Robert Pattinson came and went from the Cannes Film Festival rather quietly. As it turns out, he sort of behaved like a “serious actor,” as opposed to a celebrity. He just came to town to promote his latest film, Good Time, and then he left. It didn’t seem like he did much partying at all. FKA Twigs was with him, but they didn’t walk the carpet together, nor did she pose solo. She was just there to support him, not to get attention. Sparkles actually got some of the best reviews of his career for Good Time, and some thought he should win the Best Actor prize (which ended up going to Joaquin Phoenix). So… this is The New Sparkles. Serious Sparkles. Real Actor Sparkles. While he was in Cannes, he did an interview with the NYT. Some highlights:
He almost got fired from the first Twilight film: His agents intervened, flying to the Canadian set to calm him down. “I didn’t have to kiss anybody’s [butt] the entire time,” he recalled. “I don’t think I did, anyway.”
How he feels about the Twilight franchise in hindsight: Shooting the five Twilight films was “an amazing luxury.” It was “amazing luck, as well, to just have fallen into it with the group of people I worked with on it.” And if he’s forever associated with Edward Cullen, so be it. “I think one of the best things, basically, about being a bit of a sellout, is if you’ve done five movies in a series, you’ve had to accept some responsibility for playing the same character.”
He’s proud of his work on 2012’s Cosmopolis: “I think it was the first time when I worked on something that was quite complex. I especially love the fact that it came out really at the height of my popularity.” It was “the big turning point for me,” he added. “I just realized that was what I wanted to do.” Pattinson was a fan of director-producer-writer David Cronenberg’s style, which was unlike that of anyone else he had ever worked with before. “I think it’s so rare for something to break a pattern,” he explained. “I feel like almost everything in the world is designed to be predictable.”
He hates watching his performances: “I’ve never seen anyone give themselves such a hard time. I’m beating myself up afterward. And I think there’s some weird perverted energy that comes out of when people criticize previous work or think you represent this certain thing; it gives you this energy,” Pattinson said, joking that he’s “almost scared of anyone saying anything I do is good.”
[From The NYT via E! News]
I’ve been doing this long enough to remember the stories about how Sparkles was cast and how much he wanted the job. He was very much an out-of-work, struggling actor desperate for a job, and he was grateful to land Twilight. Everyone knew that the role would change his career. Of course, everybody changes and of course the role of Edward Cullen became an albatross. But let’s be real: it wasn’t a situation where he could have pulled some sort of “I’m too good for this” attitude. He desperately wanted the role. As for this: “I think one of the best things, basically, about being a bit of a sellout, is if you’ve done five movies in a series, you’ve had to accept some responsibility for playing the same character.” SOME responsibility??
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Those movies did not hold up well at all….seriously bad acting all around.
So what who cares.
I would gladly sulk around for $50M.
Him and Stewart are ridiculous.
I think rather they weren’t cut out to be teen idols in a light fluffy franchise. Neither of them were comfortable in that role, and both have moved on to build careers that suit them far better.
That might be true but Stewart especially chased this role. Everyone knew it was going to be massive.
Watch out dude, you’re wading into Katherine Heigl territory…
Never gonna happen. He has a penis so this attitude is alright.
Lol, yeah, I still remember all the comments about Kristen being “entitled”, “spoiled” and “ungrateful” because she didn’t smile enough during the Twilight promotion, but his open disrespect and mockery of the films is being praised all the time.
That’s a bit of a reach.bHe didn’t criticize Twilight or the people who worked with him. I don’t think he meant “some responsibility” in the way it was interpreted. This is a bit of nitpicking in my opinion.
Katherine Heigl is next level mean and ungrateful.
He absolutely criticized Twilight, many times!
I still think he’s sorta cute. Pouty Twilight deflecting and all.
Far, far better actors have been in franchises. Sir Ian McKellan,anyone? R.P.’s problem is that he was in a laughable one. Now, to be fair and accurate, he did get raves in Cannes for his latest film. I never write off any actor because in show business you never can predict what will happen next.
He was in a laughable franchise, and he did a terrrrrible job in those films. I haven’t seen any of his films other than the twilight ones, but it sounds like he has gotten better at his craft.
He is full of himself, I’m tired of this guy.
I mean, they’re not good movies. They’re terrible. But I kind of wonder at the dismissive way people view content for teenage girls in general – books, movies, TV, etc. They’re a huge business. They make tons of money. There are some quality works here and there. Not everything is terrible. And there’s nothing wrong with marketing toward teenage girls. But that’s viewed as “uncool” in our society and such content is not taken seriously. YA books are not viewed as “real” literature, because it is primarily written by women for young women. The same is true for YA movies and television; because they’re geared for young women, they’re not considered award-worthy or praise-worthy by culture snobs.
Unlike someone like Harry Styles, who in a recent interview expressed gratitude for his young female fanbase, Robert Pattinson is throwing his fanbase under the bus for posturing purposes. For an Oscar. Ugh.
How is he throwing his fanbase under the bus? By not being stuck in the past and having different interests as he’s getting older? And what fanbase? Twilight fans who want him back with Kristen and don’t approve of his movie choices now?
These quotes are taken pretty out of context, I think. He’s actually professed his gratitude for the Twilight series in a number of interviews. I think what he struggled with was all the hoopla that came with it. I have never seen him “throw his fanbase under the bus”, on the contrary. He’s very nice to his fans and has stated that he’s grateful for them and them following his new work.
I agree. It’s interesting, how differently people view crappy pop culture aimed at teenage boys, and crappy pop culture aimed at teenage girls. Transformers is dire, but somehow it doesn’t have the same toxic weighting Twilight does. Nor do the endless superhero movies.
+1000000
You may have a point there (the shameful lack of Emmy recognition for Buffy when it was on air, even though it’s far more well-loved now than many of the popular shows of the day) but I don’t think most 21st century YA literature is a hill worth dying on for this (Anne of Green Gables is a different story though – rightfully iconic).
I worked in plenty of publishing houses publishing, well, shit. I know a romance novel writer who writes erotic romance for right wing Evangelical American housewives while being a progressive with a degree in sociology and comparative literature.
We despise the readership but we cater to them because they lap it up. We are laughing all the way to the bank, pretty much. For a good while I wrote newsletters and communicated with the audience on platforms like goodreads and social media. Mostly, I want to grab and shake these young women because all they obsess about are patriarchal gender roles. But unfortunately, that is where the money is.
Too bad he didn’t win the acting Palm in Cannes, it would’ve been such a great boost for his career… especially considering he was the first choice for so many critics and is leading indiewire’s critic’s poll. I bet that’s because he’s still being looked down on as a twilight guy by many in the industry, so I totally get his frustration over that franchise…
I follow show business very carefully. I don’t think by now that TWILIGHT has all that much to do with how this actor is regarded. It has more to do with his not showing much to impress critics until this year. Many actors balance franchises and more serious films. Fassbender, for example. RP’s performance in GOOD TIME is definitely going to help his career.
Agree completely with your comments, third ginger. Pattinson has had some misses with his role choices. Additionally, he seems to have issues promoting his films, whether it be anxiety, etc.
I believe GT will be a game changer for his career.
But they’re supposed to award a particular performance, not a body of work at the festivals… Creating narrative/being overdue is more of an Oscar thing… On the other hand, at the festivals they often give awards to unknown actors whose previous movies hadn’t been on anyone’s radar at all… I believe he had more chances to actually win at Cannes if he wasn’t the notorious Rpatz arguably not worthy of any accolades…
@thirdginger
Not the same situatuon though. Fassbenders breakthrough came in art house movies. Nobody would ever judge him or mckellan with a large body of work only on one franchise. Fassbender is also a lot older. Pattison was 21-22 when he got famous, fassbender was in his 30s and came with a body of work from Ireland and the UK. Even Kristen Stewart didn’t get judged as much as Pattison because she had done a number of ok art house movies prior to twilight. Nobody had ever seen pattison act prior to twilight so most people, myself included thought that was all he was capable of.
The only think you could critique him for was that if he wanted to be taken seriously so badly why didn’t he go to a drama college and learn acting techniques like most of the brits do before heading to Hollywood.. But then again he’s probably a different person now than he was at 19-20 and started out.
But wouldn’t that mean that Chastain, Almodovar, Smith, etc. would all have to have that bias? I think maybe they liked the L. Ramsey film better,so they tilted toward Joaquin? I am hardly a fan, but based on the great reviews, this is a turning point in the young man’s career, awards or not. He is lucky to have so many supportive fans!
He had to turn in a few great performances before most people could get past teen idol Twilight guy. Here is what Rob said in a Cannes interview just out today:
…He’s hoping Good Time will change his perception in Hollywood. “Doing a role like this allows you more freedom on the next job. Hopefully people will think, ‘I want to take a risk on him.’ Before it was like, ‘Everyone thinks you are sh*t,’ and the director would be like, ‘No. No one would believe you in that kind of role.’ But if you have proven yourself a few times people will say, ‘Yeah, maybe we will go with him. Hopefully it will work out’,” he says, shrugging his shoulders. “But of course there are no guarantees.”
It’s a process. Good Time is a big step, and probably will open new doors for him. He has great range, and he is showing it in his last few movies. –
supporting roles, character parts, leading man roles.
@Third Ginger, that’s not exactly fair to compare him to Fassbender who was a lot older in his franchise, Rob made that movie when he was 21.
By the way, I also live in Columbus, GA. Small world.
I am a bit taken back by some of these comments. He was pretty open during the height of Twilight that he didn’t get the books/character, etc. He’s always been gracious to fans- heck, he signed autographs during his recent Cannes trip. As far as the character goes- in five movies, he had four different directors. Of course each is going to bring their perspective to the source material and characters. And shoot me-still enjoy the first one!
I’m not going to shoot you Tig because I completely agree. I still watch the first Twilight once in a while when it’s on TV. It was escapist entertainment for girls, and women and no matter the undefinable hate it gets, was still good enough to make over 3 billion dollars for the franchise.
He literally says in this interview that it was an amazing luxury and talks about it opening doors for him very graciously and gratefully and people are still saying he’s acting ungrateful. That’s strange
Just to add- the movie was well received by critics and even though the jury didn’t pick him as a winner, what a big improvement and step in the right direction of people accepting his indie work. Plus several critic groups actually did pick him as their favorite performance of the festival (indiewire, thr, ics)
I don’t think he is being ungrateful …I think he is being realist last twilight was 6 or 5 years ago…So his fanbase are not teenagers anymore …they ‘ve grown out of it … He is talk about the character of Edward Cullen who was a terrible character… yes the responsbilties are shared between Stephenie Meyers and the directors and screenwriters….Well that’s my opinion…come on that was so not offensive …He recognized he was a lucky prat
He’s always rubbed me the wrong way. I never understood why this guy got such a pass for continually mocking and belittling the franchise that gave him more money than god and mainstream success, especially when actresses are criticized for seeming ungrateful even in the slightest. The extraordinary things you can do when you’re a white man in Hollywood!
I don’t think it’s the white man thing in this case. I think he got away with it because he was charming and funny, he always made the effort to entertain, he didn’t lie and parrot the studio talking points in interviews so you never knew what he would say next, and he was so self-deprecating he wasn’t putting himself above it. I remember Chris Weitz (director of the second one) saying that Rob would survive all the Twilight madness because he could always keep his sense of the ironic and his sense of humor.
Great comments. Thank you Anname, you’re always the voice of reason and logic for Rob fans.
It’s a bit of a reach to paint him as someone ungrateful based on these comment. Unless there’s bit of the interview that’s not included I don’t see where he was throwing attitude.
Also as I said further up, it’s meaningless to compare him to older actors with a large body of work from stage and screen. Pattison was completely unknown prior to twilight so everyone judged him on that. He’s had to work hard to be taken seriously. He’s not trained like most of the British actors and not someone who had natural ability like Jennifer Lawrence. He seemed to have worked his ass off to become a good actor. Good for him.
As I say above, he is lucky to have such supportive fans. I have been a film buff for over half a century. We can never have enough hard working actors.
Poor Sparkles, looks like people still expect him to keep kissing twilight fans asses even five years after the movies ended. He not only still has to answer twilight questions in every f*cking interview, but is being judged harshly for not bursting into tearful thankyous regarding everything twilight-related every time it’s brought up… hey you, let the guy move on, he’s had enough…
Quote from the same article out today – he’s irritated with himself that he responded to a Twilight question, LOL.
“In Twilight they were like, ‘You are so beautiful.’ Literally, the amount of times that I’ve been walking down the street, looking disgusting, and then someone who is a Twilight fan would say, ‘You’re so beautiful!’ And [I wanted to say], ’You are literally, actually not seeing reality,’” he says.
“And there are other people who got furious over it, saying, ‘What are you talking about? He’s ugly!’” He sighs. “So stupid!” He looks at the ground, shakes his head and says, “I can’t believe I just talked about that.”
You say that they should let the guy move on, but here you are calling still calling him Sparkles. 😏
I’m so here for #SeriousSparkles and #RealActorSparkles… I saw Lost City of Z the other day and he has great screen presence! He played a witty silent badass, and now I want a spin-off with his character, lol
I don’t get what about his interview is negative. He is grateful and has moved on. Big deal. I like him, he seems genuine.
I like Robert but it just annoys me when celebs talk sh*t about the movies/shows that gave them their big break and paid them an exceptional salary for basically playing dress up. Sure there are things to hate in any profession but heck, it’s not like they are nurses or doctors performing life or death surgeries. They’re play acting and being paid millions to do so.
You’ll have to point out to me where in this article or the NYT article that he was talking sh*t about Twilight. Thank you
….this doesn’t sound like him shitting on Twilight, though? It’s a bit of a reach to say that’s what he was doing.