How Ashley Greene Prepared For Her Role As Alice Cullen In 'Twilight'

Although Ashley Greene has been in several recent movies, the actress is best known as Alice Cullen, Edward’s sister in the “Twilight” movies. She played the adopted daughter of Carlisle and Esme Cullen and Bella Swan’s closest friend.

Besides being a powerful vampire, Alice also had the power to see visions of the future, which was integral to protecting Bella. Besides “Twilight,” Greene starred in movies like “Crossing Jordan,” “Desire,” and “Shark.”

“Twilight” was the movie that brought the actress fully into Hollywood, away from her hostessing job at an L.A restaurant. In an interview, Greene talked about how excited she was for the role and that she even bought one of the books from the series read before the audition.

Like many other readers, Greene revealed that Stephanie Meyer wove her magic on her while reading the “Twilight” books. She apparently finished the first book of the series in two days and became a huge fan of Meyer. Her love for the plot made her even more interested in the movie and the role.

Greene talked to Vanity Fair openly about her interest in the role and that, like most fans, she was in love with Edward’s character. “My managers can vouch for how badly I really wanted the part, and my friends and family know how hard I worked on it,” Greene shared.

She continued, “I can relate with the fans as far as how they’re in love with the Edward character because he’s literally this perfect being, and I totally get it. It’s so funny working with all these people and seeing them in real life. I’m just as big a fan of Stephenie and of the books as anybody else. I just happened to get the opportunity to portray Alice.”

Greene eventually got the role after her audition; however, she still had a lot of work ahead of her. A psychic vampire isn’t your run-of-the-mill movie character, so the actress had to do a lot of research and put a lot of thought into her role. As part of her research, she watched several movies, read books, and did a lot of online research.

Greene said, “Obviously, Alice has these amazing powers. For the psychic thing, I had to watch movies such as The Fifth Element to get a sense of it. I had read all the books, and there’s a ton of stuff online.”

The movie was shot in Portland, Oregon, where the book was set. The similarity of the setting also made the “Crossing Jordan” actress get a better feel of the role, which obviously paid off in the end.

Greene revealed, “We actually got to film where Stephenie set the book, which is kind of cool. We filmed in Portland, Oregon, and then we would drive up to Washington as well. We were up there two weeks before we started shooting.”

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart played Edward and Bella in ‘Twilight.’ Fans couldn’t get enough of their romance and chemistry on set, and they even extended it to real life. However, this might not have happened if Greene had got her way initially.

Greene revealed that she tried out for Bella, but Stewart eventually gave the role. She was ultimately given the role of Alice, but It came after a lot of effort and multiple auditions. She revealed, “I originally auditioned for Bella, and then they brought me back in for Alice.”

She added, “I had to audition for [Alice] like five times. I mean, they literally made me sit on pins and needles, just kind of narrowing it down between me and a billion girls. When I finally got the call, I was beyond happy. I cried.’”