Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Sarah Clarke talks about Kristen and 'Breaking Dawn'



As the final countdown begins, Popstar sat down for a chat with actress Sarah Clarke who portrays Bella's enigmatic (if not always present) mother Renee Dwyer.  During this exclusive interview, Sarah talks about Breaking Dawn I (2011) and delves into her character, offering fans new insight into Renee's complex relationship with her daughter.   She also gives us her take on what makes this installment in the Twilight Saga different from it's predecessors, and reveals the one major cast member she has yet to meet. 

Tell us about playing Bella's mother.

It's such a weird role {laughs}.  An enigmatic one for me, because when reading the books I was like, "Where's the mom? What is she doing?" Bill and I had a great time with Kristen sort of figuring out the relationship, especially with the wedding and how it brings up all the old bonds that never really go away.

I definitely had to make my peace with the kind of mother that I am as Renee because I would be just a lot more involved {laughs}.  So it was a very interesting discussion that Kristen and I ended up having in terms of the role reversal in our relationship.

In light of the storyline that includes Bella's marriage and pregnancy in the film, will we finally see more of you onscreen?

Oh yea.  We have some great scenes.  I do get to come to the wedding, so I get to have a lot of those conversations that I was hoping would happen.  And they do happen.  Bill was such a firm believer that we have to believe that this mother was real - that there really is some connection that grounds her in reality because that makes the transition that much harder for her.  It can't be just about the dad and his inability to communicate, you know?  It definitely brings for Renee this idea of a full circle to her own marriage and her own reasons for getting married quickly, and then sort of abandoning my family.  None of that really comes out, per se, in the story lines but it's something that resonates through Renee at the wedding and in what her daughter is embarking on.

Did You Get to do scenes with more of the cast this time around?

I did.  I got to meet all the characters, finally.  It's so funny because I knew Peter Facinelli from a previous project and I saw him during the first movie because I was rehearsing when they were rehearsing, but then I never got to see anybody again except Billy {laughs}.  Billy Burke, Robert Pattinson, and Kristen Stewart were sort of like my understanding of the movie.  I still have yet to meet Taylor Lautner.  I haven't come across him, even though I met all the other werewolves.  Isn't that funny? But that's how big this cast is.  I got to know some of the vampires really well - some that I don't have scenes with.  It's funny the people I did become close with while shooting that I never even got to work with.

Tell us something about Renee that even the most dedicated Twi-hards may not know.

Well probably the back story that we created that didn't really make it in, but it helps forge the friendship and the relationship.  I think the reason I have such a lenient, or shall we say "hands-off" approach as a mother, is my own back story as to how I went off and became a mother so quickly.  We got pregnant really quickly, decided to elope.  I just left my whole life and decided to follow him (Charlie Swan) to Forks and then was miserable there.  I thought it would all work out and I loved my daughter, I just couldn't take his quiet and being isolated, basically.  Because I sort of forced her to take on my way of life and breaking up The Family by leaving him, I think there was a part of me that when she turned 18 I had to let her follow her heart and only let me in when she wanted to.  Because I see myself in her, I know that she's gotta figure this out for herself and I've given her the tools to do that.

What's crazy is what then ensues, and I just wish that Stephenie Meyer had written more for me after the wedding because that's the time that I think it would have been so interesting as a mother.  I'm speculating here, but I just don't think Stephenie knew how to reconcile that, because I think any mother would have been like, "You're coming home with me."  So that's the only disappointment that I had was that Stephenie didn't rise to that challenge to say "This would be really interesting as to how to convince the mom that everything is OK, and that she's OK with it."  It probably was too complicated.

Is there anything interesting or funny that happened during filming that you'd like to share?

I will say that when we were in Squamish, this remotely beautiful location where the wedding scene is, it rained probably every day except for the day of the wedding.  We were like "How are they going to make this wedding look pretty when everything is drenched?"  And they did pull it off.  But I was laughing one night because of course they dressed us as if it was summer, it's a summer night, and for whatever reason they decided they need to have a tent.  They really wanted to make it outdoors.  So they had all these tarps and things, but it was just so loud from the rain.  And you're literally sitting at the dinner table at the reception and there's like a waterfall next to you from the tarp.  You're soaking wet.  The candles aren't staying lit.  They're coming to put a coat on you between takes because it's freezing.  The power went out a couple of times, the wind generator died a couple of times.  There was a cougar that came onto the set one day.  We were in the woods, so it was like Squamish didn't care that we were shooting a movie {laughs}.

But in the end, from the footage I did see, they still managed to extricate all the unsightly things and make it beautiful.  It will be exciting to see it.

So making movies is not always so glamorous then.  Is that what you're trying to say?{laughs}.

It's so not! {laughs}.  You would have been laughing at how people were coping with this.  Even the makeup and the contacts and everything.  I know the vampires have tons of stories of when they were shooting the fight sequences.  They had to be in the fake snow and it was always getting into people's eyes.  The contacts were a big issue with having to wear them day in and day out with all the dust and different things.  I think it was really tough at times.  But luckily, Renee being human, didn't have to suffer those indignities {laughs}.

Is there anything about Breaking Dawn Part I (2011) that is fundamentally unique from the other Twilight Saga films?

I think it's that you do get to see all the different characters together under one roof.  That in itself is exciting in how it all plays out.

What has been the best part of being part of the Twilight phenomenon?

It is a phenomenon and I would have to say just getting to work with these people.  I enjoy Kristen and I was really happy I got to play her mom.  I feel such an affinity for her and I really like her a lot, and Rob as well.  Working with all the directors.  Just to watch something on this scale unfold and to watch the progression of it from the first movie (which you would have thought was an independent film the way we were shooting it), to the way it was by the end.  It really did have a grand scale to it, and that doesn't come around very often.



For the full interview click here at the source: Popstar
Via: @KStewDevotee - Thank You!

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