Robert Pattinson Elle (France) Interview Translation

Robert Pattinson Elle France Interview Translation 

We had the scans and new pics from this Interview this morning (Click HERE if you missed them) Now read the translation of the interview below.



Translation (Source)

Robert Pattinson: The Phoenix.

Is there a life after "Twilight"? It's the question that the actor has been trying to answer by lending his talent to arthouse films and his sex appeal to the Dior fragrance. We met up with him.

"The most important is to be cool!" After five years spent in the eye of the storm in Hollywood, Robert Pattinson finally gets it. The revelation didn't come up to him while he was walking his dog in the streets of Los Angeles. It's always felt like there was something awkward about him. And he's always had a hard time hiding (maybe he wasn't really trying) the fact that he didn't really feel like he belonged in the kind of cinema for which he's now an icon. "Acting in a movie that you wouldn't normally go see yourself can complicate things a little," he admits. "It's hard to talk about it, hard to promote it, hard to feel connected to the public... Before I met David Cronenberg who hired me to be in "Cosmospolis", I always felt like I was getting roles that I didn't really get to choose. I was mostly trying not to sink. For the first time ever, I felt like I was chosen for my talent. David gave me that confidence that I didn't possess. It changed everything in the way I viewed my job as an actor."



Weird timing, you'd think, for him to become the face of such a popular fragrance, lend his face to Dior Homme (In exchange for a large amount of money) and to see his face on every billboard around the world? But in fact, not really. Of course, Dior is not the first one that tried to get Rob Patz to represent their own brand. Before them, others tried to make money off of the huge popularity of the "Twilight" hero. But it seems like the team of the honorable French house knew which words to use to convince him. Or "the" perfect word: freedom. Pattinson used it to achieve one of his dreams as an actor: film with Romain Gavras, French underground director but also gifted, who is often going towards the super cool (M.I.A's "Bad Girls" music video) or the super controversial. (Justice's "Stress" music video). "I had been trying to get in contact with him for a year and he wasn't answering my calls. When Dior contacted me, I told myself: "I'm sure he'd love to work with me if I offered him a Dior ad." Bingo! Gavras accepts, and restores the image of the actor yearning for artistic legitimacy and Dior's, always in quest of credibility.


The film that he realised is, indeed, a bubble of champagne, a cool mix with an influence from the 60s in which Rob and the model Camille Rowe frolic, smoke cigarettes, drive in full speed an old BMW on a beach... An atmosphere really "Nouvelle Vague", sensual and fresh. Just like a groupie, the star talks non-stop about his admiration for the "anarchist" Gavras. "He sees the world in such a different way than I do. He has so much confidence in his abilities. I am so much more neurotic. It's annoying, but at same time, I hold on to it. My insecurity is the only thing I find interesting about myself."


Let's just say, with Robert Pattinson, there's a huge misunderstanding.
His romance with Kristen Stewart, the turmoil that has shaken up his relationship until their break up a few weeks ago, certainly didn't help things. And he's really aware of it. "People saw me in one or two films and they came to the conclusion that it is what I am. It's normal. I'm the one who has to seek out the directors with whom I want to work. I do it, but for that, I have to overcome my shyness. It happened to me a few days ago: I met someone I admire at a dinner. I sent him a text the next day telling him I'd love to work with him. After three hours and no reply, I was about to send him another text to apologize en say something like: "Sorry, sorry, it was really presumptuous of me". But he actually replied!"

Feverish like a young girl in Love,
Pattinson has this mix of passion, detachment and extreme lucidity that make his daily work complicated. Once again, "Cosmopolis" and his first experience at Cannes turned things around for him. "I promised myself I would only do things I love." Not easy to achieve in the country of big budget productions, when the pros are advising him to build a male fanbase for himself. "I don't even know what it means. "to build a male fanbase"! I can't force guys to go see my movies." He says, laughing. But the young wolf is not completely naive and he understands that being "cool" is the indispensable condition for the cinema independent to be interested in him. "In fact, it's marketing and the most important thing in marketing is to be coherent. It means I have to refuse tons of propositions. Of course, the risk in this business that is constantly evolving, is to refuse projects until that day comes where no one is offering you anything at all. When that day comes, the only thing I'll be able to do is to be in "Dancing with the stars"."
For the moment, he's supposedly going to star in the next Werner Herzog movie, alongside James Franco & Naomi Watts (He doesn't confirm the information), but he's just finished filming "The Rover", the first David Michöd movie, popular screenwriter, author of "Hesher" and "Animal Kingdom", really close to the Edgerton brothers. A clique that he's right to get close to in order to be accepted by the aficionados of the cinema independent in the US. Then, he'll find his fairy godmother again, Cronenberg, in "Maps to the stars", script by Bruce Wagner, leading figure of the new generation of American writers.

In short, even if he finds some kind of twisted pleasure in hiding behind the character of this tacky, twisted geek, Pattinson doesn't lack determination and is building valiantly, a career that is slowly starting to represent the person he really is. After all, DiCaprio was previously followed by screams of crazy young girls as well, and Brad Pitt showed off his pecs in "Thelma and Louise" and even in some episode of "Dallas", way before David Fincher, Neil Jordan or Terry Gilliam gave him the keys of more substantial roles. No one criticized them for it. And we can forgive Rob Patz for going for movies of second zone. Especially since he promises as he bursts out laughing, under the gaze of his new female friends from Dior, that he's going to make an effort when it comes to his look: "I like fashion, but I'm so self conscious at the idea that people will judge what I'm wearing. So, I always wear the same thing. But look, I have this Dior jacket that was given to me and I wear it everyday!" It's never too late to do things right, Rob. Let's hope that with an impeccable look, he'll keep his frankness. "A few months ago, I started drawing dresses for women, "Couture" dresses..." He bursts out laughing again. "It's probably a sign that I was in the middle of a nervous breakdown!" Fragile, touching and irresistibly sexy despite himself, Pattinson, the teen idol, has finally become a man.

Thanks PJ for the heads up!