The man behind Edward Cullen

Edward Cullen, Edward Cullen, Edward Cullen.

It's the only name that seems to inhabit the minds of preteen and teenage girls who have taken up fantasizing about the fictional hero of Stephanie Meyer's four-book series, Twilight. Do not italicize - referring to book here

As the series reaches for the big screen, a new name can join their mantra-Robert Pattinson (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix), who will play Cullen when the movie opens on Nov. 21.

With the premiere of the first Twilight movie readily approaching, Summit Entertainment hosted a conference call with Pattinson, who spoke on the movie, his influences and goals.

Due to all the hype surrounding the character of Cullen, there are already a slew of preconceptions about how his character should be played - ideas that could leave an avid fan miffed if not abided by. Pattinson, however, is not bothered or pressured by the hype.

"I'm ignoring it," Pattinson said. "I went to the screen test and I just realized how to play it. He's not as strong as in the book...I play it more broken."

As Pattinson points out, Cullen is not nearly as fantastic and brave as he is made out to be in the book, considering it is told from the point of view of Bella Swan, who's madly in love with him.

However, these already conceived and adoring conceptions can be helpful as well. "If it's just a script, then your performance has to make the movie, make the character. [Now] the pressure is just living up to other people's expectations. You can do whatever you want and people will still like the character based on the book," Pattinson said.

At 22, Pattinson has already acted in theater and film and has even dabbled in music. He is now faced with the task of playing a character that is both younger and older than the actor is in real life. Cullen, despite being born in 1901, perpetually holds the appearance of a 17-year-old. The task of trying to figure out how mature the character should be was daunting for Pattinson.

"In the book sometimes [Edward] talks like he's 108 and sometimes he talks like he is a young guy...if all your experiences are seen through the eyes of a 17-year-old, you don't really mature very much," he said.

However, no matter his age, Cullen is not a character to be trifled with.

"He takes his emotions very seriously...he's not very frivolous...like that, people can always take you seriously," Pattinson said.

Those who have read the books (more importantly, those who tried to read the books and gave up due to its overdramatic and cheesy nature) will notice at least one significant departure from the written work. In the movie, the teenage emotional overdrive is downplayed.

"When I first read the book there were a lot of extreme emotions all the time. I defiantly tried to make it as un-cheesy as I could," Pattinson said.

He also noted that Meyer did not write the book to create the character of Bella Swan to be a role model for girls today. However, in the movie, her strength, hardness and fierce intelligence are showcased, covering some of her overly willing and quickly decisive tendencies.

That fact gives rise to the question of what level the script adheres to the book. In general, when books are adapted into movies, a lot can be cut, distorted, or only just alluded to, as seen in the Harry Potter films. Will this be the case with Twilight? Or was the author highly consulted?

According to Pattinson, Meyers was very involved in preproduction, but only met with the actors three or four times to ensure that the plot remained intact, usually leaving the characters open to the actors' own interpretations.

When it comes to flying, though, fans should not worry. Flying will be in the adaptation. This stunt gave Pattinson another chance to work with wires.

"It's really hard," Pattinson said. "I've done wire work before but that's just getting hit, not really hard to act. Here you had to be agile, you had to really look like you were controlling your movements. You need to be very, very talented to be good at wire work."

The real difference for Pattinson was the amount of hype the books and movie received in the United States versus that in United Kingdom.

"When I got the job I'd never heard of it...it seems to be everywhere in America though," he said.

So as teenage girls everywhere await the movie's release, the rest of the populace can take solace in the fact that this is an isolated epidemic...or at least hope it stays that way.