'Eclipse' Star Jodelle Ferland Recalls The Major Secrecy Behind 'Bree Tanner' Manuscript

The "Twilight" world was abuzz last week when Stephenie Meyer announced she would be released a new novella in her vampire saga. The new book focuses on the character of Bree Tanner, who only appears for 10 pages in "Eclipse."

With the character of Bree already cast to 15-year-old Jodelle Ferland, she was very much in demand last week, especially after Stephenie released a photo showing Jodelle had read (and destroyed) a copy of "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner." Canadian TV news program Urban Rush was lucky enough to get a chance to speak with Jodelle.

"I was allowed to read it because obviously I was playing Bree Tanner so they wanted me to have sort of a background for me to be able to play her better," Jodelle explained. It sounds similar to when Robert Pattinson was allowed to read an unfinished copy of "Midnight Sun" — "Twilight" told from Edward Cullen's perspective — before the filming of the first movie.

However, because of the leaked versions of "Midnight Sun" that made their way to the Internet during that time, Jodelle had very strict restrictions when it came to reading "Short Second Life."

"I was allowed to read the story, but I had to actually go to set to read it. I couldn't have a copy because they have to be careful. I had to sit in a trailer with somebody there with me at all times because people can take pictures or whatever they want," Jodelle said.



She explained the circumstances surrounding the humorous photo that shows her sitting next to a bucket filled with the ashes of her copy of the novella.

"After I read the story, we were supposed to destroy it, get rid of it, but, since we were filming on location, we didn't really have a shredder or anything. We didn't exactly know what to do and then it kind of came to us: well, we can just burn it," she said. "We put it in a bucket and we burnt it and threw a match in there. It was actually kind of hard. It took forever to burn."

Jodelle, as well as Bryce Dallas Howard, Xavier Samuel, director David Slade and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg all were allowed to read a copy of "Short Second Life" before filming began. It made it all the more impressive that the novella was kept a secret until last week.

"I wasn't even allowed to tell anyone about it before," Jodelle said. "I already knew that it had been written, but I wasn't sure exactly what was happening with it, like if it was coming out as its own book."

As for whether Bree would end up getting her own movie as well, Jodelle said she would definitely interested. "That would be amazing. I don't know exactly what their plans are but obviously if that happens I would totally do it," she said.