Nearly 20 years after the Twilight saga kicked off in theaters, more lore behind the uber-popular film franchise is still emerging.
Peter Facinelli recently revealed what his character, Carlisle Cullen, whispered into the ear of his soon-to-be adoptive son, Edward (Robert Pattinson), just before he delivers the bite that turns him into a vampire.
“I leaned in the first time, on the first take, and said, ‘I’m sorry.’ ‘Cause I felt like Carlisle didn’t really ask for permission — you should always ask for permission,” Facinelli told the crowd on Feb. 8 at MEGACON Orlando, during a Twilight panel featuring costars Ashley Greene, Kellan Lutz, and Jackson Rathbone. On the next take, Facinelli switched up his delivery to catch Pattinson off guard.
“On the second take, I leaned in and said, ‘Rob, you’re so handsome, and then he smiled a little bit. And that’s the take that’s in the movie,” Facinelli explained.
Pattinson’s Edward has already been a full-fledged vampire for decades by the time the main storyline that comprises the Twilight saga picks up. But the first film features a flashback to show how and why the kindly Carlisle makes the drastic decision to turn Edward from human to vampire. Edward was languishing in a hospital bed with a fatal case of the 1918 Spanish flu, and Carlisle transformed Edward into an immortal bloodsucker to save his life.
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Facinelli played the Cullen clan leader in all five films in the Twilight franchise. He previously discussed nearly missing out on the chance to play Carlisle in 2021, explaining that despite a great audition with director Catherine Hardwicke, the casting team offered the part to someone else. Facinelli decided to send Hardwicke a book on the film history of the vampire with a note that read “‘Hey, sorry it didn’t work out. Hopefully, we’ll work together on something else. Hope this inspires you to make a great vampire movie.'”
“Little did I know that the actor that fell out, on the same day that he fell out, she got my book,” Facinelli continued. “So the producers were like he can’t do it, either his deal fell through or maybe he got another job or something, and they said who do you want to go to next? And she was like, ‘I don’t know, what about Peter Facinelli?’ So I always joke with Catherine that I bought that role for $29.99.”
Pattinson was not present at the MEGACON Twilight panel and isn’t likely to attend any similar event anytime soon. Since the Twilight saga concluded with Breaking Dawn: Part 2 in 2012, Pattinson has made his aversion to the series well known.
“I love that people keep telling me, ‘Man, Twilight ruined the vampire genre,'” he said in an interview last month. “Are you still stuck on that s—? How can you be sad about something that happened almost 20 years ago? It’s crazy.”