How much is the Pattinson character derived from John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”?
You set up a relationship like this, somewhere in the back of your mind you’re thinking it’s Steinbeck. But one thing that appealed to me was being able to make something lean and muscular and elemental. And that basic relationship between a seemingly loveless murderously embittered man and an open naive simple boy was for me the perfect prism for that elemental story.
Why was Pattinson the right casting?
One thing that was clear to me when I was testing people, and Rob already knew it, was that there were 100 different ways you could play this character, differing degrees of mental problems– just uneducated, developmentally slow.
He’s a good gunslinger.
One of the key reasons for that scene telling Guy when he was a kid on the farm and his neighbors was to make it clear that he has a rich imaginative life, he’s not an idiot, he’s looking for someone to love. Guy realizes too late that’s what he’s looking for too. Rob gave me a character who felt plausibly simple without having to push it too far into the mentally disabled world. He was totally open and engaged. That’s why I had a feeing he was going to be my favorite, when I met him. Even thinking about the bubble Pattinson is forced to live in, I was taken aback by how wonderfully open and engaged he was when I met him as a stranger.
The Twilight movies were clearly a huge blessing for Robert Pattinson, but also somewhat of a curse: The 28-year-old Brit has been working overtime to break out of the pin-up mold, gravitating toward edgy indies like David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis and this week’s The Rover, directed by Animal Kingdom filmmaker David Michôd. The sometimes brutally violent film features Pattinson as a left-for-dead “half-wit” who joins a vengeful Guy Pearce’s as they travel across a rural, post-apocalyptic Australia. The very candid Pattinson talked to us about getting down-and-dirty for the role, his strategy for keeping photographers away, and what artist has reignited his love for hip-hop.
The screams of teenage girls could be heard for miles as Robert Pattinson hit the Los Angeles Regency Bruin Theatre on Thursday night at the U.S. premiere of The Rover.
The British star, donned in a navy blue Alexander McQueen suit, hit the red carpet with writer and director David Michod, producers David Linde and Liz Watts, and costar Guy Pearce for the film’s Los Angeles debut.
Made famous for his leading role in the Twilight saga, the actor told The Hollywood Reporter that he is not confining his career to a specific genre. “I’m not really trying to break out of anything. I feel like every single movie I’ve done is part of the same road. I’m not trying to distance myself of anything particularly,” Pattinson said. “I just hope people like [the film].”
Set a decade following a global economic depression, The Rover tells the story of Eric (Pearce), who relentlessly pursues a brutal gang in the Australian outback that steal his car: his only remaining possession. Left abandoned by his brother and fellow gang members, Rey (Pattinson) is forced to guide Eric in tracking down the brutal clan.
“To be honest, [The Rover] did come to me from a place of anger, when it was a despair and anger that I was feeling about the state of the world today,” Michod explained. “The movie is set a few decades in the future, but it isn’t set for post apocalypse. Michod wanted the evils showcased in the film to be “directly connected” and representative of the wrongs seen and experienced in “the world today.”
While filming, the cast and crew endured extreme heat (just over 110 degrees), rain storms and outback flies, which are apparent throughout the movie. “It always helps to be in real locations,” Pearce said. “That extreme heat, those flies, and that vast expanse of desert — it just adds to it, like you’re putting on a costume. It takes you there.”
Though each role was a deciding factor in choosing to partake in the project, both Pearce and Pattinson remarked that Michod’s directorship was ultimately why they committed to the film. “It wasn’t the role that drew me to the film. It was the script and David that drew me to the film…this time it was really about David being the filmmaker that he is,”Pearce revealed. Pattinson also remarked: “I really like David a lot. I love Animal Kingdom…[the script] just seemed so different and original…it was a bit of a no brainer.”
Audiences can expect to see another set of Pattinsnon’s acting talents in gangster-type film Idol’s Eye alongside Robert De Niro out at the end of this year, which still comes as a surprise to him: “It sounds crazy for me to say…that’s something which I’ve wanted – which I think anyone — would want to do.”
Though the Rover star is seemingly normal and content with the simple things in life, including inflatable furniture, driving a 1989 BMW, and downsizing from a $6.27 million home to a rental, he is a man of mystery. “[I have] lots and lots of secrets, that will remain secrets forever.”
Following the premiere, an exclusive after party at the W Hotel in Westwood drew the likes of Neighbors star Zac Efron, Katy Perry and Michelle Rodriguez. Party-goers were served an assortment of appetizers including sliders, mini pigs in a blanket, chicken skewers and an array of desserts at a chocolate fondue bar.
After a starry premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, Robert Pattinson, Guy Pearce and director David Michod brought “The Rover” to The Regency Bruin Thursday.
Michod told Variety that he hadn’t been familiar with Pattinson’s previous work. “Rob just came in and did a beautiful audition for me that was both vulnerable and completely alive,” he said.
“This proved that seeing him work with Guy Pearce and Scoot McNairy, we realize he’s a consummate actor,” added producer David Linde. “He’s in the ‘Twilight’ movies and people don’t think of him in this way, but as you see in this movie he’s the real deal.”
For Pattinson, he said his goal is to work with good, ambitious directors. “These roles just don’t come up that often,” he said. “A script like this is so rare, I mean, it’s in the top five scripts I’ve ever read.”
Pattinson plays Rey, a yellow-toothed, simple-minded man who is one of the last survivors in a world 10 years after an economic collapse.
“I like how my character was set up. It was just sort of two really dense dialogue heavy scenes in the midst of almost no dialogue, so it let you be pretty free to do anything with it,” said Pattinson.
While Braier expected Pearce to deliver a powerfully non-verbal performance, she had no idea what to make of Pattinson, who sheds movie star glam for his grimiest character turn yet. She hadn’t even seen him in “Twilight.” “But I was just blown away from the first moment I saw him. I think he’s a natural. He’s just born with this quality. There are a lot of actors that have this technical ability. They’ve been working for many years and have learned and refined [their craft]. And Rob has something very instinctive, which is why he’s so famous and loved by girls all over the world.
“He’s a very intelligent person but also very emotional. It’s quite connected. So I think that gives him a gateway to channel whatever character he’s playing from someplace deep. And he came up with backstory about being abused and treated badly. He was always the one in the family that they would bully. And he feels so abandoned. So he’s coming from that psychology where he can fall into this abusive relationship with Guy.
When the franchise that made you famous has made over $1.3 billion at the box office, you’d probably never lower yourself to audition for a role again, right?
Not Robert Pattinson.
To win over Animal Kingdom writer/director David Michôd, RPatz threw any Twilight swagger out the window. “I didn’t know anything about him,” Michôd told us Thursday night at The Rover‘s L.A. premiere. (He said this with a straight face.) “I hadn’t seen any of the Twilight films.”
But Michôd remembered meeting Pattinson and his “really wonderfully awkward physical energy,”which the director thought would be perfect for The Rover, a post-apocalyptic drama, which leaves RPatz caked in dirt and blood as the dim younger brother of a car thief.
Despite the fact that few in Pattinson’s position would continue to test for roles, said Michôd, Pattinson was cool about it:
There were no airs, there was no arrogance, there was no sense of entitlement. Even in terms of testing for me. He knew that he needed to work hard to have the kind of career that he wants.
How did Pattinson, dressed in a natty teal suit, feeling about bringing his Cannes hit to the U.S.? “A bit scary,” said the actor, looking around at the college crowd at Westwood’s Regency Bruin theater waving signs and posters. (Even Zac Efron was there.)
“But we had a really young audience in Australia a few days ago and it was such a bafflingly different reaction. Everybody was like, howling with laughter. And in Cannes you could hear a pin drop the entire time. Crazy. So I have no idea what the reaction’s going to be.”
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