Peter Facinelli is on a family road trip driving up the West Coast in an RV with Jennie Garth and their three daughters heading to the Vampire Baseball Game in Portland, Oregon on Saturday, July 4. As Carlisle Cullen, Peter has become a Twilight fan favorite and RadarOnline.com spoke with him Friday while he took a break from driving and Jennie cooked up bacon and eggs for the family breakfast in the RV.
RadarOnline.com: How is the trip going?
Peter Facinelli: It’s really pretty; I’m sitting outside the motor home park right now it’s really beautiful. There’s no coast but it’s beautiful. It looks a lot like Twilight. There are lots of big tall pine trees.
RO: Are you a safe driver?
PF: Well I had a rough patch last month, I got four tickets in three weeks all for different things, I was some kind of police magnet, I don’t know why. I’m going to fight all of them; you never want to admit you’re wrong. I should go there in person and fight all of them.
RO: Tell us about the baseball game tomorrow?
PF: We’re going to test our vampire baseball skills in front of a large crowd and I think a lot of people are going to find out that a lot of the cast member s don’t know how to throw a ball and they just made us look good. The Make-A-Wish Foundation asked if I would play and I thought it was for a really good cause. I like doing charity events because I think it’s important to give back. I played baseball when I was younger but I haven’t played in a long time, so it should be fun. I hope Rachelle’s on my team. She’s the one with the wicked curve ball, right? I don’t know, I’m showing up with my old oiled glove and waiting to see where the coach puts me. I don’t even know who the coach is. I might be the coach for all I know. I think Carlisle should definitely be the coach. The difference is tomorrow there are no special effects, whatever speed we run and however we hit the ball is the real deal. We’re going to have no stunt doubles tomorrow.
RO: Did you have a stunt double while filming Twilight?
PF: I didn’t because I didn’t have to do that much, all I had to do was slide into second base which they actually gave me a stunt double for but I told them I think I can handle this. So I practiced. It was supposed to be a super slide so I jumped off a little mini tramp and so it was fun. I like doing stunts, stunts are fun for me. I try to do as many of them as I can. During the slide I bruised up my leg pretty bad.
RO: Good thing you play a doctor, were you able to self medicate?
PF: Yes, a little ice and I was fine. I took two aspirin and I called myself in the morning.
RO: When I would take trips with my family our Dad would threaten to pull over and spank us every time, do you ever have to do that?
PF: Only three times a day. Don’t make me pull this 34 foot RV over, don’t make me do it!
RO: What do your girls think about Daddy getting recognized on the street?
PF: I think they’re getting used to it. It’s a little time consuming but I just try to give back to the fans. When I was growing up and I went over to the guy to get an autograph and he said no because they were too busy you would go home with that, so I try to really go out of my way to make sure that I’m good to the fans because they’ve been so good to us.
RO: Are you looking forward to getting back to Vancouver?
PF: Yeah, it’s so quick. It’s like a blink of an eye and we’re shooting the third one already. I had a little time this summer to hang with my family, then we’re going to New York to see my folks, and then I think we’re going to Hawaii for a week. I’m trying to spend as much time as I can with my family because in August I’m busy with the clips and then I’m going to do the second season of Nurse Jackie.
RO: Have you read the script for the third movie?
PF: No, I haven’t. I’m supposed to be getting it next week.
RO: Is there anything you would change for your character?
PF: I wish that he didn’t disappear so much. I would have had him go to Italy and do more. He knows the all the Volturi and he could have helped smooth things over. Maybe had a cappuccino with them and said “Hey, you know, this isn’t cool.” And I don’t want to give it away for people who haven’t read the fourth book, but like any typical doctor when the baby is due, he’s not there. He’s off on the ninth hole somewhere playing golf; I was like, what’s going on?
RO: Have you given Rob and Kristen any advice about dealing with the fame?
PF: I don’t think there’s any advice to be given. It’s a learning curve. Even for me, I’ve been working for 15 years and I’ve never had the kind of fan base this movie has. People always come up to me and said they like me in my old movies but with a movie like this when I walk somewhere people’s faces actually drop when they see me or fans will scream when they see us. That takes some getting used to; I wish someone would give me some advice. If people are watching, what are you going to do with that? You turn it around and try to do positive things like work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. I feel very lucky to be able to do that.
RO: What is filming like, do you have a good time?
PF: We like to be around each other. We hang out a lot together after work. For me it’s very much like a family, I like being with them and I like when we’re all together. Especially when we’re all in scenes together, that’s always fun. It’s a good cast; it’s a good bunch of people. We all like each other so that’s important. Rachelle is the tour guide when we’re up there, she’s Canadian and she tells us all the good places to go.
RO: What did you think about doing a vampire movie?
PF: When I got a phone call from my agent asking if I wanted to do a vampire movie I didn’t want to do it, so I read the book in a day and I fell in love with it. I thought it was a great story. It’s like a throwback to the old Bella Lugosi movies where it had the mystery and seductiveness of the old stories. That is why I enjoyed vampire movies. Somewhere along the line they became horror zombie movies and so that’s what I thought when I first heard of it, but when I read it and realized that it wasn’t about that I said sign me up!
