He cast Robert Pattinson as T.E. Lawrence before fully grasping how huge the Twilightfranchise was.
“I only realized that wherever I showed up in Morocco there were screeching teenies,” he smiled. “Pattinson is a very, very smart, very well-educated and intelligent young man. When he says things in the film, they’re always credible. You see you don’t just have a pretty face. It was a pleasure to have him around. A good comrade, as well.”
Loosely inspired by the early childhood experiences of many of the most infamous dictators of the 20th century, “The Childhood of a Leader” stars Berenice Bejo and Liam Cunningham as an American couple settling into the French countryside at the end of the World War I, at which time the father is involved in the delicate peace negotiations surrounding the Treaty of Versailles. His wife is a devout Christian who struggles with the tantrums of their son (Tom Sweet), an angelic-looking boy whose behaviour becomes increasingly disturbing. Robert Pattinson and Stacy Martin also appear in the film, which also brought Corbet a cash prize in the form of Luigi De Laurentiis award for best debut.
What were your feelings, being among a cult director as Corbijn, Robert Pattinson and Dane DeHaan ?
Alessandra: “Anton is amazing: he is a tall, lanky man, that has been a great photographer in the music market and who follows everything with attention, every small detail.
Dane is great. He and and Robert are extremely generous. We met at the rehearsals and they never made me feel foreign. They made me talk in Italian, and then they repeated what I was saying, to learn. I have been on set for three weeks only.
I’ll never forget one thing that Robert Pattinson did. In the film there is a scene where Dane and I are in bed and he receives a phone call from Dennis / Pattinson. He (Robert) is not in the scene, so in the movie we can’t see or listen to what he says. Typically the ” hidden” voices are made by the director’s assistant, instead, this time, he was the one speaking: Robert Pattinson huddled behind a screen, responding to Dane / Jimmy Dean. He stayed huddled and hidden for one hour…”
And with an actor as Robert Pattison? I know he really looks forward films that are author film, that offering something else out of the mainstream.
Brady: Yes for sure, he is a real cinephile. There is so many actors that could use their celebrity in a really amazing way, like Will Smith or Tom Cruise… Well Tom Cruise does that sometimes. There’s a lot of people who really don’t take advantages… Like I can get somebody’s film made and they are gonna challenge me and we are gonna grow together.
Did he help in financing?
Brady: Of course. The thing is funny because at the time… he was cast several years ago, we had no idea how significant it would end up being. We had a lot of others fancy cast members at one point, but at a certain point he was the only way to get the film made, after many years was to have Rob involved. And we originally hired Rob because of the fact we wanted somebody really CHARISMATIC and really RECOGNIZABLE.
Mona: We wanted to feel right the way that this character is very important.
Brady: The thing great about Robert is that the less he does.. YOU CAN’T TAKE YOUR EYES OFF THE GUY! BECAUSE HE IS BEAUTIFUL TO LOOK AT, IT’S REALLY LIKE HE DRAWS YOU IN, IN A CLASSIC COLD WAY. HE IS COMPELLING.
Even with the shaved head…
Brady: Yeah!
Do you think some of the Twilight crowd will go to see the film just because he is in it?
Brady: I don’t know… They go see Cosmopolis?
Mona: I think it would be good for them.
You can read the full interview here (in Italian) | Via
Here’s a new interview of Robert Pattinson with ELLE Italy
Robert Pattinson is back in cinemas on October 8 with the film Life, by Anton Corbijn dedicated to James Dean, cinema legend who died exactly 60 years ago in a car accident. The actor became famous as a vampire in Twilight, however, did not take the role of the legendary Jimmy (playing him is Dane DeHaan), as widely expected, but that of photographer Dennis Stock, who in 1955 – the year of the stars death – snapped a series of photographs for Life magazine and immortalized James Dean as no one before him had done. Anton Corbijn is dedicating the whole movie to the relationship of trust that exists between the two: to speak in more detail about the film is Robert Pattinson, in this exclusive interview during the filming of the movie.
SZENE HAMBURG: A talk with Robert Pattinson
During the Berlinale we met the actor, who talked about his new movie LIFE, bad fathers, and photography as art and frost bite on fingers.
What was it like to play a photographer under the direction of a legendary photographer like Anton Corbijn?
(laughs) Luckily I didn’t really see Dennis Stock as a photographer in the beginning. For me he was someone who wanted to be an artist but wasn’t sure if he had what it takes to be an artist. I had the feeling that the camera was a means for him to express himself.
Robert Pattinson
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