Mike Welch Discusses Eclipse

From Connie Barr-Martinez with mlive.com:

....At age 22, Michael is a seasoned actor with 19 films under his belt. Although the role of Mike Newton is small and getting smaller with each new chapter of the "Twilight" saga, the Mike Newton character is memorable because of his crazy sense of humor and upbeat personality - until Edward Cullen comes into the picture and becomes his competition for Bella's love.

We talked about his own personality, the difference between the three directors: Catherine Hardwicke, Chris Weitz and David Slade, recent projects and what the future holds for him:

"I did bring a lot of myself into the Mike Newton character, particularly in the first film," he said. "I really tried to tap into my high school wacky self and then at this point Mike Newton has kind of taken on a life of his own. And by the third film, it's interesting because so much of what defines Mike Newton is how he feels about Bella and his way in which he pursues Bella. I think he's finally come to the conclusion that he and Bella will probably not work out. He probably realized that competing with Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner is not going to lead him anywhere."

About the "Twilight" directors:

"Catherine was just very anything goes," he said. "Basically threw all the actors in a room together and was like, 'figure it out,' and we had a lot of freedom to discover and to bring whatever we wanted to bring to these characters. Chris Weitz was a little more structured in terms of the preparation and the outline and gave us all a packet of his vision of the movie before we started filming, but also allowed some freedom with the structure that he set up for us to play and discover and find out, you know, who these characters were at that point in the journey. David Slade was kind of the polar opposite of Catherine. Just like, he knew what he wanted, was very specific about it, knew what he liked and knew what he didn't like and just basically told you what to do. So, if I'm lucky, I'll get the chance to work with Bill Condon and see what his method is."

When I queried Welch about "Breaking Dawn" (which, it was recently confirmed, will be split into two films) he said, "I don't know if I'll be returning yet. I just heard that Bill Condon, the great director who did, you know, 'Kinsey' and 'Dream Girls' and all kinds of things, has been announced to do the film but beyond that, I really don't know any details. I hope they have me back. I mean, my character is in the book, albeit for a very short period of time. I will be a part of this journey for as long as they will have me."....