Immortal Beloveds: See the Cast of Twilight Then and Now

In honor of visionary author Stephenie Meyer's birthday, we're checking in on the stars of The Twilight Saga, some of whom had a royally momentous 2021.

By Natalie Finn Dec 24, 2022 1:00 PMTags
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Vampires: Everyone else gets older, but they stay the same age.

Kristen Stewart, a child actress who rocketed to stardom after winning the role of Bella Swan in the Twilight franchise over dozens of other actresses, basically grew up in the public eye—hence her bemusement when it comes to the very idea of fame. "I did Twilight when I was 17," she said on The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Season podcast in 2015. "It came out when I was 18 and my life was never even remotely the same." 

But unlike some actresses who get trapped in the role for which they became world-famous, Stewart has taken that Hollywood capital she earned practically overnight and invested it in doing movies that mean something to her and projects that have broadened her skills as an actor.

Though Bella was made immortal at 19 by her beloved vampire husband Edward Cullen—played by Robert Pattinson, Stewart's then-boyfriend—the star has continued to grow up, as have the rest of her co-stars in the five-film saga, based on Stephenie Meyer's best-selling novels.

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But just because she's over it, doesn't mean we aren't allowed to still be, like, a little bit still obsessed.

"Every part that I've ever played has shaped me in such a significant way...I know from an outsider's perspective you might have something to say about that like in general," Stewart explained to E! News in 2017. "But I kind of view it as every other thing that I've invested in and really loved. And I'm lucky to have had that experience."

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See? It's fine, she wouldn't have changed a thing.

Now, we're checking in on the stars of the franchise, which all started when Meyer had a dream about an ordinary girl and a sparkling vampire boy having an intense conversation in a meadow, and you can see what they looked like then and now:

Kristen Stewart

We'll just start with the 2022 Oscar nomination she received for her portrayal of Princess Diana in Spencer. But back in the '00s, in between making five blockbuster Twilight films Stewart starred in smaller projects such as Adventureland and The Runaways, in which she played rocker Joan Jett.

Before the saga concluded with Breaking Dawn—Part 2 in 2012, Stewart was another force to be reckoned with in Snow White and the Huntsman, playing an armor-clad version of the Brothers Grimm-and-Disney heroine. A photograph of her sharing a tender moment (and nothing beyond that, she has since said) with her married director Rupert Sanders broke the Robsten-shipping hearts of the world (and preceded Sanders' divorce), but years after making up and breaking up again with Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson, she still thinks he's the greatest.

"We were together for years, that was my first [love]," she told Howard Stern in 2019.

Now, she's engaged to longtime girlfriend Dylan Meyer.

Robert Pattinson

Perhaps even more so than Stewart, Pattinson has worked to distance himself from his star-making turn as the brooding vampire Edward Cullen—though he told E! News he would "always appreciate" what the Twilight franchise did for his career. He was the romantic lead in 2010's Remember Me and 2011's Water for Elephants, but after that he primarily stuck to the down-and-dirty depths of the human soul in the likes of Maps to The StarsThe RoverGood Time and 2019's The Lighthouse, in which it's just Pattinson, Willem Dafoe and some really sordid nightmares.

Then, of course, came The Batman, in which he played billionaire Bruce Wayne (albeit a moody, Kurt Cobain-influenced one) and the Caped Crusader himself. 

Following his notoriously public split from Stewart, Pattinson has predominantly kept quiet about his dating life. He was engaged for awhile to FKA twigs before they broke up in 2017, and in January 2020 engagement rumors caught up with him and his current girlfriend, Suki Waterhouse. They made their long-awaited red carpet debut earlier this month at the Dior Fashion Show in Egypt. 

"If you let people in, it devalues what love is," Pattinson explained his approach to dating as far out of the public eye as possible to the Sunday Times in

Taylor Lautner

After captivating the hearts of Team Jacob, the buff actor went the action hero route in the John Singleton-directed Abduction and showed off his comedic chops in Grown Ups 2 and the Netflix movie The Ridiculous 6, both with Adam Sandler.

On TV he starred in BBC Three's Cuckoo and the second season of Ryan Murphy's horror-comedy Scream Queens—where he met Billie Lourd, who he dated until 2017. Lautner made it Instagram official with girlfriend Taylor Dome in 2018 and the pair announced their engagement in November. They said "I do" during a stunning California wedding in November of this year.

Peter Facinelli

The Can't Hardly Wait star, who played vampire patriarch Dr. Carlisle Cullen, was already working on Nurse Jackie while filming Twilight, and he stayed with the Showtime series through its last season in 2015. Since then he's made a slew of indie films (including The Vanished, which he also wrote and directed) and been on American Odyssey, GleeSupergirl, S.W.A.T.FBI and the new Magnum P.I., and in 2019 he starred as cult leader Keith Raniere in the ripped-from-the-headlines Lifetime movie Escaping the NXIVM Cult: A Mother's Fight to Save Her Daughter.

Facinelli has three daughters with ex-wife Jennie Garth and was previously engaged to Blindspot star Jaimie Alexander. On Jan. 2, 2020, his rep confirmed he had popped the question to Lily Ann Harrison while they were vacationing in Mexico for the holidays. They welcomed son Jack in the fall of 2022.

Elizabeth Reaser

The actress who played vampire matriarch Esme Cullen blossomed on TV after the big-screen saga ended, showing up in The Good WifeTrue DetectiveMad MenLaw & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders and Manhunt. Her biggest splash since, however, has been starring on the binge-worthy Netflix horror series The Haunting of Hill House, and she joined the dystopia on the third season of Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale.

Outside of film and television, Reaser is also an accomplished stage actress and she keeps a tight lid on her private life.

Kellan Lutz

After his turn as the beefy Emmett Cullen, Lutz loaned his voice to the titular hero in 2013's animated Tarzan, then starred in The Legend of Hercules and was part of the younger generation of action heroes in The Expendables 3, both of which came out in 2014. Also that year, he reprised his role of Chris MacNess when The Comeback returned to HBO.

His most recent movie role was playing "Captain F--ktastic" in the comedy What Men Want, and he stars on the FBI spin-off, FBI: Most Wanted.

In 2017, Lutz tied the knot with model and TV host Brittany Gonzales. Seven months after sharing she had suffered a pregnancy loss, the couple announced they were expecting. "Thank you all for lining with us, praying for us, supporting us," he shared. "We're so excited." In Feb. 2021, they welcomed daughter Ashtyn. Earlier this year, they welcomed son Kasen. 

Ashley Greene

The 2009 Teen Choice Award winner for Choice Movie: Female Fresh Face played the ever-positive Alice Cullen. She's appeared in a number of films since the Twilight Saga, her biggest being 2019's Bombshell, about the sexual harassment scandal that ended the career of Fox News president Roger Ailes. Greene played Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Abby Huntsman.

After roles on Rogue and the web series Step Up: High Water, she starred in 2019's Christmas on My Mind and 2020's The Charm Bracelet, both Hallmark Channel holiday movies.

In 2018, Greene married her longtime boyfriend Paul Khoury in a private, star-studded ceremony in Northern California. They welcomed their first child together earlier this year. 

Nikki Reed

Twilight's Rosalie Hale continued to act in small films and TV, enjoying recurring roles on Fox's Sleepy Hollow and most recently V-Wars with husband Ian Somerhalder

After her four-year marriage to singer Paul McDonald ended, she married The Vampire Diaries star in 2015 and they welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Bodhi Soleil Reed Somerhalder, in 2017. 

Reed is also the founder of sustainable jewelry line Bayou With Love and serves as creative director for vegan sneaker brand Løci.

Jackson Rathbone

After being in the band 100 Monkeys from 2008 to 2012, the actor, who played Jasper Hale, continued doing TV and movies after the Twilight Saga ended, but also focused on making more music, dropping a solo album called American Spirit Blues.

In one of those odd twists of fate that luckily turned out OK, Rathbone was aboard a Jetblue flight in 2014 that had to make an emergency landing after an engine explosion. He tweeted all about it, including how he and his wife since 2013, Sheila Hafsadi, and then-2-year-old son, Monroe, had to exit via the emergency slide.

He makes his home in Austin, Texas, with Sheila and their three children: Monroe, daughter Presley and son Felix, who was just born in January 2020. 

A video he posted of himself on April 7, 2020, playing his guitar merited a comment from his Twilight sister Nikki Reed, who wrote, "Omg this made me miss you! Thinking of Portland and the many late nights watching you play 25 interments at once and totally in awe of your multi-tasking skills."

Cam Gigandet

Revenge for the villainous tracker vampire James' demise is what drives the rest of the Twilight series action (that and a whole lot of romantic angst), so it could've been difficult for Gigandet to shake the association. But he pressed right on, appearing in a bunch of movies, most notably Easy A and Burlesque, and he was in the 2016 remake of The Magnificent Seven.

More recently he starred in the Audience Network crime drama Ice, which ran for two seasons, and he was in the films Without Remorse and Last Shoot Out.

Gigandet is also a father of three, daughters Everleigh and Armie and son Rekker, with Dominique Geisendorff, who he split from earlier this year. 

Rachelle Lefevre

The vengeful Victoria was played by Lefevre for two of the films before she was replaced by Bryce Dallas Howard—which Lefevre maintained came as a shock, but which Summit Entertainment insisted was due to the actress taking a role in an independent film that conflicted with their schedule.

"Never did I fathom I would lose the role over a 10-day overlap," Lefevre stated at the time.

Since then, the Canadian actress has done a bunch of TV work, most prominently in the hit CBS series Under the Dome, based on the Stephen King book, which ran from 2013-2015.

Lefevre married chef Chris Crary in 2018 and they have a son together. "I used to joke I'd have to take up marathon running to stay married to him, because when he flirts with me he does it through food," the apparently well-satiated actress said on Rachael Ray in 2019 when she was promoting the Fox legal drama Proven Innocent, which ran for a season.

Most recently she starred on the New Zealand-set Acorn mystery drama The Sounds.

Bryce Dallas Howard

The star of The VillageManderlayLady in the Water, Kenneth Branagh's As You Like ItSpider-Man 3 and Terminator Salvation took over as Victoria for 2010's The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

After that, the daughter of director Ron Howard starred in The Help and 50/50 and signed up to kick off her heels in the Jurassic World franchise. She also had a memorable turn on the Black Mirror episode "Nosedive," co-starred in the Elton John biopic Rocketman and is making the upcoming spy caper Argylle with Henry Cavill.

Anna Kendrick

After playing Bella's a-little-bit-jealous pal Jessica Stanley in 2008's Twilight, Kendrick was nominated for a supporting actress Oscar for 2009's Up in the Air and ended up top-lining the Pitch Perfect franchise. The Broadway vet has seemingly done all the genres: movie musicals (The Last Five YearsInto the Woods), comedy (Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates), Christmas (Noelle), action thriller (The Accountant), murder mystery (A Simple Favor) and animation (Trolls)—and is fairly ubiquitous in commercials. 

Kendrick also published a memoir, Scrappy Little Nobody, in 2016.

Christian Serratos

The actress who had a small role as Bella's kind friend Angela went on to more undead antics as Rosita on The Walking Dead and Becca on American Horror Story: Murder House. More recently she had the stage all to herself playing iconic Tejano pop star Selena Quintanilla on Netflix's Selena: The Series.

Serratos is mom to a daughter with her longtime boyfriend, New Politics singer David Boyd.

Dakota Fanning

The former child star joined The Twilight Saga in 2009, when she was 15, as Volturi member Jane and her career only blossomed from there. Highlights on the big screen since include American Pastoral, Ocean's 8 and Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, and she starred on TNT's period crime drama The Alienist.

Next up, she and sister Elle Fanning are playing siblings in the film adaptation of the best-selling novel The Nightingale, set in France during World War II.

Mackenzie Foy

Only 10 when she made her movie debut in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn–Part I as Edward and Bella's daughter Renesme, Foy went on to do voiceover work and be in The Conjuring, InterstellarThe Nutcracker and the Four Realms and Black Beauty. She is also an avid horseback rider and is involved with The Wild Beauty Foundation.

This story was originally published on Thursday, April 9, 2020 at 3 a.m. PT.