NEW PICS: Robert Pattinson - "I want to do something which I feel (is) totally impossible for me to do"

NEW PICS: Robert Pattinson - "I want to do something which I feel (is) totally impossible for me to do"

New pics and another fun interview!

Some quotes will seem familiar. This was likely pulled from a roundtable conversation during the press junket in LA. 

Manila Bulletin: Robert Pattinson talks about being ‘homeless,’ ‘having no clothes’ and life after ‘Twilight’

Los Angeles – “I have literally not taken off this jacket in weeks,” the 28-year-old Robert Pattinson told us when we interviewed him for his latest movie, “The Rover.”

Wearing a simple blue jacket, shirt and pants, the “Twilight” superstar explained that somebody stole his clothes. “It doesn’t make any sense to me,” he said. “Did you ever see that episode of ‘South Park’ about these underpants gnomes that steal your underpants? I think I got it. So I just started wearing the same thing pretty much every day, like a uniform.”

He admitted that he has no idea where his clothes are. “I’m sure they’re in some kind of random storage box somewhere… I know that is totally ridiculous but I couldn’t find any of them.”

Since he has been making movies in diverse locations since “Twilight,” the British actor revealed that he calls LA home – at least, for now.

Curiously, however, Robert informed us that he sold his house in LA “I suddenly realized I am not quite old enough to be dealing with the plumbing and stuff.”

We asked him if he’s homeless and he said, “I am not quite. I spend about six months borrowing other people’s houses, which were nice.”

It’s been two years after all the insanity and craziness of “Twilight” and Robert shared, “It feels like it’s longer, to be honest… it’s all just been a gradual progression. I think, as you get older, like every movie you do you get a little bit more confident…”

He added, “I’m curious how people receive the new stuff I’m doing because it’s kind of, you know, I do quite abstract films. So I am curious how people who like ‘Twilight’ will come to see things like ‘The Rover.’ Hopefully, they’ll enjoy it.”

Asked whether it became a nice escape for him to be filming “Rover” in Australia without “Twilight” fans wandering around, Robert replied, “It was definitely a really nice escape… I loved it because not only were there no people trying to find you, there’s no one at all. So it’s just much easier to concentrate. So I found it incredibly peaceful and relaxing.”

Robert is also appearing in “Maps To The Stars.” He explained his role in the said movie, “My role (in it) is a kind of cipher for Bruce Wagner who wrote it and because he used to be a limo driver in LA. He wrote a lot of stuff and got many of his ideas from that so he is the one vaguely normal person in ‘Maps to the Stars’ but he’s kind of a little bit opportunistic. He is a wannabe actor and writer but probably not that talented. He’s like a hustler in LA.”

On choosing roles, Robert said, “50 percent is about being able to work with directors I admire. I think about that a lot but I find it more comfortable to do small roles if I am choosing something for its director. But if you are doing a lead, I try to do something, which I think will precipitate into my normal life.

“I want to do something which I feel (is) totally impossible for me to do. I think it will make me a bigger person in my real life afterwards. I kind of try to do that.”

Thanks Cersei!

INTERVIEW + NEW PIC: Robert Pattinson Talks To The Philippine Daily Inquirer At 'The Rover' LA Press Junket

INTERVIEW + NEW PIC: Robert Pattinson Talks To The Philippine Daily Inquirer At 'The Rover' LA Press Junket

At The Rover Press Junket in LA Rob spoke to The Philippine Daily Inquirer  about making music, walking around naked in Time Square (THAT I want to see), maybe doing a comedy at some point and lots more.
It's a good read, check out the interview below.

We also get a gorgeous new pic!

LOS ANGELES—“Don’t hate me ’cause I’m beautiful/ Don’t hate me ’cause I’m beautiful/ Now do the pretty girl rock, rock, rock.” Robert Pattinson singing along to Keri Hilson’s “Pretty Girl Rock” playing on the radio in his car, before a violent moment, is a rare humorous relief in David Michod’s “The Rover.” It prompted a question in a recent interview at LA’s Four Seasons on whether Robert plans to record an album anytime soon.

“I’m always trying to figure out how… but it’s quite difficult,” replied the actor, looking boyish with his short haircut, dark pants, black jacket over a brown shirt and white tee. Laughing, the 28-year-old Robert said, “I want to do it before I’m 30 because I think it gets slightly embarrassing after [that].”

Robert revealed that, originally, he was to sing along to The Pussycat Dolls’ “Don’t Cha.” (That would have been a hoot, too.) “But David e-mailed me that Keri Hilson song,” he said. “I thought it was a new song. I didn’t realize it had like 500 million (actually 48 million plus) views on YouTube.” (Kate: Thank God I wasn't the only one who thought that {blush})

He explained, “Initially, David was saying that he wanted me to sing it like it was my favorite song—loudly in the car. Luckily, it didn’t end up that way. That would have been a bit too random. But the song is perfect in the movie.”

Click HERE to read the rest

“There’s About 5 Actors Who Seem To Have A Lock On The Weirdos. I’ve Never Really Been Perceived To Be One Of Them — Up Until Now Maybe.” ~ Robert Pattinson On His Role In 'The Rover'

“There’s About 5 Actors Who Seem To Have A Lock On The Weirdos. I’ve Never Really Been Perceived To Be One Of Them — Up Until Now Maybe.” ~ Robert Pattinson On His Role In 'The Rover'

The Detriot News did a phone interview with Rob where he spoke about auditioning for Rey in The Rover, what David Michod got him find the right mindset, riding the Twilight wave and how he's lives a more balanced life.
Check out the interview below............

His name is Rey and he does not look, talk or act like anybody’s idea of a teen heartthrob.

His teeth are crooked and foul. His hair is a bad bowl-buzzcut. He’s dirty from head to toe, and when he manages to speak, he mumbles disjointed sentences, often repeating them for no good reason.

He certainly bears little resemblance to the world’s most handsome vampire, the perfectly coiffed, sparkly skinned Edward Cullen, hero of the “Twilight” franchise. And yet Rey, the train-wreck at the center of the post-apocalyptic manhunt “The Rover,” is indeed played by the usually dashing Robert Pattinson.

“I generally don’t get picked for these parts,” Pattinson admits on the phone from L.A. “There’s about five actors who seem to have a lock on the weirdos. I’ve never really been perceived to be one of them — up until now maybe.”

How badly did Pattinson want the part? He auditioned for it. Twice.

Continued After The Cut

Click HERE to read the rest

NEW: Robert Pattinson - "I like movies where you leave and you’re not supposed to know how you feel afterward, ever"

NEW: Robert Pattinson - "I like movies where you leave and you’re not supposed to know how you feel afterward, ever"  

Rob sat down with Salon and talked about The Rover, his career and choices, his English accent, and sooooo much more! Another great print interview with Rob :))

From Salon:

He’s been trying to shed Edward Cullen for years — and now he may finally have done it.

Robert Pattinson rose to megafame playing Cullen, a lovelorn vampire, in the “Twilight” series, but has in his off-dury hours been trying to become something more interesting than a leading man. After the period piece “Bel Ami” and the romantic dramas “Remember Me” and “Water for Elephants” didn’t connect, Pattinson has styled himself as a versatile supporting actor. In David Cronenberg’s “Cosmopolis,” Pattinson, perpetually picking up new visitors in his limousine, was nominally the lead but was willing to cede the role of most interesting person on-screen to just about anyone who crossed his path; in Cronenberg’s forthcoming “Maps to the Stars,” Pattinson plays the limo driver.

And in David Michôd’s new film “The Rover,” Pattinson makes his greatest departure yet, playing a mentally challenged vagrant who’s migrated to a post-apocalyptic Australia and finds himself on a quest to help Guy Pearce find his car. It’s the sort of role that at a different time of year, and in a tonier, more tasteful sort of film, ends up in Oscar conversations: Pattinson has mottled brown teeth and a thick Southern accent. If this sounds like a way for Pattinson to finally shed the constraints of his leading-man roles, it is — but it’s clear that Pattinson is having fun while doing it.

He seemed open and relaxed in his standard white T-shirt when we met at New York’s Bowery Hotel, where he chugged sparkling water between answers. He spoke freely about what’s next up — including James Gray’s “Lost City of Z” adaptation and “Life,” a James Dean biopic by Anton Corbijn. Spoiler alert: Pattinson is not playing Dean.

When you go for weeks at a time promoting something, are there questions you’re repeatedly asked that you’re tired of answering?

Well, I can never remember what I’m asked. But I kept getting asked about flies in the outback, because I’d mentioned one time in the very first interview I did, “Oh, there’s loads of flies there — it’s really crazy.” And when interviewers will ask you again, I’m like, “Surely, surely you’ve seen this. Yes, there are a lot of flies.” And they just keep asking. What do I say? “Oh, actually flies are amazing; it was the best part of all of it.”

I feel like there’s only so much you can say about flies.

Which is absolutely nothing.

So you started filming last year – take me through a little bit of your state of mind. You must have been feeling pretty free in some sense, now that the “Twilight” franchise is completely over.

I got the part about eight or nine months before we started shooting it. And then I was supposed to shoot another movie before I ended up doing it. And I did “Maps to the Stars” as well, just a little part. I was going to do another lead role and then it got pushed, so I’ve basically been thinking about this for so long that it kind of feels like I was almost working the whole time.

But yeah, I finished “Twilight” like, six or seven months before maybe. It’s strange, I mean, it’s kind of — it feels like it was such a long time ago because we finished shooting ages ago, like two or three years ago. But yeah, it is interesting – you’re kind of like, “Oh, this is actually what you’re branching out doing now, this is what your career is and it’s actually kind of looking like something.” Whereas when I did each of the movies in between the “Twilight” movies it kind of reset every time. Every “Twilight” was so huge that it just overshadowed everything.

In this film you’re, to a degree, supporting Guy Pearce, and your role in “Maps to the Stars” is small, too. Are you backing away from leading-man roles?

Yeah. Well, for this I just really loved the part but a lot of the movies I’ve done that haven’t really come out yet — actually, no, I guess I’m playing the lead in the Corbijn movie. But even if it’s a lead, it’s not like the flashy role. I mean, in the movie I’m doing with Corbijn, it has James Dean in it and I’m the guy who’s photographing him. But it’s not like a part where I’m hiding away, but you’re sharing the burden a lot of the time. Stuff that appeals to me as a lead is so specific, and I kind of want to work with these directors just to go to the school, and so if I’m doing 10 days in a Werner Herzog movie, I can basically do any part.

I think there was a perception out there with “Cosmopolis,” in particular, that you were kind of consciously choosing to really take a part that was radically different from your persona. Does that enter your mind when you’re choosing parts?

No, because it’s not like – no, not really at all. I did this movie called “Bel Ami” — I mean, I was really young when I decided to do it as well. But I was thinking of it as kind of meta – there was a subtext to it. Where you have basically an entirely female audience from “Twilight,” and you play a part of a guy who’s basically like cheating women out of money, like, exclusively cheating them. And I thought that was kind of funny. I don’t think anyone really noticed the meta context of it.

Do you pay attention to how things are received?

Yeah, I understand. I don’t really know why. Because you do end up just thinking like, it doesn’t really matter. I’ve never had the experience where I’ve really hated a movie and it suddenly got great reviews. Maybe that would change my mind. But if you like something, the reviews mean nothing. The only person it really matters to is the filmmaker.

For some reason I feel kind of responsible if something is … even if it’s not singling out me, if something gets a bad review then I feel bad because I haven’t really had a bad experience on a movie. So I want to do my best to elevate them.

To a certain degree — probably less so now — you’re so closely identified with “Twilight.” Does that make it more of a leap of faith for a director to cast you because of preconceptions people have?

It kind of remains to be seen. I know that there’s definitely some kind of baggage, but I guess if it brings people into the cinema, which I’m not entirely sure if it does, then — but I don’t know. I think you end up fighting for all the parts you want anyway. I guess as I’m going further and further away from “Twilight,” the perception slowly becomes something else. Because I haven’t really tried to hit the same market again. Maybe because I don’t really know how to.

When you look at directors you want to work with, is there a list?

It’s kind of a list. I’m basically trying to go to acting school and film school by working with the best possible teachers, and also people who I grew up watching their movies. There are a few people who I really, specifically want to work with because of the performances they get out of their actors. I kind of feel like there’s something in me which is in that kind of ballpark. Like James Gray — I just loved all the stuff he did with Joaquin. And also just talking to James for years, I like his ideas about performance. And people like [“Rust and Bone” director] Jacques Audiard and stuff. But then there are other people like Herzog and Cronenberg; I never even thought I would be in any realm of possibility of getting a part with them. And then you’re suddenly doing it, it’s almost ridiculous. I’ll kind of do any part in any of their movies and just try and figure it out.

The moment in “The Rover” when you’re sitting in the truck and you’re calmly singing a Keri Hilson song ["Pretty Girl Rock"] just before a really violent moment — how did you get in the mind-set for that scene in particular? How long did it take to put that together?

I thought that was just going to be like a little inset shot because it was just briefly mentioned he’s singing along to the radio. And it’s this minute and half long shot, it’s absolutely crazy. A lot of what I was trying to do with the character the whole time is just playing someone who — it’s like someone with crazy ADD is just stuck between two decisions, constantly. Do you know on old TVs when you press down on two channels at the same time and you’re kind of in between? It’s his biggest and most pensive, deep moment. And really at the same time, he’s kind of not really thinking anything. He’s thinking everything and nothing at the same time. He’s almost empty.

How do you get to that place as an actor?

I kind of realized that how I was approaching parts in a kind of cerebral way and trying to analyze stuff is probably not the best way to do it. If you approach it more like music, which — “Cosmopolis” is the first time I’d done something in a very highly stylized dialect and then just started to listen to the rhythm and the cadence of it. It suddenly freed up something. You’re not really thinking and it’s just performing.

And you can approach almost any part just to kind of make it feel nice, like to perform it and then you’re suddenly like, Oh, this is way easier than trying to preempt every possible perception from the audience, from the other actor, and blah, blah, blah. And you can actually have fun doing it.

You’ve now several times played an American. What, if anything, is different there?

I don’t know, I’ve never really thought of it as actually specifically playing an American. I guess there are little elements of it, like — no, you kind of approach it the same way. I mean, I feel extremely uncomfortable playing English people, though. Even if I’m doing an English accent, I don’t even know how to do my normal accent, it just suddenly goes into this weird acting voice. And so I get incredibly self-conscious about it! So when I’m doing an American, it feels more like you’re in a movie.

I gathered that your character in “The Rover” was mean to be from the Southern U.S.

Yeah, the sort of migrant, seasonal laborer. It’s just like all the Chinese people moving to Africa now, it’s kind of the same thing. The Western economy has collapsed so you sort of just go anywhere where there’s any work.

Did you, the director and Guy know more than we, the audience, explicitly know about how the civilization collapsed and everything? Did you work that out together?

I think David and Guy do. Because I was there for three weeks before we started shooting, and I kept trying to push David on it and he was so unwilling to tell me anything. And I guess it makes sense for my character to not know anything; he just followed his brother there.

But I think one of the things that I liked about it so much is that the script — there were two scenes, the dialogue-heavy scenes with me and Guy. There was so much detail in them but it’s detail that doesn’t really pertain to anything else in the story. And then placed in the context of almost no dialogue whatsoever. I liked when it was completely uncompromising to the audience, it’s like, “No, this is a fully realized character and you can either run with it or not.”

It’s putting a lot of trust in the audience, in a way.

And I don’t think a lot of people do that. I think with this, and with “Cosmopolis” as well, it’s one of those — I like movies where you leave and you’re not supposed to know how you feel afterward, ever.

Source

David Michôd talks Robert Pattinson: "He's obviously intelligent and really wonderfully emotionally available"

David Michôd talks Robert Pattinson: "He's obviously intelligent and really wonderfully emotionally available"

What a great read. GREAT read. Directors continue to have amazing things to say about Rob. His talent, his intelligence, his work ethic, his character....they are always praised above and beyond the typical praise.

David Michôd spoke to Twitch about The Rover and this is the excerpt about Rob.



Twitch Film:

TWITCH: In contrast, there is Pattinson's character, who I think is extraordinary in this film. Can you talk about bringing him into the role? How did you work with him on attenuating his performance, making sure it didn't get too broad?

MICHÔD: In a way, the answer to both questions is that Robert came in and tested for me and his tests were just extraordinary.

I, like everyone else, didn't know what he was capable of. Certainly his previous work didn't give you a clear indicator.

I met him before I even knew I was going to make The Rover, and there was something about him that I really liked. He's obviously intelligent and really wonderfully emotionally available.

When [Pattinson] came in to audition for me, he came in with a really beautifully defined and sophisticated reading of the character that seemed from the outset to avoid all of those possible moments of caricature that that character could so easily slip into.

How did Pattinson get hooked into the project?

I had a meeting with him maybe a year before I made the movie and it became immediately apparent to me in that meeting that he not only loved Animal Kingdom but had seen all of the shorts that I had made with my friends. He had beyond that a really eclectic, sophisticated interest in cinema. He was actively looking for interesting things to do and actively looking to meet interesting filmmakers.

Had he done any of his Cronenberg work when you first started working together?

Yes, I had seen Cosmopolis. I had even had a phone conversation with Cronenberg to see what working with Rob was like generally. [With] Cosmopolis, that is another character that is quite brooding and still in a way that's not similar to the stuff he does in Twilight. It didn't give me a clear indication that he could do the 180 degree shift that I was going to ask him to do on The Rover.

I always needed to see an audition. He was willing to do it because he knew that he wanted to play the character and that he needed to work hard to get it.

I love that whole notion of you as a director in Australia just calling up Cronenberg and asking him for advice. Is that a common thing? I picture some secret handshake between directors where you exchange private numbers.

I think in the world of filmmakers and generally those kinds of phone calls are reasonably easy to facilitate because they're reasonably important. I didn't want to ask David whether or not Rob was a good actor. I felt that I had seen that in the tests and long auditions that he had done for me. What I wanted to know was what he was like as a human being on set because those things can be important. David shared his experience which turned out to be much the same as mine, that he was delightful and hard-working.

LOVE LOVE LOVE. Can you imagine that awesome phone call between the Davids?? Click HERE to read the full interview!

Robert Pattinson Talks Supportive Fans 'The Rover' & More.........

Robert Pattinson Talks Supportive Fans 'The Rover' & More.........

This is a fantastic interview with Rob from The Boston Globe

Robert Pattinson is a changed man, literally, in David Michôd’s latest drama, “The Rover.” Gone are his perfect “Twilight” teeth and the floppy hair that helped the teen vampire franchise make billions at the box office. Gone is the brooding, leading-man stare that made its way into “Water for Elephants” and gave star power to David Cronenberg’s adaptation of Don DeLillo’s bleak “Cosmopolis.”

In “The Rover,” the post-apocalyptic tale of a man (Guy Pearce) on a desperate search for his car in the desolate Australian outback, Pattinson plays a troubled sidekick — a slow-thinking man with a Southern drawl, rotting teeth, and a violent streak.

The role, which adds moments of strange comic relief to the film, won Pattinson big accolades at the Cannes Film Festival. The actor, 28 and almost two years past “The Twilight Saga,” called the Globe to talk about “The Rover” hours before it had its Los Angeles premiere.

Q. I spent the day reading reviews of you in this movie. They use phrases like “inarguable skill.”
A. Wow.

Q. Do you read reviews?
A. Oh, yeah, definitely, but I only remember the bad ones.

Q. Have you always read reviews? Even during the “Twilight” years?
A. I never learn my lesson. I was sitting around earlier reading them and everyone’s like, “Stop it. You’ve got to keep doing press all day.”

Q. You must be loving all these “Rover” reviews. People keep using the word “transformative.”
A. It’s really the best I could have hoped to have happened. I’d already come to terms with it being completely not received well and everyone hating it, so everything is a bonus.

Q. How did you wind up in this film? I read an interview with your director [Michôd] where he talked about having a meeting with you. I was wondering which one of you was wooing the other.
A. I met him before the script was even around. I loved “Animal Kingdom” so much. I like quite aggressive filmmaking. He seems very ambitious, which is very different. When this script came around, it was one of the top five scripts I’ve ever read since I started acting.

Q. At what point was it decided that you were going to do a deep Southern accent in this film?

A. It said in the tiny description of the character that he was from the South, and that was basically the only thing it said about the character. Actually, Southern accents are quite fun to do anyway; you want to start saying the lines out loud. Generally, you want to start being analytical about a part, and with this, it was just immediately — you want to perform it.

Q. The accent seemed effortless.
A. For some reason, with regional and American accents, my ear’s quite good, it’s quite attuned to it. I can do regional American a lot better than I can do regional English. I don’t know why. I think just growing up on American movies — and from singing as well. I grew up listening to a lot of blues and stuff. It’s that kind of cadence.

Q. I want to talk about the wardrobe in this film – and the teeth. You looked believably filthy.
A. It’s massive to me, all the costumes and everything, especially shoes and stuff. However generic the wardrobe looks, like the jeans, we’d gone through hundreds of pairs of five-dollar jeans to find the right ones.

Q. Were you allowed to shower during this filming process?
A. Yeah, it doesn’t make any difference. The second you wake up in the morning, you’re already pouring sweat. [“The Rover” was shot in Australia.] It’s kind of nice because you don’t need to have the makeup touch-up every two seconds. You’re just covered in blood and grime.

Q. I wondered which was more difficult — to be in this kind of costume or to be in “Cosmopolis,” where you have to look perfect throughout the film.
A. I guess both of them. I remember waking up [during the shooting of] “Cosmopolis,” and my hair was stuck in the shape constantly. This [“Rover” look] is nice because you can sit around in a big pile of mud and just enjoy yourself.

Q. Speaking of “Cosmopolis,” David Cronenberg is being honored at the Provincetown Film Festival this weekend. You’ve now worked with him twice, in “Cosmopolis” and “Maps to the Stars.” If I get to interview him, what should I ask?
A. I would try to find the most random question about African politics or something and he’ll stun you with his encyclopedic knowledge of it. Or about 15th-century Czechoslovakian philosophy. He’ll be like, “Oh, as a matter of fact . . . ”

Q. According to the Internet, you’re in the running to play Indiana Jones. Is that just a Hollywood rumor or the real thing?
A. No, I think this story’s just made up. It’s like a, what is it called, a reverse psychology sound board where they say, “Oh, let’s write an article about how excited we are about him being cast as Indiana Jones and then everyone will say how much they hate him and how terrible an idea it is.”

Q. You have your big “Rover” premiere tonight. Will your “Twilight” fans still camp out to see you?
A. They’ve always been pretty supportive in every movie I’ve done; they’ve always created websites for the movie and stuff. I think everyone I work with is so stunned because they’re very proactive. That’s kind of great and always kind of shocking. Yeah, I’m curious about how people are going to interpret this one.

Q. You talk about liking ambitious directors. What’s the next ambitious move for you?
A. I just keep getting really lucky. I’m doing [“Idol’s Eye”] in October with [French director] Olivier Assayas and Robert De Niro, which is kind of a ridiculous thing. I met Olivier two years ago and he talked about this script. It’s crazy and I’m so excited about doing it. Things just seem to keep dropping in my lap at the perfect moment.

Q. Do you get any chance to read books — or is it all scripts now?
A. I just read the Andre Agassi autobiography, which I thought was amazing. I thought it was so great. I read this book by Steven Pinker called “How the Mind Works,” which is also one of the best books I’ve read in ages. It’s about evolutionary psychology. I didn’t understand any of it [laughing].

Q. I should ask what you’re wearing to the premiere tonight. Isn’t that what I’m supposed to ask?
A. Really, I’m actually staring right at it right now because I had to get it refitted because I’m a fatass at the moment. I think it’s Alexander McQueen.

Robert Pattinson: "I don’t quite know why I got so lucky but yeah, it’s just ridiculous and I’m pretty happy. Yeah, definitely pretty happy."

Robert Pattinson: "I don’t quite know why I got so lucky but yeah, it’s just ridiculous and I’m pretty happy. Yeah, definitely pretty happy."

Another great read! Rob seems quite open even without sharing beyond his comfort zone.

The Telegraph Robert Pattinson interview: "I don't need therapy"

He has millions of female fans, he lives in Los Angeles and paparazzi dog his footsteps wherever he goes; yet it would be difficult to find a young man less interested in embracing his stardom than Robert Pattinson. The 28-year-old actor refuses to go the Hollywood route of big houses, wardrobes full of designer clothes and roles that utilise his boyish good looks.

He has even rejected the idea of taking the near-obligatory therapy route followed by nearly every self-absorbed star in Hollywood, although he jokes: “I would love to go into therapy but it makes me too anxious.”

Then, more seriously, he adds: “I’ve been talking to a lot of people about it and I don’t know. I kind of like my anxiety in a funny sort of way and I like my peaks and troughs. Luckily depression never lasts long with me.”

We are talking in a Beverly Hills hotel suite about his new film The Rover, set in a post-apocalyptic Australian wasteland, in which he is totally unrecognisable as Ray, a twitchy, dirt-caked, slow-witted lost soul with rotting teeth. He joins forces with Eric (Guy Pearce), a man of few words who is on the trail of a gang of thieves who stole his only possession, his car. Ray is a role as far removed from the handsome Edward Cullen in the Twilight movies as Pattinson could get – which suits him fine.

For three years, Pattinson lived virtually non-stop with the adventures of the brooding vampire and his romance with the mortal schoolgirl Bella, played by Kristen Stewart. It was the role that, whether he likes it or not, made him one of the hottest and most in-demand young actors in the world. He caused an army of female fans to leave their families and homes to follow him to wherever he was filming.

“I had a bit of a struggle at first because my life really contracted and I couldn’t do a lot of the stuff I used to be able to do," he admits. "But once I got through that a year or two ago I just accepted my life is something else and now I can’t really remember what it was like before, So it’s much easier to deal with.

“It seems much longer ago than two years since the last Twilight came out and I think as you get older you get a bit more confident with every movie you do, so it’s been a gradual graduation to this.”

Pattinson's "graduation" has included a romantic melodrama (Remember Me), a period circus piece (Water for Elephants), a tale of the French nobility (Bel Ami) and playing an introspective Wall Street tycoon (Cosmopolis). He will soon be seen as T.E. Lawrence in the yet-to-be-released Nicole Kidman film Queen of the Desert and he is a wannabe actor and writer in David Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars which, like The Rover, was well-received at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

“I’m curious to know whether people who liked the Twilight movies will come and see things like The Rover,” he says. “Hopefully they’ll enjoy it. I try to do ambitious projects but I don’t know if people are going to like them. You just try and do things which are challenging and hopefully people will appreciate that.”

Although his name is regularly linked with big studio projects such as Star Wars and superhero movies (recent rumours had him cast as a young Han Solo in a Star Wars spin-off), he denies he has ever been offered them and is wary about becoming involved in another franchise. “They don’t come into my orbit and I don’t really see myself in a lot of mainstream parts,” he says. “I’ve never been part of the group that gets these roles.”

He particularly enjoyed working on the low-budget apocalyptic thriller The Rover because it was filmed entirely on location in the scorching heat of the Australian outback, where he existed on a diet of “white bread and barbecue sauce”, and where there were no fans or photographers to pester him. “I just loved it because not only was there no one trying to find you, there’s no one there at all. I wasn’t worrying about anyone trying to sneak up on me or anything so I found it incredibly peaceful and relaxing.”

To land the role he had to go through an arduous four-hour audition for writer-director David Michod, whose previous film was the well-reviewed Animal Kingdom. “For the first 45 minutes I had to deal with my own neuroses before I’d do any kind of acting and I think David recognised this and when I let myself calm down I was fine.”

Michod recalls: “We would do a take and Robert would go, ‘Oh I was so terrible.’ But he wasn’t terrible, he’s just very English and very self-deprecating. I knew within five minutes of our four hour audition I’d found the actor to play Ray.”

Pattinson’s global travels keep him away from his home in London, which he isn’t too sorry about. “I spent two months in England last year which is the longest I’ve spent there in six years, which was nice, but I always go back to England at Christmas time and get so depressed that I’m glad to get back to Los Angeles," he says. "I’ve really grown to like L.A and I guess it’s my home at the moment.”

His current home is other people’s houses. “I had this great house which I bought four or five years ago," he says. "It was incredible, absolutely completely crazy. It was like Versailles, with an incredible garden, but I just stayed in one room. I sold it because I suddenly realised I’m not quite old enough to be dealing with plumbing and stuff. So I spent about six months borrowing peoples’ houses, which was nice. Now I’m renting a place which is much smaller.”

Pattinson laughs easily and often and is much more relaxed and at ease than in the early days when he resembled a startled deer caught in the headlights. Despite the massive changes in his life in a relatively short time, he has kept his feet firmly on the ground. Although he appears in advertisements for Christian Dior, he is certainly no fashion plate; he lost nearly all his clothes following a recent house move and hasn't bothered to replace them. “I’ve started wearing the same thing pretty much every day like a uniform,” he says. “I haven’t taken this jacket off for weeks,” indicating the black, slightly moth-eaten jacket he is wearing that nevertheless looks good on him.

“It’s ridiculous. I don’t understand how I don’t have any clothes. I’ve basically stolen every item of clothing that anyone’s ever given me for a premiere but in my closet there are literally about three things. I’m sure there’s some kind of random storage box full of them somewhere.”

Working for Dior, he says with a chuckle, is “the most ridiculous job in the world. I have to do barely anything and I just occasionally have to go to some Dior parties, which is great.”

Pattinson was born in Barnes, West London, and joined the local theatre club as a teenager. He was spotted by a casting agent and made his screen debut in 2004 in a German television production; he was then bizarrely cast as Reese Witherspoon’s son in Vanity Fair, although his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor.

He achieved some recognition for his role as the brave but doomed Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and he had a brief flashback cameo in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. He had been torn between an acting career and going to university but the Harry Potter roles convinced him to stick with acting. He played a shell-shocked Second World War airman in a BBC Four production, The Haunted Airman, but then spent the best part of the next two years unemployed. His agent persuaded him to try his luck in Los Angeles so, armed with little but an English accent and a sense of humour, he did.

He was not sure whether he wanted the Twilight role when he was first offered it after auditioning by performing a love scene with the already-cast Kristen Stewart; she persuaded the director, Catherine Hardwicke, that he was the actor to play the troubled vampire Edward Cullen. “I’d read the book and couldn’t really picture myself in the role of this handsome, perfect guy,” he says. “I didn’t know how big it was going to be."

He was romantically involved with his co-star Stewart for three years but the romance ended when she reportedly had an affair with her Snow White and the Huntsman director Rupert Sanders. He is currently dating model Imogen Kerr although he politely declines to talk about his romantic life.

Reviewing how he arrived at where he is in life he uses a word which features frequently in his vocabulary – “ridiculous".

"I’m extremely lucky which always makes me a little nervous,” he says. “I don’t quite know why I got so lucky but yeah, it’s just ridiculous and I’m pretty happy. Yeah, definitely pretty happy.”

'It was quite interesting playing someone who has basically zero faith in himself' ~ Robert Pattinson Talks Rey In 'The Rover' To Reuters

'It was quite interesting playing someone who has basically zero faith in himself' ~ Robert Pattinson Talks Rey In 'The Rover' To Reuters
 
Rob says how it was interesting talking about his character Rey, David Michod calls 'The Rover' a dark fable & Guy Pearce talks about how his character Eric is like a wounded animal in an interview with Reuters.

After winning over critics with the complex, dark family drama "Animal Kingdom" for his directorial debut, director David Michod wanted to pare things back to tell a simpler story about survival in his next film.

"The Rover," out in U.S. theaters on Friday, follows a lone character, Eric, who has his car stolen and embarks on a journey to recover it, handling threats and obstacles along the way.

Australian director Michod created a stark, stripped down, decaying setting in the outback of his native country and said he was inspired by his "despair" at the world today.

"I felt like I was literally making a movie that was set in a strange, dangerous and inhospitable version of the present day," the director said.

And yet, Michod said he still wanted to feature some hope for Eric, played by Guy Pearce, who finds it in an unlikely friendship with Rey, played by Robert Pattinson. Rey, an American petty criminal left for dead, is rescued by Eric and forms a bond with the introverted man, who takes him on a journey to recover his car and reunite Rey with his brother.

Pattinson delivers a performance in "The Rover" that takes him a world away from the brooding teenage vampire that rocketed him to fame in the "Twilight" film franchise.

The British actor transformed himself to play the dim-witted young Rey by adopting a jolted southern accent accompanied by twitches, tics and blank stares.

"It was quite interesting playing someone who has basically zero faith in himself," the actor said. "As soon as he starts opening his mouth, he'll either start almost questioning his own sentence as it's coming out of his mouth, and then trying to hide away from it."

The talkative Rey poses a sharp contrast to Eric, whom Pearce described as "a wounded animal," a product of surviving the harsh landscape of a decaying world, who spends much of the film in silence.

"I really enjoy working without necessarily relying on words and talking," the actor said. "The story you're to be telling is totally possible without actually having to say anything and then when you do speak, it really is more effective."

Michod said the biggest challenges he faced on "The Rover," made for about $12 million and distributed by A24 films, were related to the isolated, hot outback they filmed in, and in particular, a car chase sequence that he called "draining."

Despite the dark nature of the film that Michod compares to a dark fable, he hoped the end result is more optimistic for audiences.

"This movie is about how even in incredibly violent and challenging circumstances, people still have a basic need to try and find intimate connection with other human beings, so I like to think about this movie as a movie about love," he said.

Source

NEW STILLS + Robert Pattinson talks about his career & MORE - "I don't know if I'm any good at sculpting a career, but I know what I want to do."

NEW STILLS + Robert Pattinson talks about his career & MORE - "I don't know if I'm any good at sculpting a career, but I know what I want to do."

UPDATE: 2 more print interviews under the cut! Love what the HuffPo interviewer said about the Pretty Girl Rock scene. If you watched our press con videos and heard our questions/comments, you KNOW we take issue with how the scene is being reported. I'm soulmates with the HuffPo interviewer. And Rob of course. ;)
The second interviewer has some cool quotes about Rob's full body acting with Rey's look and more!

These gems almost got away from us! They came out during the premiere and FeistyAngel gave us the heads up about the new stills found in The Short List magazine, an extension of the Sydney Morning Herald.

Not only do we get these fantastic stills of Rob from The Rover but the interview is really good too. He talks about Life and why he wanted to play Dennis Stock. Idol's Eye and The Childhood of a Leader get a mention too, the latter said to film in September.






Check out a few more print interviews under the cut! Good bathroom material LOL

Click HERE to read the rest

Robert Pattinson: "I’d quite like to do a comedy at some point"; "I’m doing another ad for [Dior] soon"; & MORE!

Robert Pattinson: "I’d quite like to do a comedy at some point"; "I’m doing another ad for [Dior] soon"; & MORE!

UPDATE: The Detroit News Robert Pattinson gets down and dirty in 'The Rover'
His name is Rey and he does not look, talk or act like anybody’s idea of a teen heartthrob.

His teeth are crooked and foul. His hair is a bad bowl-buzzcut. He’s dirty from head to toe, and when he manages to speak, he mumbles disjointed sentences, often repeating them for no good reason.

He certainly bears little resemblance to the world’s most handsome vampire, the perfectly coiffed, sparkly skinned Edward Cullen, hero of the “Twilight” franchise. And yet Rey, the train-wreck at the center of the post-apocalyptic manhunt “The Rover,” is indeed played by the usually dashing Robert Pattinson.

“I generally don’t get picked for these parts,” Pattinson admits on the phone from L.A. “There’s about five actors who seem to have a lock on the weirdos. I’ve never really been perceived to be one of them — up until now maybe.”

How badly did Pattinson want the part? He auditioned for it. Twice.

Understand, this is a guy whose last movie, “Breaking Dawn — Part 2,” earned $829 million worldwide.

But he understood the need for an audition.

“Well, it’s very different from who I am, personally. There’s no way of really proving that I could have done it by just talking about it,” he says. “It would have been a giant leap of faith.”

Pattinson, 28, saw the jittery, perpetually insecure Rey as a literal underdog.

“In a pack of dogs there’s always one who will completely accept the beta position,” he says.

To help him find the right mindset, director David Michod had Pattinson watch the documentary “Bully,” which follows the lives of kids who are constantly picked on. The actor understood right away.

“People have been accusing you of having something wrong with you for so long that you believe it,” he says. “No one’s expecting anything from you, you stop thinking, you’re a dependent. You don’t have any choice. Really, the only thing he feels is fear of everything.”

It helped that co-star Guy Pearce happens to be a fairly imposing presence.

“Guy’s just got this constant pressure on you in a scene. And he’s got such a singular focus that you kind of end up just falling to pieces,” Pattinson says. “It’s like you’ve got a laser beam on you.”

Pattinson certainly has experience with bright lights. Born and raised in London, he started working in amateur theater at age 15. An agent spotted him there and by 2005 he had landed a small part in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.”

By 2008 he’d been chosen to play Edward Cullen in the “Twilight” series. Five movies and countless magazine and tabloid covers later, the franchise concluded last year with “Breaking Dawn — Part 2,” having earned more than $3.3 billion.

Pattinson has learned to adapt to the spotlight over the years, and he even ventures out into public on occasion these days.

“You sort of weigh up what you want your day to be. If you say my friends are going to a movie or whatever and if you go you’re probably going to get a bunch of photographs taken of you,” he says. “Sometimes you’re cool with it, other times I don’t want to be bothered to deal with the stress of it. But I’ve definitely figured out a more balanced way to live than four years ago.”

Along with celebrity, “Twilight” brought Pattinson high visibility within the film world, and he’s been working with some of the most respected people around. He did “Cosmopolis” with director David Cronenberg in 2012 and stars in Cronenberg’s upcoming “Maps to the Stars.” He’s playing T.E. Lawrence in director Werner Herzog’s “Queen of the Desert,” alongside Nicole Kidman and James Franco, and has “Idol’s Eye,” with Robert De Niro and Rachel Weisz, coming up.

Pattinson says “Twilight” probably gave him a boost with his peers, but he’s not sure how much of one. “Within the industry, lots of people I work with, none of them have seen ‘Twilight’ — but then Werner Herzog loves ‘Twilight’!” he says. “I think it’s helped me out in a lot of ways. You have to kind of figure out how to ride the wave afterward.”

And he wants to keep riding that wave, chasing the acting high.

“I guess I was a relatively shy person when I was younger. I still am kind of. It’s nice to challenge yourself, especially in big emotional scenes with a part you’re not capable of doing. To be able to challenge yourself in that way, it’s quite exhilarating,” Pattinson says.

“Especially when it goes right,” he adds. “It could be the worst thing ever.”

The Star Online Robert Pattinson steps out of Edward Cullen’s shadow.

Welcome back Robert Pattinson.

After the end of the Twilight saga, in which Pattinson played the beloved vampire Edward Cullen, the actor seemed lost.

What to do next?

His financial manager believed buying a US$6mil (RM19.4mil) mansion in Beverly Hills would be a wise investment. After all, he had all the money he could ever want ...

Meanwhile acting offers poured in, but the choices he made were none too wise. Then there was that split from the love of his life Kristen Stewart. How could she have cheated on him with her married director (Rupert Sanders who helmed Snow White And The Hunstman)!

But that was then.

Now, suddenly Pattinson’s career is in overdrive. He stars in two films that were the talk of the recent Cannes Film Festival: David Cronenberg’s corrosive Maps Of The Stars and David Michod’s dystopian The Rover.

But that’s the least of his life changes.

No longer cloistered in a four-bedroom mansion, Pattinson now lives a solitary life. He still keeps in touch with his Twilight co-stars, such as Kellan Lutz, with whom he loses money playing poker.

But he’s the first to concede: money doesn’t consume him.

No longer a homeowner, he now lives in a rental (but still in a posh gated community in Beverly Hills.). He sleeps on an inflatable mattress moving from room to room, no furniture to speak of. He’s mislaid much of his possessions including his wardrobe and his DVD collection.

At a recent press conference in Beverly Hills for The Rover, he’s as unassuming as he always was.

I remember once asking him about being fired on opening night at London‘s prestigious Royal Court Theatre.

 Instead of showing mild embarrassment he responded: “It was the best thing that could have happened to me and a good lesson.”

After a small but significant role in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, flew to Los Angeles with his agent’s blessing. Things didn’t go well at auditions, even the one for Twilight, but author Stephenie Meyer saw something there.

At 21 he might be a little old for the part, she thought, but she gave him just the advice he needed.

“Shave twice,” Meyer told the heavily bearded young man, and of course the rest is history

You shot The Rover in Australia. How’s it like roughing it out for a change?

I liked Australia. I had only been to Sydney just to do press before. Working in the Outback was a totally different world, but I loved it out there. It was beautiful, kind of serene being able to see the horizon. There’s just absolutely nothing for miles, hundreds of miles. Not only were there no people trying to find you, there was no one there at all so it was much easier to concentrate on your performance and not have to worry about someone trying to sneak up on you. I found it incredibly peaceful and relaxing.

What was it like working with David Michod and Guy Pearce?

I had done the audition with David a long time before we started shooting. We went through tons of different incarnations of my character. There was one point where I wanted to have the tops of my ears snipped off because I had seen pictures of thieves in the Wild West and they used to do that to thieves. We talked for months before, so I was pretty comfortable.

And then when Guy came on – I only met him about a week before we started shooting – I got on with him really well. He’s the type of actor who doesn’t have any acting crutches to fall back on. He creates something new every time, and it allows for anxiety, something I’m familiar with, so we were like equals when we were performing.

Have you located your missing clothes and DVDs?

I’m sure they’re in some random storage box somewhere. The other day I was trying to find my Teen Choice Awards to display them in the corridor of my house, a glory corridor to make people feel intimidated as they walk in, but I couldn’t find them.

You are the face of Dior Homme fragrance. Dior can probably help you out with some clothes?

I never really saw myself doing an endorsement deal. I met a few people who work for Dior and I just really liked them. It sounded cool to do the job and I wanted to work with Romain Gavras (who directed the Dior Homme commercial).

Dior is a great label. It’s something good to be associated with, but I barely do anything for them. Occasionally I have to go to some Dior parties, which is great. I’m doing another ad for them soon and I’m strangely excited about that.

You are rumoured to play Han Solo in the reboot of Star Wars. Is that true?

I’m always a little bit wary of stepping into the shoes of an already established character. It’s scary, especially doing something like that where there are so many expectations before you even start doing the job. It’s a massive undertaking it’s nothing like doing an indie for two months.

So is it happening?

I haven’t been approached by anyone, but I’m open to absolutely everything.

What kind of stories appeal to you?

I don’t really look at films as stories. It’s really just about character. I never really look at a script as a whole.

This movie I’m doing with Olivier Assayas at the end of the year, it’s a big ensemble thing, but my focus is on my character. There is something specific about him. It’s an interesting take on a criminal’s psychology.

So I never really look at a script as a story, not even in terms of genre. But having said that, I’d quite like to do a comedy at some point, but I’m not really seeking stuff out.

What does the future hold for you?

I want to keep doing exciting, ambitious projects. You try and do things which are challenging, and hopefully people will appreciate that.

Guy Pearce talks about Robert Pattinson: "This guy is going to have just the most incredible career"

Guy Pearce talks about Robert Pattinson: "This guy is going to have just the most incredible career"


Excerpt from Den of Geek:

Were you guys uncomfortable during the shoot and did you want to be, to help get into the spirit of the film?

Well, there is a certain level of uncomfortability that's necessary obviously because you're out there in the heat and it's dusty, but I find it awe inspiring as well because that landscape is incredible. You feel like you're just away from everything. You're away from all the noise of the city and all those things that you sort of live your life by these days, iPads and iPhones and all the i's, you know, all that stuff slowly didn't work the further north we got. The phones didn't work and then we sort of lost Internet connection. So it's sort of tough but it's equally kind of inspiring because you're aware of it being put down on film and it being part of this film that you're making. Every kind of difficult and fascinating location we got to, you would just think, "Oh wow, this is going to be incredible on film." We had pretty hot weather but we had breaks in the weather too occasionally, like it would rain and cool down for a bit so we kind of felt like we were okay. I mean it was pretty brutal and pretty hot a lot of the time, and I know it was hot for Rob because he wasn't so used to it. I've done a couple of films in the desert now. I love it out there.

How was it working with Rob? His fame maybe has overshadowed his talent to some degree.

Well, I mean, that performance that you see him deliver in the film -- I detected that on the first or second day or whenever I went to set and watched him work, I was like, "Wow this is going to be great." I mean, Rob is a pretty quietly spoken guy. I think it is difficult for him dealing with all of the publicity that he gets and all that sort of stuff and so he just sort of wants to get out of the way and not get hassled. You don't get too much of a sense of who he is and then he starts performing and you just think, "Wow, this kid's incredible." And you think about the popularity that he has and how amazing he looks, and you couple that with that talent and you think, "Wow, this guy is going to have just the most incredible career." He has an amazing career already, but for him to now be able to just string together one more interesting role after another I think will be fantastic.

He was great to work with. He was so relieved to be out there and not be hassled by paparazzi and press and fans and stuff that he had a really great time. We didn't really know each other very well, in fact we didn't know each other at all and just slowly got to know each other through the course of the film, which was good because we're not meant to know each other at the beginning anyway. We all just sort of slipped into it kind of nicely. There was a nice respect for David and for the movie he was making and for each other, and the characters we were playing. I think what was interesting was once I started to realize what that dynamic between us was going to be -- I got it on the page on an intellectual level, but once I started to see what Rob was doing and how needy and vulnerable the character was, then I really knew what was going to work as far as what I offered up and what I delivered with him. It's always interesting when you are reading relationships in a script, the transition between that and the actual doing of it, once you start meeting actors. Something can go wrong and another actor would be horrible or they could think you're horrible and you just think this is going to be really difficult. But then other times you just go wow, this whole thing is opening up now. Now I get it so it's interesting.

Robert Pattinson: "It is nice to look at my resume now. I’d be jealous of me if I wasn’t me."

Robert Pattinson: "It is nice to look at my resume now. I’d be jealous of me if I wasn’t me."

Rob talked to the Chicago Sun Times about The Rover and had a fun Q&A interview:

A steak in his heart: Robert Pattinson yearns for Chicago beef 

Maybe it’s a nod to his former vampire alter ego, but Robert Pattinson wants blood.

“I was having a dream the other night about a Chicago steak,” the actor said Tuesday. “I had one on the first ‘Twilight’ tour, and certain things just stick in your mind. Maybe it’s my inner vampire coming out again.”

With a trademark laugh, Pattinson knows he will get his wish. He will film the gangster movie “Idol’s Eye” with Robert De Niro in Chicago in October. “I love Chicago,” he says. “It’s one of those cities where I can walk around and people are really kind. They respect that there are times I need a little silence.”

He also found that silence working in the Australian Outback for his new movie “The Rover” (opening Friday), where Pattinson plays Ray, a young man on a mission to survive a wild desert trip and killing spree with another drifter played by Guy Pierce.

Q. What was it like filming in the Outback?

A: I really love the desert because you can be alone, which is very nice. I could just wander off a bit and no one cared because there wasn’t a single soul for thousands of miles. Most of the towns where we filmed had one street. The other cool thing is that when I was mobbed, it was by a bunch of kangaroos who lived there or the wild camels. I respect these people who are out there, too, living off the grid. It was perfect for me to be a bit off the grid where I didn’t have to look over my shoulder. No one was taking a picture of me doing something stupid.

Q. You’ve said that you had to audition for Rey in “The Rover.” Really? After starring in that big franchise?

A: One hundred percent I have to audition unless I’m playing something in my wheelhouse. If I’m doing a vampire thing, they better hire me. You’ve seen my vampire act.

Q. You’ve had quite a few years with your life splashed out in the tabloids. How do you keep it together and not develop an attitude?

A: I really don’t know how I do it. It’s weird. I went through a period where I was a bit more stressed. Once I got through that period of time, I just figured that your life contracts a little bit when you get famous. Yes, I was frustrated about not doing the things I used to do, like walking around anonymously. But you get used to it. In the end, I just let it all go and have accepted that it’s a different kind of life.

Q. You have films coming up from David Cronenberg [“Maps to the Stars” this fall] and Werner Herzog, plus the De Niro movie. Have you shaken Edward Cullen from “Twilight” off for good?

A: I’m constantly surprised that I’ve been able to have a career post-”Twilight.” I still think it’s going to end at any second. I always figured anything else after “Twilight” was just a bonus. ... It is nice to look at my resume now. I’d be jealous of me if I wasn’t me.

Q. Finally ... you’re a steak guy and not a Chicago pizza type?

A. Let’s clear this up. I’m 100 percent a Chicago pizza guy, but when you’ve been dreaming of a good steak, you need to start with a knife and a fork in your hands — and some good steak sauce.

NEW: Another great interview with Robert Pattinson - "I want people to like me"

NEW: Another great interview with Robert Pattinson - "I want people to like me"



Buzzfeed Robert Pattinson Is Putting “Twilight” Behind Him

In The Rover’s bleak universe, there is virtually no backstory — illustrative of a world in which nothing really matters — and we know little about Robert Pattinson’s Rey other than that he and his older brother (Scoot McNairy) are in a small band of thugs who were violently thwarted during a criminal act we don’t see. An injured Rey has been abandoned for expedience’s sake, which is how he becomes a hostage to Eric (Guy Pearce), whose car has been stolen by Rey’s former friends. (Eric really wants that car back, for a reason that is revealed only in the movie’s final moments.) As Rey, Pattinson plays a “half-wit,” as Eric calls him, a far cry from Twilight’s Edward Cullen, the emo vampire who served as a tweenage fantasy.

The Rover is David Michôd’s second feature as a director, following up on 2010’s lauded, provocative Animal Kingdom. And though it takes place in Australia, where Michôd is from, Rey and his brother inexplicably have American Southern accents. It’s good for Pattinson to sound nothing like Edward, the character that made him famous. Rey starts out fearful — in one scene he folds himself into a fetal position. But he also changes as the movie goes on (to describe would be to spoil). In Variety, Scott Foundas called it a “career-redefining performance” for Pattinson.

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.

You were wearing the same thing the entire time.

RP: I don’t even think they had doubles of the clothes. It took a long time. We went through hundreds of pairs of jeans. It was mainly about the feel — the way the costume department distressed them. We literally put glue in it to make them sit a certain way. They were, like, thick. But I just kind of knew how I wanted to feel. Also, the T-shirt, I knew from the audition exactly what T-shirt I wanted to wear. The colors and everything.

I want to ask about the scene when you sing along with “Pretty Girl Rock.” It’s out of nowhere, and lovely.

RP: When I got to that part in the script, that was one of the main turning points: Wow, this is completely on another level to most things I’m reading. And so brave as well — doing something that could be completely baffling to people. I thought it was going to be a tiny insert, and when I walked in to do the scene, David’s got this massive push-in on a track that’s like a 100-foot-long track. And just pushing in for almost the entire song. It was kind of great.

It was a sweet moment — you really feel for the character who’s never lived a different kind of life.

RP: He’s never really learned how to think like a normal person. He has no concept of what his decisions will affect, because no decision he’s ever made has ever affected anything before.

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.

A lot of are actors go back and forth between big studio movies and smaller indies. But since Twilight, you seem like you’ve avoided studio films. Is that deliberate?

RP: It hasn’t really come up. Maybe there was a little period after the first Twilight where just because you’re the new thing, you get offered a bunch of big budget things. And nothing really connected with me. But I think my energy and also how people perceive me — I don’t fit too many roles like that. I never played team sports in school, and I think people can tell! As I get older, the parts become a little bit more open. But the young guy parts in big budget movies, you can always tell the guy has played team sports. I hated them.

I was going to ask you whether you feel Twilight has held you back, but now I think I should ask whether or not playing team sports has.

RP: It’s just weird. I think I just gravitate toward loner parts. I feel my emotional reactions to things are quite off a little bit. I remember doing Twilight and Catherine Hardwicke just being, like, “Why are you looking at her like that? You look like you want to kill her.” I’m, like, “I do? That’s, like, a love look!” I try to do things with Cosmopolis and this — it’s an emotional spectrum that’s slightly off. I feel like I can commit to that a little bit more than hit the traditional beats.

You seem very director-focused in your choices.

RP: You try and limit the margin for error as much as you can. Even if you end up doing a shitty movie, but you’ve been working with Herzog or something, you’re not doing a superhero movie that’s supposed to be something completely different. And then if you make a shitty superhero movie, it’s like, what do you expect?

Did you just say that the Werner Herzog movie you’re in, playing T.E. Lawrence, is shitty?

RP: No, not at all! I’m hardly in it anyway.

Oh, is that right? I couldn’t tell.

RP: I was only there for like 10 days. No, I think it’s going to be cool. I saw some of the stuff with Franco and Nicole Kidman that looked really good. It’s insurance. With Michôd, I wanted to work with him for ages. I thought Animal Kingdom was one of the best debuts in the last 10 years.

You have a bunch of movies coming up, but one that jumped out at me was Life, the story of James Dean and Dennis Stock, the photographer. A lot of the parts you’ve taken since Twilight seem to have nothing to do with your life experience — but the idea of photography and a young star does intersect.

RP: It’s funny, I didn’t think about that. What I liked about it was that it was about professional jealousy. It was before James Dean was famous, but obviously he loved having his photo taken. Both of them were super arrogant, and they both think they’re the artist. Dennis was so filled with neuroses and jealous of everything. I didn’t really think about the celebrity aspect of it. I don’t think Dennis ever thought about it. Also, I think afterward, he was pissed that that was his legacy.

I read an interview with you recently in which you said you weren’t sure whether you’ve found your feet yet as an actor. Do you think you ever will?

RP: I don’t know. In some ways, hopefully not. The only thing I deal with every single job is trying to overcome confidence issues. I think in some ways, it’s helped me just having fallen into it, and not really being, like, I need this. That’s when you go crazy and you lose control of your personal life. In some ways, it is very frustrating when I’ll know how to do something in my head, and something inhibits it. It just drives me nuts. I think it’s good when there’s no expectations of the character. And then I’m fine.

What do you do when you find you can’t do something?

RP: It’s just, like, horrible. There was one moment when I was doing Life. I knew exactly how to do this scene. I’d been planning the whole scene for the whole movie. And it just, for whatever reason, it was just not happening. And no one else knows. I’m just, like, losing my mind on the set. Everyone’s so uncomfortable. Also, with a little bit of experience you realize, OK, I’m just going to not let anyone else speak, and deliver each line in about 10 different ways. And hopefully they’ll fix it in the edit! Can you just make my performance for me?

Is it frustrating?

RP: It’s the most horrible thing ever. Especially because most of the time, especially in big emotional scenes, it’s just because you feel like you’re faking it. And you know how not to fake it, but it’s not happening in your body. And there’s nothing you can do. At the end of the day, people watching it half the time can’t tell at all. Or 90% of the time, you can watch a scene you think is the worst scene ever and you’re completely faking it — and no one knows.

I recently reread that Vanity Fair cover story about you from 2011 during which your life seemed pretty unlivable because of the paparazzi. Have things improved at all?

RP: I remember doing that interview, and I thought I was, like, telling jokes. Then the interview comes out and it sounds like I’m about to kill myself.

Oh! Part of it was her commenting on what she observed about what your life was like.

RP: I was, like, How have you observed this? We just sat in someone’s house. Whatever. I guess from an outside perspective, there’s a period of contraction in your life where you have to get used to what feels like your life becoming impossibly smaller. But that was about four years ago. I felt a little funny then. But you realize what you like doing, and suddenly it becomes easier. Some people get OK getting photographed doing their groceries or going out of whatever. I realized I cannot handle that at all. And so, I just don’t go to places where I get photographed. And as soon as I made that decision — don’t worry about it, stop complaining about it — it was a massive weight taken off.

So, there are ways to live your life not being photographed?

RP: Yeah. 100%.

Even here in L.A.?

RP: There are a very limited amount of places you can go. If you go to The Grove, you’ve got to accept something is going to happen.

You can’t go to the Apple Store at The Grove.

RP: I miss that place. Watching the fountains!

So, you like living in Los Angeles? I mean, you could live wherever you want.

RP: I always thought I was going to move back to London, but London’s changed so much since I left. A lot of my friends have left and stuff, or they have families. It’s different. Also, my main interest in my life at the moment is film, and this is the best place to be for film. Also, I like the kind of levity of living here as well. People want to get stuff done — they’re not downers all the time. In a lot of big cities, most people are just, like, Oh, god, it’s impossible. People aren’t like that in L.A. And I really like it.

In that Vanity Fair interview, you said you admired Charlie Sheen —

RP: I did?

I’m sure it was very of the moment! You said you liked that he was a crazy person who doesn’t give a fuck. And in The Hollywood Reporter recently, you talked about being a fan of Harmony Korine’s for what I imagine are the same reasons. Could you not give a fuck if you tried?

RP: I do, in a way. But I don’t want people to hate me. I basically do whatever I want. But one of the aspects of what I want is, I want people to like me!


Merci Cersei! xoxox

Robert Pattinson talks 'Uglifying' and Singing and more in a Yahoo Movies Q&A

YahooMovies Q&A: Robert Pattinson on Escaping Twi-Hard Expectations and Dodging the Paparazzi 

The Twilight movies were clearly a huge blessing for Robert Pattinson, but also somewhat of a curse: The 28-year-old Brit has been working overtime to break out of the pin-up mold, gravitating toward edgy indies like David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis and this week’s The Rover, directed by Animal Kingdom filmmaker David Michôd. The sometimes brutally violent film features Pattinson as a left-for-dead “half-wit” who joins a vengeful Guy Pearce’s as they travel across a rural, post-apocalyptic Australia. The very candid Pattinson talked to us about getting down-and-dirty for the role, his strategy for keeping photographers away, and what artist has reignited his love for hip-hop.

Let’s talk about your look in this film. People have said you “uglified” yourself for the role.
The one weird thing [I had] was the teeth. I thought everyone was going to have s—-ty teeth in it. Then I end up being the only person in it with s—-ty teeth in it [laughs]. But I kind of liked the idea of it, because I went to school with people who didn’t brush their teeth when they were kids, and they always ended up being weirdos.

What did you do to get those nasty teeth?
It’s like paint, and whenever there was a long scene, it would wipe off my teeth. So I would end up with white teeth at the end of the scene, which eventually became a massive hassle. But it was still kind of cool. It was such an odd look when you turn around and see yourself [in the mirror] and there’s this weird thing coming out of your face.

Did you go out in public much to get reactions, or even just to get in character?
Yeah, [but] there was nowhere to go, really. It’s funny: Whenever you have your head shaved, less people come up to you and ask for pictures [laughs]. That’s why I always try to keep my hair really short.

They’re like, “No, no, I don’t want that Robert Pattinson.”
Exactly. “I want the sexy one!”

You very memorable sing along to the Keri Hilson song "Pretty Girls Rock" in this film. Did you have any hand in picking that track?
I do kind of really like that song. I didn’t realize how massive a song it was. I had never heard it before. David emailed it to me and I was like, “Wow, where did you find this?” I thought it was an original track, or a really small thing that he’d found somewhere. But I thought it was kind of perfect for it. As soon as he played it, I was like, “That’s hilarious.”

What’s your relationship with pop music? Are you a fan?
I guess I don’t listen to that much pop music. I listen to almost exclusively hip-hop, especially in L.A. I listen to Shade 45 on Sirius.

What are your jams?
I’m kind of obsessed with Tyga at the moment. I don’t know why, I’ve suddenly had this resurgence of hip-hop. I didn’t listen to it for years, and now I’m obsessed. When I was in school, from like 1997 to 2003, I was really, really into hip-hop. All of my favorite songs are from then. But there’s a couple of new people; I actually really like Chris Brown’s stuff [laughs].

Amy Nicholson, the critic from LA Weekly, wrote of The Rover, “Pattinson appears to have picked this role precisely because it will send his Twilight fans screaming out of the theater.” Any truth to that?
No, I don’t want anyone running out of the theater! I want everyone coming into the theater [laughs]. It’s kind of curious how people interpret it. There’s an element of wanting to see [my Rover character] in a sympathetic way, because of Twilight. But I wasn’t trying to play it sympathetically at all. [laughs] I mean, he kills people. And he’s not quite there.

So clearly critics as well as your fans are making this connection from “A” to “B” but that’s not something you ever think about?
Yeah. I mean a lot of people take away completely different things. I never really try to predict how people are going to react to something. Because I have no idea. I’ve approached every movie thinking like, “I’m going to do the best thing ever.” [laughs] And then regardless of what critics or an audience or anybody says afterwards, I either like it or I don’t —that’s the only thing I care about.

Is there any part of you that misses the sheer madness that accompanied the Twilight series?
Um….when you’re doing the movies, it’s the same thing. I’ve realized how much I loved shooting way outside of the city, because I just can’t stand people taking photos. Even when I was just doing this movie Life in Toronto, we were still out in the middle of nowhere, but it was only about an hour from Toronto. And just everyday, there’s [paparazzi] taking photos with long lenses. And then you can’t talk to anybody on the crew unless you want to have a million photographs. And I feel like I’m putting money into those guys’ pockets by just standing outside. So I’ll constantly hide to make their life as difficult as possible. But then it makes your life difficult as well.

Has it become kind of a game ducking them, or is it just pure annoyance?
It’s literally just [that] I don’t want them to have anything for free. And people who see the pictures, they just assume if you’re getting photographed a lot, it’s because you want to. So if you try to claim privacy afterwards, they’ll be like, “Well what you didn’t care that time.” So you have to be pretty consistent, and say like, “I never want to get photographed, ever.”

Do you ever have to go out in disguise?
It never really works. But I do have a lot of little tricks, like car switches and stuff. You end up being like a bit of a spy. [laughs] Very covert.

Thanks to Cersei

Variety Interview with Robert Pattinson, Guy Pearce and David Michod

Variety ‘The Rover’ Premiere: Producer Praises Robert Pattinson as ‘Consummate Actor’
After a starry premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, Robert Pattinson, Guy Pearce and director David Michod brought “The Rover” to The Regency Bruin Thursday.

Michod told Variety that he hadn’t been familiar with Pattinson’s previous work. “Rob just came in and did a beautiful audition for me that was both vulnerable and completely alive,” he said.

“This proved that seeing him work with Guy Pearce and Scoot McNairy, we realize he’s a consummate actor,” added producer David Linde. “He’s in the ‘Twilight’ movies and people don’t think of him in this way, but as you see in this movie he’s the real deal.”

For Pattinson, he said his goal is to work with good, ambitious directors. “These roles just don’t come up that often,” he said. “A script like this is so rare, I mean, it’s in the top five scripts I’ve ever read.”

Pattinson plays Rey, a yellow-toothed, simple-minded man who is one of the last survivors in a world 10 years after an economic collapse.

“I like how my character was set up. It was just sort of two really dense dialogue heavy scenes in the midst of almost no dialogue, so it let you be pretty free to do anything with it,” said Pattinson.

And on his character: “I think he’s someone who’s been regarded by absolutely everyone around him of having something wrong with him his whole life and he’s never required to think for himself. So when Erik (played by Pearce) kidnaps/adopts him, it forces him to think, (but) the mechanism of thought is so rusty, he has to kind of force it out and it’s almost like he’s being born again.”

“The Rover” has been described as a post-apocalyptic film, but Michod said, “I actually didn’t want the story be post-apocalyptic, I wanted it to be to the extent, like an apocalypse, as something that wipes everything out.”

“I wanted everything that was wrong in the world to feel directly connected to everything that is wrong in the world today.”

Pearce plays the lead role in the film. “I had to go through a bit of a process with (David Michod) just talking about the character to try and understand it,” he said. “There’s a lot of him that’s kind of gone now. I needed to understand some of the things he had in order to, therefore, lose them.”

Linde said pairing Pearce and Pattinson was really exciting because they are two guys who are in two very different parts of their career. “For Rob, we always felt he was on the cusp of doing very serious and accomplished work, and the idea of a guy who’s been doing it for a while and one who’s really emerging seemed very exciting.”

Producer Liz Watts, Susan Prior, Jaime King, Rami Malek, Claudia Levy, Bar Paly, Catherine Hardwicke, Peter Facinelli also attended the premiere. The party continued at the W Hotel.

Thanks to Cersei

USA Today and The Hollywood Reporter Premiere interviews with Robert Pasttinson

USA Today Inside Hollywood: Why does RPatz still audition?
When the franchise that made you famous has made over $1.3 billion at the box office, you’d probably never lower yourself to audition for a role again, right?

Not Robert Pattinson.

To win over Animal Kingdom writer/director David Michôd, RPatz threw any Twilight swagger out the window. “I didn’t know anything about him,” Michôd told us Thursday night at The Rover‘s L.A. premiere. (He said this with a straight face.) “I hadn’t seen any of the Twilight films.”

But Michôd remembered meeting Pattinson and his “really wonderfully awkward physical energy,” which the director thought would be perfect for The Rover, a post-apocalyptic drama, which leaves RPatz caked in dirt and blood as the dim younger brother of a car thief.

Despite the fact that few in Pattinson’s position would continue to test for roles, said Michôd, Pattinson was cool about it:

There were no airs, there was no arrogance, there was no sense of entitlement. Even in terms of testing for me. He knew that he needed to work hard to have the kind of career that he wants.

How did Pattinson, dressed in a natty teal suit, feeling about bringing his Cannes hit to the U.S.? “A bit scary,” said the actor, looking around at the college crowd at Westwood’s Regency Bruin theater waving signs and posters. (Even Zac Efron was there.)

"But we had a really young audience in Australia a few days ago and it was such a bafflingly different reaction. Everybody was like, howling with laughter. And in Cannes you could hear a pin drop the entire time. Crazy. So I have no idea what the reaction’s going to be.”


TheHollywoodReporter Robert Pattinson at 'The Rover' L.A. Premiere: 'I'm Not Trying to Break Out of Anything'

The teen heartthrob, made famous for his role in "Twilight," confessed to THR at his latest film's premiere in Los Angeles that he has "lots and lots of secrets." The screams of teenage girls could be heard for miles as Robert Pattinson hit the Los Angeles Regency Bruin Theatre on Thursday night at the U.S. premiere of The Rover.

The British star, donned in a navy blue Alexander McQueen suit, hit the red carpet with writer and director David Michod, producers David Linde and Liz Watts, and costar Guy Pearce for the film's Los Angeles debut.
Made famous for his leading role in the Twilight saga, the actor told The Hollywood Reporter that he is not confining his career to a specific genre. "I’m not really trying to break out of anything. I feel like every single movie I’ve done is part of the same road. I’m not trying to distance myself of anything particularly," Pattinson said. "I just hope people like [the film]."

Set a decade following a global economic depression, The Rover tells the story of Eric (Pearce), who relentlessly pursues a brutal gang in the Australian outback that steal his car: his only remaining possession. Left abandoned by his brother and fellow gang members, Rey (Pattinson) is forced to guide Eric in tracking down the brutal clan.

"To be honest, [The Rover] did come to me from a place of anger, when it was a despair and anger that I was feeling about the state of the world today," Michod explained. "The movie is set a few decades in the future, but it isn’t set for post apocalypse. Michod wanted the evils showcased in the film to be "directly connected" and representative of the wrongs seen and experienced in "the world today."

While filming, the cast and crew endured extreme heat (just over 110 degrees), rain storms and outback flies, which are apparent throughout the movie. "It always helps to be in real locations," Pearce said. "That extreme heat, those flies, and that vast expanse of desert — it just adds to it, like you’re putting on a costume. It takes you there."

Though each role was a deciding factor in choosing to partake in the project, both Pearce and Pattinson remarked that Michod's directorship was ultimately why they committed to the film. "It wasn’t the role that drew me to the film. It was the script and David that drew me to the film…this time it was really about David being the filmmaker that he is," Pearce revealed. Pattinson also remarked: "I really like David a lot. I love Animal Kingdom…[the script] just seemed so different and original…it was a bit of a no brainer."

Audiences can expect to see another set of Pattinsnon’s acting talents in gangster-type film Idol's Eye alongside Robert De Niro out at the end of this year, which still comes as a surprise to him: "It sounds crazy for me to say…that’s something which I’ve wanted – which I think anyone — would want to do."

Though the Rover star is seemingly normal and content with the simple things in life, including inflatable furniture, driving a 1989 BMW, and downsizing from a $6.27 million home to a rental, he is a man of mystery. "[I have] lots and lots of secrets, that will remain secrets forever."

Following the premiere, an exclusive after party at the W Hotel in Westwood drew the likes of Neighbors star Zac Efron, Katy Perry and Michelle Rodriguez. Party-goers were served an assortment of appetizers including sliders, mini pigs in a blanket, chicken skewers and an array of desserts at a chocolate fondue bar.

Thanks to Cersei