Rob is on the cover of The Hollywood Reporter June 6 issue. He shot some exclusive photos as well as a cover story
See all photos and read the article here at THR.
via THR
Showing posts with label interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label interview. Show all posts
Monday, June 16, 2014
Rob Covers The Hollywood Reporter's June 6, 2014 Issue
Rob is on the cover of The Hollywood Reporter June 6 issue. He shot some exclusive photos as well as a cover story
See all photos and read the article here at THR.
via THR
Rob's Buzzfeed Interview
Rob recently had an interview with Buzzfeed, mostly discussing bout The Rover, but moved on to Twilight territory for a bit.
In an interview with BuzzFeed this week in Beverly Hills, Pattinson discussed The Rover (which premiered at Cannes last month and comes out in New York and Los Angeles this weekend, and will be released nationally next Friday), and his post-Twilight career. And he has been working a lot: In addition to David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars, which also premiered at Cannes, he will soon appear in Werner Herzog’s Queen of the Desert, Anton Corbijn’s Life, and Olivier Assayas’ Idol’s Eye with Robert De Niro, which has not yet begun filming. As someone who tripped into huge stardom after he was cast in Twilight, and then fell into a viper’s nest of paparazzi as one-half of a tabloid couple while he dated his co-star Kristen Stewart, Pattinson, now 28, described life after Edward as a “process.” He has now lived a good portion of his life hunted, both by paps and fans, but in person, he is neither brooding nor tortured. Actually, he was quick to laugh. And he seems to have figured out how to live a sane life, if not a normal one.
You do a Southern accent for this movie, as well as a number of vocal and facial tics. Were those as written or did you develop them with David Michôd?
Robert Pattinson: It said he was from the South, but not a specific place. I guess all those sorts of tics and things — it was just quite jerkily written? So when you start saying it out loud, it just ends up coming out in your body.
The Rover seems like it was grueling to make. It looks hot, and there are all those flies. Was it? And was that helpful for the role?
RP: I thought it was really easy. I think the most stressful thing in movies is when the weather is really random. Then everyone is just panicking all the time. But it was just sort of hot all the time. If you were trying to play someone who was clean, then it would be incredibly stressful. To have someone coming in and touching up your makeup every 10 seconds — but you were just sitting in a pile of mud, it doesn’t really make a difference. You could just play in the dirt.
Twilight made you a rich movie star and paparazzi target. Now that it’s been almost two years since Breaking Dawn Part 2 came out, how do you look back on the experience?
RP: I knew when I signed up after the first one came out, I knew it was going to be about a 10-year process to really — I’m not sure what! To get to the next plateau. I’ve been extremely lucky as well, but it kind of does seem like there’s little gradations — every year, every job, something happens, and people’s perception changes a little bit. I don’t look back on it being a different part of my life. It’s all one road, really.
Full interview at Buzzfeed.
via Buzzfeed
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Friday, November 2, 2012
Monday, October 22, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
Boston Globe 'Cosmopolis' Interview
These interviews are getting more interesting, really. Here's one from Boston Globe.
Cult hero filmmaker David Cronenberg and “Twilight” leading man Robert Pattinson rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange last week to promote their new psychological thriller, “Cosmopolis.” Both men agree that their visit was a bit strange. After all, “Cosmopolis,” based on the book by Don DeLillo, is a capitalist critique that, while having been published in 2003, speaks to the Occupy Wall Street movement and creates a disturbing portrait of the emptiness of the 1 percent.
The English actor and the Canadian director, who called us shortly after Pattinson made a much-hyped appearance on “Good Morning America,” admitted that their “Cosmopolis” experience has been odd at times and, much like their film, uncomfortable with a bit of irony. There’s the strangeness of the movie itself. Then there are the “Twilight” fans who love Pattinson enough to expose themselves to an R-rated film about the economy that involves an eccentric millionaire getting a proctology exam in the back of a limo. Adding to the weirdness is Pattinson’s involvement in a very public cheating scandal; his longtime girlfriend Kristen Stewart recently apologized for being unfaithful with Rupert Sanders, the director of “Snow White and the Huntsman.” After Stewart went public, Pattinson disappeared for weeks, was rumored to be hiding out at Reese Witherspoon’s house, then resurfaced, to the delight of the paparazzi, to promote “Cosmopolis” on the red carpet and elsewhere.
It’s been a strange trip, but Cronenberg and Pattinson seem wonderfully comfortable — at least with each other — amid all the awkwardness.
Q. You both have said that you filmed this movie in chronological order, and I know that with many movies, the last scenes are shot first. Was that a luxury — to film from start to finish?
Cronenberg: One of the trickiest things that I had to learn as a director was exactly that. I mean, suddenly you’re forced to shoot the last scene of the movie first. And it’s hard for the actors because they don’t know who they are yet and they’re doing their death scene. As an actor myself, I was in Clive Barker’s movie “Nightbreed,” and the first thing we shoot was my character getting killed. And I said a typical actor thing. I said, “How can I know how to die when I haven’t lived yet?” So it is kind of a luxury. I think Rob can talk about that.
Pattinson: I agree. (Laughs) I don’t think I can add to that.
Q. You have both been very candid in interviews about the fact that you didn’t necessarily know how this novel would translate to film and what it meant to you. Do you have a different interpretation of the text now that you’re finished with the film?
Pattinson: Well, I like it. I don’t think that confusion is necessarily a bad thing. We’ve done hundreds of interviews now and I still find myself coming up with new things to say.
Cronenberg: Those statements that we made, which were very candid, can be misinterpreted as meaning we were inept, incompetent. But not at all. You know, I don’t do storyboards, for example. I don’t really know what I’m going to do at every set up and every shot. It’s all very spontaneous and of-the-moment, even what lens to use. That’s what we’re talking about. We don’t have it all mapped out. We’re trusting the script and trusting the dialogue that is all 100 percent Don DeLillo’s and taken from the novel directly. We know that if we respond directly to that . . . the movie will have its coherence.
Q. You just rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. What was that like? And what do you think the people there would think of this movie if they saw it?
Cronenberg: All through the halls of the stock exchange they have these monitors built into the walls, and they were all showing clips of “Cosmopolis.” All of the people there who were marshaling us were incredibly excited about the movie and really wanted to see it. And they were incredibly friendly and sweet, and I was suddenly thinking, “This is the wonderful, friendly face of capitalism. I don’t know why I’ve been fighting it for so long. I think I’m going to buy some stock.” [Pattinson laughs.] And the stock exchange is about marketing. To link the starting of the day with some product that’s being marketed was a no-brainer. And the fact that it might be rather ironic that we were opening the stock exchange; I don’t think it occurred to them.
Q. Mr. Pattinson, what did you think of the visit?
Pattinson: I’m so clueless about anything to do with that world. I was kind of just terrified that I was somehow going to mess it up. And also to see people’s enthusiasm. It’s so alien. Even people’s attitudes there. It seems so alien to me. I mean, I’ve met traders before, but in their own environment — everyone’s extremely happy, which is not what I expected. It doesn’t seem stressful at all. They were all excited about seeing who was going to ring the bell this morning. They had the American gymnastics team closing it that day. It looks like a really fun place to work.
Q. You guys seem like you like each other a lot. You seem so close during this publicity tour. I was thinking, when I looked at pictures from the stock exchange visit, that you actually look like relatives.
[Cronenberg and Pattinson laugh.]
Cronenberg: We get along pretty well and we were kind of wearing the same suit. They were Gucci suits that were connected with the movie — the character wears them — and so, we were Tweedledum and Tweedledee at that point.
Q. Mr. Cronenberg, where do you most enjoy promoting your films? You don’t have to say America.
Cronenberg: I have a huge enthusiastic fan base in France. My first films were horror films and genre films, and in France they never had any prejudice against them, whereas in North America, in the old days when I started especially, there was prejudice against them. They weren’t taken seriously as good cinema. So I suppose I feel more comfortable, weirdly enough, in France releasing a film. The level of discourse there is very intelligent, very intellectual, sometimes humorously so, but I like playing that game there.
Q. Mr. Pattinson, how have you taken to the Cronenberg fan base? I imagine that it’s strange to see “Twilight” fans with people who love David Cronenberg movies.
Pattinson: Absolutely. We were in London and we did a Q&A and it was two very diverse groups of people who suddenly came into contact with each other for I think probably the first time. And, I don’t know . . . David’s horror film fans . . . and general “Twilight” female fans . . . are actually quite a good pairing. I think both of them didn’t see anything in each other first of all, but they’re quite a good, odd couple. When you see a bearded guy with long hair, who absolutely will weep [for Cronenberg] . . . and then a “Twilight” fan who will weep at that, they actually look like a couple.
Q. Mr. Pattinson, I have to ask, in reference to all of the talk show hosts who are asking you personal questions right now: I’m always fascinated by the ability of celebrities to just disappear during a controversy. How do you do that? Is there a tunneling system? Where do you go to hide when you’re so watched?
Pattinson: There is a netherworld where celebrities go. They’re the only ones that have access to it. A mysterious little network of boroughs. (Giggles.)
via Boston Globe
Cult hero filmmaker David Cronenberg and “Twilight” leading man Robert Pattinson rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange last week to promote their new psychological thriller, “Cosmopolis.” Both men agree that their visit was a bit strange. After all, “Cosmopolis,” based on the book by Don DeLillo, is a capitalist critique that, while having been published in 2003, speaks to the Occupy Wall Street movement and creates a disturbing portrait of the emptiness of the 1 percent.
The English actor and the Canadian director, who called us shortly after Pattinson made a much-hyped appearance on “Good Morning America,” admitted that their “Cosmopolis” experience has been odd at times and, much like their film, uncomfortable with a bit of irony. There’s the strangeness of the movie itself. Then there are the “Twilight” fans who love Pattinson enough to expose themselves to an R-rated film about the economy that involves an eccentric millionaire getting a proctology exam in the back of a limo. Adding to the weirdness is Pattinson’s involvement in a very public cheating scandal; his longtime girlfriend Kristen Stewart recently apologized for being unfaithful with Rupert Sanders, the director of “Snow White and the Huntsman.” After Stewart went public, Pattinson disappeared for weeks, was rumored to be hiding out at Reese Witherspoon’s house, then resurfaced, to the delight of the paparazzi, to promote “Cosmopolis” on the red carpet and elsewhere.
It’s been a strange trip, but Cronenberg and Pattinson seem wonderfully comfortable — at least with each other — amid all the awkwardness.
Q. You both have said that you filmed this movie in chronological order, and I know that with many movies, the last scenes are shot first. Was that a luxury — to film from start to finish?
Cronenberg: One of the trickiest things that I had to learn as a director was exactly that. I mean, suddenly you’re forced to shoot the last scene of the movie first. And it’s hard for the actors because they don’t know who they are yet and they’re doing their death scene. As an actor myself, I was in Clive Barker’s movie “Nightbreed,” and the first thing we shoot was my character getting killed. And I said a typical actor thing. I said, “How can I know how to die when I haven’t lived yet?” So it is kind of a luxury. I think Rob can talk about that.
Pattinson: I agree. (Laughs) I don’t think I can add to that.
Q. You have both been very candid in interviews about the fact that you didn’t necessarily know how this novel would translate to film and what it meant to you. Do you have a different interpretation of the text now that you’re finished with the film?
Pattinson: Well, I like it. I don’t think that confusion is necessarily a bad thing. We’ve done hundreds of interviews now and I still find myself coming up with new things to say.
Cronenberg: Those statements that we made, which were very candid, can be misinterpreted as meaning we were inept, incompetent. But not at all. You know, I don’t do storyboards, for example. I don’t really know what I’m going to do at every set up and every shot. It’s all very spontaneous and of-the-moment, even what lens to use. That’s what we’re talking about. We don’t have it all mapped out. We’re trusting the script and trusting the dialogue that is all 100 percent Don DeLillo’s and taken from the novel directly. We know that if we respond directly to that . . . the movie will have its coherence.
Q. You just rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. What was that like? And what do you think the people there would think of this movie if they saw it?
Cronenberg: All through the halls of the stock exchange they have these monitors built into the walls, and they were all showing clips of “Cosmopolis.” All of the people there who were marshaling us were incredibly excited about the movie and really wanted to see it. And they were incredibly friendly and sweet, and I was suddenly thinking, “This is the wonderful, friendly face of capitalism. I don’t know why I’ve been fighting it for so long. I think I’m going to buy some stock.” [Pattinson laughs.] And the stock exchange is about marketing. To link the starting of the day with some product that’s being marketed was a no-brainer. And the fact that it might be rather ironic that we were opening the stock exchange; I don’t think it occurred to them.
Q. Mr. Pattinson, what did you think of the visit?
Pattinson: I’m so clueless about anything to do with that world. I was kind of just terrified that I was somehow going to mess it up. And also to see people’s enthusiasm. It’s so alien. Even people’s attitudes there. It seems so alien to me. I mean, I’ve met traders before, but in their own environment — everyone’s extremely happy, which is not what I expected. It doesn’t seem stressful at all. They were all excited about seeing who was going to ring the bell this morning. They had the American gymnastics team closing it that day. It looks like a really fun place to work.
Q. You guys seem like you like each other a lot. You seem so close during this publicity tour. I was thinking, when I looked at pictures from the stock exchange visit, that you actually look like relatives.
[Cronenberg and Pattinson laugh.]
Cronenberg: We get along pretty well and we were kind of wearing the same suit. They were Gucci suits that were connected with the movie — the character wears them — and so, we were Tweedledum and Tweedledee at that point.
Q. Mr. Cronenberg, where do you most enjoy promoting your films? You don’t have to say America.
Cronenberg: I have a huge enthusiastic fan base in France. My first films were horror films and genre films, and in France they never had any prejudice against them, whereas in North America, in the old days when I started especially, there was prejudice against them. They weren’t taken seriously as good cinema. So I suppose I feel more comfortable, weirdly enough, in France releasing a film. The level of discourse there is very intelligent, very intellectual, sometimes humorously so, but I like playing that game there.
Q. Mr. Pattinson, how have you taken to the Cronenberg fan base? I imagine that it’s strange to see “Twilight” fans with people who love David Cronenberg movies.
Pattinson: Absolutely. We were in London and we did a Q&A and it was two very diverse groups of people who suddenly came into contact with each other for I think probably the first time. And, I don’t know . . . David’s horror film fans . . . and general “Twilight” female fans . . . are actually quite a good pairing. I think both of them didn’t see anything in each other first of all, but they’re quite a good, odd couple. When you see a bearded guy with long hair, who absolutely will weep [for Cronenberg] . . . and then a “Twilight” fan who will weep at that, they actually look like a couple.
Q. Mr. Pattinson, I have to ask, in reference to all of the talk show hosts who are asking you personal questions right now: I’m always fascinated by the ability of celebrities to just disappear during a controversy. How do you do that? Is there a tunneling system? Where do you go to hide when you’re so watched?
Pattinson: There is a netherworld where celebrities go. They’re the only ones that have access to it. A mysterious little network of boroughs. (Giggles.)
via Boston Globe
Friday, August 17, 2012
L.A. Times Interview with Rob and David Cronenberg
NEW YORK — Jon Stewart tried to bait him with Ben & Jerry's Karamel Sutra. "Good Morning America" host George Stephanopoulos offered him Cinnamon Toast Crunch. But maybe French fries would have been a better ploy to get Robert Pattinson to spill some juicy personal details about his breakup with costar Kristen Stewart.
"Media culture is a monstrous thing," Pattinson lamented Wednesday afternoon, jamming fries into his mouth between puffs on his electronic cigarette. "You can't win. The annoying thing is that you can't attack them, but you can't defend yourself. The best thing you could possibly do is punch a paparazzi and give them their big payday."
The 26-year-old actor has run a gantlet of publicity this week that was nominally about promoting his new film, "Cosmopolis," which opens Friday. But the promotional blitz, which also included a New York premiere and other stops, seemed to be as much about proving his emotional resilience in the wake of the tabloid bonanza that exploded after photos surfaced of Stewart in compromising positions with 41-year-old Rupert Sanders, who directed her in "Snow White and the Huntsman."
Sitting alongside Pattinson for moral support at the Mandarin Oriental hotel on Columbus Circle was "Cosmopolis" director David Cronenberg. The Canadian filmmaker, whose challenging art house films almost never garner such wide attention, was there as a sort of buffer but also appeared to be quietly amused by the media circus. The actor's manager would not allow Pattinson to sit alone for an interview with The Times, and even suggested that reporters not ask him about his personal life, or "Twilight."
But "Twilight," of course, is how Pattinson has become perhaps the most widely recognized young actor of his generation. In the movie franchise, based on Stephenie Meyer's bestselling young adult novels, he plays a brooding vampire who falls in love with a human girl (Stewart). The film series has grossed over $2.5 billion worldwide since launching in 2008 and will conclude in November with a fifth installment, "Breaking Dawn — Part 2." Pattinson's off-screen romance with Stewart only stoked the popularity of the vampire movies.
When the Stewart-Sanders affair burst onto the cover of Us Weekly in July, it initially seemed like there was little upside for Pattinson. But Stewart's public apology generated not only sympathy for the man wronged but also a fresh wave of interest for "Cosmopolis," which had premiered to mixed response at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
That could help Pattinson as he strives to craft a post-"Twilight" career. While both of his "Twilight" costars, Stewart and Taylor Lautner, have each taken center stage in studio pictures, Pattinson has mostly stayed in the indie world. His biggest non-"Twilight" film to date was last year's "Water for Elephants," a modestly budgeted period romance with Reese Witherspoon that took in a respectable $117 million worldwide. Pattinson's less-commercial projects, however, have tanked at the box office — the Sept. 11 drama "Remember Me" only collected $8 million domestically in 2010, and the 19th century-set drama "Bel Ami" flopped in June, never expanding beyond 15 theaters.
In "Cosmopolis," Pattinson plays a young billionaire on the verge of financial ruin who self-destructs over the course of one day, and he has earned some of the best reviews of his career for his performance as the detached whiz-kid.
Cronenberg, who adapted "Cosmopolis" from Don DeLillo's book of the same name, said he felt Pattinson was right for the part largely because of his good-looking face, which appears in nearly every frame of the movie. Before casting him, the director watched all of the films the London native has appeared in, and viewed a number of interviews with Pattinson on YouTube to get a better sense of his personality.
"The strength of the 'Twilight' movies is not the acting," acknowledged Cronenberg. "But it's not understood that doing 'Twilight' requires presence and professionalism. Are you saying this is an Academy Award performance, or Alec Guinness? That's a whole other discussion. But you throw somebody on a grueling set like that — a normal person would be dead in an hour."
Warming to his own defense, Pattinson interjected: "With this movie people keep saying, 'Is this gonna be the movie where he can prove he can act?' It's like, 'What do you think I have been doing?'"
"By the way," Cronenberg added, "he's a British guy doing an American accent. People don't realize that there are a lot of very good actors who cannot do accents, and they don't give Rob credit for that."
"Oh, give me anything!" Pattinson said with a laugh and taking a drag on his cigarette, which glowed an electronic red with each inhale.
Still, it's clear Pattinson sometimes questions his acting ability. Before production began on "Cosmopolis," he said he was so unsure of his ability to pull off the role that he sat "trembling, absolutely terrified" during the first screen test.
Full interview at LA Times
Rob Pattinson and David Cronenberg Interview by NextMovie
In casting Robert Pattinson, you have an interesting tension between a big percentage of his fanbase — teenage girls, many of them — and a film they might find inscrutable. Is that conflict appealing to you?
David Cronenberg: It was not really an issue at all, in terms of casting. On the other hand, what was interesting was while we were shooting the movie, all these "Cosmopolis" websites popped up that were created by "Twilight" fans and Rob fans, and they were reading the book and exchanging notes about the book and how it might work in the movie. Really, I wasn't thinking that this was necessarily going to be an audience for this movie, but then I started to think, "Well, some of them, it definitely is going to be." And that was exciting 'cause these are young girls who maybe had read "Twilight" and "Harry Potter," and suddenly they're reading Don DeLillo. That's pretty good.
I don't really have an audience in mind when I'm making a movie ... I'm making it for me and all of us who are excited about the script. I'm making it for an audience, but that's kind of an unknown and amorphous audience, so anybody who's part of that audience is okay with us, let's put it that way.
Robert, knowing that younger fans will cross genres for you, do you worry that you need to choose parts carefully? Is that on your radar?
Robert Pattinson: It's like I feel a responsibility to myself. If you're doing stuff just purely for money, you're probably disrespecting your audience as well. It's not good for anyone. It's not even really good for you. The only thing I really know is what I think I would find interesting to watch and if I try and make that, I feel like I learn a lot out of doing it and watching it. And so , I don't know, I think I fulfilled my responsibility.
I think you do [have a responsibility] in a lot of ways. Not a massive one. But you know, I think your responsibility can also include failures as well. I mean, you can learn something from doing a sh**ty movie, too.
Before making "Cosmopolis," did you consider the effect your involvement might have on skewing its audience?
RP: No, I basically was consumed with terror about me being bad in it. I mean, that's what I was thinking right up until Cannes. The night before the premiere at Cannes, David was like, "Oh, yeah. I'm fully expecting walk-outs."
I knew I already liked the movie a lot, but I was still terrified then, mainly because I'm, like, going to have to have a fight with 3,000 people, if they started booing or something [laughs].
You were expecting people to get up and leave? Because your character is so unsettling? He is arguably a sociopath.
RP: I think the walk-out thing actually is just the culture of filmmaking, I mean, it's become a consumer thing. People think they're being insulted when there's a challenging movie. It's so weird. People sit in a movie which they know is s**t and know they're gonna talk to all their friends and say it's s**t, but to sit there and watch a piece of s**t [laughs]. They'll watch one which they know is kind of good and don't really get it and have to walk out and be so offended. I don't think I've ever walked out of a movie in my life. And people will be so offended by it, they can't take it anymore.
DC: I think the walk-outs, I only know about from some of the Twi-Hard websites, because the girls are saying, "I was so shocked these people walked out of the movie." They walk out because it's too much talk. They can't absorb it, and [don't] let it wash over them and just not worry about that, which is really the way you handle that. Everything that's said in the movie actually makes sense and is pretty intelligent, of course, from DeLillo, but there's no way you can absorb it all. It comes at you so fast and so articulate, you know.
RP: People are panicking.
DC: Yeah, you should just let it wash over you, and naturally it'll soak in or it won't. It's not gonna hurt you, but they can't take it. I don't think it has anything to do with the character that Rob plays, because, I mean, Hannibal Lecter's pretty chilling and nobody walked out of that. Though [Rob's character] Eric is ... cuter.
Read full interview at NextMovie.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
TIME Interviews Rob Pattinson and David Cronenberg
From TIME:
Eric Packer, the icily charismatic asset manager played by Robert Pattinson in Cosmopolis, does a great many interesting things in a single, fateful day. In his white stretch limousine, he attempts to traverse Manhattan in gridlock traffic amid violent Occupy-like protests, and all in search of a haircut. He forfeits hundreds of millions of dollars in a suicidal currency-speculation bid. He enjoys afternoon sex with a comely security specialist wearing a body-armor vest with a stun gun on hand. He also has sex with Juliette Binoche. He also endures a weirdly erotic prostate exam while staring into the eyes of a sweaty associate. He gets a pie in the face from a “pastry assassin” who travels with a crew of paparazzi. He is stalked by an actual would-be assassin as well.
So much to talk about! But overshadowing Pattinson’s press tour for Cosmopolis — directed by the great David Cronenberg and adapted from Don DeLillo’s 2003 novel — is the recent tabloid frenzy surrounding his breakup with Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart. (The final film in the Twilight franchise is out in November.) TIME sat down with Cronenberg and Pattinson — fresh-faced, sweet, totally affable, smoking an electronic cigarette — in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood the day after the New York City premiere of Cosmopolis. We mostly stayed on topic, if occasionally tiptoeing awkwardly around the heartbroken vampire-elephant in the room.
TIME: Cosmopolis was published in the first year of the war in Iraq, and in a wave of novels that were all described as being “post–Sept. 11” in one way or other, but now the story maps on remarkably well to Occupy Wall Street and other protest movements around the world in 2011. David, at what point did you encounter the book, and when did you know it was a movie?
David Cronenberg: It was about three years ago, and the attraction wasn’t that the novel was prescient or because of its historical place. It was the characters, the dialogue, the intensity, the humor — it’s constantly funny. I wasn’t looking to make any kind of statement. Inevitably, though, if you’re making something with integrity, it will say something about the time it’s being made in. When the novel came out, people were saying, “All this demonstrating-on-Wall-Street stuff isn’t very convincing.” Now it’s obvious.
Robert, DeLillo’s dialogue is hyperstylized, very formal and often steeped in theory. How did you approach it?
Robert Pattinson: The first thing I connected to was the humor. Everything else seemed kind of arbitrary. I liked that it was absurd and unrelatable in a lot of ways. I thought that Eric doesn’t understand himself, so that was my angle — play the part as if you don’t understand the part. [Cronenberg laughs merrily.] Try to remain lost. I noticed that every single time I came into a scene with an idea or an angle about how to do it, it would feel wrong, and David would know it was wrong. When I was kind of somewhere else, not thinking at all — that was when it felt right.
What’s relatable about Eric might be that his world is so mediated by technology — he experiences the world at a remove, through screens, and so he’s struggling to feel something, whether it’s through sex or shooting a gun or gambling away his fortune. Do you think people can relate to that kind of alienation and wanting something real?
DC: One of the investors in the movie is a genuine French billionaire named Édouard Carmignac. He’s known as the French Warren Buffett. He wanted to be involved with this movie because he said it was absolutely accurate. He knows many people who are like this character, who have created this strange bubble that they live in. Within that bubble, they’re very alive and in control, and yet they’re completely disconnected from normal humanity, normal relationships. So Eric Packer says things to his wife like, “This is how people talk, right?” He’s trying it out, because he really doesn’t know. He’s dealing with billions of dollars, but he’s never actually touching real money, and he doesn’t know how to actually pay for things. Of course, Carmignac doesn’t think of himself as that person, but he recognizes it completely. So I take him at his word that it’s not such a stretch. People create a limo for themselves, a little spaceship, a little bell jar in which they insulate themselves from things that hurt.
RP: I think Eric is confused between genuine power and ego. He’s mixing the two up. I think a lot of people in that job find that empathy is a weakness, so he realizes that it’s a strength. I’ve read things that describe Eric as a monster, but I always thought the story was a hopeful progression. His biggest problem is that he’s totally self-obsessed. But he’s taking baby steps toward coming to terms with it. He’s had an extended adolescence in a lot of ways, and he’s really smart — he’s a savant. Some people are so entrenched in what they think they are, and he realizes that the only shock that can snap him out of himself is that someone is going to kill him.
Do you also see Cosmopolis as a story about fame? Eric is in a bubble, people he doesn’t know know him, they spin narratives in their head about him, and —
DC: No, I don’t think so. It’s like the London whale — nobody knows what that guy looks like, nobody knows where he lives. That’s his strength as a trader: nobody can predict him, nobody understands him. I think Eric is like that. On the outside, his limo looks like everyone else’s. He just got this one guy who wants to “pie” him, who’s got the paparazzi with him. But Eric can have dinner and no one’s around, he can go to the diner with his wife and nobody bothers him. He’s got the one security guy, but that’s it. He doesn’t have fans.
RP: The world would be a much better place, I think, if all these bankers and billionaires were followed by paparazzi and studied as carefully. As soon as people look at something very closely, the whole thing just crumbles.
I might be thinking about Cosmopolis as a parable of fame in part because Robert is cast in the role, and Robert has a very intense and specific kind of global celebrity.
DC: The element of that that’s important is, you want to finance the movie. To attract investors, you can’t do that without an actor who is known. Beyond that, we want to disconnect. When we are making the movie, we are in our limo, our little bubble. There’s nobody else around. It’s just us. At that point, Rob’s other movies are nonexistent and my movies are nonexistent. I’m not thinking about the connections between them.
Speaking of your other movies — Cosmopolis has some affinities with David’s film Crash, in that it takes place inside a car, and the car is a very eroticized space. There’s an amazing sex scene with Eric and the security specialist, Kendra. Is a scene like that highly choreographed down to every movement, or is there room for improvisation?
RP: That was probably one of the most difficult scenes in the movie. It wasn’t a sex scene in the script. In the script, we’d finished having sex, and we were getting dressed. [To Cronenberg:] I think you only told me like the day before or something. [Laughter.]
DC: Well, I don’t think it pays to panic my actors. There’s nothing you can do to prepare anyway. It’s not like if I’d told you the week before —
RP: I’d have done some sit-ups.
DC: Yeah, well, that wouldn’t have helped. I said that the scene becomes more interesting and trickier and better if you’re actually having sex. When Kendra says that it’s erotic to be so close to a man somebody wants to kill, it’s obviously better than if they’re on opposite sides of a room getting dressed.
RP: I like the moment of climax — it seems so obvious to have the peak and then his line is, “Do you find this interesting?” I kept laughing.
Tell me about the limo. It’s amazing — like J.G. Ballard designed the Death Star. Robert, was it claustrophobic to spend so much time acting in that space?
RP: The seat was kind of tilted back, so you could never look entirely comfortable and powerful, so from any angle, you were kind of like [slumps and leans back slightly, looking befuddled]. I was constantly trying to present power, but I was always sort of halfway in between positions. I liked that after a while, but I remember the first time I sat down, I thought, [whispers] “S—, I can’t sit in this, it’s like a throne, it doesn’t work.”
DC: It was designed like a throne. I wanted there to be a visual equivalent to his sense of power and the idea that he’s created a bubble in which he is the absolute master, and he forces people to come into that space for sex, for conversation, for business. The car was a set, and it all came apart into about 25 pieces, so you could get angles and lights in there and take it apart. I was shooting with very wide-angle lenses.
RP: Most of the time the camera is on a crane, so it’s remote-controlled. Normally, if there’s a camera there, you’re trying to connect with the eye looking through the lens. But to have that removed, it becomes a strange thing where you have a relationship with a machine, and there’s a dehumanizing — even the sound inside the limo was so dead, it was like being in a recording studio. Everything was like, “I’m numb.” The sound guy was always crawling on the floor and squished into a corner, and that was the only person who was there most of the time. I’m just looking at this little French guy squirming away from me, and that’s my only other major relationship on the set.
DC: I was helping him with the disconnect thing. I like to help my actors.
How did you help Robert with the prostate-exam scene? There doesn’t seem to be as much choreography involved with that one.
DC: There was! It was kind of complex. Finding the right angle wasn’t easy.
Full Interview at TIME.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Rob Pattinson on the Daily Show
via MTV:
For Robert Pattinson's first television appearance since girlfriend Kristen Stewart admitted to and publicly apologized for her "indiscretion" with "Snow White and the Huntsman" director Rupert Sanders, "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart presented the actor with a carton of Ben & Jerry's and the calming reassurance that "we're just a couple of gals talking."
Pattinson, sporting stubble and a sharply tailored blue suit, laughed and seemed in good spirits despite the media attention that has followed him and his "Twilight" co-star since the incident came to light last month. However, the actor did decline the treat, joking, "I'm going to split my Spanx. I'm double-Spanxed."
And though Pattinson didn't speak about Stewart directly, he did acknowledge the rather prickly situation he's found himself in. "My biggest problem in my life is that I'm cheap, and I didn't hire a publicist," he said. "I'm going to hire a publicist."
While the playful back-and-forth between Pattinson and Stewart centered largely around his recent heartbreak, talk did eventually turn to Pattinson's upcoming movie "Cosmopolis," which he was there to support.
"Trying to explain what the movie is about is physically impossible," Pattinson said of the film based on Don DeLillo's novel and directed by David Cronenberg. "It's a very kind of eccentric — it's one of the only things I'll ever do where I can say I don't think this will ever be made again, or it hasn't been made before. Regardless of how people see it, at least it's something new."
Pattinson ended his segment with a challenge for the "Twilight" fans watching.
"If any 'Twilight' fans have tuned in, I genuinely want to make 'Cosmopolis' have a higher opening weekend than 'The Dark Knight [Rises],' " he said. "But the problem is, it's only opening in six cinemas. It's going to be a challenge. ... Just buy, like, eight tickets."
For Robert Pattinson's first television appearance since girlfriend Kristen Stewart admitted to and publicly apologized for her "indiscretion" with "Snow White and the Huntsman" director Rupert Sanders, "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart presented the actor with a carton of Ben & Jerry's and the calming reassurance that "we're just a couple of gals talking."
Pattinson, sporting stubble and a sharply tailored blue suit, laughed and seemed in good spirits despite the media attention that has followed him and his "Twilight" co-star since the incident came to light last month. However, the actor did decline the treat, joking, "I'm going to split my Spanx. I'm double-Spanxed."
And though Pattinson didn't speak about Stewart directly, he did acknowledge the rather prickly situation he's found himself in. "My biggest problem in my life is that I'm cheap, and I didn't hire a publicist," he said. "I'm going to hire a publicist."
While the playful back-and-forth between Pattinson and Stewart centered largely around his recent heartbreak, talk did eventually turn to Pattinson's upcoming movie "Cosmopolis," which he was there to support.
"Trying to explain what the movie is about is physically impossible," Pattinson said of the film based on Don DeLillo's novel and directed by David Cronenberg. "It's a very kind of eccentric — it's one of the only things I'll ever do where I can say I don't think this will ever be made again, or it hasn't been made before. Regardless of how people see it, at least it's something new."
Pattinson ended his segment with a challenge for the "Twilight" fans watching.
"If any 'Twilight' fans have tuned in, I genuinely want to make 'Cosmopolis' have a higher opening weekend than 'The Dark Knight [Rises],' " he said. "But the problem is, it's only opening in six cinemas. It's going to be a challenge. ... Just buy, like, eight tickets."
Friday, June 15, 2012
'GQ&A': GQ UK Interviews Rob Pattinson
GQ UK recently interviewed Robert Pattinson. He talked about hip-hop, sex scenes and why everyone needs to wear Gucci (like we all can afford a Gucci suit).
Within moments of meeting Robert Pattinson, GQ.com learns a valuable lesson: you simply can't compete with Twilight fans. Having previously expressed his admiration for Martin Amis in an interview, it was decided we should present everyone's favourite server-crashing undead heartthrob with a copy of the new Amis novel Lionel Asbo. Sadly one literary-minded Edward Cullen devotee has trumped our gift. "I got given a first-edition signed copy of Money by a Twilight fan in Lisbon yesterday," reveals Pattinson. "She was trying to tell me that she found it in Massachusetts while we were surrounded by all these people screaming." Pattinson stars in David Cronenberg's striking and strange new film Cosmopolis, out this week, which sees him as an otherworldly billionaire sating his carnal, financial and intellectual desires riding through town in the back of a limousine in search of a haircut. After some preliminaries (when presented with the latest edition of GQ he cries out "Andrew's wearing my suit!"), he talks about his hip-hop moment of glory, the worst haircut he's ever had and what he's learned from working with Frida Giannini at Gucci…
Your character has two lifts in his huge apartment, one of which is soundtracked by hip-hop. Which rapper would you have in your lift?
Robert Pattinson: Definitely Ol' Dirty Bastard. The biopic looks amazing! That guy Michael K Williams as well - I was obsessed with The Wire for ages. The guy who is directing - Joaquín Baca-Asay, who is James Gray's director of photography - is amazing. All his movies look incredible.
How did you feel when Tinie Tempah shouted you out on Chase & Status' "Hitz"?
What? [delighted, bewildered] I haven't heard it. I keep hearing everyone talking about him but for some reason I never really got into British rap. I don't know why.
The line is "Like Rob Pattinson I make a lot of n****s jealous"
Wow. That's really cool, actually. That's amazing. I didn't realise I had that relevance [laughs]. I wonder what made him single me out?
We asked our Twitter followers to pose questions for you. One account "Robeardhottinson" asked 48 alone...
Not your typical GQ reader, I'd guess…
But she did ask about your worst haircut…
I did this movie about Salvador Dali a few years ago and had hair extensions and a little bob. That was incredibly bizarre. The extensions were temporary as well. I was trying to swim to somehow get in shape two days before we started shooting in this apartment complex in Barcelona. There were all these children everywhere… and I was this weird, pasty, hungover person with a girl's black bob, swimming in the pool with huge clumps of hair falling out. I had my whole body totally waxed as well because Dali didn't haven't any body hair. It was the most terrifying thing - this is terrible, but I saw the potential cannibal guy [Luka Magnotta] in the Sun today and I looked a bit like him.
Are sex scenes getting easier?
It's always a big thing. Juliette Binoche is one of my favourite actresses and within five minutes of meeting her on this we were pretending to have sex. Which wasn't in the script. With both sex scenes we were supposed to have finished sex before we did the scene. Both times David was just like, "Yeah, just have sex." That was a little awkward. I thought that Patricia McKenzie, who I did the other sex scene with, despised me up until that day on the set. We hadn't said a single word to each other apart from when I asked, "Where are you from?" and she literally looked me up and down. I was like, "I'm not trying to do anything - I don't have any idea!" Then on day of the sex scene she was like, "Hey how's it going?" I don't know what kind of preparation that was for this scene… but it definitely did something.
What TV do you never miss?
In America there is a channel called TruTV which is just reruns of Cops and World's Dumbest Criminals. I could watch that the entire day. Someone told me - I don't know if it's true - that David Simon watched tonnes of Cops to get the dialogue for The Wire. I was like, "I knew it…"
What has working with Frida and her team at Gucci taught you about tailoring?
That's funny, I've never had her singled out before - it's like it's a secret! She taught me one thing - you should definitely have good contacts at Gucci. They're absolutely amazing. The amount of times I've been stuck in some random city and have called her up and had things brought in at absolutely the last minute - it's crazy. But also all this stuff is custom-made. You can do quite crazy things [with colour] if you have incredibly classic, really well-made suits. I guess I've been quite boring for a while. I used to be more interesting with them. Now I always just request things two days before: "Can you send 25 suits?" I don't even know what I want to wear!
What's the strangest gift you've got from a fan?
It's funny: there are certain things that get picked up on really quickly. I quit smoking the other day and didn't even really realise that I'd said anything about it. I've been chewing these f***ing toothpicks all the time. Someone noticed in Cannes and literally the next day in Lisbon, then in Paris and in Berlin there were about 20 people on the red carpet giving me huge amounts of toothpicks. Thousands of them. I don't even remember saying it in an interview but I must have said it somewhere. That was kind of strange.
You are one of four individuals who consistently dominate internet discussion. Out of your rivals - Nicki Minaj, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga - who are you most fond of?
I really like Nicki Minaj. I think she's great. My favourite song? She's amazing in "Monster" with Kanye West. It's annoying that I'm part of this internet thing though - they all have Twitters and an online presence. How did I get part of this group? I didn't do anything. I'm trying to avoid it!
via GQ UK
Monday, November 28, 2011
Rob Pattinson Interview by Today (Singapore)
Check out this interview by Singapore's TODAY. There's two parts. One is in text form and the other in audio form.
I don't get the allure of Robert Pattinson. You heard me. And in possible danger of being mauled by almost every member of the female species, I admit that I've never understood the mass hysteria surrounding good ol' R-Putz, I mean, R-Pattz.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Rob Pattinson Interview with NZ Herald
The New Zealand Herald interviewed Rob recently. Check out the full interview below.
Robert Pattinson, the world’s most famous teen vampire, tells Michele Manelis and Cindy Pearlman why he is pleased to finally say goodbye to Edward Cullen and and his love for his new co-star.
The first time I met Robert Pattinson, a few months shy of the release of Twilight in 2008, he strolled into the lobby of the Beverly Hills hotel completely unnoticed. No one had the slightest notion that his character, the charismatic vampire Edward Cullen, would soon prevent him from sustaining any kind of normality come the release of the film. He said back then, "I still haven't decided if acting is going to be my career. I don't know if it's going to work out. Who knows if people will go and see this movie?"'
Friday, April 22, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
Rob Puts Hope in 'Cosmopolis'
Empire Magazine interviewed Rob recently, and he talks about his movies, including Cosmopolis.
Love him (teenage girls everywhere) or loathe him (their boyfriends), Robert "R.Pattz" Pattinson is apparently here to stay. With Water For Elephants out soon, he's gearing up to star in Cosmopolis for David Cronenberg. Yes, you read that right. Yes, this may mean that you have to start liking him. Here's what he had to say about his role.
"I'm just astonished that I've been cast. I'd read the script before and thought, 'Wow, this is insane. But insane and difficult.' And then, out of nowhere, my agent said, 'Do you want to do it?' I'd never thought about working with Cronenberg, but I've always loved his movies. It just never came into my head that there would ever be that opportunity.
"Y'know, there are so few auteurs left. The one thing that pisses me off about working in films is when you start a project and then, suddenly, two days before you start, there's a massive rewrite to make an R-rated movie into something that's PG-13, and it's a totally different story. As soon as that line's been crossed, you know you're not making a movie anymore. You're making a...a... fridge magnet. But with people like Cronenberg you know that, no matter what, there will be a movie at the end, and it will be solid and self-contained, and it's not made for any other reason than it being a movie."
Love him (teenage girls everywhere) or loathe him (their boyfriends), Robert "R.Pattz" Pattinson is apparently here to stay. With Water For Elephants out soon, he's gearing up to star in Cosmopolis for David Cronenberg. Yes, you read that right. Yes, this may mean that you have to start liking him. Here's what he had to say about his role.
"I'm just astonished that I've been cast. I'd read the script before and thought, 'Wow, this is insane. But insane and difficult.' And then, out of nowhere, my agent said, 'Do you want to do it?' I'd never thought about working with Cronenberg, but I've always loved his movies. It just never came into my head that there would ever be that opportunity.
"Y'know, there are so few auteurs left. The one thing that pisses me off about working in films is when you start a project and then, suddenly, two days before you start, there's a massive rewrite to make an R-rated movie into something that's PG-13, and it's a totally different story. As soon as that line's been crossed, you know you're not making a movie anymore. You're making a...a... fridge magnet. But with people like Cronenberg you know that, no matter what, there will be a movie at the end, and it will be solid and self-contained, and it's not made for any other reason than it being a movie."
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Rob in Vanity Fair US (April)
Rob is once again on the cover of Vanity Fair, this time with a four-foot long crocodile! Shot by Annie Leibovitz, it's an ode to the Lousiana setting of Breaking Dawn. Check out the full interview after the jump (it's long, and has a few F-word thrown around.)
Escape from the Twilight Zone
Forget the relationship with Kristen Stewart—Robert Pattinson has fallen hard for a pachyderm named Tai, one of his co-stars in this month’s Water for Elephants. That movie, with Reese Witherspoon as Pattinson’s on-screen love interest, gave him a professional break from the supernatural stylization of the five-part Twilight saga, but even on a remote Tennessee set he was besieged daily by crowds of his Twihard fans. Nancy Jo Sales finds the 24-year-old actor torn between gratitude for and despair about the fame that has engulfed him.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
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