"Bite me."
It's a request British actor Robert Pattinson gets almost daily as star of the new vampire film "Twilight" (opening Nov. 21).
"It's crazy," said Pattinson, 22, waiting inside Orland Square's Hot Topic store. He has to laugh, pretend he hasn't heard it before.
"Even if you say, 'No,' they just wait," he says. "They just stand there."
Tonight, more than 500 fans waited outside -- some since the night before -- to ask him the same question or something in that vein. One fan, Orland Park's Abby Johnson, wore a self-made T-shirt that read: "Edward Cullen Make Me Immortal" (Edward is Pattinson's fanged alter ego.)
As the clock reached 6 p.m., the time he'd start signing autographs, the crowd started screaming, counting down, "Three; two; one;" Chaos.
"Oh my God," said Pattinson, laughing nervously at the uproar. "Are they going to blow [the place] up?"
Mostly, they just filed in peacefully, gushing and smiling -- though for the public Q&A session later, the crowd seemed to have swelled to a frenzied mass.
In what follows, Pattinson talks about his new movie, immortality and Doctor Who.
Q - What does Edward, a 108-year-old vampire, see in a 17-year-old girl?
A - He's lived for 108 years, but he still has the same brain as a 17-year-old. He experiences the world as a 17-year-old. He's kind of mature in some ways. But if you were in the body of a 17-year-old, I don't think you'd go for a 108-year-old woman.
Q - But why high school? For you personally, wouldn't 80 years of high school be hell?
A - Definitely. I would hate it. That was one of the most difficult things to figure out. You think he'd stay in college, or be a street kid. It'd be way cooler. But I think the whole concept of it is: He's like an addict. I think he wants to make his life really, really, really boring.
Q - This question is from Jennifer Armour, a fan waiting in line. David Tennant, the current star of "Doctor Who," is quitting in 2010. Would you consider taking up the mantle?
A - The Doctor is great. ... Yeah, maybe. I did grow up watching it. I loved it when I was a kid. In fact, I met one of them the other day, Sylvester McCoy [the seventh Doctor]. He's one of the few people I've asked for an autograph.
The way the event was handled brought criticism from some fans.
Promoters of the event had said they would sell at 7 a.m. 500 admittance wristbands to the meet-and-greet.
The only problem was that by midnight the crowd waiting outside the mall in the wind and cold rain had far exceeded 500 and a decision was made to distribute the wristbands about seven hours early.
"The crowd kept growing and growing and growing," said Darrell Kinsley, a marketing representative for the Hot Topic clothing store chain that is sponsoring Pattinson's tour to promote his upcoming movie based on the "Twilight" series of books adored by young girls.
"We were worried about the welfare of the people standing out here. We didn't want people to stand in line for seven hours and not get in."
The first three in line--Stacy York, 26, Jennifer Popplewell, 26, and Armour, 22--left their home town of Indianapolis at 10 p.m. and got here at about midnight to be the first in line for the star.
"It isn't just 'Twilight' that brought us here,' said Armour.
"It's his previous work," said Popplewell.
Armour continued, "We like his other work, such as 'The Bad Mother's Handbook' (a TV drama in the UK) and 'The Haunted Airman' (another TV drama in the UK)."
Disappointed fans who showed up later this morning, only to find they had been shut out, protested.
"It's false advertising," Vanessa Vasquez said. "They said 7:30 today. I would have been here to get tickets on time."
Dozens of others echoed her sentiments.
Kinsley apologized, but said the store wanted to prevent a repeat of Monday's San Francisco experience where 3,000 fans showed up, sparking disputes over who would get in. One girl was bloodied and others were trampled. Pattinson was forced to cancel.
Nick Mitrovich and Pat Curry contributed.
--Robert K. Elder, Chicago Breaking News Center
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