In 2008, Robert Pattinson was just your everyday British acting talent. But all that changed overnight when he became the face of the perfectly coiffed and pale, brooding vampire Edward Cullen in The Twilight Saga.
In the wake of Twilight and its sequel New Moon’senormous success, it has turned the Londoner into easily the most internationally sought-after pin-up idol to come out of England since George Michael. While Pattinson has continued to build his career with independent films like From Ashes and Remember Me, the 24 year-old returns as Edward in the latest film in the series, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.
Robert first discussed how he feels Edward has evolved with the latestTwilight film. “In the first two movies, he feels desolation from reality,” he believes, “So when he finds one thing to hold onto, that’s where the possessiveness comes from. I think, as the series goes on, he accepts more of the contemporary world.”
“All the things that were deemed to be flawed before start fading away, and that’s how I’m trying to play him,” Pattinson adds, “He’s coming out of his shell a little bit in Eclipse, so hopefully, by the end of Breaking Dawn, he’ll be a normal 17-year-old guy, who’s just a little bit pale.”
Pattinson remarks that there is one subtle ingredient that he uses to truly embody the character of Edward.
“Probably the contact lenses,” Robert says, “They make me miserable, as soon as I put them in. That’s what creates the pouting and brooding character.”
Robert shared what he felt he had to learn that was new for Edward this time around. “I guess I had to learn how to run properly,” he claims, “In the last two, I ran in a limp slash-skip, and I had to look like I could run more solidly this time. So, I spent a lot of time on a giant treadmill, like one of those wheels mice run around on, and got filmed doing it to improve my form.”
Pattinson says that one thing he does share in common with Edward is his belief that everyone has a soul.
“I can’t remember who said it, but a soul and a heaven must exist because good people aren’t rewarded enough on Earth,” he believes, “I always liked thatidea, if that makes sense.”
The first film Twilight introduces and develops the relationship between Bella Swan and Edward. The second film, New Moon, deals with Edward trying to protect Bella from himself by leaving her and a relationship develops between her and JacobBlack.
With Eclipse, the relationships finally coalesce into a love triangle. Pattinson describes what it was like to work more closely with co-star Taylor Lautner, who plays Edward’s now romantic rival.
“It was good because I never do anything with anyone, but Kristen [Stewart], except for brief things,” Robert says, “But, it’s about letting Edward have petty emotions, like being jealous of Jacob and not being able to control himself around him because he gets under his skin so much. It became much easier to play much bigger scopes of emotion, once you let someone else get through your armor. So, doing that with Taylor was great. He’s really good, too.
It was wondered if Robert ever got into a fight with someone for the love of a woman. “Yeah, probably,” Pattinson answers, “But, I don’t know if it was about love. It was more pride.”
It was then, wondered, if he ever competed for a woman with another guy, like Edward with Jacob in this film.
“Compete? No, I haven’t,” Robert says, “I’m not good at doing it. I just leave it alone. And also, if you are the one with the girl in the first place, maybe you’re forced into fighting a little bit. But, I would never be in Jacob’s position. Then, you’re just the guy that broke up the couple.”
Robert shared his favorite scenes with Lautner. “Some scenes, it was just quite cool to have him there,” Pattinson says, “I like the scenes where Bella has to reveal something about herself in front of Jacob and me, at the same time. It’s an extra thing to relate to. Most of the time, it’s just with Bella and she’s trying to convey something to Edward, and Edward is being totally sympathetic to her seeing another guy and seeing it’s not just about their relationship, it’s about some other person. It made it a little more interesting.”
One particular scene Pattinson went into detail with was a “tent scene” between him and co-star Kristen Stewart. “The first time we did that tent scene, I was really freaking out,” he says, “I don’t know why. I think it had to do with claustrophobia because we were actually shooting in a tent. I just couldn’t get it together. I kept forgetting my lines, and I was so nervous. I just wanted to punch anyone who was near me. We did about three takes, and Kristen was supposed to be asleep on the floor, and she saw that I was freaking out.”
“Half-way through the take, she suddenly opened her eyes and was just staring at me and kept trying to make me laugh, through the entire take,” Robert adds, “It’s the most serious scene in the whole movie. I just wanted to strangle her for the first two seconds, but then I could not stop laughing, the entire time. We got literally one take where it went right, and it was because of that. When I was trying to hold back, I guess it made me more alive or something.”
Robert discussed how he thinks he and Stewart create chemistry together so well onscreen as Bella and Edward.
“For some reason, I can’t understand anything and I think I’m going really into the depth of the character, when it just seems so obvious to Kristen,” Pattinson describes, “Her mind works completely differently. She can just feel things immediately, and I like to be more cerebral about things, in completely the opposite way of Kristen.”
“I don’t feel confident unless I know more about the reasons why I’m doing things,” he continues, “I don’t really do that for other parts. That’s what I do for Edward. But, since the first one, I always like to go in-depth about things.”
Pattinson’s ability to create chemistry with Stewart has been the basis for all sorts of rumor and innuendo for the tabloids of whether or not there’s a real romance going on about it. It was asked whether or not the actor understood the fantasy about it. “Do I understand the fantasy of it? No, not really,” Robert replies, “Well, I guess people like stories. My basic conclusion is that they just want everything to be about Twilight.
One particularly unique aspect with this film franchise is it’s one of the few to have different directors with Catherine Hardwicke helming Twilight and Chris Weitzhelming New Moon. Robert discusses working with director David Slade this time around, who helmsEclipse.
“It’s interesting,” he says of it, “With the firstTwilight film, everyone had very specific ideas and everyone was butting heads the entire time. Then, when Chris Weitz came in for New Moon, he basically came in with the opinion that he liked the first one and he liked what the actors were doing, so he just followed along that road. Then, when David Slade came, he was like, ‘I want to do everything completely different and not like the first two.’”
“So, we talked about the character development and consistency from the two, and he was like, ‘It doesn’t matter, let’s just do something completely different,’ which is good because then it’s challenging,” Pattinson continues, “It’s easy to get stagnant, if you play the same character. In New Moon, I felt like I was going a little bit deeper. And then, with Eclipse, I felt like I was doing a completely different movie and a completely different character. So, yeah, it was nice and challenging.”
Pattinson was asked what Slade changed the most about Eclipse.
“I guess he was really fighting to make it not so solemn,” Robert replies, “In my eyes, Edward has been so calculated and everything is not rash, and David wanted to speed up the whole thing and make him more vulnerable.”
Robert discussed a particular scene where Jacob remarks about being hotter than Edward and Edward’s lack of a reaction to such a statement.
“There’s nothing you can say,” Pattinson believes, “‘Yeah, you are!’ ‘At least I’m not hotter than you!’ I don’t know. Yeah, it was quite fun. There are quite a few lines in there. Jacob has quite a few catch phrase type of lines, with me especially. For some reason, I find it quite funny when I’m doing stuff with Taylor.”
“There are a couple confrontational scenes, where I push him around a little bit, and I thought I’d really scare him and grab him, and it would freak him out and turn the whole scene upside down,” he adds, “Then, I grabbed his shoulder and it was too big to actually get a grip on, so I just dropped my hand. It was embarrassing. I got him badly, thought. He kept having to dress up in a little grey spandex wolf suit and try to be intimidating with Kristen patting him on the head. That was quite fun.”
Another scene Pattinson discusses is a fight scene between Edward and evil vampire Victoria, played by Bryce Dallas Howard.
“Weirdly, one of the producers told me, ‘Wow you look so enthusiastic in that fight scene! Much more so than any other one in the series,’ Robert says, “I did a bit of practice with Bryce. It’s really hard to do stuff with her because she’s the gentlest person and she’s always laughing when you do anything.”
“And then, she’d be afraid of hurting me,” he adds, “Most of the vicious stuff I did was with a stunt double who was really, really tough. But, the bits with Bryce, we’re just rolling around and grabbing onto each other. It was fun.”
As with any major cultural phenomenon, Twilight has spawned dozens of fansites. Robert commented on whether or not he actually goes on any of them.
“It’s incredible the information they get so quickly,” he says, “Sometimes, I’ll check them to see what my schedule is, especially on the weekend when I can’t get through to my agency.”
“It’s strange being in Twilight because so much of the fan base is being on the Internet and having a community with each other,” Pattinson adds, “You see people turn up on sets of other movies I’ve done, to take a picture. It’s strange.”
The first Twilight not only showcased Pattinson as an actor, but as a musician, contributing a song to the film’s soundtrack. He was asked whether or not he would ever contribute more music for the film series in the future.
“I’ve done a couple of things,” Robert says, “I’ve always just been playing around. It was nice to be involved in the first one. I just saw Twilight on TV, for the first time, a few days ago, and, when my song came on, I was just thinking that is so bizarre that I actually had a song in the movie.”
“I’m amazed Catherine [Hardwicke] did it,” he continues, “It really shows how none of us thought it was going to be so massive. I never thought people would buy the soundtrack. So, it’s a little more nerve-wracking now. I don’t know. Maybe.”
With every phenomenal franchise comes the fear of one’s career being typecast by the character they played for so long in it. However, Robert is rather mixed in his level of concern over it.
“I’ve always been of the opinion that, if something explodes really quickly, it takes the same amount of time for people to think of something else,” Pattinson says, “I don’t know. I hope not. Maybe it’ll be a good thing. I have no idea.”
One thing is certain, Pattinson will continue to play Edward until the very end when the next and final story, Breaking Dawn is released in the form of two films.
“I haven’t read it yet,” Robert says of it, “I’m starting it a month after the job I’m doing now, and I haven’t read it yet. I didn’t intend to not read it until now. It’s quite exciting. I have no idea. I just heard brief rumors about what happens in the story, but I don’t really know what happens at all. I found out about Breaking Dawn when the press release came out.”
Breaking Dawn, of which the films are set for release in November 2011 and summer 2012 respectively, already has Bill Condon, who has done Gods And Monsters and Dreamgirls, set at the helm to direct both of them. Robert talks about meeting the filmmaker.
“I met him briefly, a few weeks ago, kind of by accident, just before the MTV Awards, in a bar,” Pattinson says, “He seemed great. He seemed like a really, really nice guy. I haven’t talked to him, in detail, about anything. But, Gods And Monsters is an amazing movie. I think it’s going to be good. I don’t even know where they’re going to shoot it yet, or anything.”
Pattinson had this to say regarding people who may be still on the fence about the Twilight films.
“I don’t know what to say to people,” he says, “It’s become so big. It’s become part of the cultural environment. For the first and second one, I knew exactly what to say to people. If you don’t know what the story is by now, then you’ve probably never been to the cinema before. How about, ‘Why not go to the cinema for once?’ I don’t know.”
“If you’re a fan of it, there’s a lot of things that plays into what the fans of the series want,” Robert continues, “If you’ve never seen them before, a lot of people who have seen it tell me that it’s the most accessible of the three. It’s a solid story, by itself, and it’s more of a sort of action film. When I was watching Twilight the other day, I realized that you do need to read the book to get it.”
Until then, Robert has plenty of other films that are coming down the pike for his fans to see. The first one he discussed is Bel Ami, a period drama, which is set for release sometime next year.
Bel Ami is about a character, Georges Duroy, who is a broke ex-soldier in Paris, in 1890,” he explains, “Basically, he has no drive. He is just jealous of everything. I quite liked the story. Kids nowadays feel entitled. People want to go into a job, but don’t want entry level. They want $100,000 a year, out of the gate. That’s exactly what this guy is like. He’s completely talentless. The only thing he does is that, by accident, he finds this guy he’s in the army with, in a brothel, and this other guy wants to impress him, so he gives him some money and invites him around.”
“It ends up being like he invited the devil into his house,” Pattinson adds, “He seduces his wife, he seduces his wife’s friends and, every single influential woman he can get, he has an affair with. He ends up screwing over society and making millions and millions of francs. It was a really fun, completely amoral, evil character. It’s a story about how the shits can completely win sometimes, by doing absolutely nothing.”
The other films Pattinson has in the works include Water For Elephants, a historical drama he’s currently filming, and Unbound Captives.
“Water for Elephants is a story about a guy in 1931 whose parents both died in a car crash,” Robert describes, “When he’s at university studying science, he jumps on a train out of desperation to find something else, and ends up being on this circus train and falling in love with the star attraction, who also is the wife of the ringmaster. All this chaos ensues after that.”
“Unbound Captives is a romantic drama/western,” he continues, “And my character is the son ofRachel Weisz. He gets kidnapped by Comanche’s when he’s four, and is raised by them. My mother spent 15 years trying to find me, and I come back and can’t speak English anymore, and I can’t recognize her and she can’t recognize me. I come back and look like a Comanche, and I have massive ADD as well. It’s about learning how to live in a new environment again.”
Finally, Robert was asked what drives him to succeed.
“Probably fear of failure and an inadequacy complex,” he simply states.
Sourcexoxo
Carrie
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