onsdag 2 maj 2012

Guri Weinberg Talks About Breaking Dawn, Fans And Stephenie Meyer

Where have I been? I ask myself this question every day, recently. At the risk of sounding unnecessarily dramatic, I have been involved in the longest, most challenging, scariest project I have ever undertaken. I have sacrificed and sweated and agonized - for good reason. Most of the folks involved are above my pay grade. And it's been a secret. Soon, I will return to "TwiMadness' with a vengeance…for now, just another blog post about my nutty Twilight experiences.

I get asked 3 questions all the time. Hard as it may be to believe, I have a few anecdotes in reply:

What's it like working with Stephenie Meyer?
Stephenie's success is just staggering and I am pretty sure many would and probably did feel intimidated around her. Here's the secret about Stephenie that I accidentally discovered, though…she is normal. REALLY normal. And funny. But mostly normal…like the kind of person you'd hang out with. Just to shoot the shit.

At first, I was pretty shy…for me. And nervous - I met Stephenie AFTER I'd been cast when some of us were called down to Baton Rouge for a make-up/wardrobe test before shooting began. So, I didn't know how she felt about me or my choices for Stefan. I mean, I know if she would have HATED my audition tape, I wouldn't be there but you know, maybe she was just like "Eh…Guri…whatever…thank GOD we also got better actors…"

When I finally met her in Baton Rouge, I was already in costume and make-up. I shook her hand and she said, "You are EXACTLY how I pictured Stefan" and smiled. And I relaxed. Like a baby, actually. In fact, I wet my pants…not really. Okay, a little.
What was it like being involved in Breaking Dawn - the LAST film of the Twilight franchise?
Obviously, we all realized that we were a part of something epic and had the appropriate level of reverence while shooting.
Wait. That's not what happened. Here's a typical on set day :
We're all on set against a green screen and massive amounts of fake snow. Shoot dates were getting long and we were all extremely silly. Plus, there were cardboard cut outs of the 'wolves'. If THAT'S not fodder for juvenile behavior, I don't know what is. So, par for the course, one of the P.A.s starts taping various notes to unsuspecting people's backs (tagging - BD style). Wyck Godfrey is JUST NOT HAVING IT. He's the producer, we were behind schedule and he certainly does not want the shoot to devolve further with antics such as this.

So, of COURSE he got tagged. Once with a sign that said 'Kick Me' which was the tamest sign he was tagged with. Over and over, Wyck was tagged by pretty much everyone. Agitated, he was paranoid about signs being on his back all day, always checking. He actually very much resembled someone with Tourette's Syndrome. PRICELESS.

Not to be outdone by ANYONE, Charlie Bewley had some prints made of a photo of himself looking particularly snooty as 'Demetri. On the photo, he wrote 'Team Demetri' and stuck it on Nikki Reed's back. She had no idea for hours, so definitely he scored a win with that one. Plus, it started the 'Team' epitaphs ('Team Cullen', 'Team Wolves', 'Team Edward', 'Team Bella', 'Team GFYS') that became ALL the rage. Coincidently, if you have never seen a huge, burly, macho grip or electrician with 'Team Edward' taped to their back, I'm just not sure you've lived…

Those crew guys got the responsible P.A. back, though…when we finished shooting for the day, this P.A. kept looking for his backpack. No one could find it. Finally, it was found…35 feet in the air hanging by a rope with no foreseeable way to get it down.

Bored with sticky notes on people's backs, Christian Camargo decides he will up the ante - by 'tagging' all - and I do mean ALL - of the cardboard wolves asses with my name. I kick him pretty hard and Mia Maestro comes running after me, emotional and confused, saying over and over…"You HURT him, Guri. You BOTH are HURTING each other TOO MUCH. What is WRONG with you two?!?"

So, I'm back over in Stephenie's video village, thinking that would be a safe haven. As I'm chatting it up with her about CRITICAL issues facing the world today (like my deep love for Food TV), I am oblivious to the fact that a P.A. is attaching a hook to my coat - the other end of the hook is attached to a sand bag. As Stephenie is chatting with me, she gives NO indication of what is taking place behind me. All is fine until I stand up and prepare to walk away…only to be jerked back to my chair in a motion that has only been captured before in The Three Stooges films. I'm embarrassed, OBVIOUSLY, and Stephenie is looking at me like the cat that ate the canary. OH! The shame…

What are the Twilight Fans like?
Well, it's a mixed bag. GENERALLY, the fans have been nothing but gracious and supportive with me. Even the snarky girls at letterstotwilight.com have had relatively benign comments about me and I am not just commenting about them because they left comments on my blog. OK. I am mentioning them primarily because of that. YES, I DID get a huge kick out of them commenting on my blog. And they're really funny. Except when it's comments about me…
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