Interview

In the Twilight movies, Ashley Greene plays the saga’s resident good-girl vampire, Alice Cullen—all pixie haircut and motherly touch, not a hint of bloodlust in her earnest high-school demeanor. Greene’s career—and her life—has changed dramatically since she was cast in the blockbuster series. For one thing, teenage girls shake uncontrollably and burst into tears when they see her on the street. For another, it was just a couple of years ago that the 22-year-old Greene was struggling to land guest spots with no dialogue, and almost had to leave Los Angeles and return to her hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, where she’d originally planned to study psychology and law. But now, she’s booking movies faster than she can make them—including her first big lead, in the upcoming supernatural thriller, The Apparition. Michael Sheen, Greene’s co-star in Twilight and New Moon, recently caught up with the actress.

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MICHAEL SHEEN: Okay. This is my first question. This is the only really serious one, and then the rest are quite funny. The first one is: As an elf, raised by humans, have you found a lot of discrimination against the fairy folk here in Hollywood?

ASHLEY GREENE: Well, I think they’re just jealous that I sparkle and speak elfin and have cute little pointy ears.

SHEEN: It’s true.

GREENE: So, yes, there’s discrimination. But I really don’t care.

SHEEN: You do get described as pixie-like a lot. In my younger days, I used to get described as sort of elf-like. I think it’s probably a lot easier to deal with that if you’re a pretty girl, rather than a sort of average-looking boy.

GREENE: I’m sorry about your adolescence.

SHEEN: Thank you. Well, look, let’s take a second and go back to the beginning, Ashley Greene. You grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. Is that correct?

GREENE: That is correct.

SHEEN: Now tell me about Jacksonville. What’s it like? And could you please sprinkle it with some alligator stories?

GREENE: I’ve only eaten fried alligator tail once.

SHEEN: How was it growing up there? Was school good? Or was it a bit of a trial?

GREENE: It was great. I mean, it was great until I realized that there was more out there. I went to a public high school with a magnet program for law and psychology. But right before my junior year, I decided that I wanted to leave and become an actress, so I graduated early and moved out to L.A. Now that I’m here, I can’t imagine living there.

SHEEN: What happened? You were doing law and psychology?

GREENE: Yeah. And I loved the classes. Everything was kind of set up to go on this course, which my parents absolutely loved; they were like, “Our daughter’s going to go to law school or become a psychologist!” And then out of nowhere, I pulled the acting card on them. 

SHEEN: Was it out of nowhere? What was it that started you thinking along those lines?

GREENE: I just, for lack of a better term, fell into it—which I’m sure everyone’s going to hate me for saying.