You may remember Edi Gathegi from two small, but memorable, parts: the Haitian taxi driver in Crank who gets Jason Statham so high he sees neon-lit visions that’d make Joel Schumacher proud and Cheese in Gone Baby Gone who spouts the titular phrase. Taylor Lautner popped up in The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D a few years ago and the less I say the better–although he does seem like an extraordinarily nice guy.

Now Gathegi and Lautner appear in Catherine Hardwicke’s adaptation of Twilight as Laurent and Jacob Black respectively. During the roundtables for Twilight, Gathegi sold the film better than anyone else. The man has got charm. And even though I have little faith in the movie, I have to say I would have loved to interview Gathegi on any topic on any given day. But here’s what we he and Lautner had to say on Twilight.

Edi, your character had a small role in the book. How was he fleshed out for the film?

Edi Gathegi: Well, because it’s a movie there has to be dramatic tension. So we are very aware of the conflicts earlier on. In the book, you don’t meet the character until page 100, but in the film you have to know there is a conflict [earlier].

In terms of being vampires, what were some of the highlights of that? Of making the movie?

EG: There is something really cool about having super strength, super speed, being immortal, never dying. That’s sexy. And that’s what’s cool about the thing. Otherwise they were all humans at one point. You’re just human with all these other attributes. So I attack it like I would address any other role.

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It was a few minutes before the cast and filmmakers of Twilight were to go downstairs for the big panel when we interviewed them–yes, the panel that mentally stunted teeny-boppers had literally camped outside for overnight. I have no idea how big the Twilight movie will be. My guess is not nearly as big as some people think since the film looks likes ass and there’s a general feeling we’re nearing the peak of its buzz, only half a year before its release.

Regardless, this was the cast and filmmakers’ moment to bask in the affection (or insanity) of its fans. And you could tell they were visible nervous. I would have offered Robert Pattinson a beer if I had one on me. The man has much to live up to since he’s playing the oh so beautiful and graceful Edward Cullen (author Stephenie Meyer’s wording, not mine), and he looked weirded out, jittery and smoking heavily before walking in–or maybe it was just the state of his hair giving off that vibe since it appeared styled by lighting firecrackers on his head. Who knows?

However, he had the charismatic Rachelle Lefevre (Victoria) to help him find his comfort zone during the round-table interview. The two definitely have chemistry and noticeably enjoy each other’s company. It was a laugh-filled conversation that touched on Pattinson’s hair style, the film’s special-effects, and the fans.

Excited or nervous about how nuts it will be downstairs for the panel?

Robert Pattinson: I don’t know. I don’t know. I can’t even answer the most basic, fundamental questions. I don’t know if it’s nerves. I’m just incapable at the moment. I’m too worried it’s going to be embarrassing.

RL: Twilight does come with a built in fan base from the books. So you do have this whole thing…where you don’t want to upset people–you don’t want to upset what is already pre-existing in their imaginations. And you don’t want to ruin the movie. You don’t want to ruin the suspense for them.

Robert, how do you get your hair like that?

RP: I just don’t wash it, ever. It’s easy.

The obvious question is do you two feel chemistry?

RP: I don’t think we’re suppose to.

RL: No, no we hate each other. But no, we all had a really great time. The cast is all really close in age. So we all just sort of showed up in Portland and were like ‘Yeah, Twilight! What’s up? Let’s go for dinner.’ It was kind of like this amazing experience. Yeah we got lucky.

Was it like that when it was your time to hate one another?

RL: No. There was less group dinners once we started [laughter].

RP: There’s actually only one scene where we actually confront one another. You know, the nomadic vampires, which Rachelle is one, they kind of wander around being nomadic most of the time.

RL: Yeah, we’re always like a few steps behind. So you would think we worked together a lot. But actually it would be, they’d film something where we were like just behind them.

RP: That’s a much better description than just saying ‘wandering around being nomadic.’

RL: Yeah, if you don’t mind I cleared that up a little.

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The cast, filmmakers, and author of Twilight swooped down into Comic Con and the girls went mental. After all, Edward Cullen is soooo beautiful. However before those folks went downstairs to Hall H and made the twilighters hearts go pitter-patter, pitter-patter boom, they stopped by to give some round-table interviews to the press.

The first pair to stop by our table was director Catherine Hardwicke and “Twilight” novelist Stephenie Meyer who touched on the appeal of vampires and the insane levels of expectations for the film.

You came out of The Nativity Story before this. Was it a hard transition to get into this world?

Catherine Hardwicke (CH): Ohhh. I love this world. I mean I fell in love with Stephenie [Meyer’s] books. You know, right when I started reading it, I was like ‘I’m there.’ I want to be there. I want to live it. I want to see it just breathe and come to life. So it’s easy and a pleasure.

Did you already know how nuts it was when you signed on?

CH: I didn’t know it was going to be this crazy. I don’t think [Stephenie] did either.

But by the time it got to the movie you already knew it was be insane, Stephenie?

Stephenie Meyer (SM): I was really surprised. I knew I had [garbled audio] fans And they came out. But the way they responded to the movie and how this took off online, I was surprised. I know how passionate fans can get, but that there were so many of them, it was like ‘wow.’

CH: Yeah, it’s cool that it’s so creative for people that they’re making like they’re own trailers, songs, and writing their own things. I mean it’s kind of like this great creative explosion.. I think that it’s very exciting [Stephenie] inspired that.

SM: I love their YouTube videos. Those things are fantastic.

Stephenie, how do you feel after creating this universe, now handing it off to someone else and Catherine, how do you feel taking on that responsibility?

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