Alex Meraz and Kiowa Gordon were hardly prepared for the female attention they'd get from starring in this year's hottest movie, New Moon, which hit theaters Friday.

Pre-NM, the guys -- who play hunky werewolves in the second Twilight installment -- weren't doing a heck of a lot. These days, the two pals, both 25-year-old Native Americans from Arizona, have girls fainting at the very sight of them.

When they landed the parts, Meraz was a bit actor; Gordon, 19, had never recited a line in his life. The latter had the good fortune of attending church with Stephenie Meyer, the author of the vampire romance series.

``She told me about the open casting call for Native Americans that was coming to Phoenix,'' said Gordon, at Nordstrom in Aventura Mall, promoting a line of Twilight-themed clothing. ``An hour before, I went to an acting coach. . . . I went in there, did the audition and knocked it out of the park.''

Meraz landed the meaty part in a more conventional way -- by trying out.

``I did the audition and was lucky enough to to get a role. I heard there were like 70,000 people who went out for the wolf pack. It's like winning the lottery.''

Both are stunned by the hoopla -- which started even before the movie came out.

``I was kind of bewildered that I just did a movie -- my first movie -- and now I have tons of fans,'' said Meraz. ``People are so passionate. You're stepping into a hot skillet.''

The most passionate people they saw were at a Q&A in Denver.

``After every word we would say, they would start screaming. No one could hear what we were saying anyway,'' Gordon recounted. ``We actually got a fainter. A girl fainted in the crowd because she was so happy, I guess.''

And not just girls are behind the fervor.

``New Moon is going to bring new audiences that Twilight never had before,'' said Meraz. ``It's a more visceral experience with the addition of the wolf pack; it's more aggressive, more of a male genre movie. It's gonna be on like Donkey Kong!''

-- KABIR KHIATANI & MADDY MARR