'Breaking Dawn' premiere with Kristen Stewart

It has to be one of Hollywood history’s most densely compressed blockbuster phenomenons. Just four years after the original Twilight seduced movie audiences and made overnight global superstars of its actors, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner were walking the Nokia Theatre’s red carpet for the premiere of the final chapter of the saga, Breaking Dawn — Part 2, trying to articulate what the moment and the last four years have meant to them. “I feel like we graduated when we finished shooting,” said Stewart, who trailed behind Pattinson on the red carpet before joining him for photographs. “This is like the after-party. It’s nice. This time especially, it is so completely surreal. I’m just trying to absorb it and be here. It’s what we’re gonna miss. It’s that excitement. You don’t ever get to share movies on such a vast [scope]. I mean, like, I have something in common with every single one of these people here, which doesn’t happen [often], so it’s pretty cool.”

“It has been a roller-coaster,” said Lautner. “I did have to fight for the role way back when and the fans especially stood by me and I have to thank them for that. This Twilight thing is one of a kind and who knows if anything remotely as huge will ever happen to me again. I thank this franchise for everything it has given me. I couldn’t be more grateful. It is weird to think that there won’t be another premiere in six months or next year. This is it. There will never be another one.”

Well, that’s not entirely true. Pattinson, perhaps weary from all the publicity he’s already done for the film’s opening, couldn’t help but think of the litany of appearances that still lay ahead. “If this was the final [premiere] and we didn’t go to Europe after this, it would be easier to get your head around,” said Pattinson. “But knowing that we’re gonna go tonight to London and then Madrid and then Germany in a few days, it’s kind of exhausting. But it’s nice to see that everyone is really sweet about it.”

Pattinson’s greatest takeaway from the entire Twilight experience: “A really good work ethic, I think.”

After five movies in four years — and a private life that will never be private — that’s a reasonable answer from one of the oldest 26-year-olds on the planet.

[Reporting by Carrie Bell]

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