8 Actors You Totally Forgot Were in 'Twilight': Dakota Fanning, Anna Kendrick and More

Anna Kendrick as Jessica Stanley

Anna Kendrick played Jessica, one of the first students at Forks High School whom Bella (Stewart) befriends. She took on the part a year before earning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for 2009's Up in the Air — just one of the performances she’s become most known for.

Don’t feel too bad if you missed she was ever in the hit franchise — she did too! In 2018, the A Simple Favor actress admitted forgetting she was in Twilight — just a few days after the film's 10-year anniversary. "Holy s---. I just remembered I was in Twilight," Kendrick wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

The actress appeared in four of the franchise’s five films: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn — Part 1. Since the saga's conclusion, Kendrick has developed a knack for cinching franchise roles, appearing in both the Pitch Perfect and Trolls movie series. She made her directorial debut with 2023’s Woman of the Hour, in which she also stars as Cheryl Bradshaw — the woman who appeared on The Dating Game with serial killer Rodney Alcala as a contestant.

Dakota Fanning as Jane

Dakota Fanning starred in three of the Twilight movies as Jane, one of the sinister members of the Volturi — the guard that rules over vampires.

A then-15-year-old Fanning first appeared in New Moon before reprising her role in Eclipse and Breaking Dawn — Part 2. It was also one of the first times the former child actress had crossed over to the dark side for a role.

"This is a character that really takes pleasure in causing people pain," she told Entertainment Weekly in 2009. "And that's kind of a fascinating character to get to play. So that was definitely one of the reasons that I wanted to do it."

Fanning has remained busy since the Twilight movies, starring on The Alienist and landing roles in critically acclaimed films like Ocean’s 8 (2018) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) as well as the action-packed The Equalizer 3 (2023).

Rami Malek as Benjamin

Before becoming a household name on Mr. Robot and winning the Best Actor Oscar for Bohemian Rhapsody in 2019, Rami Malek appeared as the gifted vampire Benjamin in Breaking Dawn — Part 2.

In the franchise’s final installment, Malek plays an Egyptian vampire who helps Bella and Edward (Pattinson) when the Volturi come knocking. It's one of the few times the actor has played a character with his same ethnicity. Even so, Malek admitted he wasn't entirely sold on the role initially.

"I remember [my agent] saying Twilight, and I said, 'Ummm, not my cup of tea,' " he told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, per Elite Daily. "They said, 'You should probably take this.' I said, 'OK,' and went in for the audition. When I got the job, I remember getting really excited, thinking it was cool. I wanted to be a part of something that was historic in a way. Now I’m really glad I did it."

Malek has continued to make his mark in the industry as a serious actor, with acting credits in blockbusters like No Time to Die (2021), Amsterdam (2022) and Oppenheimer (2023).

Michael Sheen as Aro

Michael Sheen played the all-powerful Aro, who led the villainous Volturi clan in their control of all vampires.

The veteran Welsh actor is also memorably part of the iconic Breaking Dawn — Part 2 scene that briefly showed every favorite character's demise before it was revealed to be a vision that hadn't yet come to pass.

Speaking to Collider in 2012 about playing the character, Sheen said: "I enjoyed it! It was hard work because we spent a long time on that set, in the snow and the forest, but it was great. It was probably the most enjoyable one to do, and I think it’s certainly the most enjoyable one to watch. I really enjoyed it. And it’s the end of the story, as well, which gives it a lot more of a bittersweet quality."

Sheen has acted in plenty of big projects since leaving his Volturi red eyes behind, starring on shows like Good Omens and Staged and appearing in such films as Nocturnal Animals (2016), Dolittle (2020) and Last Train to Christmas (2021).

Jamie Campbell Bower as Caius

Jamie Campbell Bower is no stranger to book adaptations. Though he starred as part of the vicious Volturi coven in New Moon and both Breaking Dawn movies, he also had roles in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1 as a young version of Gellert Grindelwald (a role he reprised in 2018’s Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald) and 2013's The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.

Fun fact: Bower, a self-proclaimed Twihard, originally tried for a different part.

"I was originally auditioning for the role of Demetri in New Moon, and then they said, 'We think you’d be more fitting as Caius,' ” he told EW in 2009. "And I said, 'Well, that’s very kind of you; I’d love to come along and play him.' And I was aware of the character, I was aware very much of the particularly strong presence the Volturi have in Breaking Dawn."

Since the series ended, Bower has found even more stardom on television, scoring the major role of the ominous Henry Creel (a.k.a. Vecna) on season 4 of Stranger Things.

Bryce Dallas Howard as Victoria

Brought in for the third film in the saga, Eclipse, to replace Rachelle Lefevre (who originated the vengeful vampire Victoria in Twilight and New Moon), Bryce Dallas Howard went on to reprise her role in Breaking Dawn — Part 2.

Like many of her castmates, she was also a fan of the series — and of one character, in particular. "I'm going to seem like I'm a lustful individual now because when I first saw Twilight — the first Twilight movie — I watched it with my husband, and whenever Robert Pattinson came on screen, I would squeeze his hand so hard," she told PeopleTV's Couch Surfing. (She even had "a bunch of Post-It notes" with Pattinson's face on them, given to her by her brother-in-law.)

After Twilight, Howard went on to star in 2011's critically acclaimed The Help before landing her breakout part as Claire Dearing in Jurassic World (2015), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) and Jurassic World Dominion (2022).

Lee Pace as Garrett

A former nomadic vampire, Lee Pace's Garrett brings an air of levity to the final installment in the Twilight franchise, Breaking Dawn — Part 2.

Since then, he's had a handful of big- and small-screen credits, starring on TV series like Halt and Catch Fire and Foundation and appearing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Ronan the Accuser in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy and 2019’s Captain Marvel.

Christian Serratos as Angela Weber

After her turn as Bella's shy and nerdy friend Angela, Christian Serratos — who appeared in the first four movies — went on to book parts on American Horror Story: Murder House and The Secret Life of the American Teenager before landing a starring role on The Walking Dead as Rosita Espinosa from 2014 to 2022.

The actress returned to the spotlight again in 2020 with her portrayal of the late singer Selena Quintanilla on Netflix’s Selena: The Series.