The Robert Pattinson Profile Project
One writer's search to discover the fascination with Mr. Robert Pattinson
Kaitlin A. Lipe
I’ve spent more hours than I should contemplating the mystery that is Robert Pattinson. The actor was born in 1986, same year as myself, but has managed to achieve phenomenal amounts of fame in an incredibly short period of time. Who is this Robert Pattinson and why can’t we get enough of him?
When my editor first asked me to write a profile of Mr. Pattinson, I rebelled a bit. I’ve been sucker-punched by plenty of vehement Twilight fan girls (aged twelve to one foot in the grave) and I wasn’t sure I wanted the pressure of writing a hardcore piece on “Edward’s” life. There are always online trolls who have a way of rooting out the most minor of flaws and my thin skin was starting to blister from all the burns. Instead, I applied some balm, pulled on my big girl pants and figured that I should probably get to know Robert Pattinson better if I was to ever understand the fascination with his person.
A quick Google search led me to a bevy of sites, many being fan pages hoisted up by dedicated individuals. I was able to garner some important general stats, such as his birth date (May 13th) and his iPod playlist (he counts James Brown and the Kings of Leon as favorites), but I wanted to go deeper. Despite being a good-looking S.O.B, he must also possess some talent, so I shot off a few quick emails to some of the ladies that run various sites to see what they thought was most important for readers to know about Robert Pattinson.
The creators and moderators of
Robertpattinsononline.com, Seana and Devon, were kind enough to tell me what they thought everyone out there should know about R-Pat. In the words of the duo, “He’s extremely talented and versatile in his roles. He’s played a wizard (Harry Potter), a geek (Bad Mother’s Handbook), a paraplegic (Haunted Airman), a vampire (Twilight) and a famous painter (Salvador Dali[in the upcoming Little Ashes]).”
Pattinson is attempting to break out of the teen sex symbol niche Twilight and Harry Potter have pushed him into with his next film, Little Ashes. The film revolves around the relationship of poet Federico Garcia Lorca and painter Salvador Dali, whom Pattinson is portraying. The beautiful and complicated love affair between the two artists is a perfect jumping off point to display his full range of talent.
Despite the mildly more positive opinion I now had of Mr. R-Patz, I still felt something was missing. I perused a few gossip sites and seemed to find only positive comments. The one flaw I saw was chastisement for a severe haircut, one that deprived him of his longer, messy, signature locks. Perez Hilton even refrains from calling Robert out, which admittedly is a big deal when his shtick is to mock almost every celebrity at least once. Robert Pattinson, according to Seana and Devon, is humble. He simply wants to be good at what he does and, since he’s young, to enjoy himself along the way as well.
I can’t find much fault in that.