I’m always here for a Robert Pattinson interview. I remember, many years ago, when Rob was promoting one of his indie films which few people would see, and he gave a great interview to a major magazine. There were film critics and industry people who were like: this guy is so charismatic, weird, watchable and funny, why can’t anyone find a script for him? At this point, the problem is probably Pattinson himself and the projects he chooses to do. He’s never wanted to be a heartthrob or a movie star. He’s too weird and eccentric for that. And yet, this is what the New York Times’ T Magazine’s profile is called: “Is Robert Pattinson the Last True Movie Star?” The answer, to me, is no. But T Magazine makes a good case. Some highlights:
Now that he’s a father, he’s searching for “healthy” hobbies. He’s considered bonsai (“they just start rotting”), trapeze (“can’t do that in public”), tennis (“not enough spatial awareness”) and dance (“my spinal cord freezes”)
One of the last movie stars. “Not in a million years did I think I’d still be doing this when I got my first job. I can’t believe this is still going.” By managing to avoid the clichés of childhood fame, he’s also retained a certain mystique; he neither descended into addiction nor had to spend his adulthood proving his credibility….Perhaps because he started so young or because he’s handsome and weird, he gets to have it both ways…
He walks into roles with a gonzo conviction. “If you turn up with a strong idea, people have no choice but to mold it.”
He’s always making up crazy stories while doing press: Not long ago, he rewatched a televised interview that he did in 2011, during which he told a fabricated story about seeing a clown die in a little-car explosion as a child. “There was absolutely no hesitation at all [in my voice]… I’m like, ‘What on earth? Are you possessed?’” In truth, he was just bored. (Other lies and embellishments he’s told interviewers over the years: that he was a women’s hand model; that there’s a deleted “Twilight” scene involving coprophilia; that he got rid of a stalker by taking her to dinner and tiring her with his problems.) During that period, he says, “the only thing people would ever ask me about was being famous. You go into, like, a fugue state.”
What he learned working with David Cronenberg: “I used to think, ‘I need to figure out the logic of where this character was born, his social class, what his parents did.’ With Cronenberg, I realized that it can be about the musicality of words and how they make you feel to say them.”
The hysteria around him has died down. “There’s something about the nature of being fresh meat. They thought, ‘You’re not even a human.’ That was my one idea for Bruce… He’s been portrayed until now as a playboy. But what if he’s completely socially inept and kind of agoraphobic?”
He was never big on the party scene: “There used to be a big party scene in L.A. The idea of getting into a car for 15 minutes to get anywhere at all, it made me stay in my house. And then you go completely insane.”
He met Suki Waterhouse in 2018 at a Los Angeles house party. “She was sitting opposite me,” says Pattinson, who doesn’t remember much else about the game of Werewolf that they were playing with Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Al Pacino and other actors. “Suki and I kept making each other laugh, to the point where someone told us we weren’t taking the game seriously enough. That was a very, very sweet moment.”
Becoming a girl-dad: Leading up to [his daughter’s] arrival, he thought about buying a gun to protect their house. “But then she comes out and she’s just a little potato who poos.” Given the instability of the movie business, he adds that the permanence of fatherhood has grounded him.
I sort of agree with the thesis that the combination of Pattinson’s looks and weirdness have kept him alive in the industry. If he wasn’t so beautiful, he would just be a weird, gross guy who lies a lot. But his beauty imbues his weirdness with humanity and heart – he comes across like a posh British eccentric who loves indie films. I do think there are so many what-ifs for Pattinson’s career though – what if he was better at choosing projects, what if he didn’t make the choices he’s made, etc. But then again, he’s promoting a film he did with Bong Joon-ho (Mickey 17) so maybe Rob had it right the whole time.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.