Ayanna Berkshire
Age: 32 "Twilight" role: Cora, waitress in the Carver Cafe
Claim-to-fame moment: Serving "Twilight" author Stephenie Meyer, who makes a cameo as a cafe customer
How she got the role: "We got the call that they were auditioning. I auditioned first for (Portland casting agent) Lana Veenker. My second audition was with (director) Catherine Hardwicke, who came to Portland for the auditions.
"I was up against a close friend of mine, and we both wanted the role so badly. It came down to two roles -- there was Cora, and then a nurse in the hospital where Dr. Cullen (Facinelli) works. We knew the role of Cora was going to be gold. I thought I'd bombed in my audition with Catherine. We improvised and laughed the entire time, but I thought, 'My friend is gonna go in there and she's gonna nail it.'
"We had to wait two weeks before we found out who got Cora, and it was just nerve-racking. Then I got a call that I got the role. Immediately after that, I got a call from my friend saying, 'I don't know if I'm the first to tell you, but you got Cora, because I got the nurse!' I totally bawled. Such emotion had built up because after reading the books, I was super-invested."
The inner life of Cora: "Before my second audition, I walked around my house in North Portland as Cora and thought about the world as Cora. Being from the San Juan Islands originally, I wasn't that far from Forks (where 'Twilight' is set). I was one of less than a handful of minorities in my hometown, and I worked at an A&W. I looked at the photos of Forks that Stephenie Meyer posted on her Web site, and I imagined that as my hometown.
"At one time they were thinking of Cora as a love interest for Charlie Swan (Forks chief of police and father of heroine Bella). That was before the fourth book came out. I was laughing with Stephenie Meyer between takes, and I said to her, 'If you could just write in the last book that Charlie and Cora live happily ever after, you'd be doing me a big solid.' She was very sweet. I'm immensely impressed by what she's done."
Team Edward or Team Jacob?: Fans have crushes on both vampire heartthrob Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), the Quileute tribe member who can turn into a wolf. "I've been asked that many times. My new motto is, I'm Team Berry Cobbler" (the dessert Cora serves Bella). I did get to meet Robert Pattinson a couple of times, and he was fantastic. I actually met his parents before I met him. I have a day job as an optician and they came in, looking to have some glasses repaired."
The "Twilight" effect: "Somebody started a MySpace page for Cora the waitress. I have a huge following in Turkey. A 'Twilight' Web forum there approached me to come online and answer questions. People find my MySpace page, and I get lots of acting-related questions, and then more frivolous ones, like, 'What does Robert Pattinson smell like?' Well, he smells like a 21-, 22-year-old guy. He smells like he should smell. I'm sure if anybody smelled him, they'd just be wooed and won immediately."
Catherine Grimme
Age: 7 "Twilight" role: Young Bella
Claim-to-fame moment: Appearing in ballet costume on video before the climactic battle between Edward and bad vamp James (Cam Gigandet)
How she got the role: "Well, I was kind of scared, because there were a lot of people auditioning, and I really wanted to get the part. I did the scene that I did in the movie, and then I did a few other things. I had to know the lines and stuff, and we had to make up some stuff. (Director Hardwicke) was really nice to me. She was awesome. My mom and dad read the books. I just had to read the sides (her lines) to see what kind of character Bella was."
On meeting Pattinson: "He was very nice. I was kind of star-struck. Is he cute? That's what most people say. I'm not so sure about that myself."
Mother Kim Grimme adds: "Catherine Hardwicke made a point of introducing Robert to Cat (as the family calls her). He got down on his knees so he would be at eye level. And, of course, because he's got a British accent, everything sounds better. Cat said she liked him in 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' (Pattinson played Cedric Diggory). We took pictures of her with Robert, and with Kristen Stewart (Bella). He was talking and joking with the other cast. Kristen was a little more introverted."
The 'Twilight' effect: Kim Grimme says, "When Cat was cast, we didn't get the enormity of what 'Twilight' would be. People definitely recognize her. When the movie came out, there was a big cast party in Portland, and she got to walk the red carpet. When the DVD came out, there was a party and she did an autograph signing with like 2,500 people. She loves it. She absolutely loves it. There's a little buzz at school. And of course, it's huge fodder with the grandparents."
Solomon Trimble
Age: 25 "Twilight" role: Sam Uley; in the film, identified mainly as Jacob Black's friend; in later books, a leader of a pack of Native American/wolf shape-shifters
Claim-to-fame moment: Ominously tells Bella that the reason Edward didn't come to a party at First Beach is because, "The Cullens don't come here."
How he got the role: "Catherine Hardwicke let me improvise, which I had cultivated doing poetry events. I remember I said something artsy-fartsy about the cold, and how you can be cold to the root of your soul. Now it sounds lame, but she said, 'Wow, you can do this.' I didn't think they were looking at me for the role of Sam, but then they told me I got the role.
"I don't reprise my role in 'New Moon.' They replaced me with another actor, Chaske Spencer. I know him, he's really good, I have no problems with him whatsoever. (Sam) ends up being the leader of the wolf pack for the next two books. If I was replaced with a non-Native person, I would be, like, down there at the gates of Summit Entertainment (the company behind the "Twilight" movies) saying, 'This is injustice.' "
The "Twilight" experience: "I spent a month and a half working with members of the Quileute nation to authenticate the film. I worked with wardrobe to make sure anybody Quileute was dressed Quileute. We shot my scene at, ironically, Indian Point beach, near Cannon Beach. It was windy and cold. It was snowing! I was wearing long underwear."
The "Twilight" effect: "I graduated from Portland State University with a degree in math at the same time I was cast in 'Twilight.' I'm spending the summer at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, and how I got here is very strange. Someone from the Quileute nation had recommended me to come and help give an award to Goldie Hawn in Washington, D.C., for her work with National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day. An old friend of mine from Beaverton Arts & Communication High School saw me, and told me about a summer fellowship program at Morehouse, studying epidemiology and working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I didn't have any acting projects lined up for the summer, so I applied and was accepted.
"'Twilight' definitely opened doors. I have a bunch of modeling projects lined up; I'm working on a poetry book; I'm coming to the PGE Park event; and I'm the guest at La Push in Washington for Quileute Days, July 17-19.
"I'm interested in acting but also in going to law school and working for national urban Indian health care. I want to stop the trend toward diabetes and alcoholism, and the disparity in health between us and other people. I want to have my hands in the change itself.
"I am currently an intern at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Coordinating Center for Environmental Health and Injury Prevention Centers (suicide prevention) in Atlanta, specifically to help close the gap of heath disparity between Native American health and that of all other races in America."
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