Ashley Greene covers GQ British Dec 2012

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Ashley Greene covers Marie Claire (November 2012)+ Editorial Pics

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Starlets who say they like to bake are like models who claim they don't diet. (Cue eye roll.) But here's how I know Ashley Greene isn't a pretender: The day before we are to meet with James Beard Award-winning food writer Carolynn Carreño for a private lesson on how to bake world-class chocolate chip cookies, Greene, 25, politely informs Carreño that she's just whipped up a batch of sweet potato muffins with bourbon filling. This disclosure is her gentle way of saying, "I'm no beginner, so how about we step it up a notch?" Carreño quickly gets the hint, scratches the cookies, and suggests a more advanced French peach tart instead.

So there we are, in the airy kitchen of Carreño's Venice, California, bungalow, arms flecked with flour, complimenting each other on our rolling pin skills. Greene, a Jacksonville, Florida, native, is one of those type A chefs: Her side of the counter is freakishly clean, and she expertly works a shapeless mound of dough into disks so perfectly spherical they could have been measured with a protractor. She is entirely engaged in the task at hand. Everything about her is carefully considered, from the casual-cool, paparazzi-ready ensemble (Ella Moss tank, cutoff jean shorts, Isabel Marant booties) to the neatly folded apron she showed up with tucked under her arm. Focused is her natural state of being.

domestic Ashley:

Basically the opposite of me. While Greene is the model student, I am distracted. In my defense, I'm mentally wrestling with a tricky bit of business: how to get Greene's take on the biggest celebrity split since Sandra Bullock dumped a wayward Jesse James. About a week earlier, a Hollywood bomb had gone off that shocked the nation — the planet! Greene's Twilight costar Kristen Stewart had cheated on her longtime beau, Robert Pattinson, devastating millions of "Twihards" who considered the real-life romance of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan a love story for the ages. Stewart's wrenching confession (and those photos!) are all anyone, anywhere can talk about. So after we are both settled in, I gently back into the subject of l'affair KStew. The easy grin quickly vanishes from Greene's face. "That is off-limits," she says sternly, adding with emphasis, "really."



Greene, of all the castmates, surely understands there's zero upside for her if she dishes. Not just because she understands that rules are rules — ever the perfectionist, she's good at following them — but because she owes everything to Twilight, her very first film. Her story is Hollywood's version of stepping up to the mound for the first time and pitching a no-hitter. It rarely happens, and when it does, everybody notices.

When she arrived in Los Angeles at 17, Greene was just another super-pretty model-actress who paid her dues waiting tables, booking bit parts in middling shows like Crossing Jordan and MADtv, and befriending other attractive up-and-comers, like Gossip Girl's Jessica Szohr. "It was definitely hard," Greene recalls, methodically pinching the edges of her tart crust. "But nothing positive comes out of being bitter. You just have to keep on working."



On why she finds dating difficult:

“I’m always here and there – everyone in my industry is – and that’s why a lot of relationships are fleeting,” “I’ve gotten very good at detaching whenever I have to go away for three months, which I realize is hard on friends and kind of selfish,” says the Jacksonville, FL native. “You go on a couple of dates, and then someone ships off to do a movie. It’s not like you’re going to fly out and see them, because it’s not serious enough for that.”

On not planning to live off acting:

"I'm lucky and my dad taught me to be frugal and save," she said. "And that’s important because I want to know that I don’t have to take an acting job for two or three years if I don’t want to and that I’ll still be able to make my house and car payments and buy food for my dogs."




More in the Nov issue of Marie Claire on newsstands on October 23.
Sources: 1,2,3,4

Behind the scenes video: