She plays Rosalie, the icy, pale-skinned sister of Edward Cullen. For many of you, that's enough. You know whom we're talking about: Nikki Reed.
She's the beautiful, dark-haired actress who portrays a beautiful, blond vampire in the Twilight movies. The second in the series, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, opened Friday amid a promotional barrage that put Twilight candy on the checkout counter at Blockbuster and Twilight puzzles, CDs and trading cards in the checkout line at Barnes & Noble.
The Twilight phenomenon works both ways with Reed, a 21-year-old with more on her mind than being a movie star. She didn't set out to be an actress. She co-wrote the searing film Thirteen when she was 13 and 14 — based on her own wild life in middle school — and starred in it only because “they couldn't find anyone for the part,” she said after its release in 2003.
Reed said she's fascinated by the Twilight phenomenon and the world of vampire love that Stephenie Meyer created.
“But I certainly don't see me in front of the camera my entire life. I don't think I'm really cut out for this,” Reed said. “I enjoy the creative process but not the paparazzi and gossip boards and tabloids and things like that. I think after the Twilight experience that I'm going to go in a different direction.”
That will probably involve more writing and possibly directing, she says, but first she must navigate this fictional world of vampires and werewolves that has, at times, become too real for her. Seventeen magazine recently quoted her as saying: “It got really overwhelming when we wrapped the second film. Having people wait outside of my house sort of gives me a panic attack.”
Last summer, even before the first Twilight film was released in November, she would walk outside, she says, and people would yell, “Rosalie!”
Although Reed is dark and tan, Rosalie is pale and blond. That's because Rosalie was born a human but turned into a vampire and adopted into the Cullen family. Her vampire brother Edward, played by Robert Pattinson, is the main reason Twilight is such a sensation, especially with teenage girls. He fills the screen with an intensity and sexiness reminiscent of James Dean or a young Marlon Brando.
Girls rule fan base
“Our foundation is female dominated, so it must be Edward's appeal,” Reed said when asked to explain the phenomenon. “But I think it goes beyond that. It's a love story, sort of a careless love, like when you're young and in love, and you're willing to give up virtually anything for somebody.
“The older we get we realize that's unhealthy, and so we stop doing it. We're not willing to give up our family, our soul, our lives for somebody else. But when you're young none of that matters.”
The love story involves Edward, the vampire, and Bella, the mortal, played by Kristen Stewart. You can imagine what kind of problems that involves. Well, maybe you can't. Just know that in New Moon Edward leaves Bella to protect her, and Bella's gentle friend and werewolf, Jacob Black, played by Taylor Lautner, tries to win her heart.
Even though there is less of the Cullen family in this second movie, and thus less of Reed, she has an opinion about which man, er, vampire or werewolf, Bella should choose.
“I'm the only one of the cast members that's Team Jacob,” she was quoted as saying in Seventeen. “And that's because I feel like a bit older than everybody else, and I feel like part of being a kid is having the mentality that Bella has with Edward. ... She's consumed by him. And for me, that's never been healthy.
“I really do take these books seriously. I look at them as being very metaphorical, and for me, Jacob is the right one for her. He's her friend, he loves her unconditionally, and she doesn't have to sacrifice anything for him. Relationships are, of course, about compromise, but I don't think they're about giving up a part of your life for somebody.”
Reed feels “a bit older” because she grew up in a broken home and became rebellious in middle school in Los Angeles. “I grew up fast,” she said. “I didn't have much of a childhood.”
Catherine Hardwicke, a family friend and aspiring director, suggested that Reed write down what she was going through. That became the script for Thirteen, in which the character based on Reed experiments with sex and drugs, gets her tongue and belly button pierced, and cuts herself. In the movie, Reed doesn't play that girl. She plays the older, cooler girl whom the younger girl emulates.
Acting debut
Thirteen was Reed's acting debut and Hardwicke's directorial debut. They worked together again in Lords of Dogtown, released in 2005, in which Reed, again, plays a sexually promiscuous teenager. Hardwicke also directed Twilight.
What appealed to the brunet Reed about portraying a blond vampire?
“Initially the opportunity to change myself physically, to make such a drastic change, was incredibly appealing,” she said. “It's very appealing when somebody says that we want you to play a pale, tall, gorgeous blonde. It doesn't get much deeper than that.”
It took 36 hours, initially, to make the transition, she says.
“And every other day I was bleaching my head and my skin,” she said in a video interview with mtv.com. “And so this time around we're testing out different wigs and stuff, because it was really such a brutal process.
“I don't know how upset everyone's going to be. That's why I did it initially. I really wanted the fans to understand that I was dedicated, and I was going to do whatever I needed to do, even at the expense of my hair falling out.”
