Richard Crouse

HollywoodNews.com: From the beginning of this interview with Richard Crouse, one can tell that Xavier Samuel is not taking his role as the evil “Riley” in “Eclipse” lightly. His first comment is that “being a part of something of that magnitude, I just think it comes with a level of responsibility. You know, you want to pay tribute to these characters and really do the best job possible. Otherwise I don’t think I could sleep at night.”

So far, Samuel is fine with the level of attention he’s getting as Victoria’s cohort in “Eclipse”. Instead of seeing it as intrusive, he says that it can reveal a lot about who you are and he’s feeling okay about it. He’s just happy to see the support and level of passion from the fans.

Regarding the overall appeal of “Twilight” that’s created such a large fan base, Samuel believes the books and films evoke a feeling like falling in love. People can really identify with the books, “even though it’s about vampires and werewolves.”

Moving on to filming, Samuel had nothing but compliments for director David Slade, saying he “is a fiercely intelligent director and has a firm grip on the dark side of the film…you couldn’t pick a better man for the job.”

Samuel did, however, walk into the film a little wary of fitting in. The other actors were already “a family” and he came in as a newbie and a bad guy, so he had a fear of being ostracized. Luckily, the cast greeted him very warmly, as Jodelle Ferland (“Bree Tanner”) also commented in another interview.

Once part of the “Twilight” family, if only for one film, Samuel jumped right into the fitness regimen. As much of the cast has stated before, any time they weren’t shooting, they were working out or learning to fight. “Eclipse” is clearly the most action-packed and physical of the films.