Shiloh Fernandez Interview with 'Interview'

Shiloh Fernandez was primed for the Catherine Hardwicke star machine years before the Thirteen (2003), Lords of Dogtown (2005), and original Twilight (2008) director cast him as the romantic lead alongside Amanda Seyfried in next month’s Red Riding Hood, Hardwicke’s latest gothic adolescent dream.

JACOBS: What’s your take on the film itself?

FERNANDEZ: It started with the fact that I’d known Catherine. I auditioned for a couple of her movies and I like her. I liked how she connects with youth and how she picks really great young actors. Reading it, I was thinking it might be something like Twilight, but this is not as much of a love story. It’s really a whodunit thriller. It was a very exciting script, and you really don’t know who’s at the center of it all until the end. To be able to play up certain aspects that are going to lead the audience away from the final reveal was something that I was into.

JACOBS: How close were you to getting the role of Edward Cullen in Twilight?

FERNANDEZ: You’ll have to ask Catherine. It appears that I was closer than I maybe remember. I did have a screen test and signed contracts and all that. But the thing that came out of it, whether I was second runner-up or not, was that Catherine and I liked each other, and she was gracious enough to keep me in mind for other things. I really don’t know how close I was to getting the part in Twilight. Did I want the part? I did. But I don’t think I was right or ready for it. And I don’t think anybody knew that it was going to be what it’s turned out to be. When Riding Hood came along, I thought it was a much better fit.

Check out more photos and the entire interview here.