I’m loving this picture featured in USA Today’s “new” interview, below is extracts with some typical comments from Rob. To read the full interview you should click here. 

The actors are unfazed by the shrieking adoration of a largely female audience, many in black Twilight T’s — Team Edward and Team Jacob are duly represented — and all handpicked for their passion for the epic movie series based on author Stephenie Meyer‘s four-part saga.

“It’s so nice sometimes, preaching to the converted,” says Pattinson, 24, the London-born overnight sex symbol and primary reason for the screams. Thanks to his devoted worshipers, he has been elevated from a little-known Harry Potter supporting player to one of Time’s 100 most influential people in the world in less than three years. They were out in force the night before at a Winfrey-sponsored screening of an unfinished print of Eclipse. Afterward, a firestorm of fan Tweets rife with “OMGs” gushed about the much-anticipated sequel to 2008’s Twilight and last year’s New Moon

But, first, the pain of fame that comes from being on the paparazzi’s most-wanted list is addressed. When New Moon opened last fall, barely a day went by without seeing a headline about Lautner and country cutie Taylor Swift or speculation on whether Pattison and Stewart are a real-life couple.

Although, lately, the frenzy has calmed somewhat, judging by the number of Twilight-free magazine covers at grocery checkouts. “I don’t know if this is the actual reason why, but we have gotten better at hiding over the last year,” Pattinson says.

“That’s totally the reason,” Stewart concurs. “They just make up a story to go along with the pictures. If they never get the picture, there’s no story. We are just good hiders now.”

Such subterfuge includes neither confirming nor denying that they are in a relationship. Yet there clearly is some sort of special connection between the two, what with their playful teasing and personal asides. Let’s just say it wasn’t Lautner who placed a hand on Pattinson’s leg during a portion of the interview.

But all three take their Twilight-related duties to heart, whatever they might require. Stewart even leaps up in a panic at one point, fearing she misspelled a word in her salutation to Winfrey. She checks the book: “Believe — ie or ei?

“I before e except after c,” Pattinson responds. She checks. “Oh, yeah,” she says with a triumphant fist pump.

Pattinson laughs. “I almost spelled Oprah wrong. I almost wrote Opera.”

The actors are keen to know how Eclipse played to the crowd at the screening and are pleased to hear that every element has been heightened: the horror, the romance, the three-way interaction among their characters, the touches of humor that often come at the expense of Edward and Jacob’s rivalry — especially after they forge a testy alliance to save Bella from a roving gang of rabid newborn vampires.

Stewart says of Eclipse’s positive early reception: “It is a well-oiled machine at this point. We have had a lot of time to establish what this thing is about and a lot of time to consider it. And they gave us so much more money this time. So that is exciting.”

Pattinson, looking bemused, quickly clarifies her statement. “For the film. The budget.”

Stewart is chagrined. “Oh, my God. No, no. That didn’t even occur to me. They gave us so much more money to make the film look good!”

…

Pattinson, meanwhile, struggled with Edward’s rather formal proposal to Bella, which reflects the fact that although his vintage vampire looks 17, he hails from the turn of the last century.

“I was dreading the day it was coming,” he says of the scene that was held until the very end of the shoot. “The first time I read the script, I thought, ‘This is impossible.’ ” References to “promenades” and sharing “iced tea on the porch” as Edward explains how he would have courted Bella in the old days especially stuck in his throat. “It’s so earnest. I finally convinced the producers that you can play it with a bit of awareness of not being a fictional character. I’m not trying to be part of a Gothic novel.”

When Pattinson finally watched it, however, he was pleasantly surprised. “It seems different when you see it.”

…

“I took a picture with Ron Howard last year at the Oscars,” Pattinson recalls. “I thought it was the funniest thing. I asked, ‘Is it for your kids?’ He said, ‘No, it’s for me. I want to have it on my phone.’ ” Making the situation even odder: Howard’s daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard, is in Eclipse.

Alas, Pattinson has yet to run into his favorite, Jack Nicholson.

Stewart pipes up: “I have.”

Pattinson: “What? When did you meet?”

Stewart: “At a screening for Into the Wild,” her 2007 coming-of-age drama directed by Sean Penn. “He was exactly like you think he would be.”

Pattinson, sounding peeved: “You never told me that.”

Lautner joins in. “I didn’t meet him but I sat next to him at a Lakers game.”

Pattinson, utterly exasperated: “What?”

Life beyond ‘Twilight’

Next subject. The three are actively trying to ward off post-Twilight typecasting by doing solo projects in between. Stewart and Pattinson, both bookworms and drawn to art-house fare, earned OK reviews but underwhelming ticket sales for their two recent releases, the girl-band bio The Runaways and the romantic melodrama Remember Me.

But they continue to be in demand for more mature roles. Stewart is psyched to be a part of a big-screen version of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, which starts shooting in August. Pattinson recently wrapped his work on the London set of Bel Ami as a 19th-century social-climbing rogue opposite Kristin Scott Thomas, Uma Thurman and Christina Ricci. Does he bed all three?

“Yes, but they’re not like typical love scenes at all,” he says.

Adds Stewart: “They’re all a little weird. A little edgy. And a little nude.” Chuckling ensues.

Then there is the next Twilight feature, Breaking Dawn, opening Nov. 18 next year. The fourth and presumably final book is so jammed with life-altering events — a wedding, first-time sex between Bella and Edward, a grotesquely painful birth — that there has been talk of doing two films back to back. And it might even be in 3-D. But the actors can confirm only their involvement.

What has been decided is that Breaking Dawn’s director will be Bill Condon, the filmmaker behind Dreamgirlsand Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Chicago.

Have they met Condon, who already posted a letter on Facebook reassuring fans of his appreciation of the material and that the film most definitely will not be a musical despite his résumé?

Lautner nods yes.

Pattinson: “When did you meet him?” Lautner: “One day.” Stewart: “Did you have a meeting?” Lautner: “No, no.” Pattinson: “I literally met him three nights ago.”

Stewart, in a mock snit: “Well, he obviously doesn’t want to meet me.

Thanks to kstewartnews for the tip.