Kellan Lutz at the premiere of "Generation Kill" held at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, Calif. on July 8, 2008.

Coming from a big family that he admits keeps him in check, the 23-year-old L.A. resident is hoping to explore as many types of characters as possible, in both film and television. Lutz, who also does charity work with kids, recently spoke with MediaBlvd Magazine, about how excited he is to be a part of the Twilight phenomenon.

MediaBlvd Magazine> Where are you from, and how did you end up out in Los Angeles?

Kellan Lutz> I’m from North Dakota. Growing up, I moved around the Midwest and landed in Arizona, where my mother remarried, around high school. I had so many siblings that it was a financial issue, as far as going to a better school, because of all the boys. So, however hard you worked in school and the scholarships you got, that’s where you could go. We had limitations, so I worked my butt off to get to any school in California just because my father had been living there since I was six. That’s when the divorce happened. And, I really wanted to get close to him because I never really had much of a relationship with him. I’d see him once or twice a year. So, our plan worked and I ended up getting a lot of scholarships for a lot of schools there, and I chose Orange County’s Chapman University to attend, just because it was the O.C. and it was closer to my father. And, the school was great and they gave me the most money. I was going there for chemical engineering. It was kind of crazy, but I love chemistry and engineering. It was one of those things that my mother just pushed me towards the most.

MediaBlvd> How did you get into acting, and have you had any formal training?

 Kellan> I’ve been modeling since I was 13 or 14, right when I hit Arizona. I was trying to make extra money. Once I got to L.A., the modeling market was a lot bigger, so I was like, “Wow, you can make this much money? That’s 10 times as much money as in Arizona!” And then, I saw that everyone and their mother was an actor. I used to do little theater stuff for my church, growing up, like every year doing the Christmas play and Oliver Twist, and fun stuff like that. But, I had no real training, so I got into some classes. I saw some fliers that were on every stop sign that said, “Hey, come to the Actor’s Studio,” or “Come study here,” so I did that. I saw the passion in everyone’s eyes, and just really fell for it and loved it and wanted it. I saw how much fun people were having, enjoying life. In a way, it keeps you young. So, I started doing that, and I found myself a manager. I remember my first call-back was on finals day of my first semester at Chapman. I had to decide what to do. I thought call-backs meant that it would be down to me and one other guy, and I would get the role. I couldn’t do finals because I thought that would start my career. And, wow, was I wrong! I did the call-back and didn’t go further at all. I realized there were three other call-backs after that, and then a screen test, and then you get it. I was really bummed, and I failed all those classes. The hardest decision in my life was to tell my mother, “Hey, mom, I want to pursue this other thing.” And, she had no idea what acting really was. Coming from the Midwest, acting was unheard of. We had four or five channels back then, and you never really thought that real people were on these shows. I never even knew acting was a profession and an occupation. So, I put school on hold. You can always go back to school. I was 18, at the time, and I just wanted to do it. I didn’t really have too much support from my mother, with that decision. I was on my own. But, thank god my father was there. I just hung out with him when I was lonely or just wanted to hang out because I didn’t really know anyone in California. I really just put all of me into what I was going to do, and got myself an agent and went to as many classes as I could. I learned as much as I could, as fast as I could. I have a great team now. They’ve been pushing me and the ball’s been rolling great. I have no regrets. I love the decision I made, and I always will. And now, my mother is happy because I brought her to the Stick It premiere for Disney. It was a gymnastics movie. She looked so beautiful, and just had so much fun seeing what Hollywood and acting really is, and that it’s not the negative occupation that she thought it was. Everything is great now.

MediaBlvd> How did you get involved with Generation Kill? Was it through the regular auditioning process, or had they seen you in something you had done?

Kellan> It came out a year prior and, for some reason, the casting and the production was just falling apart, so it disappeared for a year. And, I had really wanted it. I really wanted to play a Marine. Then, it came back, and I was thrilled. I had worked with HBO before, so my team called ahead of time and said, “Kellan is really interested in this, so just make sure you watch the tape,” because they were getting thousands of tapes. I auditioned for it, and the casting director just really had a great eye, as far as what was going to be needed. It takes a special kind of actor to be able to work for seven months in a third world country with 30-some odd men, and to get along and to not lose your mind and go crazy. I really thank the casting director for allowing me to play Jason Lilley. I just had the best time ever doing it.

MediaBlvd> What can you say about the mini-series to get people interested in watching it, especially for those who might be weary of watching a war film?

Kellan> I really think it comes down to commercializing. Thank god we have HBO, where something like this can be so true to its colors and not have to sugar-coat stuff. With shows like Over There, it’s for a network and you have to get the audience. With HBO, they don’t care about the numbers. They’ve already made the mini-series, so it’s not like it’s going to be cancelled. So, with having that fear gone, we were painting the truest picture ever captured of the Marine Corp. and what happened. I have a brother who’s still currently in the Marines, and just showing him pieces of what happened, he loved it. He was like, “Kellan, that is exactly what happened.” There’s humor, there’s action, there’s people getting their heads blown off. It can capture such a wide audience, not just of people who do understand the Marine Corp., but people who don’t understand what it’s about will really get drawn into it. It really just paints the picture of the 2003 Recon Marines. They were the best of the best, in training, tactical weaponry and everything. And, they spear-headed the invasion of Bagdad without any deaths, which was quite remarkable.

MediaBlvd> How does your character fit in with the rest of the characters?

Kellan> Jason Lilley is the coolest. I loved talking to him, and I loved playing him. He’s just such a cool guy. Our division was the 2-1 Bravo Division. Within the 2-1 Bravo, Alex Skarsgard is playing Colbert, who is the Sergeant of the 2-1 Alpha Bravo Team, and Lilley is the driver of the 2-1 Bravo Bravo Team. The main team leading our convey was run by Colbert, who had so many men on his team that he needed two vehicles. He had Sergeant Espera (Jon Huertas) be his second-in-command, and James Ransone, playing Person, was ahead of me. The driver’s job is crazy. You drive all the time and the seats are terrible. And, when there’s fire-fights, you have to drive and shoot at the same time, and sometimes wear your night-vision goggles. Just being an actor, trying to portray it, I was like, “How the heck did they do all this?” It’s amazing. And, they do it so well.

MediaBlvd> Was this the first time you’ve played someone who you could actually talk to?

Kellan> Yeah, I believe so, and I really loved that. It just really made me want to be as true as I could to him because it is someone who is alive. I didn’t want to look bad. I wanted to do the best I could for him. I talked to him to see how he talked. He’s from the San Fernando Valley, and he’s still in the Marine Corp., and he has a baby and a wife, and he’s doing sniper training right now. The more information I could draw from him, it helped me to become him.

MediaBlvd> Did you participate in the actor boot camp?

Kellan> I loved the boot camp. I think it was originally supposed to be three and a half weeks, and they had to shorten it down to two, but having Rudy Reyes and Eric Kocher, who are just animals and can run 100 miles a day, without even sweating, they pushed us. And, Rudy is such an inspirational speaker that, when we were getting tired, he’d be like, “Come on, Kellan! You’ve got this!” You want to impress them. You want them to be like, “Okay, this guy’s a real man.” I used to love to wrestle. Having brothers, it was really fun, taking some of the other actors down. Yeah, we are actors, so we aren’t ever going to need to learn how to lift a truck and carry it so far, but they wanted to prepare us for what they went through, just so that we had the knowledge of it. But, we definitely had it easier than the real boys. It was a lot of fun, learning Jujitsu, and doing obstacle courses, and doing wheelbarrow races, and push-up drills, and abs and crunches, for hours upon hours. And then, we’d run, and I normally hate running. I love swimming, so I wished we had pools. Especially being all over South Africa, in Mozambique and Namibia, there was so much beautiful scenery there that a lot of the guys would get together at six in the morning and go for a run. I really found a passion for running, which was really cool. The training was really, really intense. People threw up, every day. The best part about it was that we’d have classroom training also, just like at real boot camp, and they would talk to us about all the weaponry and what the rounds would do and how far they would go. Just seeing all of us actors, wearing all of our Marine get-up in the classroom, we were Marines, at that point. It was real. It was really cool.

MediaBlvd> Did you enjoy the experience of working in such a large ensemble of actors?

Kellan> In Namibia, we actually had our own beachfront houses, so we weren’t really close to anyone. It wasn’t really a necessity to talk to anyone, so a lot of times, we found our own little cliques within the boot camp. And then, we went to South Africa, and we were in Upington, and they rented out the whole hotel to us, which was about 40 rooms. It was like a frat house. We had every room for us actors, and we would watch movies downstairs, or people would be joking and playing board games and eating. That’s where the comradery really came in. I believe the casting director really thought about, “Is this guy going to be easy to work with? He’s a great actor, but is he going to be a pain for seven months, or is he going to be able to do it?” Let’s be honest, anyone could play Jason Lilley, and anyone could play some of the other guys. Yes, I made choices that I think helped me to get it, but I’m not saying that I’m the only one who could play him. There are a lot of surfer-type, blonde-haired, blue-eyed guys out there. But, it was great. We made it easy. There were no fights at all. It was just guys being guys, and we had so much fun.

MediaBlvd> Even though it’s a very different type of ensemble, you worked in an ensemble again for Twilight. What was that experience like? And, did you do any bonding ahead of time, so that you could appear as close as the Cullen family is in the books?

Kellan> Yeah, we actually really tried for that. Lucky for me, I knew a lot of the cast members. They were my friends, so it was really easy to step in there and be Emmett. As far as with Nikki Reed and myself, I hadn’t really hung out with her, so it was my mission, as well as hers, to make the relationship of Rosalie and Emmett, and be able to portray a realness on screen. We’re married and we pretend to be siblings, so we had to feel each other out and know the quirkiness of it all. So, we’d hang out and go to dinner all the time, and we built puzzles and just did random stuff. The cast would all hang out off the set because we were all around the same age range and it was such a great cast to work with. Everyone was really cool. We’d all go to dinner, or go to the bar next door and listen to the bands play, and just relax. We had some hard shoot days with a lot of stunts.

MediaBlvd> Was it a short shooting schedule?

Kellan> Yeah, it was. But, we rehearsed the heck out of all the scenes for a week and a half. I loved doing that. You can get everything down before you actually have to do it.

MediaBlvd> How did you originally get involved with Twilight?

Kellan> Actually, it was brought to my attention while I was in Africa, in October of ‘07. It was right when I was almost done with Generation Kill. I remember telling my agent, at the beginning of ‘07, that I wanted to play a Marine, a vampire and a boxer. It’s good to have goals because that way you can stay productive and, when those projects come up, they’ll know, “Oh, yeah, this is something Kellan really wants to do.” So, the vampire thing came up, they sent me the script and I loved it. At the time, my agent was sending me out for Edward, the main character. I read it and it was just too hard to put myself on tape because I was in a third world country and, if you send a DVD, there’s probably 1/10 of a chance that it will get to America. I don’t care to be the lead of everything. I just like playing characters that really grab me. So, when I saw the character of Emmett, I thought he would just be such a cool character to play. I was like, “Hey, I want this Emmett guy. He’s cool.”And then, the project was cast. I wasn’t able to put myself on tape, and everything was golden for it, so I was just like, “Okay, onto the next one.” Then, in December, I finished Generation Kill and came back to America and just told my team I wanted to take a break and go see family. I have a life in L.A. I’m not an actor who can just leave and not come back. I have a dog and a lot of family here and a lot of cool roommates, so I just really wanted to relax. And, seven months was really draining. I was just hanging out. I was going to go to Iowa and see my grandparents, and go back to Arizona and see my mom. And then, in late January, I was back in L.A. and I was told that Twilight was back. The actor who was playing Emmett fell through, for whatever reason. So, I said, “Get me in there!” The next day, my agent said, “Your audition is tomorrow. If they like you, they’re going to fly you to Oregon the next day.” I went to the audition and there were five of my other friends there and, in the end, they liked me and this other guy. Then, it came down to them liking me, just a little bit more. I really think Ashley Greene put in a good word and said, “Kellan’s awesome to work with!” I had a lot of people rooting for me. So, they flew me out to Oregon that night, and I had to audition for Catherine Hardwicke the next morning, at 8 o’clock. It just happened so fast, and I only packed one outfit. So, I did the audition at 8 o’clock, and Catherine liked me a lot and said, “You’re my perfect Emmett! You’re it!” And, I was so excited because I was playing a vampire. I loved the script and I loved Emmett. Then, they sent me home a couple days later and I packed up. I was just so excited. And, I really didn’t realize what Twilight was. I honestly didn’t realize the huge cult following, and that there were so many books. I was just excited that someone wrote an amazing script that was so sensual. It’s beautiful. It’s a love story about a vampire and a human girl, and what they can and cannot do. It was just really cool. So, once I found out that there were books, I did myself some reading and fell in love with the whole series.

Kellan Lutz at the premiere of "Generation Kill" held at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, Calif. on July 8, 2008.

Kellan> No, it doesn’t freak me out. I like it. It makes me smile. I don’t really get weirded out by anything in life. Nothing really grosses me out. I grew up on a farm, seeing pigs slaughtered. I’m a freak and would love to be on Fear Factor. The fans are super-cool. I haven’t had any issues. I welcome it. I love talking to them because this is for them. This is a secondary Bible to some of them. They love the books. Having my hair black and not curly was life or death. This is for them. Nothing really scares me. Even when they found our hotel rooms while we were filming, I was happy to chat with them. It was really cool. The fans are great.

MediaBlvd> As an actor, when you’re playing a character that’s a vampire, how do you find something to identify with? Since you can’t draw from personal experience, in that regard, how do you go about playing someone like that and understanding what he’s about?     

Kellan> I really feel lucky to be Emmett because, when Rosalie came and brought him to Carlisle, Emmett is one of the few that really is indifferent, as far as being a vampire. Unlike Edward, who finds it a negative that he can’t die and he has to live like this forever, Emmett is such a worry-free soul. He just loves it. He’s like, “I get to live forever, fly, jump far and have extra strength.” As an actor, I’m trying to portray the free will of it. It’s not really a complex story, like the other characters might have. I just tried to have him enjoy it, the most he can.

MediaBlvd> Having wanted to play a vampire, were you disappointed at all that you didn’t get to wear any fangs?

Kellan> In the beginning, I was like, “You’re kidding me, right? Give me fangs! I want fangs!” But, no, not at all. I really think that’s the beauty of it. They really humanize us, which hasn’t been done that much. Everyone sees the cliched Dracula with the fangs and the blood coming off of him, whereas us Cullens do want to try to fit in. We don’t want to look scary or stand out. Yeah, we have pale skin and cool eyes, but I really like the humanization of it all.

MediaBlvd> Had you been familiar with Catherine’s previous work? What was she like to work with, as a director?

Kellan> I always thought her work was so beautiful. With Lords of Dogtown and Thirteen, that documentary style is my favorite because you really get drawn in, as an audience member. To see and to feel and to be in that situation that’s being captured on film was amazing. There’s very few movies out there that make me emotional and draw me in. I’ve always loved how she shot stuff and her direction. I’ve always been a fan, so personally working with her, and seeing how cool and hippie-like she is and carefree, and yet she knows exactly what she wants, was great. She’s an actor’s director. It’s not all business with her. It was such an amazing experience. It was so much fun to work with her. She’s so cool.

MediaBlvd> What is your involvement with the new CW 90210 series?

 Kellan> I love that show. It’s going amazing. The cast is so cool. I’m working with a lot of friends, which always makes it easy. My character, George Evans, is the cocky dick of the school who just doesn’t care. He’s from a rich family. If he got suspended, he’d pay his way out. He’s supposed to be the lacrosse star, and then Dixon (Tristan Wilds) comes in and steals his thunder, so he really gets pissed. He never likes to be second place. I’m having a lot of fun playing him. I can’t wait for his story to develop some more.

MediaBlvd> Do you know how many episodes you’re going to be in?

Kellan> A million because the show will last forever [laughs]. I’m in the first three, for sure. And, they can take it wherever they want. I’m just happy to be a part of it. Being a recurring character is amazing as well.

MediaBlvd> You seem to play very different types of characters. Is that intentional, or has it just worked out that way because you responded to something in these projects?

Kellan> It’s definitely both. It’s something that we’ve worked for. In the beginning of every year, I sit down with my team and I tell them the roles I’d like to play because, as with a lot of other actors, there are a lot of other actors out there like me. I have blonde hair and blue eyes, and I’m big enough to play the stupid jock or the star football player. Being choosy allows me to not be typecast. I really enjoy playing a lot of different characters. I’ve gone from a Marine to a vampire to a jock, and I’ve changed my hair and grown it out. Now, I’m playing high school again. I’m not afraid of being typecast, but I love being able to switch it up and seeing how far I can go with the boundaries.

MediaBlvd> Are you looking to continue to do a mixture of film and television, or do you hope to focus more on film in the future?

Kellan> I’ve always been a film junkie. I love doing film because you can play different characters and you shoot all over the place. But, to be honest, I love TV as well. I’d love to do two movies and then do TV for 13 episodes, and then another two movies. Usually, movies do shoot out of town, and I have so much here in L.A. Thank god, I finally got something that shoots in L.A., so I can be around my dog and my family and friends. It’s just really nice to go back and forth.

MediaBlvd> Is there a type of project or role that you’re hoping to do in the future, that you haven’t had the chance to do yet?

Kellan> Yeah, I’d really like to play a very complex druggie. I’d love to be able to show some depth and to cry and to show life’s troubles. It’s tough for a lot of guys to be taken seriously as a kid who could have problems, as far as scripts go. They look for that brunette kid with long hair who’s skinny. I’d really love to tackle that. I love the edgier stuff and the independent stuff.

MediaBlvd> What is the Royal Family Kids’ Camp, and why is it so important for you to be involved with, and give your time to, something like that?

Kellan> I love kids! I’ve grown up seeing a lot of issues. I’ve lived out of a van, a lot of times in my life. After the divorce, I had it really hard and we were scraping pennies. I didn’t live out of a box or anything, but poverty was around. I love kids. I can’t wait to have a couple Kellans running around. I can’t wait to be a father. It’s not a rush right now, but when it happens, it’s going to be awesome. And, I did the Boys & Girls Club when I was in Arizona and it was great, just being able to reach out to these kids and give them an adult figure, or an elder, who they can actually look up to, and have someone show them love and help them feel love. Coming to California, I found the Royal Family Kids’ Camp. From Sunday to Friday, we throw this week-long camp, down at Point Loma University, and we have these kids from group homes and kids who were molested, growing up. They have all these issues inside and they’ve never been loved, and they’ve never known who their mother or father is. A lot of times, they’ve never even had a birthday. And so, the last day that we’re there, we throw a giant birthday for all of them, and we give them birthday presents and cupcakes and we sing “Happy Birthday.” Seeing these kids melt down and say, “Is this really for me?,” is really heartbreaking. Having them call me daddy, I just want to take them home and give them a world that they’ve never had. It’s gut-wrenching to say goodbye. And, a lot of times, they’re crying, holding onto your leg, saying, “I don’t want to leave! I had the best time here!” There are Royal Family Kids’ Camps all around the world. That’s what’s so amazing about it. It’s not just local. There are divisions, all across the nation, as well as internationally. It’s quite an amazing program, and it’s very rewarding to do. I just love it. I love kids, and I love giving back. It’s fun.

MediaBlvd> How do you stay so level-headed and keep everything in such perspective?

Kellan> I didn’t grow up, wanting to be an actor, so I don’t cry or get depressed when I don’t get a call-back. I look at acting as a hobby. I love it. I have the most fun doing it, and I’d love to do it for the rest of my life. I’m pushing myself to do the best that I can and I take it very seriously, but in the end, I’m not going to cry if I don’t work. I have the most fun just being normal and doing regular stuff. That differs from people who move out from somewhere like Florida, who have to make it their first year or it’s the end of the world, and they become depressed and move back home because they’re a failure. You can’t just become a movie star. I feel for the people who just want to be famous because your eyes are going to be opened. It’s not pretty when you’re working, and then you’ve got six months where you aren’t. You feel like a failure. It’s tough, and a lot of people lose sight of who they really are. I have great parents. As hard as it was, my mother was a great mother. She put great feet on me and a good head on my shoulders.

MediaBlvd> Because your family was not very supportive, initially, in your decision to become an actor, does it make your current success that much more rewarding for you?

Kellan> It really does. It’s crazy, going from one extreme to the other. I think it was about acceptance, just like with anyone. When you give my grandparents a computer, they’re fearful. They’re like, “What is this thing that types and has a screen?” It’s that fear of the unknown. My mother is the same way. And, I might be that same way when my kid brings me home this tele-communicating time-travel device. I’ll be like, “Oh, put that down son!” She just wasn’t educated on what really was going on, and that I was in good hands. I learned a lot, and I had to learn fast because L.A. is a different world. She’s really supportive now. She came out to my Generation Kill premiere with my step-father, who was actually in the Air Force, and it was fun, bringing them out here. They drove out, and I took them to dinner and paid for it. I wanted to do that because they’ve done so much for me and now it’s all about giving back. I had a lot of help, throughout the years. I remember telling my mom, when I was in middle school, “One day I’m going to build your dream house. Whatever you want, I’m going to build it.” It was such a dream, but it’s actually going to come true, one day. It’s going to be fun to actually do that.