Taylor Lautner on Swapping Spit with Robert Pattinson

The real danger on the set of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse didn't involve vampires or werewolves. It was all the flying saliva.

"We're always like an inch away from each other's faces, screaming at each other, spitting at each other in the face. It gets a little awkward," Taylor Lautner told PEOPLE of costar Robert Pattinson at Monday's Cinema Society and Piaget-hosted screening of their latest Twilight film in New York.

Did Pattinson have to duck any major projectiles? "Not anything super dramatic," Lautner says, "but I'm sure he caught a couple splats."

Shouting at each other doesn't come naturally for two guys who don't, in real life, despise each other. And so, the scenes often veer into laughter. "Rob and I ruin a lot of takes," Lautner admits. "It's hard to keep a straight face, because we actually like each other. So, it's pretty funny."

With Pattinson filming Water for Elephants, Lautner, 18, was joined at the screening by costar Kristen Stewart, 20. Both actors said they've been enjoying some relatively quiet time recently.

Lautner said he's been following the World Cup – "I was rooting for the U.S., and that was a bummer," he says – while Stewart has been indulging her passion for music and cooking. "I'm fairly obsessed with [indie rocker] Jenny Lewis right now," she admits. "I'm in a state of grief because I'm missing her show in L.A."

But the cooking is going well – and it sounds like Stewart is being resourceful. "I like making pies," she says. "I have a bunch of fruit trees in my backyard. My loquat tree sprouted, and I like making loquat pie. They're really hard to peel and everything, and it took me forever, but they make the best pies. They're amazing."


People