Really Endless Love: Kristen Stewart, Nikki Reed on 'Twilight'

MILLIONS WILL RUSH to theaters come midnight Friday, sporting "Mrs. Cullen" T-shirts, fake fangs, and with tickets in hand.

"Twilight" is the first in Stephenie Meyer's four-part book series about forbidden love between small-town girl Bella Swan and sexy vampire Edward Cullen. It's also, now, a film, which has generated a fan base so fervid -- and with such high expectations -- that the studio is hedging its bets by sending out the film's stars to enchant the story's acolytes.

Last Thursday, Kristen Stewart and Nikki Reed, who play Bella and the vampire Rosalie, respectively, seemed ready to face the frenzy of 500 fans at Fairfax's Fair Oaks Shopping Center. (Stewart's co-star, Robert Pattinson, who plays the dreamy Cullen, stopped at a California Hot Topic last week; the subsequent mayhem left four people with minor injuries.)

Already, the two have had their personal share of overexcited fans.

"I was in Rome and literally dragged out of a bookstore by security and thrown into the back of a van. Literally, thrown," said Stewart. "The van was rocking, and that is a problem. Crowds of people can be quite scary."

With all that attention and ticket pre-sales soaring, the "Twilight" movie cast has felt pressure, particularly Stewart and Pattinson as the beacons of the film and a popular love story's central couple.

"There's a lot of hype, and people have really high expectations," said Reed. "We want people to enjoy it and feel satisfied with it."

Telling the "tall love story," as Stewart calls it, has proven difficult. Talk of additional scenes not in the book has spurred some negative talk among fans. To that, Reed and Stewart say the movie is not the book.

"We did re-shoots and additional scenes where [we] felt like the vampires didn't have enough history," said Reed. "Otherwise, we just feel too modern and that's the opposite of what the characters represent."

"They were very quick flashes and very subjective," said Stewart. "Some scenes from the book have been combined or dialogue is moved, but it's all essentially the same thing."
The two are used to vindicating their movie against naysayers and as avid readers of the book series, Reed and Stewart stand behind their work.

"Changes needed to be made," said Stewart. "But I feel like everybody that's read the book and all the girls that love the book would probably approve."

» Want more vamps? Find out where else you can find 'em in the next year.

Written by Express contributor Adaora Otiji
Photo courtesy Summit Entertainment