Twilight Shocker: Peter Facinelli wasn’t first pick for Carlise Cullen

The Twilight film franchise, based on Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling young adult novels, captivated audiences with the release of the first film in 2008. Of course, the focal point of the saga was Edward Cullen and Bella Swan, star-crossed lovers caught in a web of rivaling vampires, werewolves, and unsuspecting humans. However, Edward’s vampire family, the Cullen’s, provided memorable characters. The actors who portrayed them have gone on to have lasting notoriety, thanks to their Twilight characters.

To “Twihards”, diehard fans of the series, Peter Facinelli will always be the kindly patriarch of his vampire brood, the good doctor Carlisle Cullen. However, Teen Vogue reports that Facinelli was not the first choice for his most iconic film role.

The revelation came by way of Facinelli’s appearance on onscreen Twilight daughter Ashley Greene’s podcast “The Twilight Effect”. Greene portrayed the clairvoyant, Alice Cullen. Facinelli revealed to Greene that before his audition, he was quite taken with the source material in Meyer’s book.

After staying up until 2 a.m. reading what he called a “beautiful love story,” Facinelli came away thinking, “I went home and I was really amped and I thought it’d be really fun to get that role…I really liked the material.”

Facinelli’s wish wasn’t quite granted at once, however. He was put on the shortlist for the role, but ultimately another actor was chosen. Facinelli noted to Greene that there were concerns that he looked too young for the role.

However, as Facinelli related, “They (Production) called and said that the actor they cast…something had happened,” and production began considering actors on their shortlist to portray Dr. Cullen.

Following his audition, Facinelli sent director Catherine Hardwicke a vampire-themed coffee table book as a gift. He also left a note in the book, expressing his wish to work together in the future. Impressed, Hardwicke suggested Facinelli out of the shortlisted actors.

Facinelli and Twilight fans lucked out, and he told Greene jokingly, “I always joked that I bought my role for $29.99.”