Exclusive interview with a vampire: Up close and personal with Kellan Lutz

September 22, 7:27 AMTwilight Parents ExaminerKimberly Sherman

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In part one of my two part interview with Kellan Lutz, we spoke about the fans and enduring the endless paparazzi. Today, readers will glean a true sense of Kellan’s dedication to the Twilight Saga and his playful personality. Enjoy.

Combine a farm boy work ethic with a cutting edge intellect, then intersperse a savvy sense of the Hollywood scene, and you have a young man rich in the ways of life, but bright-eyed and ready to take on the world.

The chiseled physique of Kellan Lutz immediately draws in the eye. His background as an Abercrombie and Fitch model comes of no surprise; his exotic look and playful, yet Mephistophelian glint in his eyes implies a possible clannish, clubby decorum.

Yet nothing could be further from the truth. A free spirit, Kellan’s boyish, playful nature and willingness to speak to me and put his life on a platter for fans to snack on is endearing, bold, and insightful:

About being a free spirit:
I just love what I do. I found myself going on this one path becoming a chemical engineer making $60,000 a year- it was a respectable job. But my personality needs more. The rush of having an audition or becoming another character was awesome. But thank God that He was there shooing me in the right direction. He just kept me safe, and I know I put my mom through some stressful times.

That’s why I wear a white bracelet on left wrist. It's my freedom bracelet. It’s finally my life and I get to do what I want to do, and it reminds me where I came from. I’m in it for the right reasons. I don’t care to be famous; I don’t care to be in the tabloids. I just love to act. I enjoy it so much. It’s just my favorite hobby that I’ve unlocked inside of myself, and I’d love to do it for the rest of my life.

About his favorite project:
My oldest brother’s in the marine corps, now for 10 years, in Iraq, and we retold the story of Generation Kill for HBO, which is based on the 2003 Iraqi invasion. It’s the story of these marines who went in there and killed all these people and no one died out of the whole recon division. It’s based on a true story. It’s such a reality check that we got to show the world through HBO’s eyes. It was really challenging, and I grew so many years in maturity. It was seven months living in Africa, and I saw parts of the world that I was so ignorant about. But once I got there, I fell in love with Capetown. I’ve never been somewhere where the land, the earth gave you energy before. I felt so alive there. And I have friends for life now, from all around the world.

(Generation Kill is a seven part mini-series available on Amazon.com, at Blockbuster, or on HBO)

About staying in shape- both at home and on the set of Eclipse:
I like to box. I have a boxing area in the back yard with a couple of bags and I like to see my boxing coach when I’m in town. I have a pool in my back yard. I love to swim; I grew up swimming. I just love it; it’s the best exercise. I hate running but I’ll take my dog for a walk or we’ll go climbing boulders she has so much energy and that’s why I love her, because she pushes me and I push her.

When we’re up here (Vancouver) I’ve been gaining weight and lifting really heavy. We do fight training every other day that consists of jujitsu, kung fu, boxing, and kickboxing- just mixed martial arts to really prepare for our fight sequences. It’s intense. I’ve never had the small muscles that hold the big muscles so sore before.

About the Twilight Saga directors:
Catherine Hardwick- She was really energetic and wild and crazy in a good way, because I’m that way too. It was really fun working with her because she just had an energy that was really fun to have in a director because then you don’t get sluggish and down.

Chris Weitz- He was really calm and really had everything planned out. Every time we had a question, he had an answer. Every day we went on set it was really easy; you didn’t even have to work at all.

David Slade- This is an action movie, so it’s nice to have him and his team make it a manly movie that’s really action packed. With his insight and making it gritty from Hard Candy and 30 Days of Night with the action packed vampires, it's looking great.

About being snapped by the paparazzi driving a mini-van:
I did that on purpose- my family was in town, and I like taking my family to the stuff I get invited to so they can have a taste of the cake that is my life, in a way. So I didn’t care, I was like, let’s take the van. I hopped in the driver’s seat because I wanted to be photographed in it. We thought it was kind of funny- so we blasted the rap music.

Because if you can’t joke and have a good time… the paparazzi’s always going to be there, so you can either hide from them and not have a life, or you can have fun with it. If I go out into Hollywood, I know it’s a part of the territory. When I’m at home, though, I’ll go up to them and ask them not to shoot my house and to at least have the decency of that.

About Rob and the paparazzi:
There’s no way I could be doing what I do now if I were Edward. Its such hard shoes to fill compared to the fans who fell in love with Bella and Edward in the book series because they ARE the book in a way, and then you add in Jacob. For every million fans we have, they have 10 times. It’s just a different world. And like hanging out with Rob, it’s tough to see what he has to go through. It’s really tough for him because you can’t put a price on your life, your freedom, your happiness, and it’s gonna go on for a couple of years. It’s tough when you can’t even leave your hotel room to go get a coffee.

True to “Emmett” form, Kellan loves the feeling of being the big brother, and believes he has such an opportunity and responsibility as an actor to focus efforts into charity works. He quickly spews charities close to his heart including the Boys and Girls Club, Habitat for Humanity, the Blind Project, Invisible Children, and, thanks to his love for animals, the Humane Society.

Says Kellan wholeheartedly:

I believe if you walk down the street and just give someone a smile or say hey, you look great, just one little encouraging word can change a whole day, or a whole life.
 

 Be sure to read about Kellan's insight into the lack of privacy the actors have in the first part of my interview with him!

Photos: Summit Entertainment

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