Rachelle Lefevre

"I'm the one with the wicked curve ball."

Rachelle Marie Lefevre (born February 1, 1979) is the Canadian actress who portrays Victoria in the Twilight and New Moon movies. She is replaced with Bryce Dallas Howard in the film Eclipse.

Early life
Lefevre (pronounced /ləˈfɛv/) was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Her father is an English teacher, and her mother, a psychologist. She has three sisters and speaks both English and French; while her father's family is originally from France, Lefevre grew up mostly speaking English. Lefevre attended Centennial Academy, a private high school, and later studied creative arts at Dawson College. She studied theater for two summers at the Walnut Hill School in Natick, Massachusetts, and began a degree in education and literature at McGill University.

Twilight
Lefevre played the renegade vampire Victoria in the film Twilight. She wrote an impassioned letter to the director, explaining her desire to work with the filmmaker. Lefevre described the essence of her character as "pure evil, pure instinct, pure malice, and very feline". After reading that the author used the word "feline" to describe her character's agility, Lefevre watched lion attacks on YouTube to separate the movements of her character from those of normal people. She also took trapeze classes in preparation for the wire work in the film. Lefevre spent hours working on costumes for her character, and described herself as "obsessed" with vampires after reading Bram Stoker's Dracula at the age of 14.

Lefevre was at times overwhelmed by the scrutiny she received from her involvement with Twilight. She participated in a promotional tour in November 2008, where she met and signed autographs for Twilight fans at Hot Topic stores in the U.S.. "It's the closest I will ever come in my life to being a rock star," she told The Canadian Press, describing an appearance on MuchMusic, where over 1,500 fans showed up in Toronto. Over 2,500 fans showed up at a Wal-Mart in Salt Lake City, where Lefevre appeared to promote the DVD release of the film. Overall though, Lefevre describes herself as delighted by the attention and excitement of the fans.

New Moon
Lefevre reprises her role as Victoria in New Moon, playing a much bigger part in the story than in the first film. While she has no spoken lines, her character is clearly the main antagonist in the film, directly or indirectly endangering Bella's life throughout the first 2/3 of the movie.

Eclipse
Lefevre was replaced by Bryce Dallas Howard in the role of Victoria for Eclipse. Summit Entertainment attributed the change to scheduling conflicts; Barney's Version and Eclipse both began filming on 17 August 2009. Lefevre responded that she was "stunned" by the decision and "greatly saddened" not to continue her portrayal of Victoria, and never thought she would "lose the role over a 10 day overlap". The studio responded in a counter-statement, "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is an ensemble production that has to accommodate the schedules of numerous actors while respecting the established creative vision of the filmmaker and most importantly the story." Lefevre had appeared at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con to promote New Moon the weekend before she was replaced. Enthusiastic fans of the series reacted to the news with online petitions urging Lefevre's return, and "Bring Back Rachelle" became a top-trending topic on Twitter in the afternoon of 29 July 2009. Lefevre told Extra that she was "absolutely blown away" by support from fans, who also made her a tribute video on YouTube. Lefevre did not attend the Los Angeles premiere of New Moon, tweeting that the event "was just 2 emotional 4 me & I couldn't manage it."

Since 2009
In 2009, Lefevre appeared in the CBC television miniseries The Summit, filmed in Ontario, and completed the film Casino Jack, starring Kevin Spacey. In Casino Jack, Lefevre plays Emily Miller, a former press secretary for U.S. congressman Tom DeLay, who helped convict lobbyist Jack Abramoff (Kevin Spacey) in a political scandal involving Native American tribes.

Personal life
Lefevre lives in Los Angeles, California. As of June 2009, she was dating Jamie Thomas King, an actor from the Showtime television series The Tudors. Lefevre donates US$100 to Susan G. Komen for The Cure, a breast cancer charity, for every 10,000 people who follow her on Twitter. She also launched an eBay auction for the charity School On Wheels in August 2009, which provides tutoring to homeless children in Southern California. Lefevre sold t-shirts and other merchandise signed by her fellow cast members from Twilight. She is also an active supporter of Best Friends Animal Society, appearing in a public service announcement on behalf of the organization in November 2009, urging the public to adopt their next pet. She has also donated blood to the people of the Haiti earthquake.