'Twilight' star Elizabeth Reaser gets tough with matriarch role in 'Eclipse'

'Twilight' star Elizabeth Reaser gets tough with matriarch role in 'Eclipse'



She just turned 35, but Elizabeth Reaser makes a convincing mother figure to the adult stars of "The Twilight Saga."

In "Eclipse," opening Wednesday, the Michigan-born and Juilliard-educated Reaser returns as Esme Cullen. She also plays Emma Roberts' mom in "Homework," in theaters later this year.

On being a vamp: "With Esme, most of the time we see these great, loving, motherly, warm qualities in her. But that's just because her life's going really well for the most part. In this movie, her family is in danger, so suddenly she has to kick into vampire mode. She's fast and murderous and powerful and can kill people if she has to. Now that Bella's in danger, which endangers our whole family, she has to kick some ass."

On playing a mom: "It's funny to me that I do play a lot of mothers. And it's interesting that people see me as that. I'm curious if I have some sort of warmth or something that I'm communicating. I'm not a mother, and I don't think in that way, so it's been a challenge."

On attending Juilliard in NYC: "Ever since I was a little girl, my parents would bring us to New York and we would see Broadway shows like 'Dreamgirls' and 'The Pirates of Penzance.' And I was just obsessed. I was like, 'I want to be a New York actress.' In fact, I made my dad buy me this license plate that literally says, 'New York Actress.' And I put it up on my wall. That was always my dream."