Rachelle Lefevre

Actor Bio Sheet

Character/Job: Victoria
Actor/Production Person: Rachelle Lefevre
Birthday: 1978
City and State: Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Official casting announcement link: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/02/14/nikki-reed-sees-twilight-as-vampire-film-adds-to-cast/

Life Bio (500-2000 in your own words):
Born in 1978 in Montreal, Rachelle Lefevre, an only child, dreamed of becoming an actor when she first watched Annie as a young girl.  Constantly “hamming it up” for her family, she’d dance around the house singing Madonna songs, but because she says she can’t sing, she looked for other ways to perform.   Depending on what television show she’d be watching, one day she’d want to be a lawyer and the next day, a marine biologist.  She soon realized she didn’t really want to be any of those things; she wanted to pretend to be them.  That’s what led her to the stage and acting.  
Studying creative arts at Dawson College in Montreal, she took two summers of intensive theater training at Walnut Hill School, a Boston-area fine arts academy.  Then she transferred to McGill University back in Montreal to work on degrees in literature and education.
While waiting tables at a Montreal restaurant, a regular customer helped Rachelle get an audition for a part she didn’t get.  She must have made an impression on the casting director, because even though she had no film or television credits at that point and her head shot was done with a Polaroid, they called her back to audition for a new sitcom being shot in Montreal.  She got that part and made her acting debut in 1999 as Stacey Hanson in Big Wolf on Campus.  It was a TV series on ABC Family about a teenage werewolf going to high school. Her character left the show after one season to attend college, as did Rachelle. 
After landing roles in various TV movies and episodes, in 2002 she was cast in George Clooney’s Confessions of a Dangerous Mind where she played the part of Tuvia.  Then in 2003, she got a major role in the romantic teen comedy Hatley High as Hyacinthe Marquez.
Leaving her hometown of Montreal in 2004, Rachelle moved to Hollywood to further pursue her acting career. In 2005, she landed a starring role as Lily in the FOX sitcom Life on a Stick and in 2006-07, she played Heather in the ABC sitcom What About Brian. She’s worked on projects with George Clooney, Charlize Theron, Susan Sarandon, Penelope Cruz, Paul Walker, Edward Burns, and David E. Kelley.  
Rachelle is passionate about her acting career and isn’t shy about using unconventional methods to get a part.  She once sent a homemade video to a casting director for a role she wanted.  In a three-page letter to Catherine Hardwicke, director of Twilight, she explained why she needed to be cast as Victoria and discussed “how vampires were the best metaphor for human anxiety and questions about being alive.”
To prepare for the role of Victoria, Rachelle watched YouTube videos of lions and walked around her house acting like a cat, because Stephenie Meyer described the character as “feline.”  Also, since not much is known about Victoria’s back story from the books, Rachelle created an “intricate” one herself in order to accurately portray the character on screen.  She explored why Victoria acts the way she does and what her mortal life was like.   She doesn’t see Vic (as she refers to her) as evil, she prefers “unforgiving or merciless.”
Although she doesn’t have a favorite scene from the film, one of the more memorable ones is the baseball scene.  She found it interesting that while her character wants to kill Rosalie and they “get in each other’s faces”, in real life she and Nikki Reed, who plays Rosalie, became friends.  In describing Victoria’s relationship with James, played by Cam Gigandet, Rachelle says it’s “hot. Very hot.” 
With her trademark mane of curly strawberry-blonde hair, effusive smile, and “impossibly sweet” personality, fans have compared her to Lucille Ball and Debra Messing.  Because Rachelle considers herself athletic and enjoys hiking, riding horses, kickboxing, and scuba diving, during the filming of Twilight she tried to do as many stunts as she could.  
From Canadian cutie to vampire vixen, Rachelle Lefevre has Twilight fans everywhere excited to see her bring Victoria to life on the big screen.

Fun Facts (if applicable): Rachelle loves hanging out in cafes and can stay for hours.  She enjoys doing crossword puzzles and suduko.  She’s read all three books and is a self-proclaimed Edward girl.  “What can I say?  I have a thing for vampires.”

Stephenie’s comments on this person (if applicable): From StephenieMeyer.com “Rachelle Lefevre, the actress who will play Victoria in Twilight the movie, recently was interviewed by MTV Movie News. Click here to read the article on mtv.com. Stephenie has asked me to post this link for everyone because she read the article (while on tour in Germany) and loved it.”

Film Credits (with links to official movie sites were applicable):
 Boston Legal [TV series] (2008)
Fugitive Pieces (2007) http://samuelgoldwynfilms.com
Suffering Man’s Charity (2007) http://www.sufferingmanscharity.com/
CSI: NY [TV series] (2007)
The Closer [TV series] (2007)
How I Met Your Mother [TV series] (2007)
What About Brian [TV series] (2006-2007)
The Class [TV series] (2006)
Veronica Mars [TV series] (2006)
Four Kings [TV series] (2006)
The River King (2005) http://www.myriadpictures.com/Library.aspx?projectid=7e1cb9ba-75e6-4648-95bf-9b454172e0c8&index=33
Life on a Stick [TV series] (2005)
Bones [TV series] (2005)
Pool Guys [TV series] (2005)
Head in the Clouds (2004) http://www.sonyclassics.com/headintheclouds/
The Legend of Butch and Sundance [TV Movie and DVD] (2004)
Hatley High (2003)
Deception [TV Movie and DVD] (2003)
Picking Up and Dropping Off [TV Movie] (2003)
See Jane Date [TV movie] (2003)
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
Big Wolf on Campus [TV series] (1999)

YouTube film clips:
Big Wolf on Campus http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcu_BSoxRbs
The River King http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMP0NFl6ZBI
Life on a Stick http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kmw9B9EN98 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71Z-1oFznLQ
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2XnWg-xg9I&feature=related

Up coming Projects:
The Summit (mini-series) (2008)
Life on Mars (David E. Kelley TV series based on the BBC series) (2008)
American Summer (2008) http://www.americansummer.com
Prom Wars (2008) http://www.promwarsthemovie.com
 
Non-Twilight Interview Links (YouTube/other news sites):
http://www.playbackonline.ca/articles/magazine/20040705/10.html
 
Fan sites (were applicable):

Photo gallery links:
http://www.mtv.com/photos/?fid=1581630&pid=2781403
http://www.bigwolfoncampus.org/multimedia/images.php?includeCharacters[]=3

Send Fan Mail to:
I couldn’t find where to send her fan mail to.  I think I found her agent and publicist online, Agent: Todd Eisner, Agency for the Performing Arts, 9200 Sunset Blvd., Suite 900, Los Angeles, CA 90069; Writers and Artists Agency, 8383 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 550, Beverly Hills,CA 90211.; Publicist: Mia Hansen, Aquarius Public Relations, 7700 Sunset Blvd., Suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90046. Couldn’t find her on Myspace. She’s got a private Facebook account, so I couldn’t access it. Perhaps you have this information as you interviewed her originally.   Otherwise, I can contact her publicist (if you can confirm my info is correct) to find out where to have fan mail sent.

This actor bio was prepared by: Simplicity

Send the completed bio to: [email protected]
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Is there a place to for the Twilight-related interview links?  If so, here they are:
http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/02/28/twilight-co-star-rachelle-lefevre-talks-treetop-controversy/
http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1582432/story.jhtml
From Twilight Lexicon: https://www.twilightlexicon.com/Interviews/Rachelle%20Lefevre%20Q&A.pdf
From Twilight Moms: http://twilightmomsforums.freeforums.org/chat-with-rachelle-3-19-08-t4053.html

Other problems–I couldn’t find her actual birthdate and there’s a discrepancy in the year born.  Wikipedia lists her being born in 1979, while IMDB says 1978.  This makes her 29 or 30, however, the MTV article states she’s only 20.  Since she was cast in 1999 in Big Wolf on Campus where she played a HS student and went off to college after one year in the cast, the MTV article must be incorrect.

I found a link to Suffering Man’s Charity, a movie she was in.  However, it’s got strong gay/lesbian themes, and it sounds pretty twisted, so not sure you want to use the link on the Lex or not.  Another of her films for which I found a link, Head in the Clouds, has a lesbian sub-plot, but it isn’t as overt.  I have not seen either of these movies, but I wanted to point this out.