A year ago I couldn't get a date

Toronto Star Interview with Rob:

Twilight star takes a bite out of fame

For someone at the centre of an ever-escalating fan frenzy that is now bordering on the hysterical, Twilight star Robert Pattinson seems very much at ease. (Gozde: BORDERING? :-)

The British actor's self-deprecating sense of humour and refusal to take the phenomenon seriously is helping him deal with the besotted adoration of millions of teenage girls around the world who are enraptured by the tortured romance between a brooding, beautiful vampire and a mortal schoolgirl.

"It's absolutely nuts," he says, shaking his head in bemusement and laughing. "It's just crazy. A year ago I couldn't get a date and now the whole world's turned over and I can have any 14-year-old girl I want."

He is joking, but the fervour will only increase when Twilight is released on Friday. Assuming it is the success it is expected to be, Pattinson is already signed for two sequels, ensuring that for the next few years he will be one of the world's leading heartthrobs.

He had been torn between an acting career and going to university (Gozde: he was going to university?) but the Harry Potter roles convinced him to stick with acting, although he spent the best part of the next two years unemployed.

His agent persuaded him to visit Los Angeles to audition for several films, one of which was Twilight. He performed a love scene with the already-cast Stewart and she persuaded Hardwicke that he was the right actor to portray Edward.

Pattinson was no so sure.

"I'd read the book and I couldn't really picture myself in the part as this handsome, perfect guy," he said.

"I thought it would be impossible to play him because he's basically an enigma. I didn't want to play a stereotype vampire so I sort of broke down every vampire element of him and tried to relate to it in a human way. I tried to humanize it as much as possible."

It seems ironic now, but when he was announced as the actor who was to portray Edward on screen, fans were furious.

"People sent me hate mail and the Internet was full of messages from Twilight fans who didn't want me. They said I looked like a bum," he recalled with a laugh. "But Stephenie Meyers helped me out by giving me her seal of approval, then the trailer came out and everything turned around. I started getting love letters and fan mail instead of hate mail.

Pattinson was talking in suite at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles. He was sporting a several-day stubble and was casually dressed in jeans and an open short-sleeve shirt over a T-shirt.

He talks quietly and modestly and has a twinkle in his eye and a mischievous smile, which makes it easy to see the attraction he holds for teenage girls.

After filming Twilight on location in Portland, Ore., he returned to Los Angeles and has been there for the past seven months, learning to drive, exploring the city and attempting to adjust to the cultural differences, particularly the American attitude toward alcohol.

"It's a very different culture," he said.

"There really isn't a pub scene in L.A., and people here don't understand how it's such a normal thing to drink in pubs in London.

"They think it's very strange and there's such a stigma attached to it here, but it just seems normal to me."

An accomplished musician, heoccasionally takes his guitar to open-mike nights in L.A., although it is becoming more difficult now that he is recognized wherever he goes.

"I did a couple of gigs, which people filmed and put on the Internet and it kind of ruined the whole experience for me," he said. "So I've kind of stopped now and I think I'm going to wait for all this fuss to die down before I start doing live gigs again."

(Pattinson's song "Never Think," appears on the best-selling Twilight soundtrack.)

Scripts are pouring in and he will soon be seen as the painter Salvador Dali in Little Ashes and in January will begin filming the romantic drama Parts Per Billion, portraying Dennis Hopper's son.

In the meantime he is becoming more famous as the build-up to the release of Twilight reaches its peak.

His only previous exposure to fan frenzy was after he appeared in the two Harry Potter films.

"I was a bit surprised that people recognized me and wanted my autograph but it didn't last very long and was nothing like this," Pattinson said.

"This is just bizarre."