The British actor Pattinson looks set to become the renowned sci-fi horror director’s new muse. Playing the financial genius Eric Packer – who heads across New York in a white limousine in search of a hair cut – he appears in every scene of Cronenberg’s new film Cosmopolis, which competed for the Palme D’or at the years Cannes Film Festival and opens in UK cinemas June 15.
Cronenberg today described the star of the Twilight franchise as “a beautiful actor who often responds to scenes without even realising what he’s doing. That’s why I love him.”
Pattinson will perform opposite Viggo Mortensen, best known for his role as Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings franchise, who starred in Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, Eastern Promises and A Dangerous Method. The two are regarded as creative partners.
Speaking in London today, the Canadian director of The Fly, Scanners and eXistenz said: “There’s a brilliant script by an author friend of mine called Bruce Wagner. All of his books are fantastic. I tried to get this script off the ground five years ago, but I couldn’t get it made. In a way its like Cosmopolis; it’s a difficult sell. It’s edgy in a nasty, disturbing way. It has emotion, but it has a weird emotion like Cosmopolis.
“It’s hard to make difficult movies. When you have very credible actors who bring a lot of attention like Viggo Mortensen and Robert Pattinson, you think it would be easy to raise 15 million dollars, but it’s not.”
Video from the press conference in Portugal. Added a transcript as its difficult to hear.
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What was his most difficult scene to film/to act?
Robs answer at 1.45: “There was a scene that made me incredibly uncomfortable, the rave scene. That was the only scene where there were a lot of extras around that could actually hear what I was saying. They were pretending to rave, but it was totally silent, I think I had like 2 lines, and when youre pretending to speak over music youve really got to shout it. So I was like “YES” and every single person is just, over hearing that, thinking what is this film, so weird. Yeah that was a little bit nerve wracking. But its one of my favourtie scenes in the movie.”
Some double acts just make sense. Morecambe & Wise. Cameron & Clegg. Cronenberg & Pattinson…
That’s right, the 26 year-old Twilight hunk teams up with the master of cerebral cinema for this month’s Cannes favourite, Cosmopolis, a gritty drama in which the actor gives a performance most people, including myself, didn’t know he had in him.
“That’s my biggest problem, confidence,” laughs Pattinson. “I’m taking baby steps, and hoping people will keep employing me!”
Cosmopolis is the latest in Pattinson’s non-Twilight career, which has seen the likes of Water For Elephants but never Generic Robot Blockbuster IV. “If there is a way to maintain a career doing small, interesting movies, I would take that option” he says. “I’m not buff enough for robot movies.”
With Twilight about to bow out, he may be ready to leave R-Pattz (“My mum calls me that occasionally”) behind, along with the screaming teens. “I can’t see tons of people watching Cosmopolis and screaming at it,” he laughs.
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