You knew her as the thirteen year old who drank, smoked and fucked – but now meet the twenty year old who’s about to hit mega fame as blood sucking and bitchy vampire in current phenomenon Twilight.

by Jen McNeely

While you were playing spin the bottle in the basement, worrying how to untangle braces from pimply face loser, Nikki Reed had already written a screenplay and starred in award winning indie film ‘Thirteen’.

Seven years later, this intelligent and sexy starlet has left her rebellious teen years behind her and now hits the screen as a vampire for the most anticipated film series since Harry Potter or Lord of The Rings. With advance box office sales reaching record numbers and hundreds of fan sites teeming with excitement, it’s possible that her debut as Rosalie Cullen in Twilight, will be the climax of her career. Daunting for a young woman? We caught up with Reed in the penthouse of the Soho hotel and she dished what it’s like being a blood sucking teenage icon.

When initially reading the screenplay, Reed had no knowledge of the book; which has incidentally sold over seventeen million copies worldwide, not to mention held the No. 1 spot on New York Times bestseller list for ninety one weeks.

“I read all of the books and read the script and people were like, ‘this is very exciting, the books are very popular’ but it wasn’t this big frenzy that it is now. I think that since the film was announced, the hype has been amplified. When Kristen (Kristen Stewart who plays starring role Bella Swan) and I were flying here from New York – literally everybody in our seating section were reading ‘Breaking Dawn’ and ‘New Moon, Eclipse.’ I was going ‘OMG, you got to be killing me!” It happened over the course of shooting …when we all started hearing crazy things like people are flying across the country to go to screening. I mean – that just doesn’t happen, I mean, I know I’m young but this is the first film I’ve seen in my generation with this young teenage girl craziness.

With everyone drooling over Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) the pale faced wolf-like seventeen year old vampire, I ask Reed:

“Do you find vampires sexy?”

“My idea of an aesthetically pleasing man is not the really pale, sick type.”

“So why are girls everywhere are having wet dreams over a guy who wants to tear into their neck suck back blood?”

“I suppose there is something really worldly about them (vampires), the fact that they’ve lived for hundreds or thousands of years. They’ve seen it all, they’ve been everywhere .You can compare it to an older man…younger girls who like dating older men; there is something very cultured about them. Goth girls who are into pale rocker dudes would really like a vampire.”

The hotel suite was a tizzy of excitement. There were at least four other people in the room with us. Kristen and Robert were being interviewed ten feet away and about a dozen media were waiting in queue downstairs in the open concept suite, while being shushed by publicists.

Although I could have chatted with Nikki all night, ideally getting sauced and asking the really tough questions, I was flagged with the one minute left gesture. F*CK!

I decided to return to the Nikki Reed character I know, the tongue studded teen terror that drank, smoked, fucked – and tumbled out of control while girls her age were still playing school with their Barbie’s.

“How have you changed since you were thirteen? How have you grown up?”

“Wow – that’s a loaded question. I moved out, after I shot that movie. I moved out when I was fourteen years old I lived by myself before I had a driver’s license, I dropped out of school because I couldn’t get to school. I mean….we all grow. I just turned twenty in May and it was the first time I felt like I was going to be held accountable…there were consequences. It’s been a really bizarre year for me because a lot of my motivation is through spontaneity. I travel a lot, I go wherever I want, whenever I want, I have really big authority issues. I feel like I can no longer call my Dad and say ‘Yeah Dad, I’m living in Russia right now, what are you going to do? I’m seventeen – let me live”

Looking at Reed I can’t help but wonder why she left home at fourteen? Why she has spent the last seven years rebelliously jet setting around the world? It is obvious that she is wise beyond her years and has lived seven lives before even turning twenty one. Like the vampire Rosalie, she appears almost tired from so much living.

“So what’s next in the cards?”

“I have two screenplays that are complete…but I really need to write a book.”

“What about acting?”

“I won’t be an actor forever…I’m not cut out for it. I’m not cut out for the criticism I’m sensitive. I’ve had a pretty controversial career umm – it’s been talked about, I would rather use other areas of my mind. I mean, I don’t want to focus on what you inevitably end up focusing on when you are a young actor in this business.”

Straight up, no bull shit, no PR filter – Reed speaks the truth with confidence; a rare trait for a young adult in show biz, but this is exactly why we love her.