7 actors who almost played roles in ‘Twilight’
When Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson landed the roles of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, respectively, in “Twilight,” their popularity shot to drastically new levels.
Stewart was director Catherine Hardwicke’s choice for Bella after seeing her performance in “Into the Wild,” but other then-rising stars could have played her love interest.
In fact, “Twilight” star Jackson Rathbone made it to the top four choices to play Edward. And another teen heartthrob nearly got the part of werewolf Jacob Black before Taylor Lautner was cast.
Before starring on MTV’s “Teen Wolf,” Tyler Posey nearly played Jacob Black.
Posey was actually “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer’s personal choice for the role of Jacob, and he made it far in the audition process.
“I was up against Taylor Lautner, it was between he and I for Jacob in ‘Twilight,'” Posey said during an appearance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” in January.
“It would’ve been huge, but I was really young,” he said. “I was like 16. I wasn’t ready for that type of attention that he got.”
Back in 2011, Posey told Bop and Tiger Beat that he and Lautner knew each other because they used to go to many of the same auditions. Posey said he learned he didn’t get the role of Jacob from Lautner himself, after running into him at another audition after filming wrapped on “Twilight.”
Posey would later land the leading role of a werewolf named Scott McCall on MTV’s hit scripted series “Teen Wolf,” which ran from 2011 to 2016.
Shiloh Fernandez was one of the final four actors up for the role of Edward.
The four stars who were in the running for Edward famously did a chemistry test with Stewart, who was already chosen for Bella, at Hardwicke’s home in Venice, California.
Fernandez has since spoken about not being cast as the vampire in various interviews.
“It appears that I was closer than I maybe remember,” he said in a 2010 conversation for Interview magazine. “I did have a screen test and signed contracts and all that.”
“Did I want the part? I did,” Fernandez added. “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.”
The actor also told NextMovie (per MTV) that he was anxious during the test, and didn’t click with Stewart.
Still, Fernandez told Wonderland magazine in 2011, per Digital Spy, that he was happy he didn’t get the role.
“I wasn’t mentally prepared to have any sort of success in that way,” Fernandez.
Even though he didn’t land the part of Edward, Hardwicke kept Fernandez in mind and cast him in her 2011 thriller “Red Riding Hood.”
“The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” star Ben Barnes got close to playing Edward.
Hardwicke told Yahoo Entertainment that Barnes was one of the four actors who had an hour and a half to read scenes with Stewart and improvise with her.
Barnes reportedly said that his involvement in the “Narnia” franchise was a deterrent in casting him in “Twilight” because “it’s dangerous to mix characters from franchises while you’re doing one.”
The actor also reportedly said that he would have been too old to play a 17-year-old.
Former Nickelodeon star Josh Peck was told he was one of the four choices for Edward.
“I was a choice,” Rathbone told MTV in 2009, adding that he didn’t think he was Hardwicke’s first pick.
Even though he didn’t get the part, instead nabbing the role of fellow Cullen family member Jasper, Rathbone said he couldn’t have been happier with Pattinson’s casting.
“I wouldn’t have another Edward Cullen than Robert Pattinson,” he said. “He’s perfect.”
Former Nickelodeon star Josh Peck was told he was one of the four choices for Edward.
Lautner was a guest on an October 2023 episode of Peck’s podcast, “Great Guys.” Lautner’s appearance prompted Peck to recall his experience auditioning for “Twilight” around 2006 or 2007.
The actor said that about a month after submitting his audition tape, his manager told him, “It’s down to you and three guys, you’re close.'”
Peck said he was skeptical.
“I’m like, ‘Really?’ I hadn’t even had a tummy tuck yet,” he said. “I’m like, ‘There’s no way. He’s got to be so shirtless, it’s not going to happen.”
Before joining the franchise as a member of the Volturi named Caius in “New Moon,” Jamie Campbell Bower could have played Edward.
“They were really interested in me reading for Edward, and they were like, you know, ‘This sort of dedication that Jamie brings to his roles… we’re really interested in seeing him,” the actor said during a 2022 appearance on Josh Horowitz podcast called “Happy Sad Confused.”
Bower said that he didn’t audition or screen test for Edward, but the “Twilight” team was keen on him.
“It was more of just a conversation, where they were like, ‘We really want Jamie to come along, we’d love him to be a part of this, we see him as a potential Edward’ and it just didn’t work out,” he said, explaining that he was preoccupied with his role in “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Gossip Girl” alum Michelle Trachtenberg said she was considered for a part in the “Twilight” franchise.
“There was definitely interest here and there because there’s only so few pale girls in Hollywood,” Trachtenberg joked in a 2011 interview with Us Weekly.
The actor said that she had known director Hardwicke since the film “Thirteen,” which she was supposed to star in but couldn’t due to “Buffy.”
Trachtenberg didn’t specify which role she was considered for, but when asked why she didn’t appear in the “Twilight” franchise, the actor said: “I guess schedules never worked out.”
