The actress on playing saintly vampire Alice Cullen, how she reacts to hysterical Twilight fans and why she’s no fashionista
Ashley Greene has a way of making everything seem easy. Effortlessly chic, she possesses a raw acting talent that seems as natural as breathing. She advanced from total obscurity to the cover of Vanity Fair with such little fuss it’s as if it was delivered to her on a platter.
She was a complete unknown two years ago when she landed the role of saintly vampire Alice Cullen in Twilight, the first in a series of films adapted from the best-selling novels by Stephenie Meyer, which has so far grossed more than $1 billion worldwide.
She reprises her role in the third instalment, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. At 23, Greene is poised to step up to the Hollywood A-list, and the world is about to start paying attention.
Tae kwon do, kick-boxing, baseball… I’m prepared for anything.
I never rely on luck to get where I want to be. My father taught me that good things happen to you when preparation meets opportunity, so nothing is ever left to chance. I believe in being prepared at all times. In 2007, when I landed the audition for the first Twilight movie, I made sure I knew Stephenie Meyer’s novel back to front and I had a firm handle on the character of Alice Cullen. For the baseball scene in Twilight I learned how to pitch convincingly by training with a professional coach for two weeks. For the new Twilight movie I’m involved in a few fight scenes, so I worked three days a week in Vancouver with a special team who taught me to kick-box. Having learnt tae kwon do in high school, I also worked on sharpening up my Korean martial-art skills. As ever, I was fully prepared.
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