Facinelli On "Twilight" Phenomenon

Peter Facinelli, Actor & Husband Of Jennie Garth, Plays The Vampire Dad In "Twilight"

(CBS)  For millions of fans of all ages, the wait is finally over, "Twilight," one of the most highly anticipated movies of the fall, is ready to take a big bite out of the box office.

In the film, Peter Facinelli plays Dr. Carlisle Cullen, the patriarch to a family of vampires in the film.

Facinelli, who dons blond hair and creepy eyes, a very different look than he has in real life, sat down with Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez to talk about the wildly popular film.

Teenagers have been in a frenzy over "Twilight" and its cast.

"They like it. My daughter is 11 and she saw it and she was my litmus test because she doesn't have a filter," said Facinelli.

"Well, you know it's a relationship story. It's the classic tale of Romeo and Juliet in a vampire world. The story is told through Kristen Stewart's character, so I think every girl is going through the journey that she is going through and she falls in love with this beautiful guy that they can't be together for, you know, some odd reason - he's a vampire and wants to kill her," he joked.

According to Facinelli, his sister has a 15-year-old daughter who read the books and saw the movie with her and they connected while doing it.

"And anything that gets kids to read is a fantastic thing, too," he added.

Actor Robert Pattinson, who works alongside Facinelli and plays Edward Cullen in "Twilight," has become a huge star and has attracted many teenage girls to the film.

"He is like Elvis meets James Dean of the vampire world," Facinelli said. "That's my boy!"

Rodriguez inquired if it was weird to play a dad to these teenagers, being fairly young himself.

"A little bit, but my character is 350 years old in the movie so … but, also, in the book, he is only 23, but he is -- he's the adopted father. So he's not their biological father. He tells everybody, you know, that they're adopted, so it kind of works out," he said.

Throughout the film, Facinelli's character struggles with trying to "stay human" even though he is a vampire, Rodriguez explained.

"He wasn't very happy being a vampire so he kind of held on to every part of humanity that he could, and so now he is trying to live human and he formed this coven of vampires that are trying to live human in this little town. And he's the local doctor and that is his way of giving back to humanity," he said. "They don't eat people, they eat animals. It kind of goes against everything a vampire stands for so when the bad vampires come in town, they are like what are they doing? Why are you playing with your food?"

Facinelli's wife, "Beverly Hills 90210" star Jennie Garth is a big fan of "Twilight" along with their three daughters.

"She did (see the film) and read all the books and loved it," he said.

Having three daughters and three sisters, Facinelli has been positively affected by the women in his life.

"I'm very fortunate to be surrounded by very strong women. I don't know, maybe it's a karma thing. I'm very much enjoying it. I got to work with Katherine Hardwick, another strong woman. I'm working with Edie Falco right now on a Showtime series. Another strong woman," he said.

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If you have no interest in movies with vampires why are you posting to this thread? Why did you read this news story? Did you not know the subject matter? I doubt anyone is forcing you to see the movie.

This movie is based on a current book. The vampire as a character is not new, the characters from Stephenie Meyer''s book are new.

Whatever it is you are interested in, please, go find it. Somewhere else.

[sly_64]

I have no interest in any movies having anything to do with these fictional creatures called vampires. They have been overplayed and overused in movies. It''s very uninteresting to me. Hollywood has run out of good ideas so they keep rehashing old ones.