‘Twilight’s’ Ashley Greene finds change of pace in ‘Skateland’
BY DENNIS KING
NEW YORK – Attempting to stretch her wings beyond the confines of her “Twilight” character Alice Cullen, Ashley Greene has taken on a role in the low-budget indie feature, “Skateland,” as a punkish music fanatic and record-store clerk who obsesses over the new wave and post-punk albums of The Cure, Depeche Mode and The Ramones.
Oddly enough, Greene, 24, admitted with a sheepish grin during a press day for the film at the Regency Hotel, that she was totally tone deaf to ’80s music before she took on the role of tough-minded Michelle Burkham in writer-director Anthony Burns’ debut feature.
“As much as I hate to admit, I didn’t really know who The Cure was,” she said with an embarrassed shrug. “I know, I know, but now I do, now I do. The director made me a compilation. I think that I had twelve CD’s of ’80s music. So The Cure was definitely one. I think Joy Division was another big one that I kind of now have an appreciation for. But I was sadly not well versed in ’80s music before I did the film.”
“Skateland” showcases the talents of the lovely brunette Greene and hunk-of-the-moment Shiloh Fernandez (“Gossip Girl” and “Red Riding Hood”) for a story set in small-town Texas in the early 1980s and examining the struggles of a Fernandez’s 19-year-old slacker and skating-rink manager Ritchie Wheeler to find his true place in life. Greene’s music-loving Michelle is the love interest who prods Ritchie to grow up and find a life beyond the familiar adolescent safety of Skateland.
Greene said she came close to working with Fernandez before when he auditioned for a role in the “Twilight “ films. He didn’t get that coveted part, but “Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke later cast him in “Red Riding Hood.”
So on “Skateland,” Greene said, “we certainly had discussions about her (Hardwicke). I think we have the same opinion on her, that she’s just fantastic. She’s wild and crazy and eccentric and very fun to work with.”
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