Peter Facinelli has learned to ignore his initial instincts about movie roles after missing out on a part in American Beauty and almost passing on the opportunity to star in the Twilight movie franchise.
Facinelli reveals he was left confused by the script for director Sam Mendes' 1999 drama American Beauty, starring Kevin Spacey as a man who suffers a midlife crisis and becomes infatuated with his teenage daughter's best friend, played by Mena Suvari - so he rejected the project, which went on to win five Oscars, including Best Picture.
The star tells PR.com, "I need to do the opposite of my instincts. I read American Beauty, and I was like, 'I don't get this movie at all.' And it came out and was an Academy Award-winning film. Now I look at that film and think, 'How could I have not gotten that movie?!'
"I don't even think I went in on it because it was for the neighbour kid, and I forget the actor who played that, but I don't even think I went in and read for it, because I was like, 'I don't get it.'"
Facinelli, who portrays the Cullen family patriarch, Dr. Carlisle Cullen, in the Twilight series, admits he came close to turning down the first vampire movie too - because he simply didn't want to appear in a "blood and guts" horror film.
He says, "I almost didn't read for Twilight. My agent said, 'Do you want to do a vampire movie?' And I was like, 'No.' I was totally thinking blood and guts and bats in caves, like some kind of horror movie.
"They literally talked me into reading the book and I actually enjoyed the book a lot. Then Catherine Hardwicke was directing (Twilight) and I was a fan of hers.
"So I said I would go in and read for it, for sure, because Catherine is directing it, and I liked the book. But before I had read the script and they said, 'Do you want to do a vampire movie?' I was like, 'No.'"
Tagged in Twilight Peter Facinelli