The Poker Vampire: Peter Facinelli

Celebrities bombarded the poker game and this time, its the vampires turn! As Peter Facinelli or known as Dr. Carlisle Cullen in the Twilight saga is playing poker! It’s no secret that Peter Facinelli is an avid poker player. He appeared on the program Celebrity Poker Showdown.

Peter Facinelli was once participated in a celebrity charity poker tournament, to benefit the center’s domestic violence victims. He came rub elbows with poker pros and Hollywood celebrities at the 1736 Family Crisis Center’s third annual fund raising poker tournament.

Jason Alexander will host the event to benefit the center’s domestic violence victims, their children, and homeless and abandoned youth. On hand for the tournament will be poker celebrities Jamie Gold and Greg Raymer, Hollywood stars Montel Williams, Cheryl Hines, Mimi Rogers, Peter Facinelli, Romany Malco, Rob Morrow, Patrick Cassidy, Bobby Costanzo, Scott Elrod and Daniel Baldwin, and KCAL weather reporter Jackie Johnson.

He also participated in the biggest and brightest poker tournament, the London Open 2005- World Poker Exchnage Celebrity poker enthusiasts and top poker pros are set to play in the 4-day event. First round of celebrity players who take a shot at the $2 million prize pool include Jennie Garth, Mimi Rogers, Richard Kind, Willie Garson and Nicholas Gonzalez.

Here's some snippets of the interview of Vanity Fair with Peter Facinelli:

As the patriarch of the Cullen clan, have you assumed a similar fatherly role with the cast? Peter Facinelli: You know, on Twilight I feel like they looked to me as the father figure, but because we became so close, I’m more of an older brother now.

How does New Moon differ from Twilight? Peter Facinelli: You know, Twilight was an independent movie. It was shot very documentary style, the way Catherine [Hardwicke, Twilight’s director] shoots. It has a rawness to it, which I think is nice. New Moon’s a little bit crisper, it has a little bit more of a studio feel, but it still has that edge.

Has there been a difference in the way you interact as a cast since you filmed Twilight?

Peter Facinelli: Rob (Robert Pattinson) has more security guards hanging around him! [Laughs] Other than that, not really. We really enjoy each other’s company, and we’ve been working so much on this movie that we really haven’t had as much time to hang out with each other. We’re putting in these long hours and then just heading home. Usually we just try to catch dinner with each other then get back up the next morning and do it all over again.

What has this done for your career?

Peter Facinelli: I’ve done a lot of movies and different roles, and this is another role that I love to play. I look forward to continue doing a lot more. It’s definitely broadened my fan base even with my own kids. For a long time, they didn’t get to see any of the work I’ve done because of the mature content.

What’s it like playing the same character for three different directors?

Peter Facinelli: That gets interesting. It’s exciting in one way because every director brings their own flavor to the movie. Each director’s personality is different so you kind of have to adapt to their way of working, but I’ve had really good experiences on all three. Sometimes it’s nice working with the same person over and over because there’s a familiarity, but I’m used to working with different directors. On Nurse Jackie we get different directors on each episode.

I like it because they bring different ideas and make you think of things you might not have thought of before—pushing you to look at it from different angles. I think it’s harder on the directors to come in and try to make these movies as grand as Twilight was and take on the responsibility of getting the story accurate in terms of telling it from the book. Then they have a whole cast that they haven’t dealt with before, so I think it would be more daunting for the director.

About Peter Facinelli: Born in the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens, NY on Nov. 26, 1973, he was the son of Italian immigrants and the youngest of four children. After a year of college at St John’s University in Jamaica, NY, he developed a passion for acting, and began studying the craft at the New York University-affiliated Atlantic Theater Company Acting School. Among his teachers were such noted stage and screen stars as William H. Macy, Felicity Huffman, and Giancarlo Esposito.

After logging numerous roles in the Company’s productions, he made his feature film debut as the Devil in Rebecca Miller’s “Angela” in 1995, the buzz about Facinelli after “Can’t Hardly Wait” thrust him into the Hollywood spotlight, where he was snapped up for several major projects, each of which should have propelled him to the next level of stardom. Peter Facinelli then segued to HBO’s acclaimed drama “Six Feet Under,” where he shared a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination in 2005 for his recurring role of Jimmy.

Once again, the buzz surrounding Facinelli after “Damages” led to a string of quality projects. Chief among these was “Twilight,” Catherine Hardwicke’s adaptation of the popular Gothic romance novels by Stephenie Meyer. Facinelli was cast as Carlisle Cullen, a small town doctor who also serves as the benevolent patriarch of a clan of vampires.