Actor Kellan Lutz has learned to be careful what "Twilight" fans wish for -- especially when handcuffs are involved.

"As much as we're all joking with the fans and meeting them and trying to have their experience be a great one, there are a lot of things that go unnoticed with us right away," says Lutz, who plays Emmett Cullen in "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" opening today.

"Mainly there are a few that Jackson [Rathbone] and I have come to terms with, with the fans asking if they can handcuff themselves to us. We think they're joking, we'll be like, yeah, just do it and then they whip out the handcuffs and we're like, 'Whoa!' "

Double whoa to marriage proposals for Rathbone, who returns as Jasper Hale in the second vampire romance based on Stephenie Meyer's novels. The list of those willing to wed is a long one. "I'm looking for my first ex-wife right now," Rathbone joked, in a phone interview.

He, Lutz and actress Nikki Reed were clustered in a single call, while Alex Meraz and Edi Gathegi shared a party line, Justin Chon was teamed with Christian Serratos, and Michael Welch was alone again, naturally.

Welch plays Mike Newton, a high school student desperately in love with Bella Swan. She, in turn, is caught in a supernatural love triangle with a vampire and a werewolf.

As anyone who has stood in front of a magazine display for, oh, three seconds knows, Kristen Stewart plays Bella, Robert Pattinson is dreamy vampire Edward Cullen and Taylor Lautner is Jacob Black, a teenage werewolf.

Pattinson is on the cover of Vanity Fair with the question: "Can 100 million screaming 'Twilight' fans be wrong?"

In those pages and elsewhere, he laments being caught in the web of fame like a spider. He becomes a virtual prisoner in his hotel, with fans who shriek, hyperventilate and mob him by the hundreds or thousands if he ventures outside.

"The fans are nice to me," Welch said. "Yes, it's much more intense for Rob and Taylor, and I do not envy their lives at this point. ... I sort of get a taste of this world but I'm not as important to it as the big three, so it's kind of the perfect situation."

Welch started acting as a boy and has a list of five dozen credits (including "CSI," "Joan of Arcadia" and "Star Trek: Insurrection") but concedes, "I've never been a part of anything like this. I don't think any of us have.

"It's kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing and to show up at something like Comic-Con and to have thousands of people screaming at you, it's a pretty surreal experience and something I don't think I'll ever quite get used to, so I'm trying to just enjoy the ride as long as it lasts."

Even if that means Twi-hards want anything Welch touched, such as a water bottle.

One sweet girl started crying when she met him, prompting the actor to reflect, "It feels very unwarranted in a lot of ways but, at the same time, I also understand the magic of the movies and what that does to people.

"And I see the look in the eyes of some of these little kids when they meet me or us -- it was probably the same look that I had when I got to meet the Power Rangers when I was 7 years old."

Reed, who returns as vampire Rosalie Hale in "New Moon," agrees fans have grown more passionate and intense in the past year.

"I mean, it throws you off for a second. You're not expecting that kind of enthusiasm when you're walking down the street or, like at 6 o'clock in the morning when you go down to your hotel lobby to get a cup of coffee because you're just too lazy to make it with your own coffee maker and there are people waiting."

Lutz suggests the books and movies cross generational and gender lines, an observation borne out at public events.

"We get a lot of families that are brought together by these books -- mothers and daughters and grandmothers. And you know, it's seldom talked about but we do have a male fan base, as well. ... Everybody's kind of really into the love, into the action elements of it, it's got something for everyone."

When Gathegi heard he had landed the part of nomadic Laurent (or as he jokes when asked to describe his role, "the devilishly handsome vampire who's got great abs"), he knew Meyer had written a series of books.

"The first thing I thought was, well, I'm going to be in a trilogy, I've made it, this is huge. Then you've got to put things into perspective. You've got to make the movie, the movie's got to be good and then people gotta see it and they've got to make another movie."

All of that happened and then some.

Meraz, who jokes that he plays "Paul, the volatile, angry, cocky, big-headed, devilishly handsome werewolf of the wolf pack," assures fans that the movie hews closely to the novel.

"I read the book and the script back to back. I was personally surprised with how similar it was, because usually screenplay adaptations are a bit different but the material that Stephenie had could already go to screen as is.

"But I think Chris [Weitz, director] was able to bring out some cool things and really just amp it up a bit more for fans. I think they're going to be really happy with the end result."

Paul's transformation provides one of the most dramatic moments of the book. His lips curl back, he roars, his body is wracked by shudders and convulsions and then falls forward, "vibrating violently," Meyer writes.

"Halfway to the ground, there was a loud ripping noise, and the boy exploded. Dark silver fur blew out from the boy, coalescing into a shape more than five times his size -- a massive, crouched shape, ready to spring."

Meraz says computer-generated effects were combined with "me doing my convulsion thing," to the point where he almost passed out or vomited. Cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe told him it was one of the greatest performances he had ever seen.

"I was really happy with it. I hope the fans will be, too," Meraz said.

Whether by accident or design, the actors convey a couple of messages: This is a movie for the fans and Weitz did justice to the franchise he inherited from director Catherine Hardwicke who bowed out after "Twilight."

"He gave all of us a phone call, which is so courteous and respectful," said Chon, who plays Bella's classmate Eric alongside Serratos' Angela.

"Also, he made all of us binders full of information of what he was going to do, getting us all on the same page about what kind of world he was trying to convey and so he really stepped it up," Chon said. "He really spent extra time so that we would all be in the same communication loop."

As for the movie's apparent worldwide appeal, Serratos suggests it brings back faith in love while Chon says it provides escapism, excitement and forbidden love with a classic bad boy. Reed says the Bella-Edward bond is obsessive, co-dependent (but not in a bad way) and blissfully youthful.

Although they play mere humans, which means far less time in the makeup chair, Chon and Serratos are approached by fans with questions and photo requests. Most frequently asked: "Where's Rob?"

Hiding in his hotel room, most likely.

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