A look into Robert Pattinson’s twisted sonic world | The McGill Tribune
It’s difficult to pin down what about these accents cement Pattinson so distinctly. Maybe Pattinson just exudes a leading man charisma. Maybe it’s his self-aware humour. Maybe it’s the way that his physical appearance remains distinct no matter how unrecognizable his character’s voice is.
Michelle Siegel from The McGill Tribune has written an article about Rob and his “staggering array of accents”. It’s not the first time I’ve seen Rob compared to Nicholas Cage either. Below is an excerpt:
Any actor can do an accent—not necessarily well, and nothing to make note of either. But for Pattinson, his staggering array of accents have added to the mystique of his public persona.
There are roles where his accent is clearly well-researched: His role as a Queens native and frenetic bank robber Connie in 2017’s Good Time grounds his character with realistic gravitas. And then, there are roles where Pattinson’s accents seem to stand in stark contrast to the rest of the film, almost slapping the audience in the face with their surprising grandeur.
In 2019’s The King, Pattinson plays the Dauphin of France. While the movie is not necessarily memorable, Pattinson is easily the film’s biggest standout, in part due to his outrageous affect. On the surface, his accent might just be an extravagant—albeit incorrect—French caricature that Pattinson allegedly based on several Dior employees with whom he had previously worked. Pattinson’s ridiculous accent, complemented by his equally ridiculous long and wavy wig, elevates the Dauphin to unprecedented levels of comedy in an otherwise grim, slow, and brooding movie.
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Further, in 2020’s The Devil All the Time, Pattinson created a heinous and incorrect American Southern accent on his own, as he refused to work with the on-set dialect coach. As with his French accent in The King, Pattison’s absurdity should again feel out of place alongside more grounded vocal work, but it somehow improves the film by adding unintentional bouts of levity.
It’s difficult to pin down what about these accents cement Pattinson so distinctly. Maybe Pattinson just exudes a leading man charisma. Maybe it’s his self-aware humour. Maybe it’s the way that his physical appearance remains distinct no matter how unrecognizable his character’s voice is. Perhaps the cultural resurgence of Twilight has brought renewed attention to Pattinson’s early accent work. Perhaps Pattinson is this generation’s Nicolas Cage, immortalized by internet culture regardless of the caliber of work in which he is found.
