What an exceptional interview of great length! Can't they all be like this? There's such a respect for Rob's work and his intelligence. It's not a gossipy bit and we know it wouldn't have been based on the interviewer and interviewee. We also don't just dive into the same TLCoZ info we're familiar with at this point. We get to read more about Rob's attachment to Good Time than before, his joy with working on High Life with Claire Denis (shooting in August if the money holds together), and a tease about a new film he might be taking on. This interview is rich in professional flavor and more!
I've posted the start but please continue over to Collider to read the rest. You definitely will want to. It's the stuff Robsessed dreams are made of.
COLLIDER: You won’t remember this, but I actually interviewed you in New York for Remember Me, back in 2010. So, you’ve landed on your feet.
ROBERT PATTINSON: God. So long ago now and it was 2010.
Yeah. Long time ago.
PATTINSON: Doesn’t feel like a very long time ago.
Time goes by very fast. There’s something I want to talk to you about: I’m a legit fan of your acting. One of the things that I am impressed by is the movies you’ve done. You’re going for cool roles with good directors and you’re going after scripts. For example, I really enjoyed your work in The Rover. And I think that one of the things is a lot of actors have to work because of, you know, they have to pay the mortgage. And I think that one of the benefits you have is you gained that financial freedom after a certain franchise to be able to pick the projects you want to do. Can you sort of talk about what you’ve tried to do over the few years as an actor and the roles you’ve been gravitating towards?
PATTINSON: Yeah, that’s completely right. I mean, I have been incredibly fortunate to be able to do that. But I also think if you get sort of early success there’s always this part of you which feels like, “I need to address the imbalance, I need to kind of earn that success after the fact” [laughs]. And so I try to find roles that are hard and also, I still find now, even after I’ve done loads of really random movies, directors are really surprised that I want to play the parts that I want to play. They just assume that you want to only do the honorable good guy lead who saves the day or dies at the end [laughs]. It’s like, I don’t know, I just kind of don’t think any audience would want to see me do that, or I always think that you have to have a certain understanding of what an audience would want to see from you as a public person as well as a character. So yeah, I generally try and find ways to get my characters severely punished [laughs].
The other thing though is a lot of people I’ve spoken to talk about getting pigeonholed in a certain type of role and the only way you can sort of break that is to show people that you don’t want to do just this one role again and again and again.
PATTINSON: Yeah, and it’s amazing as well how people if you want to get a different role, the majority of time the producers or directors want to see you play a similar role already, whereas the only thing I really want to do is swing wildly from one end to the other [laughs]. But then I think after it’s just starting to kind settle into the kind of area that I want to be in. I knew it would take a long time, but like this year working with Claire Denis and I’m probably going to work—I don’t know if I can say it yet [laughs].
Yeah, don’t. I don’t want to get you in trouble. But by all means, say it.
PATTINSON: I think I’m going to do something with Antonio Campos as well. Do you know Antonio Campos is?
I do.
PATTINSON: The part with him is like –I mean, he actually wanted me to do a different part and I was like, “No this is the part.” It’s this absolutely degenerate [laughs]. But then I did this thing with the Safdie Brothers. I don’t know if you know the Safdies?
I’m not as familiar.
PATTINSON: They did that film called Heaven Knows What about west side junkies.
I definitely didn’t see it, and I don’t think I want to pretend that I did.
PATTINSON: It’s incredible. I have this movie coming out this year with them, which is really like, I don’t know why they trust me on it but it’s playing –It’s like so specifically Queens-related, and I’m obviously not at all acquainted [laughs].
You’re not from New York? I’m surprised to learn this!
PATTINSON: And everyone’s non-actors in it, and we’re pretty much…
Well, American Honey did a great job without traditional actors.
PATTINSON: Yeah, I think it’s the same, man. Elaine or Jen, who cast that? God, my memory is so shit. Yeah, I think it’s the same casting people who did American Honey. But a lot of the people from American Honey came from the Safdie Brothers’ first movie Heaven Knows What.
Oh, there you go.
PATTINSON: Yeah. But she is an amazing street-casting person, she is incredible. And some of the people in—There’s this movie called Good Time, and it’s crazy. I literally can’t wait for it to come out.
That’s what Megan was saying.
PATTINSON: Oh really?
She was saying, “You need to see this movie,” and I’m like, “Okay!”
PATTINSON: It’s just really fun. I mean, it’s kind of like, it’s so scrappy and stuff but you know, I watch so many movies and I find a lot of them very predictable, and also, a little bit playing it safe.
That’s why you should go see The Handmaiden.
PATTINSON: I love The Handmaiden. It’s fucking amazing.
If you want to talk about movies that take twists and turns. I was sitting in the theater, jaw on ground, six times.
PATTINSON: No! I literally thought it was absolutely incredible. And also, I didn’t really know what it was about, and I remember watching in this theater in New York and there’s so many dirty, creepy old men sitting around [laughs] and I was watching like “What? This movie is crazy sexy! I had no idea at all!”
But you mentioned, that’s the type of movie you will not get made in America anymore. Maybe, I don’t even know if it could have ever been made in America.
PATTINSON: It’s that main period where it could have been, but like…
Maybe the early 70s?
PATTINSON: Or 80s. There’s a bunch of…
Oh, that’s true!
PATTINSON: Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I just find it so – I mean, I love going to a theater and just being like, “Wow!” That and I mean, Embrace of the Serpent. Did you ever see that?
I have not, but I’ve heard of it.
PATTINSON: Unbelievable. But yeah, I don’t understand. But this thing I did with the Safdies, it’s kind of very sort of subversive, but at the same time it’s a real genre film. So I think people will see it and kind of be quiet, it seems it’s weirdly accessible for a very strange movie. So, I hope people will like it.
Well, jumping into why I get to talk to you, the actual movie, The Lost City of Z.
PATTINSON: Yeah, sorry!
He's the best. I can hear him saying sorry with that big smile of his. Maybe a laugh too. Now I want audio! LOL
Click HERE to continue reading this awesome interview. They get into TLCoZ, of course, but also cover the choice to have a beard, Rob's long love of M&Ms makes an appearance, Good Time 411 pops up again, the merits of film vs digital, memorable TLCoZ filming experience, preparing for High Life, the superhero genre, Guardians of the Galaxy....do you get the point? This interview! Perfection.
Source: Collider
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