Robert Pattinson talks to Yahoo about subverting people's expectations, his obsessive Amazon habit and more!

Robert Pattinson talks to Yahoo about subverting people's expectations, his obsessive Amazon habit and more! 

This is a great interview from Yahoo! And so Rob. You're gonna love it. It's fairly wide ranging too! He touches on 5 of his films past, present and future. Enjoy!


How familiar were you with the source material for Lost City of Z? Had you read David Grann’s book?
Yeah, James gave me the book when it was a totally different script. Or I may have read it long before there was even a script at all. I think at the time he was thinking about me to play Percy’s son. Because I must’ve only been about 21. And then I just kind of stayed with it as time went on, and it went through all these different casts. [Laughs]

It sounds like the script changed a lot through the years. What were the biggest changes made over time? 
When I first read it, it was a straight action movie, like Indiana Jones. It was this rip-roaring adventure movie, and not this kind of epic, elegant saga that takes place over 30 years.

Costin is a much more minor character in the book. What did you build off of to shape him?
Well, I always thought with Percy’s character it would be a good idea to have a foil. I always interpreted Percy’s character as this man determined to fix the reputation that he thinks he’s deserved, and which his father has ruined for him. … He keeps going back to the jungle again and again and again, just to fix this insecurity. So I liked the idea of Costin being this character who basically had a total disregard for the English aristocracy or any kind of social climbing whatsoever. So he didn’t really want to bring anything back from the jungle, anyway. The entire point for him was just to go because he had nothing to live for in England.

How much information was out there about the real guy? Any sense of his military career?
Well, Costin in reality was a refrigerator salesman. There was an advert in the Times of London saying, “Adventurers Wanted.” That’s actually how he got the job. [Laughs] He was one of the only people who applied for it. But he was in the army — he was a physical fitness instructor. But really, I liked the craziness of just applying to be an adventurer.

You rock some pretty rad facial hair in this movie. Did that look grow on you — pun intended — or did you not care for it?
By the end, I was definitely over it. But at least when you’re shooting a movie with your face covered, there’s very little makeup to be done. It was definitely a “Get out of bed and that’s it” situation. That helped in the middle of the jungle.

You’ve played lead roles, you’ve taken supporting parts — this is more of a supporting role in an ensemble. Do you have a preference these days?
There are certain directors I just really want to work with, and you bring what you can to a part. But in some ways it’s kind of nice [to play a supporting role]. It is a little bit liberating because you don’t have to concentrate on the narrative thrust of the story. You’re just purely thinking about character and just embellishing it a little bit. But with this, I would’ve played any part in it, pretty much.

Costin has some great lines in this movie. I think one of my favorites is when you say to Hunnam, “We’re too British for this jungle.” Did you guys feel out of your element filming in the jungles of Colombia?
No, I really loved it. I guess in some ways, it was kind of hard. But it’s just incredible, going to work every day in a little boat, going up river in the middle of virgin jungle in Colombia. It was very, very close to being on vacation, to be honest. [Laughs]

But the type of vacation where you couldn’t eat anything?
Well, yeah. There’s a certain degree of harshness, and we were trying to lose as much as weight as possible in a really short period of time. So I guess there’s that element to it. But there’s a reason those guys wanted to keep going back as well. It’s amazing.

Do you consider yourself pretty adventurous? Could your relate to that thirst for exploration?
Yeah, definitely. I do sometimes find myself gravitating toward a job just because it’s shooting out in the middle of nowhere. If I’m shooting in a city, generally it can become a repetitive scenario. If you have anyone taking pictures on their phones, it just constantly reminds you of the reality of your life. And I find it becomes a little more difficult. Whereas if you’re out in the jungle and everyone is on the same page as you, you just sort of believe in character a little bit more.

What is your own personal Amazonian adventure? What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career so far?
I don’t know: I’ve done things which I thought were going to be really risky, which ended up not being risky at all. I generally try to keep finding ways to push the envelope as much as I can, and whenever I get the opportunity to do it, I generally try to take it. But I don’t really worry about taking risks, to be honest.

What’s something you thought was risky that ended up not being so?
I did this movie years ago called Bel Ami, which was at the height of all the Twilight stuff. It was this Guy de Maupassant novel about a guy who seduces women specifically to screw them out of their money and ruin their lives. I thought that was a relatively subversive choice to make at the time. [Laughs] And no one really seemed to think the same thing.

What is your relationship with your Twilight fan base these days? Has the madness that surrounded your life calmed down at all?
It’s definitely calmed down in terms of my everyday life, but mainly because I spend more time in London, which is totally different. And I’m doing more parts that just sort of interest me, while in a lot of ways taking a little bit of a step back just to learn and get better. I guess I’ve never really acknowledged what the fan base is, or even if I have one. [Laughs]

Oh, you have one.
But, yeah, I’m always pretty curious about what people say afterward, and who turns up, who likes the movie. It’s always kind of random. But I love it when someone who you just really wouldn’t expect says, “Oh, I liked you in this.”

What films have been most unexpected?
It’s always just really strange. I’ve done a bunch of movies which I thought might’ve been impossible to be seen. There was this film Little Ashes, where I played Salvador Dalí, from years and years ago, and just the other day I was walking down the street and somebody came up and said, “Oh, that’s my favorite film!” You kind of forget that people even watch your films. [Laughs]

What do you think of all the universe building that is going on in Hollywood right now and the possibility that they could reboot Twilight and expand its world? Could you ever see yourself playing Edward Cullen again?
Really, they’re expanding it? So I’ll get my own spin-off? [Laughs]

Potentially! It could be called Edward: Homecoming.
Yeah, exactly.

But would you ever dip back in if the opportunity presented itself?
I mean, I’m always kind of curious. Anything where there’s a mass audience — or seemingly an audience for it — I always like the idea of subverting people’s expectations. So there could be some radical way of doing it, which could be quite fun. It’s always difficult when there’s no source material. But, yeah, I’m always curious.

What type of role haven’t you been offered yet that you’re eager for?
I sort of, to a fault, rely a little bit too much on being inspired by things that land on my doorstep. I literally just did this movie called Good Time, which I think is a really interesting role. But I would’ve never, ever predicted that I would’ve liked it. [Pattinson plays a New York bank robber running from the police.] I think that he’s basically the embodiment of an angry commenter on the Internet.

That sounds great.
Well, if you watch the movie you’ll probably be like, “Huh? What are you talking about?” But one of my favorite things to do — this is quite embarrassing — but you know how when you look on Amazon and you see a product that’s got a consumer review that is so scathing, on like an electric toothbrush or something? Like, literally buying this toothbrush has ruined this person’s life. I always click on that person’s buying history, or their other reviews, and I’ll just read them for days and days. And I’m really amused. These people just have to vent this kind of furious anger on product reviews. I’ve always found that sort of character really interesting. [Laughs]

Source: Yahoo

NEW PRINT INTERVIEW: Robert Pattinson Talks About Doing Music for 'Damsel' & MORE WIth Metro UK

NEW PRINT INTERVIEW: Robert Pattinson Talks About Doing Music for 'Damsel' & MORE WIth Metro UK

The MetroUK posted this great new print interview with Rob where he talks about his experience in the jungle on The Lost City Of Z, his fashion choices for the Berlin Film Festival Red Carpet, doing music for Damsel, yes you heard me right and lots more.

Word of advice, if you're about to eat wait until afterwards to read this interview. I'll say one word, maggots.

ALOOF, cool, brooding — that’s what I expect from R-Patz. The reluctant star, who broke through in Twilight, has only agreed to do one print interview (ie, us!) and I’m braced for something akin to teeth-pulling. Instead…

‘Hello, hello!’ Pattinson bounds towards me like a gangly, 6ft Labrador. ‘Where would you prefer to sit? Water?’ He wrestles with the bottle cap while we do a ‘no, you’, ‘no, you’ politeness dance over who gets the comfy sofa.

‘I feel this kind of ignition happens in press scenarios,’ he says. ‘I become suddenly a bit excited and want to please everybody and act like a bit of a moron.’

Bless him.

Aside from those extraordinary, almost reptilian, hooded eyes, which lend an otherworldly handsomeness, in person there’s nothing of Edward Cullen, Twilight’s chilly vampire heartthrob, about the 30-year-old actor and model.

Dior Homme’s latest ambassador is even less recognisable in The Lost City Of Z, in which he wore a ginormous bushy beard and specs to play Henry Costin, one of the first Brit explorers of the Amazon.

‘The real Henry Costin had a very dramatic Victorian moustache,’ he says. ‘I thought, with my face that might look too Noël Coward, so I had to do a full-on beard for eight months. It was pretty awful — I ended up getting these disgusting ingrown hairs xall over my face. Gah! I shouldn’t get into that!’

Even worse, a jungle infection required Costin’s beard to crawl with maggots. Real ones. ‘It was so gross — I was eating them and stuff,’ he says. ‘I think they had to cut that scene to get the rating down.’

A good sport, who attended the same London prep school as Jack Whitehall, Tom Hardy and Louis Theroux, Pattinson says he wasn’t squeamish at shooting in the jungle despite being ‘covered’ in sand fleas and pouring with sweat thanks to the authentic woollen suits.

‘There were caimans [like crocodiles] in the river and me and Charlie [Hunnam, his co-star] were swimming around them,’ he says. ‘One of the crew got bitten in the face by an arbor viper. The props master went straight in, sucked the venom and spat it out — he had no idea what he was doing, he’d just finished on EastEnders, but the guy was fine. There were so many dangerous creatures everywhere in the jungle, you don’t worry. But when I’d come back to my hotel, I’d see one ant in my room and I’d freak out!’

Hunnam takes the lead in Lost City Of Z, with Pattinson his loyal aide-de-camp. Pattinson was also wingman in Life, with Dane DeHaan taking the limelight as James Dean.

‘You can play things more eccentrically if you are on the sideline,’ he explains. ‘You don’t have the responsibility to drive the central story forward, so you can do more flourishes and experiment.’

As all is going swimmingly, I edge nearer the personal. Pattinson was never a gusher about his private life, even before his Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart cheated on him, sparking global headlines. He’s dated singer FKA Twigs since 2014 and they are engaged. So is he more romantic than cynic?

‘Um, kind of… I like the idea that there are special things in the world. So I guess I am romantic in that way,’ he offers.

Are his unusual fashion choices (a ‘gorilla’ overcoat and reverse-zipped crop top) a diversionary tactic to distract press from his private life?

‘That would be a cunning parlay!’ he boggles, as I absorb his use of the word ‘parlay’. ‘That red carpet in Berlin [where he rocked the overcoat] was one of the more terrifying experiences I have had recently, just because I wanted to wear something different. When you live any sort of public life, it is impossible to know which way is right to do anything. The only thing I want to do is get the jobs I really want. And not to go crazy.’

The Lost City Of Z is out March 24

Rob on... 

...starving himself for The Lost City Of Z

‘Charlie [Hunnam] was extremely militant so I couldn’t slip off my starvation diet – we were in the same hotel and he stayed in character all the time.

There was this chocolate brownie on the menu and I kept thinking: “When I finish I will eat that and it will be amazing.” I did, and it was one of the most horrible experiences because my body rejected it.’ 

...his loyal Twihard following

‘It is nice knowing there are people who are watching my progression and that they found you in one thing and stay with you. It’s sweet because my jobs are going to get weirder. This year I have tried to accelerate that road to weirdness.’ .

..his music

‘I don’t play that much any more, though I am doing music for a movie I’m in with the Zellner brothers called Damsel. I used to differentiate between music and acting but the more I don’t play music, the more I push that area of my brain into acting.I improvise like I would when I play music.’

Thanks Sky

ROBsessed Quickie: Screenwriter, Luke Davies, talks about Robert Pattinson channeling discomfort in 'LIFE'

ROBsessed Quickie: Screenwriter, Luke Davies, talks about Robert Pattinson channeling discomfort in 'LIFE'

I liked this interview Luke Davies did with The Guardian ('Luke Davies on 'mischievous' James Dean and the myth of a broody youth'). He mentions Rob but also shares his reasons for penning LIFE and that "Dennis Stock was the powerful figure who had something to offer to James Dean, who was conflicted about what it was that was being offered: a doorway into the fame machine."



I am still bitterly waiting for Dec. 4th along with many of you so these interviews are torturous and a pleasure. The excerpt that mentions Rob specifically was interesting because we've only heard or read Rob mention Dennis' personality or the chip on his shoulder. Davies expands on those issues with The Guardian:

Stock’s personality was easier to uncover. Davies says his ex-wives described the photographer as “a classic old school misogynist”. While the film has depicted him in a more flattering light, Pattinson retains a certain hard-done-by attitude. “It was great casting him as the angular Dennis character, always a little bit on edge, by not feeling that he was getting recognised in the right way. 

“I’m sure that’s not Rob Pattinson’s experience, [of] not getting recognised, but there is a discomfort, which he got to channel.”

Stock had mixed feelings about the Life photographs, says Davies. “He went through his life with a real chip on his shoulder that the thing that paid his rent for the next 40 years was that moment in time, not all the other stuff he did. I think it was both a curse and a blessing.”

Click HERE to read the entire interview!

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

Translation of Robert Pattinson's Vanity Fair Italy Interview

Barbara (Babs) translated the Vanity Fair (Italy) for us. Thanks Babs :)

COVER: Interview with the vampire. “I can't find a girl” swears the Twilight star. (Do you believe him?)

GIRLS HATE ME

The good news is that Robert Pattinson, the vampire with the good boy face and the brooding appeal, is single. The bad news? Try to go out for dinner with him, and you'll understand.

Since I know that I'll be envied and probably hated too for this article by a lot of women older than 14, since I know that every single word will be vivisected, since I know how mean women older than 14 can be, I prepared myself for this interview with Robert Pattinson scientifically. My mission: find out why this guy drives all the girls crazy.

Los Angeles, February. On a shelf at Book Shop library in West Hollywood I find a biography about him (oh dear, he was born in 1986, he already has a biography) and I read it. It's not that difficult, it's just a hundred pages long with a lot of pictures, its title is The Robert Pattinson Album by Paul Stenning, you can find the book on Amazon. So I find out that he was a washout at school, that he was so skinny when he filmed Harry Potter and the goblet of fire (he played Cedric Diggory) that the production made him work out to get beefy. He says “I felt very unease. Often I was at the margin of the set and I felt like I had to throw up”.

Los Angeles, April. During a business dinner at Chateau Marmont, I meet Catherine Hardwicke, the director of Twilight. I corner her to make her tell me, maybe for the umpteenth time, the story of the audition for the role of Edward Cullen. “We had already seen hundreds of guys. Rob had caught my attention but the production didn't want him: they found him ugly, ugly, ugly! But I'm stubborn so I invited him over at my house with Kristen Stewart. I made them lay on my bed and try out a dialog. They were perfect.”

Also many fans of the saga didn't like Pattinson at first: many bloggers said that he wasn't the right Edward.

The rest is history. Fans frenzy and unanswered questions: is he dating Kristen Stewart or not? Apparently he isn't, but you never know, People magazine always tells they are, but the two actors don't confirm. But people keep talking about it: Robert is in the middle of a frenzy like Leonardo DiCaprio and Titanic.

But Titanic didn't have a sequel (of course, they all died among the icebergs) while Twilight has (of course, they're vampires).

Milan, beginning of May. We already know that the sequel, New Moon, directed by another director, Chris Weitz, will be filmed partly in Italy too, in Montepulciano. I read on newspapers and the internet information about the shooting. I cut out magazines and print blog posts. I find out that the artistic director of the Festival of Roman Theater asked the Minister of Culture to “stop the ongoing havoc: how can you let play Montepulciano off as Volterra?”.

But that's exactly how it went. In the book, Bella goes to Volterra with Alice, Edward's sister, to stop the Volturi (very evil super vampires) from killing him but the production decided to shoot in Montepulciano because, allegedly, it was much cheaper.

Cannes, May 20. During the Festival of Cinema, Vanity Fair Italy gets an exclusive interview with Robert. We meet at the Summit headquarters. Robert is staying in Cannes for a couple of days then he's headed to Italy to shoot the few scenes of New Moon he's in. Almost at the same time he's awaited in New York to shoot Remember Me, a movie completely different from Twilight. In August, he'll go to Vancouver, on the set of Eclipse. So, while we spent the summer sunbathing, Robert Pattinson kept working keeping his face pale.

He enters the empty room, shakes my hand and takes a seat on the couch next to me, putting his face in his hands waiting for the first question. He's wearing a pair of jeans torn at the knees, a dark shirt with the sleeves up. He looks nice and shy, his eyes partially closed like someone who hasn't slept much.

Have you been partying last night?

“I went to three parties, all the wrong ones. Every time I got to the party, it was ending. The third was the worst. I was with Emile Hirsch and his girlfriend, we went into this villa and basically there was nobody around, apart from a hundred photographers. It looked like a paparazzi convention. We ran away fast”. (Gozde: LMAO at paparazzi convention. That's gotta to be a SCARY place)

We don't see much of you in New Moon: just some flashbacks and a few scenes. Are you sorry about that?

“Quite the opposite. This way I'm not under too much pressure.”

Because pressure has been a constant in your life for the past year.

“I didn't have any particular project or dream. I've always lived day by day.”

You were in a band, the Bad Girls. Do you still play?

“I was 15 at the time. Now I play piano and guitar, sometimes, just for myself. I could never do gigs, I'd always be 'the guy from Twilight who wants to be a musician too'. “ (Gozde: It didn't stop Jared or Johnny Depp. Don't let it stop you :))

Is it true that you have to go around with bodyguards?

“Unfortunately yes. It's totally crazy, I know, but I'm getting used to it. But it's only because when I don't have a bodyguard, I feel scared: getting out of a restaurant and into a car is impossible.”

Tabloids and websites say either that you have a new girlfriend every week or that you're dating Kristen Stewart. Is there any truth in that?

“No. I'm single. Basically everything that came out about my private life is false. I think that happens because, honestly, there's not much to say about what I do. While I'm shooting a movie, I don't get out of the hotel: I only go out to go to work or sometimes to dinner. But, if you read the tabloids, it looks like I have a frantic social life.”

But, if you wanted to, it'd be easy for you to find a girlfriend.

“It was much easier before Twilight. Now it's damn hard to go out with a girl. Now, if I go out with a girl, they took pictures of me with her, then they harass her on Facebook, find her email and maybe insult her. And in the end she hates me. I don't want people to hate me or have a secret relationship: it's too tiring. So, for now, no girls.” (Gozde: There are lots of people who already hate me because of you Rob and I still love you. So why don't we give it a go? :))

What do your agent and press agent suggest?

“I don't have a personal press agent and I don't want one. I see it clearly in my head, I don't want my life to become a reality show. In fact, if I see a photographer around, I leave. I don't do many interviews and I don't go out much in public apart from the necessary promotion of the movies. I don't want people to be fed up with my face in a year or two. “

How do you see your future?

“I'd like to have my own production company. What I hate the most about being an actor is waiting for other people to decide what you have to do. I don't like feeling powerless, the total lack of control. I've always admired Warren Beatty's career: actor, director and producer.”

Is it true that you'll make a movie about Bel-Ami?

“Yes, and I'm very happy about it. It's one of my favorite novels. It explains what ambition, rage and thirst for success are. Somehow, Bel Ami is a vampire too, but of a different kind. “

By the way, what's the line about vampires people tell you more frequently?

“You look pale today. They told me that once a minute. Heigh-ho.” (Gozde: LMAO, people are SO cretive :))

The interview is over. I'll see Robert another couple of times here in Cannes, but from a distance: on the red carpet of the premiere of Inglorious Basterds, where he'll almost steal the show to Brad and Angelina, and at the Amfar gala, where they auction his kiss. He looks really embarrassed. Pale, but with red cheeks.(Gozde: I would have put the video of that here but someone got our youtube account suspended...Here's from someone else's account :))

Rome, October. New Moon is done. It'll be out on November 18 but some scenes are shown at the Rome Festival. In Rome I meet Melissa Rosenberg, the scriptwriter of the whole saga, she's a real expert about the saga because, while the director always changes, she's a constant in the movies.

I ask Melissa, a forty something nice lady, the key question of my mission since February: why Edward the character and Robert the actor have become so famous among teenagers all over the world? She says “Edward is brooding and mysterious and Robert has the right face to portray that. At a young age, all girls fall in love with that kind of guy, because they still think that they can 'fix' them. Only after a long time, they realize that there's nothing you can do.”(Gozde: Hahaha!!! That is brilliant :) Is she trying to tell us that fixing Rob is impossible? I think we're cool with that :))

Thanks to freezing_82 in lion_lamb for the scans