New Face Friday: Marlane Barnes talks 'Breaking Dawn - Part 2'

The latest "New Face Friday" interview was held over at Twilight Facebook, and focused on Marlene Barnes, who portrays Maggie in the Irish Coven!
Check out the interview below!

 

Q: Your character Maggie knows when people are telling lies. Are you good at telling when people are lying to you in real-life?
Marlane: I like to think I'm a pretty good judge of character now. I feel like that's one of the things that acting has done for me is you get to see when people are acting.

Q: Did Stephenie Meyer talk with you at all about your character?
Marlane: You know, I actually didn't talk much with Stephenie about my character on set, I know that Lisa [Howard] did, but yeah I didn't really get a chance to do that. I was interested that when I read the - cause you know she put out that comprehensive fan book - and I was interested to see that a lot of the choices I had made for Maggie were pretty similar to what she already had in mind, so I feel like we just kind of both knew... that we were on the same page.

Q: So did you fan-girl on her a little bit?
Marlane: You know, I actually had not read the books before I was cast. I read them once I was going to take the part in the film, so for me ... Yeah, I don't know, I guess I was a little afraid of her. She's like this reigning queen of this huge world, and she's very busy and was on set a lot doing very important things, so I just kind of had my brush-ins when I did and tried not to interfere the rest of the time. But yeah she's really lovely and very sweet to everybody and very involved in the film, I think probably just as much as anybody else.

Q: What was it like to see yourself in your full costume and makeup and the vampire eyes for the first time?
Marlane: It's pretty amazing, actually. You know, cause the costume designer Michael [Wilkinson] was really open with us about like 'Oh, do you like this? Do you like that?' and I remember just kind of being like, 'Oh yes, yes, yes, all of that.' It wasn't until later that I was like why did I agree to these high-heeled boots? You know, everything came together in this way that really I feel like gave the Irish Coven a sense of time and place, and you know the eyes do a lot of the work for you. You put those red vampire eyes in and you don't even really have to do any acting because you just are cool. I think that was pretty awesome.

Q: What was your favorite day on set?
Marlane: My favorite day on the set was probably the day we put together the flash mob for Bill Condon. That was the same day that we were doing the press kit, and getting together to try and do our posters, so we were doing the photography for those. And we were also shooting, and then also Lee Pace and Mia Maestro came up with this idea to do this flash mob, and Toni Trucks got on board, and she kind of dance-captained the whole thing, and everybody, actually met at lunch which is like 6:00 on set time, and we got together and learned this dance and it was kind of a last day of summer camp kind of feel to it... I mean, I know a lot of people compare making  the Twilight movies to camp, but I think there's a lot of truth to that, and everybody did it and no one was too cool for school and we got out there and they had the Assistant Director and the DP [Director of Production] and the sound guy all in on this joke, and the only person who didn't know was Bill, and I think some of the crew knew kind of something was going on, and the Volturi kind of knew something was going on. So getting out on the field and just kind of busting into this dance was a really amazing experience. I don't think it's something you can ever recreate.

Q: Any talk of this dance-off or flash mob making it onto the DVD?
Marlane: You know, we did have a guy on set who was doing behind-the-scenes footage, and I know that he was forewarned about it and got some footage of it, but I also know that because we did it to 'Sweet Dreams Are Made of These' and you know they don't have the rights to that song, so there's a lot of confusion as to whether or not they could actually put it on the DvD... So, I'm excited myself to see if it shows up there because it was a really fun thing to do.

Q: Can you share with us who was the best dancer?
Marlane: Oh goodness... I mean, Guri [Weinberg] and Noel [Fisher] are probably the funniest men I know. Together, they are the quite dynamic duo, and I seem to remember their involvement being pretty comical. So, I'm going to go ahead and vote or Team Romanians on that.

Q: Speaking of other castmates, were you surprised when you saw anybody else's costume?
Marlane: I was really surprised at how beautiful the Denalis' were, frankly. I don't think I had thought very much about what an Alaskan coven would look like, and all the fur and the leather, I just thought they looked really beautiful and it all looked great together. So, I'm going to vote for them, especially Casey [LaBow]'s outfit. I don't wear fur myself, but I thought it really looked good, you know? It really looked authentic.

Q: What did it feel like coming into an established franchise? You know, did you feel like the new kid?
What was it like joining the cast?
Marlane: Right, well, because there were so many of us that were new, and because the production crew really took us by the hand and we never had to worry like where we had to be and that kind of thing, and just the sheer number of us that walked in together... I don't know, it wasn't as awkward as it seems like it should've been. Because there was so many of us, it was not like being the new kid in school because you know there were twenty-five new kids and we outnumbered the school. So, you know, it was new for everybody and I think that made it easier, but I feel like the cast that were already there were really welcoming and you know excited to have new people on-board, so yeah it was a good experience, really.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about how long you had to keep it a secret that you were cast and when you could finally tell, who was the first person you told that you got cast in a Twilight movie?
Marlane: Oh, sure, well they did not tell me that I had to keep it a secret, so I told my mom right away and most of my family and close friends, but then it kind of came down that 'Oh, you know, if you put anything online,' and I have a pretty private Facebook account anyway, so I feel like it was only close friends that knew about it for quite a few months, 'cause I got cast in September [2010], and I don't think they came out with the cast list until maybe October of that year, and they were kind of releasing certain names here and there and it kind of took a while for my coven to come out. So, this whole process has been like... You know, you have to keep like little things to yourself to keep it fun for everyone and exciting, so that's definitely part of it.

Q: Any Twi-hards in that list of friends who were especially excited?
Marlane: Yeah! You know, one of my very closest friends from school was really into Twilight while we were in school. She used to watch it all the time. She and her roommate would just sit and watch it all day together... I don't know how... they would just get all the movies that have come out so far and watch them over and over again, so she was pretty excited about that and pretty shocked I think. And it was surreal for me because I remembered her watching them, but I was never over there when she did it, so it was 'Oh yeah, I remember you were really big into that.' Yeah, so that was neat. And I have some cousins that are in high school, so that was pretty exciting for them as well.

Q: I was wondering, you play an Irish character, how do you prepare for that?
Marlane: Well, I actually got an MF [Master of Fine Arts] in acting and a lot of my training was in voice and dialect. So, I actually had already had an Irish dialect before I was cast, so I didn't have to worry about that, and then the rest of the work was just about brushing up on my Irish history and choosing my time period for Maggie and deciding for myself how she and Siobhan and Liam had come together, and that was the thing that I was most surprised about with what Stephenie Meyer put out in that companion book, that Siobhan and Liam had been together first and then they added me into it, and that first she and Liam didn't get along very well but then they all do, and I sort of thought like 'Oh, that's exactly how I think of it,' so I was pretty impressed that... I feel like her - and I've said this to someone else - I feel like the way that Stephenie writes, even if she doesn't specifically say all of the details she has in her head about these characters, I think it comes out in the writing anyway. Just the way that she envisions them and how they interact with one another. I feel like it's all there, you know?

Q: What was it like working with Patrick [Brennan] and Lisa on set?
Marlane: Oh, it was great working with Patrick and Lisa. Lisa is so much fun. She's a Broadway musical theater actress, so she's very jolly and we joked around a lot and sang a lot of songs, and Patrick is really just the perfect example of a gentleman giant. He's tall, he's sweet, and he's softspoken. You know, he's very heartfelt, so I couldn't have asked for a better couple of people to spend all that time with.