These two interviews are similar and we have seen some of the questions/answers before, but I thought I should post because there are a few new responses and it’s Rob.

From Die Presse: “I’m not wearing a mask anymore.”

Picture of life: In Anton Corbijn’s beautiful drama LIFE, Robert Pattinson plays Dennis Stock, the photographer who shot the iconic picture of James Dean on Times Square.

Boy band, TV star of movie vampire, becoming famous as a teenager sex symbol can be a blessing or a curse for young artist, but there is almost no other way to gain market values this quickly in show business. On the other hand getting rid of the reputation as a teen heartthrob is something many failed spectacularly. Contract to those who failed, Robert Pattinson seems to have been able to move past his history as a pale Twilight vampire in several ambitious movies he showed true acting talent, like in LIFE the fascinating story about the creation of one of the most famous pictures of the 20th century directed by the Dutch photographer, Anton Corbijn.

Are you a James Dean fan?
I was never really interested in him as a person, but as an actor he was huge. He was fearless in his acting and his movements were like ballet. What fascinated me, especially now where I looked at so many pictures of him, is that there is no bad picture of him. But that is not because he looked great, he played with the camera and he did that in a time where one wasn’t photographed everywhere.

What about you? Do you like playing with the camera?
I’m definitely not a natural talent like James Dean (laughs), but I’m getting there. I wasn’t able to control it. When the first Twilight movie came out I thought I had some kind of control about the pictures of me that were out there and you could see my panic over loosing that control.

Did you ever have a relationship with a photographer as James Dean had with Dennis Stock?
Not with photographers, but with journalists. When Twilight came out, there were a couple I got along with great. I remember when the first feature about me came out in a big British magazine, it was cool how that came about. The journalist and me went to a bar and got drunk (laughs) I can’t do something like that anymore.

Is that something that annoys you? That you can’t just simply go to a bar and see what happens?
It’s slowly getting possible again. When something is as massively hyped as Twilight people don’t care for individual nuances or details anymore. Everything you say creates huge reactions, but it has really calmed down a lot.

Do you wear a disguise when you go out?
No. A few weeks ago I decided I won’t need to cover my face with a scarf unless it’s cold. So I stopped with that and survived.

Sometimes your life seems like a soap opera. Do you also see it like that yourself?
Yes, of course. I was always adamant that I won’t talk about my private life, but that didn’t make any difference (laughs). People would always make stuff up. I became a part of a story that was told by someone else and I could do anything about it.

Dennis Stock sacrificed a lot for his career. Do you sacrifice as well?
Not really. I don’t believe that Dennis sacrificed anything. He just told himself he did. In the end it’s just about him and his fear of failing as an artist and so he looks for people he can blame for his failures. He doesn’t think about his little son at all, only when he sees him as a burden. He is only focused on himself and waits for things to change and suddenly make sense, but that doesn’t happen. He really is a tragic figure. If you look at recent interviews of him, you can see he didn’t learn anything. At 80 he still complains of only being known for the James Dean pictures, but they are the only job he ever made money with.

From Salzburger Nachrichten: “Everybody has a James Dean phase.”

Do you see parallels between your life and James Dean’s life?
A little, but funnily enough I wasn’t really interested in James Dean’s life, maybe because I experienced something similar.I didn’t find my own life very interesting.I was more interested in Dennis Stock from the beginning.

Dennis Stock sacrifices the relationship with his family for his career. Do you know that feeling?
Not really. I don’t believe Dennis truly sacrificed something, he told himself he did. He never thought about his son only when he used him as an excuse. That’s what drew me to the role: here is a person that doesn’t love his kid and waits for his life to make sense, but that never happens. He is a tragic figure. In later interviews you can tell he didn’t learn a thing. At 80 he still complained about only being famous for the James Dean pictures although those were the ones he made money with.I really don’t want to badmouth him, but I met his son Rodney and he says he was a bad father, but what can you do when you don’t love your child? Everybody hates you for it, but you still have to live your life.

Is James Dean important to you as a role model?
I think every young actor has a James Dean phase.If you think about it: his movies were made in 1955 and 1956 and he still has such a huge influence. His gestures are a bit over the top, because he was just starting out. There isn’t one bad picture of him and not just because he had such a good face, but because he had this intuition about how his face was seen by the camera.

How do you deal with being the object of photographers?
It’s difficult. When the first Twilight movie came out I wanted to be seen a certain way. I thought I could control which pictures would be put out there. But that was impossible and I got scared of that loss of control. At the beginning of my career I had some friendships with journalists, we went out together, but I can’t do something like that anymore. Now everyone tries to get an exclusive detail out of me and the worse the detail, the better.

Your life resembled a soap opera in the past few years. How did you feel about the reports on your life?
I never talked about my private life, but that didn’t make a difference and people just made up stuff. I made the decision not getting my picture taken because I thought without new pictures people couldn’t write stories, but they just used old pictures. It’s gotten better now, I decided not to hide anymore and wear a hat and a scarf. It just drives you crazy.

So the worst is the paparazzi then?
Not only them. I used to get scared when people stared at me. It makes you feel like you are being judged, but I learned one thing: never Google yourself. That can become an obsession. Just imagine there are people talking about you in the next room, of course you are going to listen to it! It’s worse on the internet and especially when you live a lonely hotel existence like actors do, you end up sitting in front of the computer to remind yourself who you are.

How do you manage not to loose your mind being alone in a hotel room?
Who says that that didn’t happen already?

via  Rob’s Footsteps | Translations @inthejungle83