Q: How did you choose Robert Pattinson?
A: I had met him before I even knew that The Rover was going to be my next movie, just as one of the billions of meetings that you do in Hollywood when your movie gets some attention. I really liked him. I didn’t know anything about him; I hadn’t seen the Twilight films, and I still haven’t seen them, but I just liked him. He was intelligent. I loved his physicality, I loved his face – his very unusual face. He’s quite beautiful, but strange and very open. When I knew that The Rover was going to be the next movie and I started testing for it, Rob was at the top of my list for people I wanted to see. He came in and demonstrated to me immediately that he was a really interesting actor. He came in with a really beautiful fully considered version of the character, because it’s a character that could be played in a lot of ways – it could be caricature, or it could be played as severely mentally disabled – and his test was just beautiful. He was hungry for it, as well, which was important to me. I knew that we were going to be spending a couple of months out in really quite testing conditions.
Q: How difficult was it?
A: It was really tough. It was really hot and very remote. No-one’s phone worked. We were just filthy all the time. But we were all together all the time – the entire crew, we’d work all day and then we’d go and stay at the same pretty shabby accommodation every night, and we’d just be together. We’d get drunk and sing songs.
Q: How did Robert find that?
A: Great, you know. I remember having one experience in one of the first towns we shot in. We’d finished shooting for the day; we would all gather at one of seven pubs in this town – it’s a town of like 300 people, but there’s seven pubs –and I remember one night I was walking across the street to the pub and I could see Rob walking down the street from the room that he was staying in towards the pub, walking down the street by himself, and as we got closer, he says to me, ‘I can’t begin to tell you how magical this experience is for me. I’m just walking down the street by myself.’Wonderful remarks! Love how directors speak about Rob. Click HERE to read the interview in its entirety.
LOVE LOVE LOVE. Can you imagine that awesome phone call between the Davids?? Click HERE to read the full interview!
After unveiling the brand new film for the fragrance Dior Homme starring Robert Pattinson, DiorMag takes a sneak peek at the secret workings of the filming process and invites you to discover the making of the campaign.
It's an overwhelming desire he'd had for a long time: more than anything Robert Pattinson wanted to work with the director Romain Gavras. A major fan of the film maker's raw, edgy aesthetic, it was the British actor who personally suggested the name of the son of Costa-Gavras to Dior for the filming of the new Dior Homme campaign. Together, they began a new chapter in the fragrance's history, writing it in black and white, a chromatic contrast that gives the resulting images a heightened effect. Romain Gavras' unrestrained, feverish camera style provided the perfect tool to lay raw Robert Pattinson's offhand, provocative power.
Remaining faithful to his reputation as a controversial music video maker (he's worked with the likes of Jay Z, M.I.A, Justice), Romain Gavras has created a faced-paced, breathless film, where the images, snatched moments speeding past, segue into each other as an expression of our two heroes' swelling thirst for experiencing life. It's the turn of photographer Nan Goldin to capture Robert Pattinson's seductive power. The American artist, famous for her on-the-wing snapshots of 1980s New York, is the creator of the campaign portraits. Bathed in a warm, amber light, a quite sensual tone, she captures Robert Pattinson's on-edge intensity, immortalizing his impulsive, electric charisma.
A new chapter in the Dior Homme story starts today with Robert Pattinson playing the leading role. Here, on DiorMag, we bring you the fragrances brand new film advert directed by Romain Gavras.
He's in perpetual motion, running towards freedom, navigating the tightrope of an ever-changing life. The Dior man is fearless, embracing the unknown, playing with his own destiny. He has no regrets, his life is unapologetically his own, and he fits a thousand lives into his single one. Magnetic, sensual and provocative, the Dior man possesses the same traits as Robert Pattinson. Because the actor, like the character he embodies, has already lived several lives: as a youngster he played piano and guitar, was in a band and dreamed of being a musician. Next, he began treading the boards and taking on the kind of roles that would catapult him to icon status: the conflicted heartthrob vampire of Twilight fame, of course, but also the veterinarian of the film Water for Elephants, and the golden boy of Cosmopolis.
And now his path crosses that of the Dior Homme fragrance. Together, they revisit the fragrance's identity, opening it to new horizons through the camera of the director Romain Gavras. Known for both his full-length films and his striking music videos for the likes of Justice, M.I.A and Jay-Z, the son of film maker Costa-Gavras recounts a story here that's edgy and energetic. A story in which the black-and-white images segue into each other in a shimmering, powdery, grain-filtered gray, where the camera captures the headlong rush of two soul mates living out a modern love in the throes of youth. Attracting and electrifying each other, they write their carefree, tumultuous love story, living for the moment, seeking out sensations, diving fully-dressed into a swimming pool, shocking the public at a straight-laced ball. Their tale is unique but nonetheless universal and timeless. Whether on a deserted beach or the rooftops of New York, whatever the destination, the Dior man relishes the pleasures of whichever life he's chosen for himself - a life of a thousand possibilities.
You also said the characters of Cosmopolis attracted you. What was it about Eric Packer’s character that resonated with you?
For me, the whole idea that you must have a character who is perfectly sympathetic, is a very crude, and a very uninteresting kind of approach to cinema. I think the character has to be very interesting and fascinating and charismatic. I mean, he has to be somebody you want to watch and see what he says and see what he does.
So what’s interesting about DeLillo’s book is that all the way through, the characters are not particularly sympathetic in an obvious way. But by the end of the movie, you see that this character is, somewhere inside there, a very naïve, vulnerable child, who’s only going to get a haircut, but what he’s really going back to his childhood. He’s going back to the barber who gave him his first haircut. And when he’s there, you begin to see the innocence that’s there underneath the hard surface, and I think it’s a really interesting transformation and transition that you see in this character. At the beginning you think that this guy is very unemotional and hard and cold, and cynical perhaps. And by the end of it, you see that there’s a lot of emotion and a lot of vulnerability underneath there and the character turns out to be far more complex than you might have thought.
A lot has been said about your unconventional choice of Robert Pattinson for the lead role.
The thing I liked about Rob Pattinson as an actor is that he’s a serious actor. And you could lose sight of that, because he’s had this big popular success with the Twilight movies, but he is not afraid to play a character who is difficult to like, you know, because some actors are afraid to do that, because they feel it is too personal, that they themselves will not be liked by their audience, and so on. But a real actor is not afraid to play an unsympathetic character, and Rob is a real actor.
Also, I think to be an actor, you need intelligence, first of all. For example, Rob immediately realised that the script was quite funny, and most people don’t get that. Then you want sensitivity to the subtleties of the movie, in terms of what is going on in the movie, the dialogue and so on. And Rob, personally, is very knowledgeable about cinema.David also spoke to Some Came Running in detail about Cosmopolis. I enjoyed this read beyond the quick Rob mention so check out the full interview at the source if you want to have more insight into the film and David's thoughts. He is Rob's future director again after all. :))))
(chuckles) I don’t think his Twilight fans realise this about him, but he’s really an aficionado about art cinema (Tink: Well, David is clearly not talking about the Robsessed. *wink*). I mean, on the set I’d find him talking to Juliette Binoche about obscure French cinema, (chuckles) so you know, he brings a real depth of understanding of the history and art of cinema and all of those things mean that you have a lot of power and a lot of responsiveness from your actor as a director. It’s like driving the Ferrari instead of driving, you know, a Volkwagen Beetle. And you get that with Rob. I must also add, he’s very down to earth and very easy to work with. He’s not diva at all, you know. He’s really a sweetheart. (Tink: I think David is campaigning for the ROBsessed Awards next week!)
SCR: A lot of people didn't see the irony or the satirical posture behind you and Pattinson ringing the bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
CRONENBERG: Yeah, I know, some people thought that we were betraying the movie by doing that. I thought, no, no, you're really not getting it at all. That was so perfect. I couldn't believe when they were asking us. But that was the perfect expression of capitalism. They were lovely there. They were so excited, they love their Stock Exchange and, after all, we were selling a movie and selling is what they know. So it was all perfect. A capitalistic enterprise, and there we were. Yeah, it's interesting, because Don and I on panels, in a way, that's when I kind of learn some things about his attitudes to things that I didn't really know or need to know but I'm curious about. We both don't feel that being a prophet is part of our job description. But if your antennae are sensitive enough to what's in the ether, you will inevitably anticipate some things that are just sort of accumulating but are not all that visible. And I think that's really the case here. As Don took pains to say, no, the book didn't begin with some grand, grandiose concept of coming to terms with financial responsibility globally and all of that kind of thing. It had to do with limos. It had to do with who would want one of those in the streets of Manhattan and why would you be in it, and who is it—and where do they go at night, and all of that kind of stuff. It begins with details. And it's the same with a film maker even more. You cannot film an abstract concept. We're in the concrete world, film makers.And what are people saying in the concrete world about Cosmopolis on Best Of lists?
Robert Pattinson knows how to treat his leading ladies.
R. Pattz was out tonight at the Elle Women in Hollywood event in Beverly Hills to present an award to his Bel Ami costar Uma Thurman.
"I'm learning how to read tonight," an actually nervous-looking Pattinson said when he reached the stage. "I find this terrifying."
He laughed, saying that it was "so annoying" to follow other presenters and honorees "who were so funny...[and]so smart." (Tink: Oh Rob...you are just as funny and smart.)
The Twilight star was dressed in a gray suit, white shirt and tie, his five-o'clock shadow creeping toward six and his hair messy but cool. Pattinson said working with Thurman was a "pretty crazy experience," describing her Bel Ami role as his wife as "someone more intelligent, more charming, wittier and better in bed than me."
"Which," he added with a smile, "was obviously very difficult to cast." (Tink: Heheheheeee...and you act like you're not as funny and smart as others.)
The codirectors "s--t their pants" when Thurman first walked on set, "and I did a little bit, as well," he cracked.
"Rob, you're a real gentleman on and off the screen," Thurman gushed back. (Tink: *sigh* he truly is...)
Pattinson's appearance was not publicized beforehand. Instead, he skipped the red white carpet and entered the event through a side entrance at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills. He sat by Thurman's side at her table along with Smash cocreator Neil Meron. At one point, Pattinson stood up to talk to Twilight costar Anna Kendrick.If you missed any pictures from the event, click HERE to revisit!
Robert Pattinson is magnetic as Eric Packer, slick, jaded 26-year-old CEO of Packer Capital who decides to take a fleet of Limousines across New York City in search of a haircut. This is his best performance to date by some considerable margin."From Little White Lies:
Cult hero filmmaker David Cronenberg and “Twilight” leading man Robert Pattinson rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange last week to promote their new psychological thriller, “Cosmopolis.” Both men agree that their visit was a bit strange. After all, “Cosmopolis,” based on the book by Don DeLillo, is a capitalist critique that, while having been published in 2003, speaks to the Occupy Wall Street movement and creates a disturbing portrait of the emptiness of the 1 percent.
The English actor and the Canadian director, who called us shortly after Pattinson made a much-hyped appearance on “Good Morning America,” admitted that their “Cosmopolis” experience has been odd at times and, much like their film, uncomfortable with a bit of irony. There’s the strangeness of the movie itself. Then there are the “Twilight” fans who love Pattinson enough to expose themselves to an R-rated film about the economy that involves an eccentric millionaire getting a proctology exam in the back of a limo. Adding to the weirdness is Pattinson’s involvement in a very public cheating scandal; his longtime girlfriend Kristen Stewart recently apologized for being unfaithful with Rupert Sanders, the director of “Snow White and the Huntsman.” After Stewart went public, Pattinson disappeared for weeks, was rumored to be hiding out at Reese Witherspoon’s house, then resurfaced, to the delight of the paparazzi, to promote “Cosmopolis” on the red carpet and elsewhere.
It’s been a strange trip, but Cronenberg and Pattinson seem wonderfully comfortable — at least with each other — amid all the awkwardness.
Q. You both have said that you filmed this movie in chronological order, and I know that with many movies, the last scenes are shot first. Was that a luxury — to film from start to finish?
Cronenberg: One of the trickiest things that I had to learn as a director was exactly that. I mean, suddenly you’re forced to shoot the last scene of the movie first. And it’s hard for the actors because they don’t know who they are yet and they’re doing their death scene. As an actor myself, I was in Clive Barker’s movie “Nightbreed,” and the first thing we shoot was my character getting killed. And I said a typical actor thing. I said, “How can I know how to die when I haven’t lived yet?” So it is kind of a luxury. I think Rob can talk about that.
Pattinson: I agree. (Laughs) I don’t think I can add to that.
Q. You have both been very candid in interviews about the fact that you didn’t necessarily know how this novel would translate to film and what it meant to you. Do you have a different interpretation of the text now that you’re finished with the film?
Pattinson: Well, I like it. I don’t think that confusion is necessarily a bad thing. We’ve done hundreds of interviews now and I still find myself coming up with new things to say.
Cronenberg: Those statements that we made, which were very candid, can be misinterpreted as meaning we were inept, incompetent. But not at all. You know, I don’t do storyboards, for example. I don’t really know what I’m going to do at every set up and every shot. It’s all very spontaneous and of-the-moment, even what lens to use. That’s what we’re talking about. We don’t have it all mapped out. We’re trusting the script and trusting the dialogue that is all 100 percent Don DeLillo’s and taken from the novel directly. We know that if we respond directly to that . . . the movie will have its coherence.
Q. You just rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. What was that like? And what do you think the people there would think of this movie if they saw it?Two more interviews after the cut - "I felt secure because I knew David was watching me"
Cronenberg: All through the halls of the stock exchange they have these monitors built into the walls, and they were all showing clips of “Cosmopolis.” All of the people there who were marshaling us were incredibly excited about the movie and really wanted to see it. And they were incredibly friendly and sweet, and I was suddenly thinking, “This is the wonderful, friendly face of capitalism. I don’t know why I’ve been fighting it for so long. I think I’m going to buy some stock.” [Pattinson laughs.] And the stock exchange is about marketing. To link the starting of the day with some product that’s being marketed was a no-brainer. And the fact that it might be rather ironic that we were opening the stock exchange; I don’t think it occurred to them.
Q. Mr. Pattinson, what did you think of the visit?
Pattinson: I’m so clueless about anything to do with that world. I was kind of just terrified that I was somehow going to mess it up. And also to see people’s enthusiasm. It’s so alien. Even people’s attitudes there. It seems so alien to me. I mean, I’ve met traders before, but in their own environment — everyone’s extremely happy, which is not what I expected. It doesn’t seem stressful at all. They were all excited about seeing who was going to ring the bell this morning. They had the American gymnastics team closing it that day. It looks like a really fun place to work.
Q. You guys seem like you like each other a lot. You seem so close during this publicity tour. I was thinking, when I looked at pictures from the stock exchange visit, that you actually look like relatives.
[Cronenberg and Pattinson laugh.]
Cronenberg: We get along pretty well and we were kind of wearing the same suit. They were Gucci suits that were connected with the movie — the character wears them — and so, we were Tweedledum and Tweedledee at that point.
Q. Mr. Cronenberg, where do you most enjoy promoting your films? You don’t have to say America.
Cronenberg: I have a huge enthusiastic fan base in France. My first films were horror films and genre films, and in France they never had any prejudice against them, whereas in North America, in the old days when I started especially, there was prejudice against them. They weren’t taken seriously as good cinema. So I suppose I feel more comfortable, weirdly enough, in France releasing a film. The level of discourse there is very intelligent, very intellectual, sometimes humorously so, but I like playing that game there.
Q. Mr. Pattinson, how have you taken to the Cronenberg fan base? I imagine that it’s strange to see “Twilight” fans with people who love David Cronenberg movies.
Pattinson: Absolutely. We were in London and we did a Q&A and it was two very diverse groups of people who suddenly came into contact with each other for I think probably the first time. And, I don’t know . . . David’s horror film fans . . . and general “Twilight” female fans . . . are actually quite a good pairing. I think both of them didn’t see anything in each other first of all, but they’re quite a good, odd couple. When you see a bearded guy with long hair, who absolutely will weep [for Cronenberg] . . . and then a “Twilight” fan who will weep at that, they actually look like a couple. (Tink: Matchmaker, matchmaker make me a match. Find me a find. Catch me a catch. I like MatchmakerRob.)
Q. Mr. Pattinson, I have to ask, in reference to all of the talk show hosts who are asking you personal questions right now: I’m always fascinated by the ability of celebrities to just disappear during a controversy. How do you do that? Is there a tunneling system? Where do you go to hide when you’re so watched?
Pattinson: There is a netherworld where celebrities go. They’re the only ones that have access to it. A mysterious little network of boroughs. (Giggles.)
Not surprisingly, the marketing men are focusing much attention on their leading man. For some time, our own Colin Farrell was pencilled in to play the protagonist. Sadly, scheduling commitments on the upcoming remake of Total Recall ruled him out.Click HERE to read in its entirety.
“What age is the character? Colin Farrell was 33 or 34. Are we going to go with that? We were thinking of him. At which point, we maybe would have had Marion Cotillard as his wife. But once we got Rob, it was clear she’s not the right wife. You don’t just cast one person; you cast the whole movie. Maybe, Colin was too old.”
So, why Robert Pattinson?
“Don’t you think he’s good?” he says.
I do actually.
“I knew he would be good, but I had to convince him he would be good. He is a serious enough cinephile that he doesn’t want to fuck the movie up. All actors have this insecurity that they’re going to be the bad actor in the piece. Even guys like Olivier worried that they were not good enough. It goes with acting. It’s up to me to say: ‘You can do that’.”
Does it frustrate you when critics accuse your recent films of being talky, as if your early work was somehow different?This section, David talks about Eric Packer and Rob.
‘It’s inevitably a little frustrating. You feel that they haven’t been paying attention. A casual filmgoer is forgiven, they’re allowed to be careless. You pay your money, you can pay as little attention as you want. But for a film journalist, it’s not very professional to drop that ball
Is it fair to say that ‘Cosmopolis’ is more interested in mood and tone than in logic or narrative?
‘I’m glad to hear you say that! People who are used to Hollywood movies where everything is explained may be frustrated. There’s no way anybody can follow some of the things Samantha Morton’s character says, for instance. At least not the first time. I think of it like a sci-fi movie where the intergalactic pilot is explaining the way his spaceship works. You don’t need to know what he’s talking about, you just need to believe that he knows what he’s talking about. Eric Packer understands when his Chief of Theory is explaining how the future connects with capitalism. It excites him, and that’s all you need to know.'
What do you think about Eric Packer – and is it important to like your central character?
‘I think it’s important to feel empathy, not necessarily sympathy. You need to have some understanding of him, but it doesn’t mean you have to like him. You need to be fascinated enough to stay with him throughout the movie. Which is why you need a charismatic actor like Rob, who has a face you want to keep looking at.’
Does casting a star like Robert Pattinson have any significance for you, beyond the fact that he’s right for the role?
‘No. It’s similar to when I cast Viggo [Mortensen, in ‘Eastern Promises’]. It’s important for the financing. If Rob hadn’t been famous from “Twilight”, I couldn’t have had him in the movie. But for me creatively that means nothing. Once you’re on the set, it’s just you guys. There’s no-one else there. It’s as if he never made another movie and I never made another movie.’
Do you like the idea that Twi-hards might have their horizons widened by ‘Cosmopolis’?
‘I do. A lot of girls who are fans of Rob’s have created “Cosmopolis” websites, and some of them are really elaborate and beautiful. And they’re reading the book and talking about it. They know it isn’t “Twilight” and they’re still excited. We had some girls standing outside at 3am while we were shooting. They’d made a T-shirt that said “Nancy Babich” and had a pistol on it [a reference to Pattinson’s bodyguard]. So I happily wore that for them! Undoubtedly there will be some Rob fans who’ve never heard of Don DeLillo, or me, who will see this movie. It’s not the cake, but it’s the icing on it.’
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Twilight (2008)- Trailer - Buy(US)
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Vanity Fair (2004)(uncredited) - watch 
