Robert Pattinson & David Cronenberg Talk To HeyUGuys
With the Twilight behemoth winding down, Robert Pattinson is an actor looking to shake off his teen idol persona and establish himself as a adult leading man. He’s taken the latest step on this road to rehabilitation by teaming up with Canadian body-horror legend David Cronenberg, taking the lead in his adaptation of Don Delillo’s dark sci-fi satire Cosmopolis.
Pattinson is superb as Eric Packer, an arrogant, narcissistic young billionaire who trundles through a dystopian future New York in search of a haircut, while the city, his life and his fortune all crumble around him. The film marks another step in the evolution of David Cronenberg’s career, building on the triumphs of his recent steps away from horror such as Eastern Promises and A Dangerous Method, but also retaining a uniquely Cronenbergian world view. It’s also a very timely film, feature a financial crisis and protests in the streets that strongly echo the Occupy Wall Street movement.
We sat down with Davin Cronenberg and Robert Pattinson in London to talk to them about the film.
One of Cronenberg’s answer does include some spoilers for the film, but we’ve clearly highlighted it.
Robert, your character in the film, Eric Packer, is a not a very nice person – he’s a selfish and nihilistic. How do you approach playing a character like that?
Pattinson: I don’t think I approached it as being a nihilist. I think there was an energy there, but I think the energy of being a nihilist is something different. He’s not really throwing things away consciously, he’s just getting more stressed. He thinks he’s getting closer to something, and everything just starts falling away – he’s not consciously destroying it.
How do you think Eric Packer compares to other David Cronenberg characters?
Cronenberg: I don’t really think about my other movies – I said this before. You’re asking me to be an analyst of my own movies, but I won’t, because that’s your job! What I can say is that I don’t think about my other movies when I make a movie The joy for me is middle of the night, on the street, with your actors, nobody else around. You’re not thinking about Twilight, you’re not thinking about Scanners, you’re thinking about Cosmopolis. That’s beautiful and that’s very pure. When I’m putting the movie together I do think about the star value of the actors I get, I have to think about Robert’s passport as it’s a Canada/ France co-production, all of that stuff – but that’s all irrelevant to the actual creative making of the movie. So I try to be pure that way.
Robert Pattinson & David Cronenberg Talk To HeyUGuys
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VIDEOS: Robert Pattinson talks about earning respect in the industry, the haircut line and more + Paul Giamatti and Sarah Gadon mention Rob
VIDEOS: Robert Pattinson talks about earning respect in the industry, the haircut line and more + Paul Giamatti and Sarah Gadon mention Rob
Rob talked to Yahoo (UK) about being nervous with the infamous "want a haircut" line in the beginning. He thinks it's the worst delivery but we know how he talks about himself. I rather liked his delivery of "I want a haircut", "I need a haircut" etc throughout the whole movie. His delivery of that line changes as the day goes on. When you watch the film, listen to how he delivers that line each time he says it. Rob also mentioned having to earn respect in the industry and it made me smile. With the kinds of projects he has lined up, he's doing a great job. :)
Rob talked to Yahoo (UK) about being nervous with the infamous "want a haircut" line in the beginning. He thinks it's the worst delivery but we know how he talks about himself. I rather liked his delivery of "I want a haircut", "I need a haircut" etc throughout the whole movie. His delivery of that line changes as the day goes on. When you watch the film, listen to how he delivers that line each time he says it. Rob also mentioned having to earn respect in the industry and it made me smile. With the kinds of projects he has lined up, he's doing a great job. :)
Rob mentions from Paul Giamatti and Sarah Gadon after the cut!
*NEW* Interview Robert Pattinson Talks To BBC News About Navigating Through "Cosmopolis" & More
UPDATED Post: Added You Tube
*NEW* Interview Robert Pattinson Talks To BBC News About Navigating Through "Cosmopolis" & More
You tube
or Click on the screencap to watch
Actor Robert Pattinson has predicted that his new art-house film Cosmopolis will be embraced by Twilight fans.
"Some of them will just want you to play vampires, but most people don't want you to repeat yourself," the Briton told the BBC.
The heart-throb, who played Edward Cullen in the Twilight films, also defended his fans from accusations that their dedicated behaviour was "crazy".
Cosmopolis, directed by David Cronenberg, opens in the UK this week.
The film, based on the novel by Don DeLillo, was a contender for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
*NEW* Interview Robert Pattinson Talks To BBC News About Navigating Through "Cosmopolis" & More
You tube
or Click on the screencap to watch
Actor Robert Pattinson has predicted that his new art-house film Cosmopolis will be embraced by Twilight fans.
"Some of them will just want you to play vampires, but most people don't want you to repeat yourself," the Briton told the BBC.
The heart-throb, who played Edward Cullen in the Twilight films, also defended his fans from accusations that their dedicated behaviour was "crazy".
Cosmopolis, directed by David Cronenberg, opens in the UK this week.
The film, based on the novel by Don DeLillo, was a contender for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
The Irish Times Interviews Robert Pattinson & David Cronenberg
The Irish Times Interviews Robert Pattinson & David Cronenberg
Sorry the scans are in bits but the newspaper was too big for my scanner.
All the interviews are there though.
Transcript
Rob's Interview
Idol chatter
ROBERT PATTINSON is taking his first few steps on a long road. You don’t get any sense that he is ashamed of Twilght. He would be a fool (and he’s no fool) to adopt any such stance. One can, after all, safely assume that the adaptations of Stephenie Meyer’s vampire novels have put him in a position where he need never work again. But, as the final part looms, he wants to put some distance between himself and the pale, dreamy Edward Cullen.
The latest lunge for freedom involves a fascinating collaboration with David Cronenberg. The Canadian director’s Cosmopolis, adapted from a novel by Don DeLillo, finds the Tsar of Cheekbones playing a young asset manager confined within an absurdly well-appointed limousine.
Pattinson has arrived in Cannes to promote the film. But nobody is allowing him to escape his past life. Why, Eric Packer, the protagonist of Cosmopolis, is just a another class of vampire, is he not? Pattinson must identify with him personally. Like Mr Packer, the actor – a victim of hyper-fame – is driven into a class of seclusion.
“I’m not the best self-analyst,” Pattinson says in his polite accent. “I can’t consciously bring anything from my life into my work. I don’t know. He is just trying to find something. It’s about the hopelessness of it all. It’s about the claustrophobia of being looked at. I wasn’t that much of a social person anyway. So, I don’t really care. Why can I not just answer the question?”
Raised in outer London, Pattinson spent some time as a model before drifting into acting. He remembers, with some embarrassment, securing a role in Mira Nair’s Vanity Fair, then turning up at the premiere to find that all his scenes had been cut. Further inconveniences followed. He was sacked from a play in the Royal Court. But he then managed to gain a part in the cinematic behemoth that was Harry Potter. Unfortunately, Cedric Diggory was among of the select band of Hogwarts students to be killed off. What were the odds?
Then came Twilight, and much to his surprise, he soon found himself an object of fanatical desire. But he does seem to be telling the truth when he claims that he prefers the quiet life. He has, for example, kept admirably quiet about his relationship with Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart.
“When you are followed constantly by fanatical fans, you try to eliminate the times you come up against them. That’s why I hide myself sometimes,” he said recently.
A serious cinema nut, he was never likely to resists the opportunity to work with Cronenberg. The director of Dead Ringers, The Fly and Eastern Promises remains the most singular cinematic terrorist of his era. Pattinson does not pause when asked what drew him to Cosmopolis.
“Cronenberg, obviously! I have played in only a few films, and none of them came close to what I expected working with him would be like. I wasn’t disappointed. I knew he would be very creative, and that it would be a real experience,” he says.
But David is an odd, fellow, is he not? The most cerebral director ever to launch a horror career, he is more likely to reference Freud and Nietzsche than Wes Craven or George A Romero. “For preparation, I spent two weeks in my hotel room worrying and confusing myself,” he laughs. “The weekend before we began shooting, I phoned David and said I want to ask one question: ‘Do you want to talk about the movie for a second?’ I went round to his house and he said: ‘Let’s just start and something will happen’.”
He furrows his magnificent brow and whitters some more about the poetry of the script, before breaking down.
“If you’re trying to do something in a cerebral way, it becomes about ego. Actors aren’t supposed to be intelligent.”
He does himself a disservice. Pattinson has the chops to separate himself from young Mr Cullen and forge a career among the living. But it is a long, long road. Be aware, Robert. Fifty years on from Dr No, journalists are still asking Sean Connery about James Bond.
Click for Larger
David's Interview
Gruesome truths
A RUMBLE OF THUNDER greets the arrival of David Cronenberg. It would be unfair to say that it’s a little like a scene from one of his films. The director is far too clever to dabble in such crude sound design. Besides which, we no longer think of him as a Gothic figure. Do we? At any rate, the pathetic fallacy certainly provides Mr Cronenberg with a dramatic entrance.
The Cannes Film Festival is drawing to a close and Mr Cronenberg has arrived on the penthouse of the Marriot Hotel to discuss his strange new film, Cosmopolis. Robert Pattinson plays a rich young man travelling through an apocalyptic New York in a huge, self-sufficient limousine. Though based on a Don DeLillo novel written as long ago as 2003, Cosmopolis has plenty to say about the current financial meltdowns.
Cronenberg has always made serious films. Early works, made on minuscule budgets in his native Canada, such as Shivers and Rabid abounded with disgusting imagery, but they addressed complex questions concerning mortality and the nature of human sexuality.
Read the rest of David's Interview & check out the scans After The Cut
Sorry the scans are in bits but the newspaper was too big for my scanner.
All the interviews are there though.
Transcript
Rob's Interview
Idol chatter
ROBERT PATTINSON is taking his first few steps on a long road. You don’t get any sense that he is ashamed of Twilght. He would be a fool (and he’s no fool) to adopt any such stance. One can, after all, safely assume that the adaptations of Stephenie Meyer’s vampire novels have put him in a position where he need never work again. But, as the final part looms, he wants to put some distance between himself and the pale, dreamy Edward Cullen.
The latest lunge for freedom involves a fascinating collaboration with David Cronenberg. The Canadian director’s Cosmopolis, adapted from a novel by Don DeLillo, finds the Tsar of Cheekbones playing a young asset manager confined within an absurdly well-appointed limousine.
Pattinson has arrived in Cannes to promote the film. But nobody is allowing him to escape his past life. Why, Eric Packer, the protagonist of Cosmopolis, is just a another class of vampire, is he not? Pattinson must identify with him personally. Like Mr Packer, the actor – a victim of hyper-fame – is driven into a class of seclusion.
“I’m not the best self-analyst,” Pattinson says in his polite accent. “I can’t consciously bring anything from my life into my work. I don’t know. He is just trying to find something. It’s about the hopelessness of it all. It’s about the claustrophobia of being looked at. I wasn’t that much of a social person anyway. So, I don’t really care. Why can I not just answer the question?”
Raised in outer London, Pattinson spent some time as a model before drifting into acting. He remembers, with some embarrassment, securing a role in Mira Nair’s Vanity Fair, then turning up at the premiere to find that all his scenes had been cut. Further inconveniences followed. He was sacked from a play in the Royal Court. But he then managed to gain a part in the cinematic behemoth that was Harry Potter. Unfortunately, Cedric Diggory was among of the select band of Hogwarts students to be killed off. What were the odds?
Then came Twilight, and much to his surprise, he soon found himself an object of fanatical desire. But he does seem to be telling the truth when he claims that he prefers the quiet life. He has, for example, kept admirably quiet about his relationship with Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart.
“When you are followed constantly by fanatical fans, you try to eliminate the times you come up against them. That’s why I hide myself sometimes,” he said recently.
A serious cinema nut, he was never likely to resists the opportunity to work with Cronenberg. The director of Dead Ringers, The Fly and Eastern Promises remains the most singular cinematic terrorist of his era. Pattinson does not pause when asked what drew him to Cosmopolis.
“Cronenberg, obviously! I have played in only a few films, and none of them came close to what I expected working with him would be like. I wasn’t disappointed. I knew he would be very creative, and that it would be a real experience,” he says.
But David is an odd, fellow, is he not? The most cerebral director ever to launch a horror career, he is more likely to reference Freud and Nietzsche than Wes Craven or George A Romero. “For preparation, I spent two weeks in my hotel room worrying and confusing myself,” he laughs. “The weekend before we began shooting, I phoned David and said I want to ask one question: ‘Do you want to talk about the movie for a second?’ I went round to his house and he said: ‘Let’s just start and something will happen’.”
He furrows his magnificent brow and whitters some more about the poetry of the script, before breaking down.
“If you’re trying to do something in a cerebral way, it becomes about ego. Actors aren’t supposed to be intelligent.”
He does himself a disservice. Pattinson has the chops to separate himself from young Mr Cullen and forge a career among the living. But it is a long, long road. Be aware, Robert. Fifty years on from Dr No, journalists are still asking Sean Connery about James Bond.
Click for Larger
David's Interview
Gruesome truths
A RUMBLE OF THUNDER greets the arrival of David Cronenberg. It would be unfair to say that it’s a little like a scene from one of his films. The director is far too clever to dabble in such crude sound design. Besides which, we no longer think of him as a Gothic figure. Do we? At any rate, the pathetic fallacy certainly provides Mr Cronenberg with a dramatic entrance.
The Cannes Film Festival is drawing to a close and Mr Cronenberg has arrived on the penthouse of the Marriot Hotel to discuss his strange new film, Cosmopolis. Robert Pattinson plays a rich young man travelling through an apocalyptic New York in a huge, self-sufficient limousine. Though based on a Don DeLillo novel written as long ago as 2003, Cosmopolis has plenty to say about the current financial meltdowns.
Cronenberg has always made serious films. Early works, made on minuscule budgets in his native Canada, such as Shivers and Rabid abounded with disgusting imagery, but they addressed complex questions concerning mortality and the nature of human sexuality.
Read the rest of David's Interview & check out the scans After The Cut
COSMOPOLIS SPOILER POST + Review from the Toronto Premiere Viewing
COSMOPOLIS SPOILER POST + Review from the Toronto Premiere Viewing
It's Cosmopolis Day in Canada! This is your spoiler thread so we invite you to share your uncensored thoughts all weekend in here. Below are links to our previous review/spoiler threads and my review of Cosmopolis. I kept the more spoiler-y bits under the cut for those avoiding.
I was not ready for the visual and auditory experience of Cosmopolis. It was exactly what David Cronenberg said: "fantastic faces saying fantastic words". My initial reaction to the film was I felt like my brain just had sex. The words kept running through my mind post-viewing and the interactions Rob's Eric Packer had with each character was impossible to forget.
Rob's performance was brilliant. It truly was. I only saw Eric Packer on the screen and I was mesmerized by his words, mind and actions. Rob shined in this role. It was "thick and chewy" and he owned it. I liken his performance to running a 4x4 race. Starting with a steady pace but half way through, letting your skill expand and in the last leg, letting it explode. The effect leaving you breathless. I felt breathless when the credits started to roll. This approach felt right for Eric too. His day, starting with a simple request/demand - a haircut - but then escalating into unfathomable complexities. Climaxing into an unknown but hopeful future.
It's Cosmopolis Day in Canada! This is your spoiler thread so we invite you to share your uncensored thoughts all weekend in here. Below are links to our previous review/spoiler threads and my review of Cosmopolis. I kept the more spoiler-y bits under the cut for those avoiding.
- Part 1 - "Robert Pattinson giving a commanding, sympathetic portrait!"
- Part 2 - "Sensational central performance from Robert Pattinson"
- Part 3 - Robert Pattinson is "excellent in a difficult role"
- Spoiler Post #1
I was not ready for the visual and auditory experience of Cosmopolis. It was exactly what David Cronenberg said: "fantastic faces saying fantastic words". My initial reaction to the film was I felt like my brain just had sex. The words kept running through my mind post-viewing and the interactions Rob's Eric Packer had with each character was impossible to forget.
Rob's performance was brilliant. It truly was. I only saw Eric Packer on the screen and I was mesmerized by his words, mind and actions. Rob shined in this role. It was "thick and chewy" and he owned it. I liken his performance to running a 4x4 race. Starting with a steady pace but half way through, letting your skill expand and in the last leg, letting it explode. The effect leaving you breathless. I felt breathless when the credits started to roll. This approach felt right for Eric too. His day, starting with a simple request/demand - a haircut - but then escalating into unfathomable complexities. Climaxing into an unknown but hopeful future.
More review after the cut w/semi-spoilers
Robert Pattinson Chats To "Total Film" Magazine (Also Includes A "Cosmopolis" Review)
Robert Pattinson Chats To "Total Film" Magazine (Also Includes A "Cosmopolis" Review)
Rob talks about Cannes, "Cosmopolis" new projects and lots more
Click to Read
Review of "Cosmopolis"
I think the reviewer should have read the book first.
Click to Read
Rob talks about Cannes, "Cosmopolis" new projects and lots more
Click to Read
Review of "Cosmopolis"
I think the reviewer should have read the book first.
Click to Read
Labels:
Cosmopolis,
Review,
Robert Pattinson,
Total Film Magazine
Robert Pattinson In The Irish Independent's Day & Night Magazine (Scans)
Labels:
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Magazine Scans,
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"Cosmopolis Is So Different To Other Films, & That's One Of The Reasons I Wanted To Do It"- Robert Pattinson
UPDATE: I picked up a copy of "The Guardian" and scanned it for you
Robert Pattinson Tells The Guardian "Cosmopolis Is So Different To Other Films, & That's One Of The Reasons I Wanted To Do It"
Click for Larger
"I don't really know how accepted I am," says Robert Pattinson as he sips on an enormous paper cup of Coke. "Nothing ever matters to me apart from the people with negative opinions. That's literally it. That always drives me on to the next thing. It's funny, you just focus on them and then the next movie. That's the only thing you're thinking about when it comes out."
For someone with the world at his feet – he has the Twilight franchise behind him and David Cronenberg's icy drama Cosmopolis as his next release – Pattinson gives a good impression of a man plagued with self-doubt. "I've never really taken myself seriously as an actor," he says, fresh off a plane from Germany, where, he notes by the by, everybody seems to hate him.
"It is surprising the amount of people who think I'm going to be really dumb," he says. "I think they think anyone who has done teen movies is just an idiot. I don't know, maybe I am. Some of the best actors, if you talk to them, they're not the smartest people in the world."
Robert Pattinson Tells The Guardian "Cosmopolis Is So Different To Other Films, & That's One Of The Reasons I Wanted To Do It"
Click for Larger
"I don't really know how accepted I am," says Robert Pattinson as he sips on an enormous paper cup of Coke. "Nothing ever matters to me apart from the people with negative opinions. That's literally it. That always drives me on to the next thing. It's funny, you just focus on them and then the next movie. That's the only thing you're thinking about when it comes out."
For someone with the world at his feet – he has the Twilight franchise behind him and David Cronenberg's icy drama Cosmopolis as his next release – Pattinson gives a good impression of a man plagued with self-doubt. "I've never really taken myself seriously as an actor," he says, fresh off a plane from Germany, where, he notes by the by, everybody seems to hate him.
"It is surprising the amount of people who think I'm going to be really dumb," he says. "I think they think anyone who has done teen movies is just an idiot. I don't know, maybe I am. Some of the best actors, if you talk to them, they're not the smartest people in the world."
Labels:
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Cosmopolis,
London,
Robert Pattinson,
The guardian,
UK
Cinebox Talks To Robert Pattinson & David Cronenberg In Cannes
Cinebox Talks To Robert Pattinson & David Cronenberg In Cannes
Rob you can talk about prostates all you like, we STILL won't hate you!
Click on the screencap to watch (starts around 4:15)
Twilight Portugal via Source
Rob you can talk about prostates all you like, we STILL won't hate you!
Click on the screencap to watch (starts around 4:15)
Twilight Portugal via Source
*NEW* Sucré Salé Interview Robert Pattinson, David Cronenberg & Paul Giamatti
*NEW* Sucré Salé Interview Robert Pattinson, David Cronenberg & Paul Giamatti
I don't know what scene Rob was looking at with him and Juliette because the one I was looking at was "pretty" steamy!
via Source
I don't know what scene Rob was looking at with him and Juliette because the one I was looking at was "pretty" steamy!
via Source
David Cronenberg Talks To The Sunday Times About Calming Down A Nervous Robert Pattinson
David Cronenberg Talks To The Sunday Times About Calming Down A Nervous Robert Pattinson
Cosmopolis is Cronenberg’s most prescient film yet. The mercurial director tells Kevin Maher about capitalism, phone-hacking and calming a manic Robert Pattinson
It’s the early erotic climax of David Cronenberg’s new movie Cosmopolis, and it features teen heartthrob Robert Pattinson playing Eric Packer, a billionaire asset manager. Packer is staring deeply into the eyes of his financial director, Jane Melman (Emily Hampshire). The pair banter. They talk about foreign finance ministers. They joke about Melman’s water bottle. They even discuss the ubiquity of sexual impulses.
There’s just one thing awry, however. And it’s the fact that Packer is also on all fours, with his trousers down, in the middle of a protracted and hugely squelchy six-minute prostate examination.
This, of course, is very Cronenberg. For the man who gave us exploding heads in Scanners and sexualised body scars in, well, everything from Rabid to eXistenZ, is famed for both his perverse desire to subvert expectations and for his thundering belief in the tyranny of biology — “We can never escape from the reality of the human body!” is a favourite mantra.
Cosmopolis is Cronenberg’s most prescient film yet. The mercurial director tells Kevin Maher about capitalism, phone-hacking and calming a manic Robert Pattinson
It’s the early erotic climax of David Cronenberg’s new movie Cosmopolis, and it features teen heartthrob Robert Pattinson playing Eric Packer, a billionaire asset manager. Packer is staring deeply into the eyes of his financial director, Jane Melman (Emily Hampshire). The pair banter. They talk about foreign finance ministers. They joke about Melman’s water bottle. They even discuss the ubiquity of sexual impulses.
There’s just one thing awry, however. And it’s the fact that Packer is also on all fours, with his trousers down, in the middle of a protracted and hugely squelchy six-minute prostate examination.
This, of course, is very Cronenberg. For the man who gave us exploding heads in Scanners and sexualised body scars in, well, everything from Rabid to eXistenZ, is famed for both his perverse desire to subvert expectations and for his thundering belief in the tyranny of biology — “We can never escape from the reality of the human body!” is a favourite mantra.
CTV News Talk To Robert Pattinson & David Cronenberg At The Toronto Press Junket
CTV News Talk To Robert Pattinson & David Cronenberg At The Toronto Press Junket
Great new interview with Rob and David
"Twilight" star Robert Pattinson may seem like nothing more than a teen heartthrob to his critics. But his detractors may change their minds after watching his risky performance in the new David Cronenberg film, "Cosmopolis."
In Canadian theatres on Friday, Pattinson headlines this masterful and, at times, chilling adaptation of Don DeLillo's 2003 novel, "Cosmopolis."
True to DeLillo's satirical work, the British actor plays billionaire Eric Packer, a young fund manager who experiences a meltdown one day as he cruises through Manhattan in the back of a stretch limo. As Packer's trip to the hairdresser unfolds, he glides in and out of the lives of strangers, businesses associates and his wife Elise (played by Sarah Gadon).
Great new interview with Rob and David
"Twilight" star Robert Pattinson may seem like nothing more than a teen heartthrob to his critics. But his detractors may change their minds after watching his risky performance in the new David Cronenberg film, "Cosmopolis."
In Canadian theatres on Friday, Pattinson headlines this masterful and, at times, chilling adaptation of Don DeLillo's 2003 novel, "Cosmopolis."
True to DeLillo's satirical work, the British actor plays billionaire Eric Packer, a young fund manager who experiences a meltdown one day as he cruises through Manhattan in the back of a stretch limo. As Packer's trip to the hairdresser unfolds, he glides in and out of the lives of strangers, businesses associates and his wife Elise (played by Sarah Gadon).
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