November
9
Twilight: What's Next for Rob Pattinson?
Brit actor Robert Pattinson's life changed the instant Catherine Hardwicke cast him as Edward Cullen, the vampire lover in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series.
"How old are you?" asks Bella (Kristen Stewart), a new student at Forks High.
"17," he says.
"How long have you been 17?"
"A while."
Pattinson has seen the way women react to him as Edward at Comic-Con and festivals. (They tend to scream.) In this flip-cam interview, he talks about how tricky it was to play this kind of swoony leading man, figuring out the makeup, his music, his upcoming films Little Ashes and How to Be, and the new movie he starts in January, playing Dennis Hopper's grandson in writer-director Brian Horiuchi's L.A.-set multi-generational marriage drama Parts Per Billion, also starring Olivia Thrilby and Rosario Dawson. Hollywood is sending him scripts, but everyone it seems, is waiting to see how Twilight fares when it opens November 21:
Pattinson, who hasn't seen the movie, says he's prepared to play Cullen in two more Twilight films in the original trilogy. (There's a fourth, more controversial and adult Twilight novel.) Pattinson's next movie, Little Ashes, a gay romance between Salvador Dali and Gabriel Federico Garcia Lorca, is due in March. And the bare-bones, quirky Brit coming-of-age movie How to Be debuted at Slamdance in January, where it won an honorable mention, failed to pick up a distrib at Berlin in February, and still has no home in the U.K. or the U.S. Pattinson plays a sad-sack acoustic guitar player trying to pull himself out of depression. This pic might benefit from an online release--there are countless Pattinson fans who would want to sample it. But only a micro distrib would ever release it theatrically. Here's the How to Be website, which has a trailer.
The LAT interviews Pattinson, as does EW, as part of its cover package. UPDATE: My fave gossip Marc Malkin gets Pattinson to dish about bare bellies.
Subscribe to this blog's feed
Great interview, I feel sorta bad for him because I do think the hype is getting excessive, and now if the movie doesn't open at some ridiculous amount, it's gonna be called a failure. I miss the days when this move project was more like the little engine that could honestly. It was sorta sweet how wide eyed he got when Anne mentioned how hard the role was to play, like he was holding his breath to see her judgement on that fact, and then took a nervous drink as she mentioned how easy it would be to look like an idiot playing it.lol
Posted by: maile | November 10, 2008 at 10:55 PM
Wow, Anne's good. It sorta broke my heart how sensitive he was to her implications in a couple spots, like he's unsure of his performance still, but she really asked great questions of the guy.
My personal feelings on what I've seen so far from Twilight clips? That the film looks like they had a modest budget, that some of the side characters come onscreen and suddenly the whole atmosphere takes on a CW sort of vibe.
But that Kristen and Robert? Save the film. They break my heart every time I see a clip of them alone. They just strike me as a on another level acting wise than some of the other actors their age. That's not a slight really to the other kids on the film, they are fine. It's just that Kristen and Robert seem to have their mojo working overtime and show a real subtle depth to their characters that may just save this movie from some of the pitfalls I'm worried about.
Posted by: Lana | November 10, 2008 at 11:15 PM
T. Holly-I just saw your comments. Bella is the embodiment of strength in Twilight, not Edward. Edward is the one who lets his fears get the best of him every time--he's the one who causes so much of the suffering unknowingly, simply because he will not trust in what he's found with Bella. Strength is a theme in the Twilight series--and SM seems to reject the notion that strength can only be measured in physical prowess. I'm an old school feminist--don't relate to today's post feminist sentiments. But I think the knee jerk reaction to Twilight is in part due to people knowing the author is a Mormon housewife. And taking that bit of information, and letting that filter the books' storyline, is anti-feminist in and of itself. SM's Bella is a sort of Christ figure in the story, where it's not through might-makes-right she overcomes adversity. Might makes right power is demonized and personfied through the oppressive Volturi dynasty. Love, and the courage to love the "wrong things"(bella had the courage to love Edward, his family, werewolves, and a baby that could mortally harm her), is what transforms "ordinary girls" into something superhuman in strength and courage.
Posted by: Maile | November 11, 2008 at 05:12 PM
so interesting that anne seemed to get Robert to behave in an uncharacteristically earnest manner. He is usually a real smart you-know-what in interviews, joking and being self deprecating. I found it interesting that for a brief moment in the beginning when she was saying how hard it was to play this role, he had a "she understands what I was trying to do" look on his face, even though anne's thoughts went in a slightly different direction than his face seemed to think. I swear, he wanted anne's approval! ahhaha He never seems to care really in other interviews. Funny.
Oh, and I think nothing's wrong with a chick flick. This is a chick flick. And please, my man's coming along with me because that's what good SOs do. I go see dumb action movies for his benefit, and he has to pay me back with a good chick flick like this one.
Posted by: harlow | November 11, 2008 at 05:17 PM
Really. So, Bella armtwists Edward with her inner strength to get him to trust what he's found with her. She's a Christ figure.
The same person who made the comment I posted also thinks this:
it's an anti-abortion allegory; you can all attack me for being ridiculous or over-reaching or militant-whatever.
The half-vampire foetus that the protagonist Bella is carrying starts killing her from the inside out. Even as it breaks her ribs and sucks the life from her, she proclaims, "I won't kill him." But does she have to face the consequences of this choice? No, because vampire magic suddenly allows mother and father to hear the foetus's thoughts, and to discover that it already loves them!
It's certainly based on a fundamentally conservative ideology and now that I know '' Stephenie'' Meyers is a Mormon I feel like I've just completed a giant, smug jigsaw puzzle.
Posted by: T. Holly | November 11, 2008 at 06:33 PM
T.holly--I think you or whoever you are quoting is trying to forcefit a lot of the storyline into a anti-feminist hole that doesn't really work. Jamming it in isn't going to make it any more successful.
It's not a anti-abortion allegory. That's missing the whole point of the series.
The point of the series is that Bella loves "the wrong things." She loved a vampire dude. A werewolf bff. Two parents who love her, but are somewhat hot messes for parental figures. And she loved the baby she made with vampire dude.
She didn't have to face the consequences? She gave up her life for that baby. Her body was basically spliced and diced--and THEN she was turned, which is just as painful as the splicing and dicing.
That's some heavy consequences.
SM's Mormon-ness comes into play in the series. Just not as people assume. Mainly Mormon theology comes into play with the themes of agency and liberty vs. security and dominion. The Cullens ways vs. the Volturi ways are very steeped in Mormon theology.
Bella wanting to keep teh baby she made with Edward? So not an allegory number one, and so not about anti-abortion. That's overliteral to the nth degree.
Posted by: wuh | November 12, 2008 at 09:41 AM
Do you or any experts here know a good deconstruction of Meyer's work you can recommend?
Posted by: T. Holly | November 12, 2008 at 12:30 PM
Did Bella get married and pregnant so young because the publisher wanted another book and the author wouldn't do premarital sex? Did it happen in the usual way without birth control?
Seriously, here we go, this could be promising:
http://www.cinematical.com/2008/08/11/film-clips-is-twilight-anti-feminist/
Posted by: T. Holly | November 12, 2008 at 08:14 PM
wow thanks so much for this...I think he's a very interesting, deep and, smart person. A true talent and I agree with him when he said that the script goes first and even how great the director is if the script is a trash then it's not going to be good. I think he'll be a great actor he chooses carefully his projects.
Posted by: ronnhie | November 14, 2008 at 11:02 AM
I would like to say thank you Anne for your interview. It was one of the best and most real out of all the ones I've watched. And I have watched many. Rob seems to be much more relaxed and ready to talk freely. I am looking forward to seeing his movie Little Ashes. I feel that his honesty, humbleness and just overall handsomeness has won all of us over. I think he is just the sweetest thing.I love him to pieces.And he is just so hard on himself. His looks and charm are just amazing. I honestly could listen to him talk forever. Thanks for one of the best interviews.
Posted by: Kelly | November 24, 2008 at 06:41 PM
Excellent interview. Probably the best one I've seen of Rob so far. Definitely more detailed than the others, and you see a more personable side of Rob here. It was very earnest and he is just such a REAL guy. It's a shame that he's getting all this attention, though, even if he deserves...he obviously doesn't want it. Hopefully he continues to be able to downplay it as fans go crazy.
Posted by: Jessiegirl | December 03, 2008 at 07:35 PM
Él es otra persona más, con sentimientos y corazón, que hace su trabajo lo mejor que puede. Como cualquier persona que ame su trabajo, él intenta mejorar cada día más su nivel, independientemente de si le gusta o no la pelicula que hace.
No consigo entender a esas personas que, después de ver a Robert en Twilight, se han enamorado locamente de él.
ESTAN PREJUZGÁNDOLO! Ni siquiera le conocen...y pueden decir que es la mejor persona del mundo.
Pero cuidado! Sus fans declaran que es el mejor chico del mundo, sin conocerlo, pero no se dan cuenta que han llegado a esa conclusión simplemente por leer el libro y la pelicula. Están mezclando el personaje del libro, sus sentimientos, con el físico de Robert.
Robert es el actor y Edward Cullen es el personaje. Son completamente diferentes, Robert pone el cuerpo y Edward la personalidad. En realidad, fans, os estáis enamorando de la personalidad de Edward, independientemente del aspecto fisico de RObert, (que también ayuda).
Me pregunto qué hubiera pasado si no hubiera sido Robert quién interpretara a Edward Cullen, sino otro actor. Hubiera pasado exactamente lo mismo. Con lo cual, no os habéis enamorado de Robert sino de Edward.
Aunque ya puestos, Robert is so hot and does his job as well as nobody.
Ariadna.
Posted by: Ariadna | December 28, 2008 at 05:13 AM
Hey i think the interview was great and i hear talk of him starring in a remake of Dune. I think he would be just right for the part of Paul Atreides. Just praying it is a more faithful script of the the Frank Herbert book than the last movie with Sting in it.
Posted by: robin | May 13, 2009 at 12:11 AM