lautner the most “challenging'' aspect was trying to portray the connection he has with Bella and Edward's child.
“I was pretty nervous about imprinting,'' he says.
“I was given an X on the wall to look at and pretend it was the baby and I thought `there isn't an ideal scenario here'.
“I had to walk into the room on the verge of killing this baby and then stop and imprint, whatever that means.
“I spent a lot of time talking to Bill (Condon) and Stephenie (Meyer) going `what exactly does imprinting look like?''

Pattinson was nervous for entirely different reasons.
“Embarrassingly the thing I was most nervous about was taking my shirt off,'' he says.
“So much of the books are about Edward's body and I managed to avoid that for most of the movies. But in Breaking Dawn it's like every three pages.
“When they wanted me to go swimming (on the honeymoon) I was like `can I keep my shirt on? Can I wear a onesie or something?'' Adored as much for their abs as their acting, female fans of the series - Twihards and Twi-mums - have been known to get a touch hysterical over Pattinson and Lautner. Despite the sometimes mania, Pattinson says he's “not creeped out at all by it''.
“To be creeped out by it you'd have to be creeped out by all women in general. I'm not at all,'' he says.
“Different folks, different strokes I guess.''
“We love our Twi-mums,'' adds Lautner.

Filmed back to back, shooting wrapped on the Breaking Dawn films more than 12 months ago for Pattinson and Lautner. After developing close relationships with the cast and crew over the four yearss working on the franchise, Lautner said “it was sad'' to call it a day. The good news is The Twilight Saga might not be staked in the heart just yet. With the Bree Tanner spin-off novella published last year, speculation is rife Meyer will continue the series at some point. Unable to add any truth to the rumour, Pattinson says he would be happy to return to the role at a later date but “it's up to Stephenie (Meyer) really.''
Condon adds; “She (Meyer) always says it's the end of the Bella and Edward story. But there are so many characters I suspect she'll want to revisit them.''

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 opens on Thursday, November 18. Stay tuned for my feature with Kristen Stewart, Bill Condon and Pattinson next week.