'Twilight' Star Ashley Greene Is Excited About 'New Moon' Director Chris Weitz

BEVERLY HILLS, California — After the enormous opening of "Twilight," it's hard to talk about "young Hollywood" without the film's actors coming to mind. So when the organization behind the Golden Globe Awards threw its annual celebration of tomorrow's stars Wednesday evening, it seemed fitting that Stephenie Meyer's squad would rock the party. MTV News already brought you our exclusive interview with Taylor Lautner, but we were also eager to get the latest "New Moon" scoop from the one and only Ashley Greene.

"Now I can hear what you say, and then maybe respond intelligently," the 21-year-old beauty laughed, comparing the red carpet to the last time we saw her, at the "Twilight" premiere.

Looking forward to the upcoming sequel, she said she was "very excited. Alice, [my] character, is a lot bigger and a lot heavier in the second one, so obviously I'm looking forward to that. And hopefully we'll go to Europe to film.

"I want to drive the yellow Porsche, really bad — in Europe," she giggled, citing the "New Moon" moment she's most eager to film. "That's what I'm most excited about now. I keep saying I hope they let me drive it, because on the first 'Twilight' we wanted to do our own stunts, and they let us do everything we realistically could. So, I'm hoping if I learn how to drive stick-shift, they'll let me drive the Porsche."

Greene also addressed the recent controversy surrounding Chris Weitz replacing Catherine Hardwicke as the series' director. "I'm sad to see Catherine go, but I think Chris is going to do a really great job," said the star. "I'm excited to work with him, because obviously he's worked with CGI before, and he's very familiar with it. It'll be good. We all knew [Catherine leaving] was a possibility, and I respect the fact that she said, 'Hey, I want more prep time. Maybe I wouldn't do the best job,' and that she gave someone else her place. That's what we do; that's our job. We work with different, great people every day."

Greene also offered her support for Lautner, who is meeting with Weitz on Friday to determine whether or not the young star will continue playing Jacob Black. "I hope so," she said, bringing her hands together in prayer. "We all love Taylor. He's the best kid. He's so adorable and so good-hearted, and he's a good actor too. He did a great job, so I'm hoping to see him come back."

Ever since Lautner landed the "Twilight" gig, claiming that he could play the character throughout Jacob's supernatural maturation, some have insisted he isn't physically appropriate, an argument that Greene doesn't understand. "Oh, neither am I! I mean, really?" laughed Greene, who dealt with a backlash herself after being cast as the 4-foot-10 Alice Cullen. "If that's the argument, then they should replace me.

"I love him to death, and he'll grow; I know he's working out like crazy to try to bulk up," she said of Lautner. "I think there are a lot of people [in 'Twilight'] who don't necessarily physically fit their part. So I'm hoping we keep him."

The actress — whose career has soared to the point that she wrapped one film this week and began another the very next day — added that she's eagerly waiting for the inch "New Moon" script by Melissa Rosenberg to arrive on her doorstep.

"I haven't [read the script]. Apparently, it's under tight wraps," she grinned. "I'm sure Rob [Pattinson] has, but [not me]. No, I haven't gotten to see it yet."

Greene said she doesn't agree with the argument that the "Twilight" films should be overseen by only female directors. "I don't, necessarily. Chris put out a statement that I thought was very sweet, talking about how excited he is about the books. He read them and spoke with Stephenie, and he definitely wants to do them justice," she explained. "Stephenie also released a statement saying she'd spoken with him. And with the two of them working together, because I'm sure Stephenie will be around a lot, I think he's going to do a great job. And like I said before, he did 'The Golden Compass,' so he's definitely familiar with the kind of film we're doing, as far as the technicality of the stunts and the CGI."

Before entering the party, Ashley also cautioned that fans shouldn't be sad that "New Moon" would force her to chop off her beautiful hair, revealing that much of Alice's pixie hairdo is movie magic. "I cut it to here," she said, holding her hand at her shoulder. "You didn't know they wigged me? That's good; that means it looks good. They wigged me for the first one, and I joked, 'Maybe I should just cut my hair off for the second one.' And they said, 'No, we'd still have to wig you, and we'd kill you on top of it!' I'll probably chop it down to my shoulders again, which I hate doing, but for this I don't mind."

Check out everything we've got on "Twilight" and "New Moon."

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(AP)