Alex Meraz attends Supanova Brsbane Australia

Alex set for SuperNova Down Under
Twilight: New Moon star Alex Meraz at Supanova Brisbane pop culture expo



PRAY you don't run into Wolf Pack member Alex Meraz in a dark alley. No, he won't sink his teeth into you, but he might just let fly with a few karate chops.
"It's a weird thing because now I just naturally size people up," the Twilight star says of his extensive martial arts background.

"I'm talking to someone and I'm looking at them, (working out) how I can immobilise them."

Luckily we're talking over the phone about Meraz's appearance at the Supanova fan convention in Brisbane this weekend. And don't worry, he'll probably be amenable to requests for an autograph and photo.



Having practised martial arts since the age of nine, Meraz has emulated his idol Bruce Lee in making the jump to film, most notably in the Twilight sequel New Moon.

Of indigenous Mexican extraction, Meraz was attracted to the Twilight saga and its Native American component, but was too late for the first film.

"So then when I heard they were gonna do the second one I was like, OK, I wanna get in early enough this time, so at least I get a chance to audition for it," he recalls. "And luckily I got that chance, that opportunity, and it's been great ever since."

Meraz has now made his mark as a member of the supernatural Wolf Pack. He wasn't prepared for the overwhelming adulation of stardom, however.

"It's kind of odd a lot of times because I forget – I really, truly forget sometimes – how big this franchise is," he says.

"Like, I'll go out to get something to eat, and then people call my name, and then I'm thinking, 'Oh, do I know them?' It's a weird thing to try to understand. Y'know, I'm just Alex, I'm nobody different than you.

"And it was something that (fellow Twilight star) Kristen Stewart warned me about when I was working on New Moon. She just said, 'Don't try to understand it, just accept it for what it is'. It was definitely good advice."

Meraz will appear in the next Twilight instalment, Eclipse, later this year, but is yet to hear of plans for the follow-up, Breaking Dawn.

And he now finally gets to go to fan conventions, but he's on the inside looking out.

"I was a huge comic book/toy nerd, so I always wanted to go to different conventions, see comic books or see different actors that I'd seen in movies, but I never had the opportunity to," he says.

"So now that I'm a part of it . . . it's hard, because I wanna go to the different booths, the different vendors, I wanna see all the different stuff that a convention has. Maybe I should dress up like a Stormtrooper or something!"

Supanova Pop Culture Expo is at the RNA Showgrounds today and tomorrow. Other guests include Karl Urban (Star Trek, The Lord of the Rings), James Marsters (Buffy, Angel, Smallville, Caprica), Mary McDonnell from Battlestar Galactica, and comic icons Marv Wolfman and George Perez.