Beyond Twilight: Kellan Lutz

The third installment of the Twilight Saga, Eclipse, is about to debut and Kellan Lutz is destined to become a star. Being only 25, he has starred one of the most commented Calvin Klein underwear ads, supports the lastest PETA campaign – a declaration of principles – and he’ll become the God Poseidon in the movie Immortals.

One of the most evocative reports in literature is “The House of the Sleeping Beauties”, by the Noble Japanese Kawabata. It tells the story of a house where an old man goes, paying to sleep beside a young lady, who he can’t even touch: Only being around her makes the old man remember clearly how he used to feel in his youth. Something like that happens in the Twilight saga: seeing her means, is, and feels like being young again.

The already debuted Twilight and New Moon, just like Eclipse, which will be on screens this summer, are much more than an inexhaustible source of pictures to 15-year-old folders: a sleepless static, a review of the tension between desire and duty (the story of the forbidden love has got a lot to do with the Mormon belief of the author, Stephenie Meyer) and, most important of all, a display of what will be the most shining stars in the next years.

Just like it happened to other generational titles, like “Ocean’s eleven” in the 60’s, “Outsiders”, in the 80’s, or “Reality Bites” in the 90’s, in a few years it will be impossible to combine in a single movie all the stars from Twilight: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, and more discrete, but not with less projection, Kellan Lutz (Emmett Cullen in the saga, one of Edward Cullen’s brothers).

His story isn’t the usual teen star story. For example, he spent one semester of high school in Dominican Republic (he speaks Spanish perfectly since then), he is an affectionate inventor (he’s already patented two of his ideas) and planned to study Chemistry Engineering when he finished his secondary studies before deciding about acting. “I like what I do. One day I realized I was on my way to become an engineer, but my personality needed something else. The adrenaline of an audition or the idea to become somebody else were things that made me fascinated. I thank God, who guided me in the right direction, but I feel sorry for mom, who had times full of stress. Because of that, I always take a white bracelet with me: it reminds me from where I come from and the reason why I’m here: my love for acting.”

At the age of 14, he started to work as a model thanks to a spectacular physic shaped by risk sports: snowboarding, skateboarding, motocross, skydiving, canoeing… In fact, he did the action scenes of Twilight himself. He’s starred in Abercrombie & Fitch campaigns, or the most recent, the Calvin Klein X underwear campaign. And, a couple of months ago, his picture with his dog Kola went around the world in the PETA campaign: “Adopt, don’t buy”, to promote the amount of abandoned animals. He also collaborates with other ONGs (non-governmental organizations), like “Boys and Girls Club”, “Habitat for Humanity”, “The Blind Project”, “Invisible Children” and “Humane Society”. “When you walk on the streets you cross with someone and you just smile or say hi, I believe it’s something fantastic. A simple word of encouragement may change someone’s day, or even someone’s life.”, he says.

Before Twilight, he had small parts in CSI, Six Feet Under, the remake of Beverly Hills 90210. In spite of that, the work he feels most proud of is Generation Kill, the miniseries about the Iraq war filmed by David Simon for HBO, the acclaimed creator of “The Wire”. The conflict touches him really closely: his brother, marine since 10 years old, is destined there. “It’s based on a true story and that made it more challenging. I believe I’ve matured many years in just seven months of shooting in Africa. I saw parts of the world that I had no idea and I fell in love with Cape Town. I had never been in a place where the land transmitted so much energy before.”

Lutz doesn’t deny the fame, despite the harassment of the fans: “The attention from the fans is funny and I feel flattered. Everyone I’ve met was so adorable and sweet that I only hope that what I do in the movies make them happy.” He’s not so kind about the paparazzi. In an interview, he said: “There are a lot of things I want to do and before I used to do them normally, like just go shopping: now I go out and they appear everywhere. I don’t like it all the time. I don’t read what they say about me on the internet, it would be very sad.” However, he’s not one of those who shield to press questions. For example, he confesses that his biggest vice is the competitiveness and his biggest virtues are that he’s easygoing and is always looking for the fun side of life. Not in vain, his motto is “In life never stop dreaming, for in dreams we never stop living”. He’s very close to his Twilight co-stars, especially Ashley Greene.

Next? He will have a part in another saga, this time a thriller one, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and in the debut of the director Dermont Mulroney, Love, Wedding, Marriage, and he will play Poseidon in Immortals, a movie that’s being shot and will be released in 2011. Besides that, all rumors seem to point that next year he will become Captain America in the version about the Marvel hero Paramount is preparing. He doesn’t confirm it, but he doesn’t deny either, but says: “My goal is to become an action star. I take my training really serious, also I have always been so conscientious to be able to do my own stunts in the movies. I’m really focused in my goal and I know I’ll make it. Hard work is always rewarded.”

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