Rachelle Lefevre

Rachelle Lefevre (born February 1, 1979 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her role of Victoria in the 2008 film Twilight, based on the novel written by Stephenie Meyer.

Lefevre was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Her father is an English teacher, and her mother, a psychologist. 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.

Rachelle Lefevre appeared in the film Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, directed by George Clooney, in 2002. She appeared in the television movies Picking Up and Dropping Off with Scott Wolf, and See Jane Date, and had a role in the romantic comedy Hatley High in 2003. In 2004, she played Etta Place in the Calgary-filmed TV movie The Legend of Butch and Sundance. Lefevre moved to West Hollywood, California that year and appeared in the films Noel, directed by Chazz Palminteri and starring Penelope Cruz, and Head in the Clouds, also starring Cruz and Charlize Theron. In April 2004, Lefevre filmed the mystery-thriller The River King in Halifax, opposite Edward Burns.

In 2009, she appeared in the CBC television miniseries The Summit, filmed in Ontario, and completed the film Casino Jack, starring Kevin Spacey. Lefevre will also appear in Barney's Version, starring Paul Giamatti, a film adaptation of the novel by Mordecai Richler.

Rachell Lefevre plays the renegade vampire Victoria in the film Twilight (2008), based on the novel of the same name by Stephenie Meyer. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, the film was shot mostly in and around Portland, Oregon. Lefevre 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 her costumes for her character in the film, and described herself as "obsessed" with vampires after reading Bram Stoker's Dracula at the age of 14.

Lefevre will appear in the film's sequel, based on Meyer's second novel, New Moon. She completed shooting the film in Vancouver in May 2009. Lefevre will not reprise her role of Victoria in Eclipse, the third film of the Twilight series, but will be replaced by Bryce Dallas Howard. Summit Entertainment, the studio behind the films, attributed the change to scheduling conflicts; Barney's Version and Eclipse both begin 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"