“I claim my European origins, my taste for literature, music and auteur cinema. I always wanted only one thing: to do my job well and to be a good actor â€, soberly explains the English actor Robert Pattinson , as if it were a question of starting the interview with a clarification: to know the celebrity. was not a priority for him. What if his acting life began with a misunderstanding? How, indeed, explain that this cinephile, admirer of the New Wave, lover of Italian neorealist cinema, whose favorite film is One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, by Czech MiloÅ¡ Forman, became an icon at 22 years old? planetary, after playing the role of Edward Cullen, the vampire of Twilight? It is counting without chance which sometimes undoes things well. Explanation.
A precocious talent
Robert Pattinson wanted to be an actor, and his family supported him in this choice. He grew up in London in an affluent environment which frequents cinemas, theaters, which loves literature and music. At 15, he joined a theater company. At 17, he was spotted by an agent and shot two TV movies. At 19, he stars in the fourth episode of The Adventures of Harry Potter. Then Twilight . “I did not imagine that this saga would become such a success … Nobody, moreover, thought that it was going to turn into a tsunami”, comments today the one who pierced the hearts of millions of teenagers . Kristen Stewart , her partner in the series and ex-girlfriend,remembers “that time of agonizing and morbid worship” and “his public appearances” which turned into riots. A Russian astronomer even gave the young actor’s name to an asteroid: (246789) Pattinson. That is to say…
Getting rid of “Twilightâ€
His existence becomes a huge walkabout, while his dream would have been to live in greater tranquility. “I thought I would never get out of it. Such success can lock you up forever in a golden prison, and it’s hard to let go of an image, to become believable after such a role, which cannibalizes you. I had to think about my future choices very carefully. I had to consider everything according to my tastes, my origins and my desires. â€Â In 2012, year of the fifth episode of Twilight, Robert Pattinson begins a 180 degree turn. He has only one goal: to forget Edward Cullen, this invasive character with smooth, diaphanous skin and orange eyes. The young man begins to moult, as harsh as the ascent of the Himalayas. Each departure from base camp is a challenge, a form of relief that is part of the construction of his identity as a man and an artist.
Successful bet with David Cronenberg
The road to these heights he covets will go quickly. In his viewfinder? An auteur cinema at the height of the cinephile and the literary that he is. His Grail? He will find it first with the director David Cronenberg , the Canadian oracle filmmaker of modernity and its disturbances, immense goldsmith of fantastic atmospheres. It will be Cosmopolis , a terrible fable about capitalism seen through the eyes of a trader who spends his day cloistered in his limousine and who crosses New York . Pattinson plays Eric Packer, a golden boycynical and sexy, who is about to lose his empire because of the crisis. The star shows perfectly how the disease of money, success and possession, which radiates the film and characterizes our time, triggers morbid libidos. With this film, Robert Pattinson changes register and especially method: Cronenberg has the reputation of never having scenes rehearsed and of leaving his actors to themselves in the daze of improvisation. The film is presented in official competition in Cannes. The actor, excellent, realizes his dream and enters the big leagues.
Author cinema and blockbusters
Two years later, he climbs the steps of the Palais du Festival again, still with Cronenberg, for Maps to the Stars , a creaky satire on the Hollywood scene, where he co-starred with Julianne Moore and Mia Wasikowska . He’s the star. Touring with Cronenberg gave him the self-confidence and daring he needed to break free from the Twilight box . From role to role, the actor matures, gains momentum. Dark but deep. He shot The Lost City of Z with director James Gray (author of Little Odessa and Two Lovers ), then High Life with the French filmmaker Claire Denis – an emblem in her own right – whom he adores “for his passion for cinema”. At the end of 2019, we noticed him as an apprentice lighthouse keeper in The Lighthouse , with Willem Dafoe. A singular and rough black and white horror film directed by critically acclaimed Robert Eggers. And next July will release Tenet , by Christopher Nolan, pope of the “blockbuster with a soulâ€. A new proof of the intransigence of this actor apart.
Glamorous maturity
Robert Pattinson is now 34 years old. The impatient young Englishman has transformed into an imposing adult. A quiet force that the advertising campaign for the new perfume Dior Homme – of which he has been the muse since 2013 – stages. To celebrate this captivating new juice, more masculine and sophisticated, which sticks so well to his skin, the actor resuscitates in front of the camera of the duo The Blaze – Guillaume and Jonathan Alric, stars of French electro and music video artists – the figure of the urban hero, with his obvious sex appeal, his crazy allure and his attractive strangeness. The directors were able to film, in the streets of New York, an ultra-sensual Pattinson, in a T-shirt as in a tuxedo.
Today, on the horizon of all possibilities, the actor allows himself to no longer forbid himself anything. After having shone in the auteur cinema, he returned to blockbusters: he played the famous justice of Gotham City in The Batman , by Matt Reeves, an event film currently in the making, which will be released in 2021. Robert Pattinson continues to ‘advance masked. This is not the least of its charms.
