411Movie Interviews: Edi Gathegi
Posted by Al Norton on 11.20.2008
411mania's Al Norton sits down for an exclusive interview with Edi Gathegi, one of the stars of Twilight.
While he can be seen in Crank, Gone Baby Gone, and on CSI: Miami, Veronica Mars, and Lincoln Heights, Edi Gathegi is probably best known for his seven episode stint on House last season. That will change starting today as he plays one of the lead villains in the much anticipated movie Twilight, which opens across the country this weekend.
Al Norton: It was barely a half an hour after I'd watched your Life on Mars episode that I got the email about this interview.
Edi Gathegi: Is that right?
Al: When you came on screen I turned to my wife and said, "I like that guy". She said, "where's he from" and I said, "I don't know, I just know that I like him."
Edi Gathegi: (Laughing) That's great.
Al Norton: I would think that's what you want as an actor, people to know that they like your work but not to too closely associate you with just one role. That Life on Mars episode was great, by the way,
Edi Gathegi: Thank you very much. I've been talking a lot about the episode recently. It was just a one episode guest spot but apparently the producers have been doing interviews saying that they are going to bring me back.
Al Norton: Did they let you keep the wardrobe?
Edi Gathegi: (Laughing) I wish. It was kind of cool. Unfortunately I didn't get to keep the wardrobe; I had to leave New York in the same clothes I arrived in.
Al Norton: Was it fun filming in New York (Life on Mars is shot entirely on location)?
Edi Gathegi: I've got to tell you, I moved out to LA from New York – I went to NYU – and going back there to work is the ideal situation. I kind of want to work in New York now. I wouldn't mind getting a regular job that shot in New York. I loved it. I loved being in the city, working on the show and making a living, and then entering the real world when you clock out. In LA I feel like I'm surrounded entirely by people who are in the industry but in New York there are people who are involved in all walks of life, which I loved. I also got to people watch and I'm big into that, for characters. New York is the ultimate playground for actors because all sorts of people coexist.
Al Norton: The big question for you is, are you ready for how much your life is going to change this weekend?
Edi Gathegi: Now that is a question I've been getting a lot and I don't necessarily know how to respond to it because my whole thing was if I do the work, everything else will be a by-product, the fame will be a by-product. I haven't wrapped my mind around how big this thing could be, and to be quite honest, I don't want to have great expectations and be disappointed. I am sort of managing my expectations. We're going to see how this movie performs opening weekend. Hopefully it does very very well so they can continue on and make the sequels, and if I can get recognized and get job opportunities from being part of a huge franchise, than that is the best case scenario. Anything short of that and it was just wonderful to get to work on such a great project. I am a fan of the books and the author, and the cast and I got along so well. It was an overall positive work experience.
Al Norton: How familiar were you with Twilight before going in?
Edi Gathegi: Going in I knew nothing about it. Matter of fact, I don't think I even knew the name of the movie or the book, I just knew the casting director was casting a movie and they had put me in several films before so I just wanted to take a meeting with them and hope they put me in whatever they were casting. CatherineHardwicke (the director of Twilight) was in the room and we got along well. She was so enthusiastic and I understood her energy and wanted to work with her.
A month later I found out I was seriously being considered for the role I had auditioned for so I went and picked up the books and read them and it was then that I realized what I was getting into, in terms of how wonderful the book series was and the potential success of the franchise because of all the fans out there; I became one of those fans.
Al Norton: Did you and the cast feel added pressure taking part in a project that has such a large built in audience?
Edi Gathegi: I think there were people that were feeling pressure and there's always a certain level of it when you're baring your soul and putting yourself out there but on my end I feel like we were cast for a reason. Someone thought we would best represent that character and bring that character to life and at the end of the day you can only do what you can do. Everyone is going to have an opinion and people are going to be disappointed no matter what you do. The goal is to do your best work and try to represent the book in the best way possible and hopefully there will be more people who agree with your choices than who don't agree with your choices. When you release on your need to please everybody than you've released on the negative criticism that would affect you.
Al Norton: What was your physical preparation like for the role?
Edi Gathegi: Well the vampires are described as being unbelievably handsome and gorgeous (laughing) so I was like, "ok, what do I have to do to become that?" The first step, the only real step I could actually achieve, was getting myself physically in shape to play a vampire. I only had two weeks on preparation so I went on a quick diet and worked out, and that was the extent of the physical preparation.
Mentally for the character, Stephanie (Myers, author of Twilight) sets up the rules of the vampire world so specifically, so if you follow the guidelines you pretty much know what to do. For me, the concept of being a vampire was an exercise in stillness. Since these beings don't sleep or eat, they don't die, they don't blink…Every human nuance that we do effortlessly is thought out for them since they don't need to do it, so for me it was an exercise in stillness, in economy of movement.
Al Norton: Was this your first experience with these kind of special effects?
Edi Gathegi: Yes. I hadn't had the experience of watching myself in a movie and going, "that was cool. How'd they make me look that cool?!?"
Al Norton: Not that you don't want to see the finished product with every project but I would think for something like this it would be even more so.
Edi Gathegi: Yes, because you're playing someone who isn't human, with extraordinary speed and strength. On the day of filming everything is human because it's you doing it, and to a certain extent you feel sort of cheesy. When it's going on you are thinking that you can't wait to see how they make what you are doing look supernatural, superhuman.
Al Norton: You're pleased with how it turned out?
Edi Gathegi: Yes, Yes. Incredibly. Stephanie Myers book is about 500 pages, and the villains are introduced on about page 300. When your adapting a 500 page book into 100 page script, certain things have to be truncated and condensed, and you don't have a movie with an antagonist, so we are introduced in the beginning of the film. Our presence is definitely stronger in the movie than in the book, which is one of the mild differences.
Al Norton: You had a great run on House last season and when I interviewed Lisa Edelstein (Cuddy), she told me that nobody knew which characters would be chosen to be part of House's new team.
di Gathegi: There were 40 candidates brought in for that first episode, and then only 8 that would go on to do multiple episodes, and out of those 8 there were 5 of us with series regular options in our contracts. Out of the 5, we knew 3 were going to get those options picked up, so 2 of us were not. It was basically Survivor meets The Apprentice, the real life version.
The actors did not know if they were going to get hired and neither did the characters. From week to week we would scurry to get the script and read the very last page and see if it was us. We were definitely in the dark and apparently it turned out that they fell in love with all 5 of us and then it became even more confusing to them about who to not pick up. They said they basically had an embarrassment of riches and had to make a choice based on what characters they saw storylines developing for the right ways for the show. I was the first of the 5 to get the news that my character wasn't going to continue.
Al Norton: That part doesn't leave you feeling happy but was the overall experience one you feel like you took a lot away from?
Edi Gathegi: I dare say it was the best job I ever had. That sort of environment, where there are 5 people with the same job but only 3 are going to get picked up, that sort of inherently breeds competition but I have to say there was no competition. The 5 of us got along so well, we had such similar personalities, senses of humor and sensibilities, that we all jelled and became close and cared about each other genuinely as people and as artists. I remember saying to Peter Jacobson, who has a wife and a kid in New York and was stressed out about what his fate was going to be, I said to him, and I meant it then and now, "listen if it comes down between you and me, I wouldn't be upset if you got it."
There was a camaraderie and ultimately everything happens for a reason and things happen to you in the way and when they should happen to you. I wouldn't have been able to get Twilight had I stayed on House. It was an overall great experience and a nice stepping stone. I'm still friends with the producers and I feel like at some point they might welcome me back.
Al Norton: After Twilight your next project is a 3-D horror movie. These days most horror movies fall into one of two categories, one is extremely ultra violent and the other is almost tongue-in-cheek; which does My Bloody Valentine fall into?
Edi Gathegi: You can give me a list of movies that fall into this category but My Bloody Valentine is a realistic horror film. It's a horror film that is plausible. It's not one of those where you watch and go, "oh, I bet he jumps out here…that was so predictable." This is a movie with real characters who are fighting for something and a realistic killer with an agenda and a motive. And it's 3-D and it's terrifying. I think 3-D is the perfect medium for a horror film. It's definitely going to be bloody, it's definitely going to be action packed, you're going to care about these characters and you're going to go along for the ride.
Al Norton: Realistic and plausible are not adjectives frequently used to describe horror movies.
Edi Gathegi: Yes, and that's why I'm usually not a horror fan, to be honest. I'm not a huge slasher film fan. The considerations I took when deciding to play the part were the 3-D, the script being realistic, plausible, and honest, and then because Patrick Lussier was directing. He edited all of the Scream movies, which were excellent, and he directed Red Eye, which was extremely suspenseful. With those three elements there was no way I couldn't not do the movie.
Al Norton: On a non-work note, I read in an interview you did with Esquire that you were a big Barack Obama supporter. How did you spend election night?
Edi Gathegi: I moved the night before so I was really, really exhausted. I spent it at my house with a few close friends, and I think I was in shock for about two days after. I needed to be pinched a few times. It's definitely one of the most significant things in my lifetime, to see a President this qualified, this admired, this articulate and intelligent get elected to office. Then you throw into that the social implications of him being African-American and what that means to our country. Then you throw into that the fact that we both have the same heritage, we're both of Kenyan descent…It was just a monumental occasion for me.
Al Norton: Thanks very much for your time and good luck this weekend. I am not a huge fan of horror movies but you may have sold me on My Bloody Valentine. When does it open?
Edi Gathegi: (Laughing) Great. It opens January 16th. Hey, keep watching Life On Mars; even though I'm not on it I think it's a great show.
