The original Twilight movie and its four sequels were known for many things, chief among them being catapulting the leading trio of Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner into super stardom that. Back during the late 2000s and 2010s, the three of them were hot young actors, to the point that you can’t fully imagine their respective roles of Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and Jacob Black being played by anyone else.
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As it turns out, we almost had a very different Edward in Josh Peck. During the most recent episode of his Good Guys podcast, which featured Lautner as a guest, the Drake & Josh star revealed that he’d auditioned to play the lead vampire, saying that his reps at the time told him to “audition for this movie, it’s based on a book and it’s going to be great. I send in my tape for Edward. A month later, I’m with my manager, and he goes, ‘It’s down to you and three guys. You’re close.’”
Peck recalled being surprised that he was that close in the running—”I haven’t even had a tummy tuck yet,” he said, referencing his pre-weight loss days. That was the biggest cause of his disbelief, since he figured that Edward’s “got to be so shirtless” at some point during the film. (He was, in both the first movie and the sequel Twilight: New Moon as part of a plan to kill himself.) He didn’t get it, and when he eventually watched Pattinson’s performance in the movies, he felt even more out of place. “Seeing R-Patz playing this part I’m like, ‘In what fucking world were they like, ‘OK, here’s what we’re thinking: Chris Hemsworth or Stanely Tucci?’ Like, what the fuck?” he said to Lautner. “Impossible. Impossible! So, we almost worked together.”
Over the years, Peck’s had a stable career in movies and TV, having recently appeared in Oppenheimer and How I Met Your Father. As stated earlier, the Twilight movies were extremely big back in the day, and led to Stewart and Pattinson taking on more riskier and interesting work with filmmakers like David Cronenberg, Claire Denis, and Bong Joon-Ho. (Lautner continues to act, but at a slower pace compared to his two co-stars.) Being Edward probably wouldn’t have led to Peck becoming the newest, freakiest Batman, but it definitely would’ve been interesting to see where his career would’ve gone from playing one of the leads in one of Nickelodeon’s most important shows (and also Casey Jones) to being a heartthrob in one of the biggest film franchises of the late 00s and 2010s.
[via The Hollywood Reporter]
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