Julia Jones at the Chicago Comic Con

Brittany, Julia Jones Fans

I arrived at the Comic Con bright and early not knowing where my fellow fansite admin Ella (Julia Jones Online) was located because I was too psyched tomeet Julia Jones in the flesh that I hadn’t even looked at Twitter to see if she made contact. I got there around 8:30 clueless as to what I should be doing. So I just went up to the people in the bright yellow shirts and they led me to some big hall to stand in line, waiting to be let onto the convention floor.

When it finally turned 10 AM they let us go in, I directly headed for booth 500, which was where Julia’s autograph booth was located. She wasn’t there right away of course but I wanted to make sure I knew where she’d be. It was probably 30 minutes later when I was making another lap around the hall that I saw her sitting there with her handler ready to do autographs.

Now I am not the one to get star-struck or relatively nervous around celebrities but Julia was a different story. I was a goober when it came to meeting her! I saw her and quickly looked down, all giddy because finally I would meet the person I spend so much time maintaining a fan site for! I quickly rushed up to the booth and greeted her and let me tell you, she’s even more beautiful in person! She was wearing her trademark leather-jacket that day.She smiled at my enthusiasm as I told her about the fan site and about how Leah is my favorite character in the Twilight series. She remarked upon how Leah wasa bad***, which I couldn’t agree with more.

I picked out the photo that I wanted her to sign and I’ll admit I stared at her for a bit, but you would too if the object of your ‘fanaticism’ was right in front of you! When she handed it to me I smiled so big. I thanked her and told her I’d see her for the photo-op. After that encounter I went to look at some posters and comics.

Around 10:50 I started heading towards Room B, where Julia’s panel discussion was located. I got there early and sat in the second row, luckily there was space to choose where to sit. She got there on time and we started the panel. People were a bit nervous to start asking questions until one brave soul started it off for us.

When asked about her heritage she revealed that her father is African American and Choctaw and her mother is English. She’s an all around east coast girl that grew up in a place called Jamaica Plain. There are not many people of Native American descent where she grew up though there is many inMassachusetts. She had only really grown up around her mom’s family so she knew that part of her heritage but it wasn’t until she reached her teen years that she intentionally sought out the other part of her heritage, which she is thankful that she did.

Julia was raised Unitarian but her life was more about academia than anything else. She called her parents hippies though they were work-a-holics. They were both lawyers, very liberal and they had wanted Julia to go to an ivy-league college after high school. Her life pretty much revolved around academia up until she got into college and started making her own choices and began questioning what she was even doing in school.

If Julia wasn’t an actress she said she’d be a journalist because she’d like to do something that’s exciting with her life and psychotic. An audience member commented that though journalism is exciting, it’s very difficult because you have to depend upon a lot of people to get your job done. Julia back-pedaled and said she’d just like to be a writer instead.

Someone asked her if she had anything current or from the past that she was obsessive over like the Twi-Hards are over Twilight. She said the closest thingthat she really liked that came close to obsession was the musical ‘Rent’. She went to New York City one day and slept on 47th street to get front row seat tickets for the musical (I think she said she did this more than once too). She also auditioned for this musical a couple of times as well.

She reads works from the classics’ era, especially Ernest Hemingway. Her favorite actress from back in the day is Audrey Hepburn. She admires her strength, individuality, and especially her desire to not conform to society’s expectations.

If you didn’t know already, Julia has prior experience in modeling. She probably will not go back to doing that anytime soon because she didn’t like feeling objectified. When she was first making her way in Hollywood, she’d be led to projects where she had to look ‘hot and sexy’. She’s pretty certain that she was being led down the ‘sex symbol’ route, “So thank God for the character Leah Clearwater.”

Even when she was a model she still retained her tomboy-ish style. Through Twilight she got in touch with her feminine side more, not just through her character but from events where she had beautiful things given to her.

She rather film on location rather than in Hollywood. It gives her a better opportunity to sink into character. She says that when she films in Hollywood,her friends always call her to hang out, not understanding that she needs time to herself to get into character. Then there’s meetings that get scheduled after filming and that just doesn’t help her sink into a role when you’refilming then right after have to go to a meeting about something.

I asked her if sometimes after filming that she takes on Leah’s characteristics not even realizing it. She said that yes she does, and the other cast membersdo the same as well. Like for example, Tinsel Korey and Chaske Spencer, their characters on screen are a couple, when not filming even then they’re pretty affectionate with each other.

The guys (wolf pack cast) are always at level 12 when they come in to film the movie. It was easy for her to fall into character because they’re always throwing stuff at her when she’s trying to work. (I for one believe it’s AlexMeraz and Kiowa Gordon throwing stuff at her, those trouble-makers haha.)

She’s been very interested in the action genre as of late and would like to do more of it. She saw the film ‘Salt’ starring Angelina Jolie and was very impressed by it; she’d love to do that kind of work in the future.

To get ready for her audition for ‘Eclipse’ her friend lent her the books,she sped-read the books only looking at the sections that had Leah in them.After she had gotten the part she went back and read the books fully which didn’t take long being as “I’m an English major and all.”

She’s most excited about filming the scene in ‘Breaking Dawn’ where her character Leah goes into the Cullen’s living room to rant at Bella after that she breaks Jacob’s heart again making him run away for the second time.

She mentioned meeting last week with the director of the upcoming film ‘Winter in the Blood’. Her character, Agnes is the wife of Virgil First Raise (who will be played by Chaske). Agnes has run away from Virgil, and he seeks her out while getting himself together as well.

Someone asked her if it was easy for her to relate to the character ‘Leah Clearwater’. She replied that she had some things in common with Leah like for example heartbreak.

She hasn’t had any negative input on her performance as ‘Leah Clearwater’but in the first months after her getting the role she didn’t go near the internet for obvious reasons.

She’s very interested in seeing what difference the change in filming locations will make in ‘Breaking Dawn’.

She said that she kind of missed out on the big fads like ‘Harry Potter’.

Stays true to her Boston roots; a Boston Red Sox fan.

She calls the world of Twilight ‘Twiniverse’.

She’s the poster child for ‘Team Jacob’.

She said that ‘Eclipse’ was the set she’s had the most fun on.

On my way out I went by her booth one more time to say goodbye. When Ella and I asked her about attending more Twilight conventions, she responded that she would be attending more. So hopefully Chicago will be graced by her presence again come September.

For more pictures of this event, visit our Gallery

Share on Facebook