Weren’t able to get into the Twilight panel at San Diego Comic Con? Don’t fret! The Nerdy Bird sat in row 9 and she’s here to tell you all about it!

I’m still pinching myself. Did I really sit nine rows of chairs from Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Kristen Stewart and Ashley Greene? It must have been real. If it were a dream, Kristen and Ashley wouldn’t have been involved…if you know what I mean…and I think you do.

The Summit Entertainment panel was held Thursday morning of SDCC in the massive Hall H. Outside, Wednesday afternoon, there were several tents pitched by hardcore fans dedicated to being front and center for the action the following day. And boy, what action it was. Sure, we all had to sit through Summit’s preview of Astro-Boy and Sorority Row first (which was AGONIZING) but as soon as the Twilight Saga: New Moon title showed up on screen the anticipation reached a fever pitch and we were ready.

Director of New Moon, Chris Weitz was also part of the panel and got things off to a fun start by playing around with both the actors and the fans. “I’ve been stalking Robert Pattinson for the last ten years,” joked Weitz. “Like most people of the male gender I hadn’t read Twilight before the possibility of doing the film came up but once I read it I realized that it dealt with all these deep emotions that everyone feels, first love and heartbreak and the ecstasy of reunion and having been dumped so many times in my life, I felt I could also sympathize with Bella’s character.”

And then the moderator mentioned Taylor Lautner’s name and I lost a good portion of my hearing for the day. “Jacob, he goes through a lot in this movie. He transforms mentally and emotionally, which is extremely important. But the most challenging for me personally was physically,” said Lautner, “I had a lot of hard work cut out for me after filming Twilight. I worked really hard to try and transform Jacob’s body so I could portray him correctly for all of you guys and I hope you guys are pleased when you see the results.” He was playing it up for the crowd big time and looked like he was having a blast doing it.

“I played an insane person.”

Kristen Stewart, who looked fairly uncomfortable the entire time, was asked to talk a bit about filming New Moon. “It was definitely harder to do this movie just because of going through what I had to go through,” she said, “but I think [Bella’s] less of a protagonist at the beginning of the story which makes it more powerful when she finally snaps back. She’s literally like a non-participant in her own life, she basically dies.” A little later on she elaborated, “I don’t think you really, truly know yourself unless you get to a point that’s like as low as she gets in this and she’s so sort of righteous in the first one in terms of like, what she wants and everything like that. I feel like now you actually believe that she knows what she wants. I feel like in the third one she’s actually sort of content and happy and she can sort of rest a little more easy and this one was sort of larger scale for me just because…I mean, I played an insane person.”

I was almost frightened for poor Robert Pattinson when it was finally his turn to speak. The screaming was so loud and prolonged that I thought he’d never get a chance to open his mouth. When the crowd finally died down he was able to tell us he didn’t do all that much in the movie, especially for the scenes where he’s in Bella’s mind. “I basically stand on a green box and look and stay relatively expressionless and all these machines did the acting for me, which is the way I like it,” he said, “It looks good.” With that we were gifted with our very first look at the movie – the motorcycle scene with Bella and Jacob. Instead of just hearing Edward in her mind they’ve actually come up with a spirit-like apparition of him for her to see as well. It sounds odd, but it works. As if that wasn’t great enough, the scene ends with Jacob taking off his shirt to put on Bella’s bleeding head. All of Lautner’s weight lifting paid off. Big time.

From there the panel was opened up to questions from the audience. Would Pattinson take on any more comedic roles? “Yeah, why not? I don’t know if I’m particularly funny. One of my legs is shorter than the other one so that makes everything look really awkward,” said Pattinson, “I can look like an idiot but I don’t know whether I can be like, witty.”

What do the actors share with their characters or what part of them did they bring to their respective roles? “I had a lot of fun playing [Alice] because she’s very optimistic and positive,” said Greene, “There’s a really intense bond that she has with her family and I kind of have the same bond with my personal family.” Stewart had a lot to say about Bella. “She’s intent on doing what she needs to do for herself and not being ashamed of it and even when she changes her mind it’s ok. She’s sort of everywhere,” she said, “I mean like, talk about mood swings. But she’s not ashamed of it you know? She doesn’t have to explain herself. She just feels how she feels and that’s it.”

Lautner wasn’t too sure about his answer. “I would hope that most of my close friends and family, or people that know me, would say that I’m more like Jacob’s pre-transformation side because that’s before he goes wacko,” he said, “I hope I’m more friendly and outgoing than like this dark, disturbed person, this monster.” Stewart felt bad and assured him, “You’re not a monster,” which elicited a collective “aww” from the audience. Pattinson was also having some trouble coming up with an answer so Weitz stepped in. “I’ve noticed you’re very cold to the touch and have skin like marble and that you glow like a diamond when the sun hits you,” he said. Pattinson decided to add, “I look a bit like him.”

“Some of them are very intense in their reactions and I wouldn’t want to get them mad at me by getting anything wrong in the movie.”

Did Stewart actually ride the motorcycle in the clip we viewed? “No, I sort of got on the back of this really dorky rig type thing. It wasn’t cool,” she said. Next time? “Yeah, no.” Would Pattinson be interested in doing more open mic nights for his music, even with the fame? “Yeah, I would. I’m too…I’m kind of a pussy I guess,” he admitted, “I’d love to. I think everybody should do open mics, I think it’s a very healthy thing for the soul.”

One of the best questions asked, in my opinion was if the cast had seen the New Moon trailer reaction videos on YouTube and if they were now afraid. The cast didn’t actually get to answer but the director did. “I and everybody in the editing room and the people working on visual effects have seen the fan reaction videos and we could not be more pleased and tickled by them,” said Weitz. “Some of them are very intense in their reactions and I wouldn’t want to get them mad at me by getting anything wrong in the movie.”

How was it filming in Vancouver rather than Portland this time around? “Portland has a lot more of an edge to it,” said Greene, “The second one there’s definitely a bigger following, there’s a lot more people aware of who we are.” Lautner was straight and to the point. “Both places are cold and wet,” he said, “They’re beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just not fun not wearing any clothes there.” You can just imagine the screams he got out of that statement. A little later he actually went into detail about a scene in the rain in Vancouver, “All I was wearing was jean shorts and it was a long scene to have to stand out there and we did that scene all day long for 12 hours. It was really, really cold so it was hard but I’m doing it all for you guys.”

Of course the cast and crew also filmed parts of the New Moon in Italy, which Weitz found particularly challenging since everyone knew they were going to be there. “Everywhere that the camera wasn’t pointed there were hundreds of fans there and it wasn’t so much that we minded them being there, it was great,” he said, “As a matter of fact, people applauded after every take which is unheard of. It was like doing theater or something but actually it was just the shear logistics of getting through all the fans to get to where we had to stand by the camera. There was one moment where I really had to go to the bathroom but there was not a single café that I could walk into where I wouldn’t be mobbed. And by the way, this is not because I’m me it’s just because people were interested to see if I could set up a meeting with Rob.” Pattinson mentioned he thought the set of the town square looked eerily similar to how he pictured it.

What are the actors looking forward to in the next two films? Greene is excited to be working with Eclipse director David Slaid. “I’m excited about this whole intense fight scene that we’re supposed to have,” she added. Pouring fuel on an already raging inferno in the room, Lautner chimed in. “I’m excited for the height of the love triangle and when me and this guy have to try and become friends to protect Bella,” he said pointing to Pattinson, then quickly added, “The sleeping bag scene! The sleeping bag scene!” Oddly enough, Stewart said she can’t wait to get pregnant. Pattinson’s most playful response of the panel came when he said with a big smile, “Actually, being involved in the cesarean would be…I just can’t wait.”

Thankfully there weren’t any serious injuries on set. “I will tell you that Taylor did every single stunt he could possibly get his hands on. Every stunt except the ones the insurance company said he was not allowed to do so really if Jacob is doing something dangerous or impressive in the film it’s pretty much Taylor doing it,” said Weitz. “And Rob just sorta stood there looking good really.”

One of the few male fans to ask a question at the panel wanted to know what Lautner’s work-out routine was like. “Obviously getting in the gym and finding a personal trainer to help me but the thing that I found was, I was originally, just because I was getting in the gym starting to eat a lot, I put on some weight and then I randomly started losing weight and then I started freaking out. I’m like, where was all this weight I was putting on going? What I found is I was actually overworking myself. Whenever I would break a sweat my trainer would have me stop and relax,” he said. Stewart made fun of him for it, “Don’t freak out, you might burn a few too many calories.” He also said the hardest part was the constant eating his trainer made him do. “I’ll be talking to somebody and he comes up with a plate and he wakes me up in the morning and he’s like, ‘take this protein shake’ and I’m like, ‘dude I’m sleeping.’”

Another male fan thanked them all for coming to SDCC but wanted to know if Pattinson felt stronger being Edward Cullen. “No, I mean, at the end of the day it’s just a part,” he said. “You just go into it and your life and you’re walking on the street, as a really bad analogy, you step on like a little stone and it just kind of flies away and you have no idea where it’s going and then you’re just trying not to drown afterwards. Yeah, that’s my life.”

“We all of course want to please you.”

Lautner got the opportunity to meet with some of the Quileute tribe while filming Twilight which helped him prepare for the role. “I wanted to learn more about the kids my age and what they like to do in their free time and I was expecting something really different and I was expecting to have to change myself you know, to be able to do that but I asked this kid who looked around my age, ‘So what do you do in your free time, what do you do for fun?’ and he’s like “You know, I play basketball, I go to the beach’ and I was like, ‘What do you do at the beach, throw the football around?’ and he goes ‘No, I check out girls.’” He was surprised to learn they’re just like him for the most part. A cool tidbit that Weitz let slip during the panel was that Lautner gets to speak a line in Quileute in New Moon. “I’m excited for you guys to hear it,” he said. As to the overall fan reaction to the films, “I’d be lying if I said, you know, I never got nervous because we all of course want to please you and make sure that we live up to your expectations.” I think the girl sitting behind me fell off her chair at that point.

And with that we were granted yet ANOTHER clip from New Moon! Weitz gave us an introduction that got the room so excited I thought they might not be able to handle it. “There’s a moment towards the end of the book where Alice and Bella are racing to save Edward. This is actually the first time this footage has been seen by anyone outside of the editing room actually,” he said. The scene opened with Bella and Alice in a bright yellow Porche arriving at Volterra. “Bella, you’re the only one he can’t see coming,” urged Alice. The frantic race is every bit as suspenseful as it is in the book. Edward, looking pain stricken, opens his shirt in preparation of revealing himself as Bella hysterically screams, “Stop! Stop! No, Edward, don’t!” My ears and eyes will never be the same.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon hits theaters November 20, 2009.

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