Carlisle Cullen from Twilight was the chillest pop culture dad (literally and figuratively) and he’s easily one of the best vampire fathers in history. Carlisle is an extremely interesting character as he is a doctor, a researcher, a scholar, and has spent decades trying to help vampires adapt better. Many die-hard Twilight fans think Carlisle is even more intriguing than the main man of the series, Edward.
But there are many things about Carlisle that are never explored in the films. In the books, he’s a patriarch of a coven and a true leader, who can take charge of a difficult situation, but in the films, he’s simply depicted as a not-so-interesting secondary character. Film fans won't know the best details of this character.
10 Carlisle Was A Vampire Hunter As A Human
Carlisle lived through a time of immense political upheaval and his father was part of a dedicated group of pastors who hunted monsters like werewolves, vampires, etc. who were part of London’s underbelly, but this group also had a reputation for killing civilians under unfair suspicions.
As his father got older, the idealist Carlisle took over the raids and became a monster hunter. Though he wasn’t entirely comfortable with killing, he was smart about finding real covens of vampires and spared innocent people.
9 He Tried To Kill Himself Right After He Turned
Carlisle was bitten by a vampire after one particular hunting raid and was left bleeding out in the streets; he hid in a potato cellar to go through with his transformation for three whole days. Post his transition he was horrified by what he had become and wanted to take his own life because he knew vampires as killers and knew what his father would do if he found out about Carlisle’s fate.
He tried to end his own life in several ways. He jumped off cliffs, tried drowning and starving himself but nothing worked. He refused to feed on humans and eventually learned to live off animal blood.
8 He Lived With The Volturi For Twenty Years
Even some die-hard Twilight fanatics may not know this but Carlisle was with the Volturi for two decades! Most people think he had only briefly joined the vampire royalty but he was actually quite drawn to their refinement since most of the vampires he had encountered were savages.
He came across the Volturi when he was studying in Italy and joined Aro, Marcus, and Caius, although he did not approve of their lust for human blood. The Volturi on their part tried very hard to convert Carlisle into a human blood drinker but failed. Carlisle eventually moved out on his own to become a doctor.
7 He First Met Esme When She Was A Teenager
Fans who have only seen the films think that Carlisle met Esme when he treated her after she tried to take her own life, but that’s not true. The reason he could save Esme’s life was that he had met her once before. When Carlisle worked as a doctor in Columbus in the early 1900s, he was assigned to treat a teenager named Esme Anne Platt, who had broken her leg falling out of a tree.
Though they felt a strong mutual attraction towards each other, their encounter was brief. Almost a decade later after Carlisle and Edward had moved to Ashland, Wisconsin, Carlisle smelled the blood of someone familiar coming from his hospital’s morgue, who wasn’t completely dead and her feeble heartbeat was audible. That woman turned out to be Esme.
6 He Researched Vampiric Patterns
Carlisle was a scholar and dedicated his undead life to carve out a better, more respectable living for vampires. He was very curious about vampires as a species, and actually tried to explore some changes in the basic living habits of vampires; his biggest and most humane attempt would be the usage of animal blood to feed on which keeps them from hurting humans.
The biggest example of his scientific curiosity was how he handled Bella’s pregnancy; this was something Carlisle had never experienced, and as he was a doctor and researcher his coven looked to him for answers about her situation. Though Carlisle was quite surprised by everything, he made some pretty accurate predictions which actually prepared the family for what was to come.
5 Carlisle And Jacob Develop A Bond
This was never explored in the films but Carlisle and Jacon actually develop an interesting bond and kinship over time, especially because Carlisle was very curious about understanding werewolves and their anatomy.
“I find your species fascinating. I suppose that the elements of vampiric nature have come to seem commonplace to me over centuries. Your family's divergence from humanity is much more interesting. Magical, almost,” he tells Jacob. Though Jacob doesn’t warm up to the Cullens initially, he begins respecting Carlisle after he tends to his wounds after their war with Volturi.
4 Carlisle Was Anxious About The Lonely Edward
Carlisle had been alone for decades and was used to being on his own, but he felt a sense of remorse over turning Edward since he didn’t ask for that life. Carlisle turned Edward into a vampire because his mother begged him to do anything in his power to save her son.
Perhaps this wasn’t what she would have wanted but nevertheless, Carlisle didn’t want a promising life like Edward’s to end. Edward, of course, becomes Carlisle’s companion but Carlisle begins to grow quite anxious about the lonely Edward and searched for years for someone who could be a vampire companion to him.
3 Carlisle And Esme Had Been Together For 80 Years When Twilight Began
Carlisle and Esme's love story is pretty iconic and the way Edward talks about his parents makes it obvious that he is in awe of their relationship. “More than eighty years had passed since Carlisle had found Esme, and yet he still looked at her with those incredulous eyes of first love. It would always be that way for them,” he told Bella.
The film doesn’t exactly establish a timeline as to how long each member has known each other, which would have definitely helped the script.
2 He Originally Had An English Accent
Peter Facinelli didn’t want Carlisle to have an English accent because he believed that Carlisle would have adapted to the American way of living and would actually pick up an American accent after spending so many years in the country. But Carlisle originally had an English accent in the books because he was born and raised in London and had spent a chunk of his early life there.
“I never thought of doing that because he is English, but a long time ago, over 300 years ago. I thought he would have adapted to his surroundings. I wound up doing a more standard American accent,” the actor said in an interview.
1 He Was Just 23 When He Was Turned
In the films, Carlisle is in his mid-thirties. He’s strikingly handsome, blonde, and tall. It was difficult to perceive him as a parent to teenagers, but then, of course, they pretended the Cullen kids were adopted.
In the novel, Carlisle was 23 years old when he was turned, which means he was only six years older than Edward in human years. In the films, the producers perhaps cast an older Carlisle because it would be convenient for the narrative and wouldn’t require too much explanation.
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December 26, 2020 at 06:30AM
