Six foot tall with model-like features, English actor Robert Pattinson has been called one of the sexiest men in the world! Family history website ancestry.co.uk even claimed that the star, who hit international fame in his leading role as Edward Cullen in the Twilight film series, is related to the 15th century prince ‘Vlad the impaler’, the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula! In real life, however, Pattinson is charming, self-conscious, ingenuous and (according to many sources) very untidy!
REBELLIOUS
Pattinson was born into a middle-class London family. A distracted student, he was expelled from his first school at age 12 for selling pornographic magazines to his classmates. Fortunately, Pattinson succeeded in completing his education at a second school. More interested in creativity than academic subjects, he learned to play the piano and the guitar. Involvement in a local theatre company stimulated an interest in professional acting, and in 2003, he was cast as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). Yet, after being sacked from a prestigious Royal Court theatre production, Pattinson thought he would be better off concentrating on music.
LOOKING AHEAD
It was with music and acting in mind that Pattinson flew to Los Angeles. When he heard about the role in Twilight, based on the books by Stephenie Meyer, five thousand young men had auditioned for the part. Pattinson spent four hours in the audition. The five subsequent films, made between 2008 and 2012, grossed over $3.3 billion worldwide and turned him into a superstar. Yet even as they were still filming the series, he was already worried about his future career. He knew he did not have experience in many other roles.
BRITISH HUMOUR
Aware that he needed to please the critics, Pattinson looked for diverse roles with interesting directors, (half) joking that the economy was so bad that filmmakers may be interested in employing a less good actor with a big fan base. The actor executively produced and starred in the film Remember Me - although his performance did not receive good reviews. He had better luck in the film Water for Elephants, about a student who deals with tragedy by joining a circus. The critic Peter Bradshaw admitted: “This film may provide a bridge to a career beyond vampirism.” Pattinson followed up with Bel Ami, based on a novel by Maupassant. This was not a success.
IN THE LIMO
While filming the final film in the Twilight series, Pattinson got a phone call. David Cronenberg wanted to cast him in Cosmopolis, and Pattinson had to decide that same day. “I kept him waiting for an entire week,” says Pattinson. In the film, based on the novel by Don DeLillo, he plays a 28-year-old billionaire whose life falls apart without him leaving his limousine; Richard Brody in the New Yorkermade the (favourable) point that Pattinson’s unconfident acting contributed to the “technical chill” of the film!
A CRASH COURSE
After Twilight, with humility but persistence, Pattinson went on to build his acting resume in record time. A role in the brutal Australian film The Rover was followed by a small part in Cronenberg’s satire Maps to the Stars. He took a small part in German filmmaker Werner Herzog’s Queen of the Desert, based on the life of British explorer Gertrude Bell, and played a secondary role in photographer Anton Corbijn’s biopic Life. Pattinson also appeared in Brady Corbet’s extraordinary directorial debut The Childhood of a Leader, about the young life of a future dictator. He convinced James Gray to give him a secondary, but important, role in The Lost City of Z.
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
But it was last year’s part as a street criminal in the independent film Good Time, directed by Josh and Benny Safdie, that really won praise. His follow-up in the recent comedy western Damsel also captivates. Now, really interesting directors are calling him up. No longer (just) a two-dimensional sex icon, Robert Pattinson is now taken seriously as a three-dimensional actor.
