Into twilight zone twilight

Peter Facinelli strolled into a Los Angeles television studio on a recent Saturday morning for another Twilight-related appearance.

But you wouldn't know he was part of a worldwide phenomenon. He wasn't flanked by brawny Hollywood-standard security guards.

And there were no screaming "Twi-hards" lurking nearby. He prefers it that way.

As New Moon, the latest instalment in the massively successful Twilight saga, continues its reign in theatres Facinelli, who plays Dr Carlisle Cullen, the patriarch of the Cullen clan, still finds the frenzy daunting.

"There's not many movies — I can't even think of five — that people would camp out for," Facinelli, 36, said before going in front of the camera. "It can be overwhelming. I feel very fortunate to be a part of something like that. Not many actors can say that."

Facinelli — who has three daughters and is married to Beverly Hills, 90210 alum Jennie Garth — grew up in New York City. He began his acting career 15 years ago, with bit parts in TV shows, then burst onto the scene in the film Can't Hardly Wait. The 1998 teen flick, which starred '90s darling Jennifer Love Hewitt, didn't rake in Twilight numbers, but it helped launch the careers of such stars as Seth Green and Selma Blair.

Times changed

"Things were different then," Facinelli said. "We were young, and in this movie teens were watching but there wasn't paparazzi out taking all of our pictures. Things weren't so intense 10 years ago.

"I remember when someone would take a picture, it'd be three days before it would surface in the tabloids at the grocery store. Now, 30 seconds after a picture is taken, it's on the internet; and 45 seconds later, hundreds of people have commented on it."

He went on to star in Fox's short-lived series Fastlane and appeared in Six Feet Under and Damages. When his agents approached him about taking a role in a "vampire movie", Facinelli was hesitant.

"I was like, ‘Um, no,'" Facinelli recalled. "I was proud of my roles up to that point. I was thinking a gory, B slasher movie. It just wasn't my cup of tea. But I read the first book and I couldn't put it down. If I could have made myself a vampire, I would have. That's how much I wanted the role.

"I'm a lot busier," Facinelli said. "I'm travelling a lot more. And I'm meeting a lot more people. I've been acting for 15 years, so I've sort of always had a fan base. But this is a whole other level of fans. They're die-hard."

While his young Twilight co-stars grapple with the media whirlwind attached to the vampire saga's success, a slightly older Facinelli has a different outlook.

"It is easier for me to deal with now," he said. "I can't compare to Rob [Pattinson] and Kristen [Stewart], because I'm not with them on a day-to-day basis. But I can say that for me, when I was 23 or 24, I wouldn't have been able to handle this level of success. Being put under a microscope, I wouldn't have been able to process it. As you get older, you constantly try to find yourself, and in my early 20s I didn't have a full sense of me. But now, I've been with me for a lot longer.

"I'm enjoying this while it lasts," he said. "Twilight is another gig for me, and I'll move on and do other gigs. And, hopefully, the fans will come out and watch those too."