Guy Pearce talked a little about Rob while discussing ‘The Rover’ with The Daily Beast
Your uneasy relationship with Robert Pattinson jump-starts the narrative.
Yeah, he was lovely and I was so impressed with what he did in the film. I was touched by the vulnerability of his character. He’s almost like a little kid or a vulnerable animal that needs to be looked after. You can’t help but empathize with him. And then it meant that I knew the power that I, as Eric, could exert over him—even in the few first moments when I speak to him. I just let him know that he means nothing to me. I guess I’m trying to deny what he does mean to me and I end up having to take him with me to find his brother. I just have to let him know that he means nothing to me, personally. It’s a way of him asking if we can connect and me more or less responding “absolutely no way.”
You can read Guy’s full interview (a very good one) at the source
The Sydney Morning Herald has a great article about The Rover with quotes from Michôd, Rob and the producers of the movie from the author’s set visit. You can read the full article at the source, here is the Rob-related parts.
Within that environment, two contrasting characters meet and join forces – for reasons that only gradually become clear. Michod wrote one of the roles with one of his Animal Kingdom stars in mind: Guy Pearce. Pattinson, however, was far from his thoughts until they had an unrelated meeting in Los Angeles.
Few things in life are as nerve-wracking as auditioning for a movie role. Even for Robert Pattinson, one of the most successful and popular actors in the world, auditioning for a role can be an almost unbearably stressful experience. To get the lead role in The Rover, for instance, Pattinson had to audition in front of director David Michod (Animal Kingdom), and by his own estimation, the audition did not go well.
“I’m so bad at auditioning, and I was terrified that I wasn’t going to get it,” Pattinson tells ET Canada exclusively. “I really, really fought for it.”
What made Pattinson—an actor with no shortage of scripts coming his way—fight so hard for this particular role? As Pattinson explained, the role of Reynolds (a naive, simple-minded drifter) was simply too good to pass up.
“It’s a character that doesn’t really have any constraints,” he said. “It’s not really specified where he’s from or what his desires are or even his mental state and I felt really relaxed doing it because you could just do whatever you wanted, basically.”
Unlike during his audition, Pattinson was completely at ease playing the character during filming—an experience which the Twilight star says was a first. “It felt for a second that I knew what I was doing because I just sort of fell into acting and I never really felt like that before,” he said.
The 41-year-old filmmaker had worked with Pearce in “Animal Kingdom” and both he and Joel Edgerton, who received a shared story-by credit, created Eric with him in mind. Pattinson, on the other hand, was a different story. Michôd had a general meeting with the actor before he “The Rover” became his follow-up and says he just immediately liked him.
“I found him really beguiling and I loved his physical energy, and he was smart and had a wonderfully open face,” Michôd recalls. “When it came time to start testing for the character, I knew I wanted to see him, but yeah, I didn’t know what he was capable of. I think he knew that people didn’t know what he was capable of as well and so he was very willing to work and work hard. But very quickly when he came in to test for me I could just see this skill set that he just hasn’t been able to showcase.”
Those instincts paid off. Pattinson’s work is clearly the best of his career as he makes sure the slightly “off” Rey isn’t just Pattinson playing the big screen “Robert Pattinson.” Many audiences, however, will be surprised to find the Brit is playing an American in this setting. Obvious box office benefits to having American characters aside, Michôd says it was more important that “The Rover” felt vaguely international.
“I felt like [a few Americans] would assist in creating this world that suggested a kind of global economic meltdown, if suddenly people were just moving everywhere or doing what people had done for centuries,” Michôd says. “If you think about the Australian gold and American gold rushes of the 19th Century, there were people from all over the world, people from China and Europe, every corner coming to strange corners of the planet to try and eke out a living pretty desperately.”
David Michod talks about meeting & casting Rob, Cannes and Reynolds
Having Robert Pattinson by your side no doubt increased the amount of flashes going off on the red carpet the other night.
Yeah, there were moments where I realized that none of them were actually pointing at me [laughs].
(…)
It does boast the lightest scene of Cannes, where Pattinson’s character sings along to a Keri Hilson jam alone in a car.
You’re the first person to bring that up! I kind of half expected it would be a thing. When I was doing press for “Animal Kingdom” every press person would ask me about “All Out of Love.”
What went into selecting that song?
One of the things that was challenging for this movie was it was set in a period of the future, so it makes musical choices really kind of difficult. I’d imagine that maybe there’s a sense that pop is still some kind of functioning genre, like the equivalent to classic rock. I wanted at that point in the movie to remind people that Rob’s character is a lost kid, one who in different circumstances would have favored pop songs. I just wanted that moment in the film to be a strong reminder of the fact that he just wants to be a kid.
About his performance, he’s a true revelation in “The Rover.” What led you to cast him?
It was a meeting. I still haven’t seen the “Twilight” films. I don’t feel I need to. I had a meeting with him before I knew I was going to make “The Rover,” and found him instantly beguiling.
Why did you meet with him if you weren’t familiar with his work?
I’d seen nothing. It’s that weird thing that happens after a movie you’ve made has gotten some attention — you go on a billion blind dates. And this was one of them. I didn’t really know anything about him, but I really liked him. He was really smart, funny and open. He seemingly had great taste. He had a really interesting and eclectic knowledge of cinema. When it came time to cast for “The Rover,” I just had this weird feeling that he was the one I wanted to see the most. Fortunately he really wanted to do the movie.
I mean I put him through the wringer. We worked for three of four hours during our camera test, but I felt I knew within the first few minutes that I found the guy for the character. The next few hours were just us exploring. He helped me find the character.
Robert Pattinson knows a thing or two about the price of fame, so it’s worth listening when he says he worries about the child stars he meets in Hollywood. “When you see these kids, there is only one way: you either get in therapy now or become a serial killer, or kill yourself. I mean, you can see it really early on—it’s terrifying.”
VF Hollywood: David Michôd has talked a lot about the back story for The Rover, which is set “10 years after the collapse.” How much did he tell you about your character?
Robert Pattinson: Well, not a lot. I kept questioning that aspect of it. “What is this economic collapse? I want to know the details about it.” Then I realized it didn’t really make any difference to my character.
Guy Pearce’s character refers to your character as a “half-wit.” Were you playing him as someone with a real disability, or just someone who hasn’t been that well educated?
I was thinking he’s almost like someone who’s been told there is something wrong with him and there actually isn’t—but he has been told there is so many times that he has just sort of accepted it.
CANNES, France — Robert Pattinson has terrible, rotted teeth and is caked in dirt for his leading role in The Rover. The star could not be happier with the transformation after years of being a heart throb in the Twilight films.
“I am trying to eliminate any bit of vanity,” says Pattinson of his grimed up role. “I want to avoid any opportunity to pose (for the camera). Or whatever. Because if you get that opportunity to pose, you will probably take it.”
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