Twilight’s Wolves Chat About Latest Flick

I’m sure all the Twi-hards here care WAY more about the werewolves of Twilight than the vampires, which is why I bring you an interview featuring two members of the wolf pack – Gil Birmingham and Tinsel Korey. As I’m sure you all know, Gil plays the role of Billy, Jacob’s father, and  Tinsel is Emily, Sam’s scarred fiancée. Yes, I know, Billy and Emily are both humans, but in spite of that they are still part of the La Push pack. That said, check out this interview where they chat about Breaking Dawn and more!

What was your experience on set for Breaking Dawn Part 1?
Gil: It was like old family getting together. This is the fourth movie for me. Of course security is much more heightened. The expectation is probably about the same. I think it’s familiar ground and being able to share this with the only other people that understand what it really feels like.

Tinsel: I don’t even think we [points to Gil] even had a scene together. My scene was on the beach. Originally Gil was supposed to be in that scene but they were like “How does he get his wheelchair down in the sand?” so that wasn’t going to work [laughs]. The traveling with everybody, and that last road trip- it was beautiful sendoff for my last film in the franchise.

Do you have a favorite scene in Breaking Dawn?
Tinsel: It’s when they’re doing the toast at the wedding. I wasn’t expecting there to be humor in Breaking Dawn, but there’s a lot of it and you get to see that in the toast. Especially when Charlie is addressing Bella. That whole part of the movie was hilarious.

Gil: Doing take after take at the beginning of the movie when Jacob takes his shirt off in the rain. He’s got the wedding invitation and is finding out that Bella’s going to go through with it. That was fun.

Tinsel: But it made it on the trailer. Now you’re famous

GB: The wedding was pretty special. It was a little bit of the last hoorah. Having all the actors there in one of the biggest most anticipated scenes for a lot of the fans. It was good spending a week doing that and seeing how it turned out.

Not only has the Twilight series been a different look at vampires, it’s been a different take on werewolves too. Especially the cultural aspect they put into the film.
Gil: That was my favorite part. They tied it into them being heroes. It wasn’t a gratuitous thing to be this transforming monster. They didn’t make them as monsters, they made them protectors of the land. It was a great way to honor the culture in a supernatural kind of way.

Tinsel: They’re kind of not really werewolves. I always struggle with that term for the wolfpack. They’re shape-shifters who turn into actual wolves. That’s a completely different take on that genre.

Read the full interview HERE.

What do you think of what they had to say? What is your favorite scene from Breaking Dawn – Part 1? Do you think of the pack as werewolves? I do. I know Meyer calls them shapeshifters, but the way I see it is that they transform into wolves and just wolves, that’s close enough to werewolf for me.

– Moonlight

About the Author
Moonlight loves to write about, read about and learn about everything pertaining to werewolves and other supernatural beasties. She writes for top genre sites like Vampires.com and Werewolves.com. You will most likely find her huddled over a book of folklore with coffee in hand. Touch her coffee and you may lose a limb. You can stalk her via her Twitter.

 

By moonlight

One of the writers for werewolves.com, as well as vampires.com.

2 comments

  1. Wow with these werewolf comments Birmingham and especially Corey definitely revealed their ignorance towards the topic of werewolves.
    And Twilight movieas aren’t traditional movies? In what way actually? Makes me wonder whether these two actors actually know about the subject (yes I read the interview in the link)

    But first to you:
    Thanks for sharing this, while its frustrating that the topic gets so misrepresented it is good to know that it is still happening.
    And on the bright side these werewolves don’t have to be “close enough to werewolf” for you. I can quarantee you that they are. Despite Meyer’s claims to the contrary the Quileute are closer to folkloric werewolves than her Children of the Moon are. Only Elliot O’Donnel mentioned one case of an actual wolf-men looking like the modern concept of the “typical” werewolf, apart from that all cases prior to movie industrie I know off and included a wolf-men where either dog-headed people or canine headed phantoms.
    And when considered Meyers Guide book (which just shows how flat the characters are) those Moon slaves look rather like the werewolves in Ginger Snaps than the Quileute.
    But back to actual folklore. In many cases the wolf-forms of the werewolves were described as huge (not a very specific term I know) and Wilhelm Hertz had one case in his book “Der Werwolf” (he was the pioneer on the subject even before Gould even started) where the werewolf in wolf form was described as “big as the biggest horse.” And in addition some traditions did depict werewolves as protectors, a clear minorityn for sure but they existed (and no not the Benandanti, they didn’t change their souls into wolves).
    So basically Meyer unknowingly did create actual werewolves. And it is definitely fitting since they only have human and wolf shapes. To simply call them shapeshifters and not specifically werewolves would only be justified if they could transform into other beings as well.

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