Robert Pattinson’s interview with The Herald Scotland
We’re up on the sixth floor of the Cannes Film Festival Palais, on a rather splendid little terrace overlooking the crystal-blue waters of the Cote d’Azur. And, guarding the room we’re about to meet in, is this diminutive silver pachyderm – the sort of mildly tasteless bling you tend to see on the French Riviera. Pattinson is evidently tickled: it’s not every day you see something quite so silly.
Then again, you suspect he’s seen a lot of bizarre things in his time since exploding on to the scene as teen vampire Edward Cullen in the mega-hit Twilight franchise. That was six years ago, during which time he’s got used to seeing gaggles of screaming girls wherever he goes. Heaven knows what they made of the recent black-and-white Dior Homme commercial he shot – a sizzling, sexy spot scored by Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love. Maybe that’s why he has that permanently dazed look.
Today, he’s looking relatively unscathed by the fame that follows him like a familiar. It might be close to 6pm, but Pattinson has a brilliant means of affecting that just-got-out-of-bed look. Dressed in beige trousers, a green-and-navy lumberjack check shirt, black Adidas trainers and a black bomber jacket, it’s a casual street feel that suggests more Urban Outfitters than Armani Couture. Factor in the stubble, sleepy green eyes and tousled hair and it’s like he’s splashed on eau de hipster.
With two new films to bang the drum for – The Rover and Maps To The Stars – it’s Pattinson’s second time in Cannes in two years, following his arrival as a limo-dwelling billionaire in David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis. That was a turning point, he says.“I’d never even been to a festival before. It makes you think differently about things. You realise what you like. Cannes means a lot to me. I’m basically aiming for everything to get into Cannes.”
No, that’ll be 2015. We haven’t locked picture yet. We still have two more months of sound and [potential] pick-up shoots.
In your background in photography, you’ve photographed numerous icons. Your first film, Control, was a portrait of the iconic Ian Curtis (singer for Joy Division), who died very young. I guess now we’ve confirmed that next year, you have a film that involves James Dean (to be played by Dane DeHaan) in Life. Who also died very young. Is it more difficult to capture an iconic photograph of an individual in life, or to tell their story in death?
I’m flattered that people think my pictures are iconic. That’s not what I set out to be. A lot of people that I worked with in the 70s and 80s were not very well known people, but they became [well known] later. So I’ve not deliberately sought icons. As far as making films for Ian Curtis and James Dean, that is, of course, is very deliberate. Ian Curtis was someone that I knew and I moved to England to make it because I wanted to make it. It was a personal project. And, also, I thought there was a good love story there (between Sam Riley and Samantha Morton).
With Life it’s first and foremost a story about a photographer, Dennis Stock (Robert Pattinson), who profiled James Dean (DeHaan). So it’s the story of a photographer and their subject. As a photographer that story interested me: studying the power balance between a photographer and their subject. You know, who influences who? The James Dean portion of the story wasn’t my interest. In fact I’d turned down a straight James Dean project once before.
A former teen heartthrob developed into a serious character actor(actor of complex parts). TV MOVIE talked with Twilight star Robert Pattinson about children, his future and extreme feelings.
Not only a little bit changed: Robert Pattinson is looking for new challenges- and now is shooting sophisticated movies(after his global succes “Twilight”, box-office gross of the vampire saga more than 3,3 billions of dollars). In his new movie, the apocalyptic-drama “The Rover”, he plays an unstable gangster who fights alongside Guy Pearce in a brutalized world through the Australian outback.
Mr. Pattinson, your new movie “The Rover” presents a bad future. Would you be afraid to have children in a world like this?
Ah, it’s always the same! Every generation believes they are going down the drain(German proverb “vor die Hunde gehen” which means something like they are going to die because of different circumstances). But at the end everything is fine.I believe in the positive human nature. So, for sure I want to have children.
How do you control your fears?
I really would like to go to therapy, but I’m afraid of(laughing).
Seriously, you would not go to any kind of therapy?
That’s why I do auditions for movies. Before them my knees slutter all the time . So much that every time I tell myself I am going to stop acting. Also for “The Rover” I had to control my neuroses before I was able to start finding into my role. But however, at the end I like my ups and downs.
How do you deal with depressions?
They don’t last that long. But when I am into one , I wallow myself in them.
If tomorrow would be the end of the world, what would you do?
Probably I would spend the time with the people who are important for me. Well, or I just would freak out and cross the Times Square naked(laughing).
Your new role is very different compared with other characters you have played in the past. How do your fans deal with it?
You can’t please everybody. And also nobody can predict what the audience and critics want to see at the end.
Do you have made any plans for your career in the future?
I have worked with people like Werner Herzog or David Cronenberg- that’s what I dreamed of when I was like 16. I try to face new challenges and it would be great if the people would appreciate the work I have done.
Would you be willing to play the role of a vampire again?
Sure, why not!
A: I had met him before I even knew that The Rover was going to be my next movie, just as one of the billions of meetings that you do in Hollywood when your movie gets some attention. I really liked him. I didn’t know anything about him; I hadn’t seen the Twilight films, and I still haven’t seen them, but I just liked him. He was intelligent. I loved his physicality, I loved his face – his very unusual face. He’s quite beautiful, but strange and very open. When I knew that The Rover was going to be the next movie and I started testing for it, Rob was at the top of my list for people I wanted to see. He came in and demonstrated to me immediately that he was a really interesting actor. He came in with a really beautiful fully considered version of the character, because it’s a character that could be played in a lot of ways – it could be caricature, or it could be played as severely mentally disabled – and his test was just beautiful. He was hungry for it, as well, which was important to me. I knew that we were going to be spending a couple of months out in really quite testing conditions.
Q: How difficult was it?
A: It was really tough. It was really hot and very remote. No-one’s phone worked. We were just filthy all the time. But we were all together all the time – the entire crew, we’d work all day and then we’d go and stay at the same pretty shabby accommodation every night, and we’d just be together. We’d get drunk and sing songs.
Q: How did Robert find that?
A: Great, you know. I remember having one experience in one of the first towns we shot in. We’d finished shooting for the day; we would all gather at one of seven pubs in this town – it’s a town of like 300 people, but there’s seven pubs –and I remember one night I was walking across the street to the pub and I could see Rob walking down the street from the room that he was staying in towards the pub, walking down the street by himself, and as we got closer, he says to me, ‘I can’t begin to tell you how magical this experience is for me. I’m just walking down the street by myself.’
While busy promoting his new flick The Rover in Cannes, MTV UK were quick to probe R-Pattz over what floats his boat on the box, leaving the Twilight actor to reveal: “I love English reality TV. I like Geordie Shore. It’s like the Jersey Shore of England.
“It’s amazing, one of the greatest TV shows I have ever seen in my entire life.”
Pattinson went on to gush: “And it’s not really laughing at people because I don’t really like that kind of reality TV, the people in it, you genuinely really like them, it’s crazy.”
– What have you learned since the end of the saga “Twilight”?
– It feels like it’s longer, to be honest… it’s all just been a gradual progression. I think, as you get older, like every movie you do you get a little bit more confident… (Manila Bulletin)
– And how can you face the madness of the public against your person?
– I’m curious how people receive the new stuff I’m doing because it’s kind of, you know, I do quite abstract films. So I am curious how people who like ‘Twilight’ will come to see things like ‘The Rover.’ Hopefully, they’ll enjoy it.(Manila Bulletin)
– Why did you choose a genre so different?
– 50 percent is about being able to work with directors I admire. I think about that a lot but I find it more comfortable to do small roles if I am choosing something for its director. But if you are doing a lead, I try to do something, which I think will precipitate into my normal life. I want to do something which I feel (is) totally impossible for me to do. I think it will make me a bigger person in my real life afterwards. I kind of try to do that. (Manila Bulletin)
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