By: Ruben V. Nepales
[ You Magazine - January/February 2009 Issue]
Los Angeles-Contrary to what Entertainment Weekly magazine reported, Twilight star Robert Pattinson claimed that he did not ask co-star Kristen Stewart to marry him while they were filming their movie. That topic, plus others – such as the story of the girl who inspired Robert to become an actor in high school and how he approached the role of Edward – were among those we covered with Robert in an interview at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills.
“ I have very little life outside of my job,” said Robert, whose trademark unkempt hair sets him apart from the other young actors; still, it was somewhat startling to see him in person. With Twilight living up to its big box-office expectations, Robert has the option now of taking it easy and having a little more life, or plunging into more film work to take advantage of his popularity.
It looks like Robert opted for the latter. Even before the adoring screams could die down, he already signed up to work his January on Parts Per Billion, a drama set in L.A. In the meantime, Robert will be seen next in two films that he has already completed. In Little Ashes, he plays Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali, while in How to Be, he portrays a twenty-something coping with quarter-life crisis.
Q: According to that article in Entertainment Weekly, on this movie’s set, you kept asking Kristen to marry you.
Rob: I don’t know how the marriage thing started. I wonder who said, “I overheard him asking Kristen to marry him.” I don’t know why, I would ask her so many times to marry me on the set (laughing).
Q: Can you talk more about Kristen?
Rob: Kristen is great. She was the main reason why I wanted to do the movie. She had a good track record of movies that she’s done. I thought there was a very real chance that Twilight could be a teen camp movie. But having her in the film was a kind of insurance that it wouldn’t be. I knew after meeting her that she would fight for what she wanted to do. I definitely knew I had somebody on my side right from the beginning. She was good and she was exactly what I thought she was. She’s very fierce and for quite a young person, she’s very solid. She doesn’t back down to anyone. I think that out of all the young actresses of her generation, she’s probably going to be the biggest one.
Q: Around the time you auditioned for this part, what was your life like?
Rob: I was living in London and I was a bit jaded with acting, to be honest (laughing). I was doing music in London. I wasn’t even really thinking about acting. I really liked my American agent here though, and she said, “Listen, you haven’t been here all year, you’ve got to come and do some casting auditions.” So Twilight was just one of the casting auditions I did. I really didn’t expect to get it. I didn’t know how big it was either. Now it has ended up being this huge thing, so it was just a complete fluke, I guess.
Q: How did you decide on your approach to the role?
Rob: When you read the book, it seems physically impossible to play the part because Edward is basically just an enigma. He’s a canvas for people to project whatever their fantasies about the perfect man are. Being a real human being, you’re obviously not going to be everybody’s taste (laughing). I was just thinking how I can abandon this thing about him being the perfect guy, first of all, and about the way he looks and everything. I basically started off saying that okay, Bella is obsessed and completely infatuated by him, so he could be whatever. He could look however you wanted him to look. I don’t know if it was a cop-out. I didn’t have to get a six-pack, but yeah, I started on that and then basically abandoned every fantasy element of it. I sort of broke down every element of him being a vampire and how I could relate to that in a human way. I just tried to see it with none of the stereotypes about vampirism. I just tried to humanize him as much as possible, and then added elements of male personalities, who girls have been attracted to for a long time. I analyzed the lasting appeal of James Dean and tried to incorporate that into the character. I had tons of little things but that was the kind of vague idea.
Q: Have you always wanted to act since you were a kid?
Rob: I wasn’t an “actory” kid or anything. I didn’t do drama in school. I went this drama club when I was about 15 or 16 specifically because a girl, who I really liked, went there and that was it. I worked backstage. I never had any intention to do it and then they did Guys and Dolls. I really wanted to play the Nathan Detroit part so much – just completely out of the blue. I have never sung in public or anything. I just suddenly got obsessed with it. I did the audition and didn’t get it. I played the Cuban dancer instead (laughing). Then all the good people left. For the next production, it was Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. I was the only one tall enough to play the lead. I did that. There was an agent in the audience. I got this agent and from there, I started getting jobs. I did Vanity fair with Reese Witherspoon. That was my first job. I did a German Viking movie and then I did Harry Potter. This was during the period when I was deciding whether to go to university or not. I was always intending to go to university. But Harry Potter went to overtime, so I didn’t have to think about going to university. I just fell into acting and then after I’d finished that movie, I was like, “Oh well, I guess I’m an actor now.”
Q: Did you get that girl who inspired you to join the drama club?
Rob: No, I didn’t. She thought I was nuts when I told her after, so it didn’t really work out. But she was the reason I actually started acting. She was the girl who I went to the drama club for.
Q: At what stage did you seriously consider acting?
Rob: Maybe I was 16. I saw One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and I dressed like Jack Nicholson’s character. I wanted to play that character at all times in my life. It didn’t have anything to do with films. I just felt very uncomfortable being myself when I was younger. I just picked up different mannerisms from different movies and never really put two and two together that it was actually acting. Then I started watching a lot of Godard films. I liked the freedom and in the things you could do with acting. Like if you want to look sad, you don’t have to have a sad face, which is still how I try on a lot of different things. For that same reason – trying to take risks – I got fired from that play. I haven’t really changed since I got fired. It’s probably one of the best things that ever happened to me. I got some jobs afterward, by saying I got fired and for standing up for what I believe in (laughter).
Q: And when did you seriously decide on acting as your profession?
Rob: Last year, when I played Salvador Dali. The whole crew was Spanish. I can’t speak Spanish so I obsessed over the part. I came to a completely different realization about how deep you can go into a character and how you can research a character. It was the first time I’ve been satisfied from a job. I wanted to bring that to every job afterward.
Q: For you, what is passion?
Rob: I like being able to fully commit to something. I have very little outside of my job. So when I do get a job, I like being able to just completely immerse myself in it and abandon the fact that I don’t really have other interests. It gives me a chance to create a life to live so I guess that’s why I like it.
Q: When you are acting, are you more visually driven or are you more of a touch person?
Rob: There’s definitely something about the element of touch. There are very few times when you’re acting that you actually do get to touch, especially in modern films because it’s always the way the shot is set up. It’s just harder to actually get good shots of a lot of physicality. I guess it does really change things if you can actually hold onto the other actor – it makes it a very different situation.
Q: What are your concerns about being so popular? Is there a friend, like Daniel Radcliffe, who can guide you?
Rob: I don’t have too many concerns because it’s just so new to me now. My only concern is when something is so hyped up and you’re really being put on the front of things, people instinctively want to tear you down. That’s scary when you’re not really putting yourself out there. You’re not saying, “Hey, look at me,” but people put you on stuff and when you don’t know if you’re ready for that or not, that’s what’s scary about it. I think the way the kids from Harry Potter are dealing with fame is by ignoring everything and just living their normal lives as much as they can. That has really worked for them. They’re all very sane. I think Daniel lives in the same house he grew up in London. You can just see he has matured. He just wants to do good work. There’s nothing else to it. You don’t have to be in L.A. Well, sometimes you do but you don’t have to go to clubs and stuff (laughing).
Q: Catherine, the director, told us earlier that British boys in general tend to not like working out. They’d rather be in the pub.
Rob: It’s definitely true (laughing). I guess a lot of the British guys who come to LA get very much into the workout thing. There isn’t really like a pub thing in LA. It’s just a very different culture. I think people from LA don’t really understand how it’s such a normal thing to be in pubs from a very young age in London. People just think it’s so strange. Like drinking has such a stigma attached to it here. I have never really understood it. It seems so normal to me.
Q: You have a song on the Twilight soundtrack. Can you talk about it and are you still actively pursuing a career in music?
Rob: My song on the soundtrack was just a sort of folly, I guess. It was really hyped. My friend and I wrote a few songs a year ago when we were trying to get an album together. It had nothing to do with Twilight. Catherine Hardwicke heard a CD of my stuff, which I did not record in a studio. She put the song into a cut of movie and I liked it. It sounded good. It fit the movie. But I didn’t think about it as launching a music career. But obviously, it looks like I’m trying to go for a music career now, although I basically did it because I’ve never recorded in a studio before. They said that we had to re-record the song in the studio with cellists and stuff. I just wanted to do that and I didn’t think about it past that.
Q: On a lighter note, when you signed on to do Twilight, did they tell you that you can’t go out under the sun and get tan?
Rob: They did actually, when I was shooting but not so much anymore. I don’t like being in the sun anyway, which is pretty lucky. I’m English so I don’t go there. I just go (laughter) red. I don’t even go tanned. I guess you could have a red vampire, which makes a little bit of sense.
[ You Magazine - January/February 2009 Issue]
Los Angeles-Contrary to what Entertainment Weekly magazine reported, Twilight star Robert Pattinson claimed that he did not ask co-star Kristen Stewart to marry him while they were filming their movie. That topic, plus others – such as the story of the girl who inspired Robert to become an actor in high school and how he approached the role of Edward – were among those we covered with Robert in an interview at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills.
“ I have very little life outside of my job,” said Robert, whose trademark unkempt hair sets him apart from the other young actors; still, it was somewhat startling to see him in person. With Twilight living up to its big box-office expectations, Robert has the option now of taking it easy and having a little more life, or plunging into more film work to take advantage of his popularity.
It looks like Robert opted for the latter. Even before the adoring screams could die down, he already signed up to work his January on Parts Per Billion, a drama set in L.A. In the meantime, Robert will be seen next in two films that he has already completed. In Little Ashes, he plays Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali, while in How to Be, he portrays a twenty-something coping with quarter-life crisis.
Q: According to that article in Entertainment Weekly, on this movie’s set, you kept asking Kristen to marry you.
Rob: I don’t know how the marriage thing started. I wonder who said, “I overheard him asking Kristen to marry him.” I don’t know why, I would ask her so many times to marry me on the set (laughing).
Q: Can you talk more about Kristen?
Rob: Kristen is great. She was the main reason why I wanted to do the movie. She had a good track record of movies that she’s done. I thought there was a very real chance that Twilight could be a teen camp movie. But having her in the film was a kind of insurance that it wouldn’t be. I knew after meeting her that she would fight for what she wanted to do. I definitely knew I had somebody on my side right from the beginning. She was good and she was exactly what I thought she was. She’s very fierce and for quite a young person, she’s very solid. She doesn’t back down to anyone. I think that out of all the young actresses of her generation, she’s probably going to be the biggest one.
Q: Around the time you auditioned for this part, what was your life like?
Rob: I was living in London and I was a bit jaded with acting, to be honest (laughing). I was doing music in London. I wasn’t even really thinking about acting. I really liked my American agent here though, and she said, “Listen, you haven’t been here all year, you’ve got to come and do some casting auditions.” So Twilight was just one of the casting auditions I did. I really didn’t expect to get it. I didn’t know how big it was either. Now it has ended up being this huge thing, so it was just a complete fluke, I guess.
Q: How did you decide on your approach to the role?
Rob: When you read the book, it seems physically impossible to play the part because Edward is basically just an enigma. He’s a canvas for people to project whatever their fantasies about the perfect man are. Being a real human being, you’re obviously not going to be everybody’s taste (laughing). I was just thinking how I can abandon this thing about him being the perfect guy, first of all, and about the way he looks and everything. I basically started off saying that okay, Bella is obsessed and completely infatuated by him, so he could be whatever. He could look however you wanted him to look. I don’t know if it was a cop-out. I didn’t have to get a six-pack, but yeah, I started on that and then basically abandoned every fantasy element of it. I sort of broke down every element of him being a vampire and how I could relate to that in a human way. I just tried to see it with none of the stereotypes about vampirism. I just tried to humanize him as much as possible, and then added elements of male personalities, who girls have been attracted to for a long time. I analyzed the lasting appeal of James Dean and tried to incorporate that into the character. I had tons of little things but that was the kind of vague idea.
Q: Have you always wanted to act since you were a kid?
Rob: I wasn’t an “actory” kid or anything. I didn’t do drama in school. I went this drama club when I was about 15 or 16 specifically because a girl, who I really liked, went there and that was it. I worked backstage. I never had any intention to do it and then they did Guys and Dolls. I really wanted to play the Nathan Detroit part so much – just completely out of the blue. I have never sung in public or anything. I just suddenly got obsessed with it. I did the audition and didn’t get it. I played the Cuban dancer instead (laughing). Then all the good people left. For the next production, it was Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. I was the only one tall enough to play the lead. I did that. There was an agent in the audience. I got this agent and from there, I started getting jobs. I did Vanity fair with Reese Witherspoon. That was my first job. I did a German Viking movie and then I did Harry Potter. This was during the period when I was deciding whether to go to university or not. I was always intending to go to university. But Harry Potter went to overtime, so I didn’t have to think about going to university. I just fell into acting and then after I’d finished that movie, I was like, “Oh well, I guess I’m an actor now.”
Q: Did you get that girl who inspired you to join the drama club?
Rob: No, I didn’t. She thought I was nuts when I told her after, so it didn’t really work out. But she was the reason I actually started acting. She was the girl who I went to the drama club for.
Q: At what stage did you seriously consider acting?
Rob: Maybe I was 16. I saw One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and I dressed like Jack Nicholson’s character. I wanted to play that character at all times in my life. It didn’t have anything to do with films. I just felt very uncomfortable being myself when I was younger. I just picked up different mannerisms from different movies and never really put two and two together that it was actually acting. Then I started watching a lot of Godard films. I liked the freedom and in the things you could do with acting. Like if you want to look sad, you don’t have to have a sad face, which is still how I try on a lot of different things. For that same reason – trying to take risks – I got fired from that play. I haven’t really changed since I got fired. It’s probably one of the best things that ever happened to me. I got some jobs afterward, by saying I got fired and for standing up for what I believe in (laughter).
Q: And when did you seriously decide on acting as your profession?
Rob: Last year, when I played Salvador Dali. The whole crew was Spanish. I can’t speak Spanish so I obsessed over the part. I came to a completely different realization about how deep you can go into a character and how you can research a character. It was the first time I’ve been satisfied from a job. I wanted to bring that to every job afterward.
Q: For you, what is passion?
Rob: I like being able to fully commit to something. I have very little outside of my job. So when I do get a job, I like being able to just completely immerse myself in it and abandon the fact that I don’t really have other interests. It gives me a chance to create a life to live so I guess that’s why I like it.
Q: When you are acting, are you more visually driven or are you more of a touch person?
Rob: There’s definitely something about the element of touch. There are very few times when you’re acting that you actually do get to touch, especially in modern films because it’s always the way the shot is set up. It’s just harder to actually get good shots of a lot of physicality. I guess it does really change things if you can actually hold onto the other actor – it makes it a very different situation.
Q: What are your concerns about being so popular? Is there a friend, like Daniel Radcliffe, who can guide you?
Rob: I don’t have too many concerns because it’s just so new to me now. My only concern is when something is so hyped up and you’re really being put on the front of things, people instinctively want to tear you down. That’s scary when you’re not really putting yourself out there. You’re not saying, “Hey, look at me,” but people put you on stuff and when you don’t know if you’re ready for that or not, that’s what’s scary about it. I think the way the kids from Harry Potter are dealing with fame is by ignoring everything and just living their normal lives as much as they can. That has really worked for them. They’re all very sane. I think Daniel lives in the same house he grew up in London. You can just see he has matured. He just wants to do good work. There’s nothing else to it. You don’t have to be in L.A. Well, sometimes you do but you don’t have to go to clubs and stuff (laughing).
Q: Catherine, the director, told us earlier that British boys in general tend to not like working out. They’d rather be in the pub.
Rob: It’s definitely true (laughing). I guess a lot of the British guys who come to LA get very much into the workout thing. There isn’t really like a pub thing in LA. It’s just a very different culture. I think people from LA don’t really understand how it’s such a normal thing to be in pubs from a very young age in London. People just think it’s so strange. Like drinking has such a stigma attached to it here. I have never really understood it. It seems so normal to me.
Q: You have a song on the Twilight soundtrack. Can you talk about it and are you still actively pursuing a career in music?
Rob: My song on the soundtrack was just a sort of folly, I guess. It was really hyped. My friend and I wrote a few songs a year ago when we were trying to get an album together. It had nothing to do with Twilight. Catherine Hardwicke heard a CD of my stuff, which I did not record in a studio. She put the song into a cut of movie and I liked it. It sounded good. It fit the movie. But I didn’t think about it as launching a music career. But obviously, it looks like I’m trying to go for a music career now, although I basically did it because I’ve never recorded in a studio before. They said that we had to re-record the song in the studio with cellists and stuff. I just wanted to do that and I didn’t think about it past that.
Q: On a lighter note, when you signed on to do Twilight, did they tell you that you can’t go out under the sun and get tan?
Rob: They did actually, when I was shooting but not so much anymore. I don’t like being in the sun anyway, which is pretty lucky. I’m English so I don’t go there. I just go (laughter) red. I don’t even go tanned. I guess you could have a red vampire, which makes a little bit of sense.
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário