Robert Pattinson talks about Fifty Shades of Grey, Hardest Twilight Scene, Staying Grounded & MORE
UPDATE: Full interview added! It's GREAT! I purchased the $7.99 version with audio and when I look at it on iBooks, Rob's interview audioclips are built into the book!
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Transcript via
ThoseBritBoys:
Looking extremely casual in an old t-shirt, baseball cap, faded jeans and a little unshaven, Pattinson, 26, looks happy and relaxed to have the movie that changed his life behind him. As usual, he doesn’t talk about his relationship with co-star Kristen Stewart, but talks a little of what’s to come post-Twilight, as well as addressing the rumors about him playing the lead in the film adaptation of 50 Shades of Grey. He will next star in David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis.
Q: So now that it’s finally over, let’s go back. What was the most touching moment for you in the movie, including the one we haven’t seen yet?
Robert Pattinson: Out of the whole series?
Q: Yeah, what touched you the most and the hardest one?
RP: Probably that a bit in the first one, just when Bella is in the hospital, and she says, ‘Don’t ever leave me again,’ and I say, ‘Where am I going to go?’ or something like that. I still think that’s kind of my favorite scene in it mainly because it was so different what happened after it, and we made up the lines there and that’s how different the shoot was. Like every movie afterwards, the idea of making up lines, is kind of just unheard of and so I loved that bit. But the hardest was probably the birth scene in the first part of this one mainly because it was hilarious, and it was supposed to be really serious. (laughs) And there was one shot where we had to look directly into the camera, and I was crying with laughter, and I’d have to go down and chew the baby out and I would like, I was stopping tears from coming out of my eyes, and it looks like I’m crying in the thing. And I’m not supposed to be able to cry as a vampire and I’m like crying in the scene but I was laughing.
Q: Is it cool to see Kristen play and look different as a vampire? She’s sexy and not clumsy anymore?
RP: For some reason, I listened to Taylor at Comic Con talking about the clumsy thing, and I thought, ‘Was she clumsy?’ (laughs). And everyone always talked about the clumsiness. But yeah, I never understood it. It’s always the aspect of female characters and young female characters that’s supposed to be unattractive about them when they are clearly not unattractive? (laughs) It’s like, she’s really clumsy, and I’ve never met a genuinely clumsy person or noticed someone who is like handicapped by being so clumsy, (laughs) like it’s so weird.
Q: Do you think you have a quality of timeless gentlemen?
RP: I don’t know. I guess I’m like relatively sensitive. Also, I had two older sisters so I grew up with lots of girls and so I guess I kind of have a different mentality cause of that. And I never really played any team sports or anything, (laughs) so I guess all those things add up to that. But yeah, I mean, I don’t know why but I’m not getting cast as them anymore. (laughter)
Q: Do you like that type of character?
RP: Yeah, sometimes, sometimes it’s really nice. I was watching Water For Elephants on TV the other day, because it’s not got to the point where it’s far enough away and I don’t even recognize myself, and I just thought it was really sweet. It’s like an old-fashioned movie, and yeah, it is quite fun playing it. When you are doing it, it’s kind of annoying, because my instincts, they want to go to the absolute possible place and you know that it never, this person would never do this, and most of the characters I play are innately kind people which is quite nice, because people aren’t genuinely very kind.
Q: So do you have this sort of urge now to do something, play the mean guy, play the meathead?
RP: I kind of always did that up until Twilight. Like, apart from Harry Potter, I mean every part I played is always kind of like sort of weird. But I don’t know, I find kind of random things, the movie I’m doing next, is a real guy, an interrogator and he’s not particularly weird or anything, he’s just like, he’s kind of, well he’s a little weird.
Q: What is your next project?
RP: It’s about the guy who found Saddam Hussein. It’s a military interrogator, based on this guy called Eric Maddox. It’s this crazy story, but he basically talked to about 250 people, none of whom were on any of the US Armies Wanted Lists, and found Saddam Hussein when no one even knew he was in Iraq. So it was an interesting story.
Q: Have you read 50 Shades of Grey and did you know it was based on you and would you star in it?
RP: I think the author has written me out of it. I saw some interview earlier and they went, oh, it could never be him. And I’m like ,’Hey, I’m going to make you pay for that.’ (laughter)
Q: She said you could never play the role that was based on you?
RP: It’s funny seeing all these other actors so openly like vying for it. I’ve never seen that happen before. It’s so strange. I haven’t read the whole thing, I read bits of it, there’s a book called 50 Sheds of Grey, (laughter) have you seen that book? That’s amazing, just a picture book of 50 Grey Sheds, (laughter) and it’s literally on the New York Times Best Seller List. People have got the wrong read. (Laughs)
Q: You said you just watched Water For Elephants. How do you feel when you watch your own movies? Does it always take a while for you to separate yourself?
RP: Yeah, a couple of years at least. But I really like the first Twilight movie now, cause it’s on TV constantly, (laughs) so I’ve seen it like six times, but I remember watching it the first time at the premiere and I had to leave. I left and I sat in the car and it was also kind of overwhelming to me. I started to have a panic attack in the cinema, and then I ran out and got in the car, and I didn’t even realize there was someone videotaping me through the car window, they are right next to me sitting and I was like ‘Oh god!’ Now it’s kind of different. But I find it really hard to watch stuff although I watched Cosmopolis and because it’s so stylized I found that not too hard to watch.
Q: What do you think about when you watch yourself in movies?
RP: I don’t really know what I’m doing when I’m doing it, (laughs) I find a lot of the time it’s like tossing a coin and if something comes out good or not when you are doing it, even in the scene… I don’t understand these actors who can consistently turn up to work and just be like in ‘acting mode.’ And just be really good all the time. Like I can literally walk onto a set and have absolutely no idea, I’ve done all of my preparation or whatever and have no idea what’s going to happen until I open my mouth at all. And I can also feel that something went terribly, when it’s the best scene in the movie or whatever. I have no idea ever.
Q: You are a method actor.
RP: (laughs) I don’t know if I’m completely together in my own method.
Q: Did you have to prepare differently for this one? There was a lot of physicality and also and also, anything you can give us about the final sequence, how was it to shoot?
RP: It’s so funny, (laughs) it’s supposed to be a secret, but they put it in the trailer, like Summit was saying, ‘Don’t talk about the battle.’ And I’m like, ‘It’s in the trailer, what are you talking about?’ (laughter) But yeah, I did tons. I worked a lot at the beginning, because I had to start with my shirt off, but that’s it, (laughs) but we shot the battle stuff at the end. And so I was totally out of shape by that point. (laughter)
Q: How did you do it?
RP: I’m all right at doing it. It’s film fighting, you don’t really have to be that fit, cause it’s not really like normal fighting, like you have to kind of be quite flaily, and I’m quite like mal-coordinated. I’m quite gangly, and so it’s easy for me to kind of do, because if you are throwing a punch, you throw a punch and it’s so huge, where most people who like actually box a lot or something, are so used to keeping it tight, and it feels so fake to them. But I find that kind of stuff quite easy, and can do it on one or two takes. Like everyone else who were really physically fit has to do like ten. But the only annoying thing is the wire stuff, but I never see anyone who’s good at like anything on a wire, it’s always through the operator. If you get a good wire team, then you will look good. If something is not that well organized, you will just look terrible, no matter how good you are at it.
Q: Were you scared?
RP: I mean, most of the time you were just so tired, (laughs) the whole time you were just going through the motions.
Q: Do you have a memento from the set?
RP: I have almost every costume from the first one because I was wearing that stuff for about two years, (laughs) afterwards.
Q: You are in the baseball scene, do you have a baseball outfit?
RP: No, that was like rented. We were pretty low budget on the first one. (Laughter)
Q: What was your favorite one that you kept?
RP: I had these jeans which I kept. I literally bought all these clothes and then got the company to pay me back on the first one. You could do anything on the first movie, it was crazy. I was stuck in Vancouver getting my Visa by myself. I started just borrowing my costumes (laughs) and I kept them all for years afterwards.
Q: What a huge difference.
RP: Yeah. And the funny thing was, I had all these kinds of things from the first one. I was wearing independent little labels from cool shops in Vancouver and then by the last one, the more and more money that became involved, then there would be these contracts with clothes companies and so like if you look at the last one, every single vampire is wearing G Star or Bellstaff. (laughter) No matter which side they are on, (laughter) it’s crazy. And they all have the label on the side as well. It’s nuts. (Laughs)
Q: After all these years, what will you miss the most?
RP: There is something incredibly familiar and nice about it and it’s normally what you are doing when you turn up on a movie set when you know everyone is so, like normally it’s like the first day of school every time you start, but when you know people. It’s strange, and it is pretty nice. Like when you are doing a job where everything changes all the time, say doing a TV show, but at the same time, that’s one of the greatest things about acting as well, (laughs) you can just leave everybody behind.
Q: After all this success, what do you do to keep grounded?
RP: I don’t know, I mean I guess I’m quite a genuinely insecure person, and so it’s not very hard for me. I mean, it’s sort of like, I think even if someone says that something is good you’ve got to be pretty dumb to let your head get big, especially now when everything about your life is reported. I don’t understand people who still have a big ego who are actors. It’s like, everyone knows who you are, everyone knows you are just a vain moron, (laughter) and that’s what every actor is. (laughter)
Q: What do you miss doing the most that you can’t do now?
RP: I really miss going to the cinema, especially in LA, because LA has the best cinemas in the world. I used to go four times a week, five times a week, and that and just being able to just I mean this obvious anonymity kind of thing, you want to be able to sit in a place and not worry and just listen to people or watch people and it’s the camera phones, it’s the camera phones and TMZ, it just ruined everything. And in a few years, people will be like oh Goddamnitt I wish we never bought into TMZ, now we’ve ruined it for ourselves. (laughter)
Q: What’s the best thing that you’ve got?
RP Just being able to do this job. I mean, it is the best job in the world. I just wish I had gotten it like 12 years ago. (laughs)
Q: Thank you.
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