Kiowa Gordon - From Sunday School to Twilight Stardom and Beyond

Twilight Saga star Kiowa Gordon joins Caregiver Dave on the Neil Haley Show for an extraordinary conversation about his unexpected journey into Hollywood. Kiowa shares the remarkable origin story that sounds almost too good to be true: at 18, his Sunday school teacher Stephanie Meyer (author of Twilight) told him about an open casting call for her next movie, Twilight: New Moon, suggesting he audition to play a werewolf. As a self-described "slacker in high school," Kiowa didn't take it seriously until his mom came into his room a month after the audition to tell him he'd landed the role of Embry Call. He discusses the surreal experience of "wolf camp" where the production put the actors through training to pack on muscle, gaining 10 pounds between getting cast and filming, and reveals they never even made him take his shirt off at the audition—they just assumed he'd look fine under it.Kiowa reflects on the wild fan phenomenon that followed, from receiving fan mail asking for autographs to traveling the country for Twilight conventions where hundreds of fans would show up for hours of meet-and-greets. He describes the "vampire balls" where fans dressed up like they were at prom, and how he and fellow wolf pack members would surprise fans camping out overnight at premieres by playing acoustic guitar and singing songs. Now at 30 and in the best shape of his life, Kiowa discusses his current projects including the CW's Roswell reboot, where he plays a military family member hunting aliens alongside his brother character, and the Netflix World War II miniseries The Liberator. Shot entirely on blue screen to create a graphic novel aesthetic, The Liberator tells the story of Lieutenant Felix Sparks and his company of American and Mexican-American misfits fighting Nazis across Europe. Kiowa also opens up about fatherhood to his six-year-old daughter and witnessing his mother's caregiving journey through family illness and loss.