When we talked to Robert Pattinson about his upcoming biopic ‘Little Ashes,’ we first ran through some internet rumors with the ‘Twilight’ star. Now we are pleased to present part 2, the rest of our breezy, candid interview.
The remarkably generous and self-effacing actor played along, answering our questions — about doing an indie, stripping for nude scenes, filming ‘New Moon’ — with a refreshing dose of candor and complete lack of any diva-tude.
After chatting with Pattinson, we have no qualms in pledging our allegiance to Team Edward. — By Angie Argabrite
1. How was filming ‘Little Ashes,’ which is such a small production, compared to doing the ‘Twilight’ movies?
I kind of like small productions ’cause there’s not so much waiting around. And it’s strange, there are little things on ‘Little Ashes,’ like we didn’t have stand-ins, so we’d just kind of sit or stand around the set, which I initially found kind of bizarre but after a while it’s great, because you can just kind of stay in character the whole time. And also you can be much more a part of the set up of the shot, so I kind of liked that. I don’t know, it was, I would say, a very different energy. [But] there’s not a huge amount of difference, really. You’re just inside your head anyway most of the time, so you don’t really notice stuff.
2. I read that you were really nervous about filming the nude scenes and the explicit scenes, how did you prepare yourself for those?
[Laughs] I had so many ridiculous answers just come into my head [more laughs]. I had a penis implant! I don’t know, I just kind of, it’s funny because Spanish people are so … have no problem with nudity at all, I mean at all, and English people obviously do have, like, the most enormous problem with it. It’s like little things, like when I saw my father getting changed for swimming I got, like, traumatized by it … I don’t really know what I did, I just kind of freaked out a bit. [Laughs]
3. So was that the most difficult thing about filming this movie?
No, I mean, a lot of it was quite hard. I guess in a lot of ways, the more I read about Dali the more I kind of liked him, and liked what he tried to make himself stand for. I guess the hardest thing was that I didn’t want to disrespect his memory, especially when I met a lot of people who he knew and stuff. People were very, very fond of him, so that was probably the hardest thing. [Laughs] I didn’t want to mess it up!
4. You were playing a real person — how did that affect your preparation? Did you study up a lot on Dali?
Yeah, I mean it’s nice. There are certain things like studying photos. I never really concentrated on my body in a performance before, well not to such an extent, and there were tons and tons of photos of him and he had quite strange posturing … There was one photo where he’s pointing at something, and I guess it’s quite nice, and I was trying to figure out “How do you point like that?” Then you realize “Oh, shit. You get your arm and ohhh…” and suddenly it clicks into place. And then when you realize you’re walking right and stuff, and people — Spanish people! — know who you’re playing, without the moustache, they know immediately just by looking in your eyes, it’s very satisfying. I like the idea of that; I’d quite like to do it again. And I’m always quite attracted to playing real people.
5. Kristen Stewart is going to be playing rock icon Joan Jett. Is there a rock icon that you’d like to play?
I’d love to play Van Morrison, but I doubt I would get the part [laughs].
6. Who would you love to tour with, if you were going to do a tour as a musician?
Rob: I’d quite like to tour with Kings of Leon. I think they’re pretty cool.
7. If you couldn’t be an actor or a musician, what do you think you would be doing?
I’d quite like to be a political strategist and like a spin doctor. [Laughs] I’d really, really like to do that. I think I will end up doing that at one point.
8. Can you talk about the movie you’re signing on, or about to sign on, called ‘Memoirs’?
It’s not final yet, but I think if it does happen it’ll be a fantastic movie. It’s an amazing script. I think Jenny Lumet [who's writing the script] is incredible and Allen Coulter [who's directing] is also. I think it could be. I was quite excited about it. I was working in New York on the script a few weeks ago, and we came up with some really cool stuff.
9. How are you handling the massive, instant fame and the craziness?
It’s quite stressful in a way, but it’s only when you’re by yourself. When I have my friends around it doesn’t make any difference. I just spend a lot of time by myself, and I used to walk around the block by myself in various different cities, and I don’t know, you start to feel a bit vulnerable, I guess. [Laughs] Well, not vulnerable, I don’t know … for paranoid people it does allow your imagination to run rampant, so it’s a little strange. You end up going out a lot less [laughs]. But I guess it’s so early now I’m really still thinking about it in terms of getting good jobs and stuff, so I haven’t really had a chance to be objective about my life, because every single day there’s something new happening in my life. In my eyes, everything just seems ridiculous, like every single day it’s like you’re walking on the street, and then suddenly you step on something and it just starts moving really, really fast, and you’re not entirely sure what direction it’s going in, but you can feel the force of it. That’s about it.
10. What has been your craziest fan experience?
There was one quite weird thing, I was in a Blockbuster the other day, and I hadn’t realized it was the day the ['Twilight'] DVD was coming out, and there were these two — no one recognized me in that place — and there were these two 8-year-old girls who turned up with their parents. They were picking up their preordered DVDs, and they were just shaking and crying just because they got their DVD. I thought that was pretty incredible, I hadn’t seen anything like that before … I mean, I have when it’s in person, when it’s meeting me. But just to pick up a DVD, that was kind of crazy.
11. What was your take on the whole Jacob casting drama? When it was possible that Taylor Lautner wasn’t going to get the part.
It was weird. When I came back, I hadn’t seen him in ages, hadn’t seen him since the summer and when I saw him, I saw him just before he got casted, and he put on like 100 pounds! I was like “Jesus Christ! If he doesn’t get it, it’s ridiculous.” But what are you going to do? There was a video of him on set the other day doing all these kind of fight stunts. That kid is incredible; he is one of the most stunning athletes I’ve ever seen in my life. I don’t know, I think it’ll be interesting. I haven’t seen any of his stuff yet, but everyone’s going a little bit crazy over him.
12. How’s the energy on ‘New Moon’ compared to ‘Twilight,’ because for ‘Twilight’ no one was sure if it was going to do well and now, obviously …
Yeah, it’s scary. It’s a very, very different experience. Last time we were just kind of … it was so easy to get the entire cast together. We’d all have dinner almost every day and be able to talk about it freely and stuff. Now it’s quite difficult to even leave the hotel. And all these random little stories become someway, somehow newsworthy, so you have to be very secretive about everything. Even if you want to just clarify something in the script or something. It’s just strange. It’s just very different … It’s very strange when you’re aware of being observed, I guess.
13. Is that similar to how it was when you were filming ‘Potter’?
Oh, no, not at all. The thing about ‘Potter,’ because everyone was so young, there weren’t really any [gossip] stories. Plus, the way we were shooting it was so impossible to get any pictures or anything. It was so, so private. And by the time I was working on it, everyone working there had worked there for about five or six years anyway, so they all knew each other. So nothing was really newsworthy. There wasn’t a lot happening. It seems that on [the 'Twilight' movies], maybe because they’re a little bit older, it seems like every single day there’s a new story coming out. I also think that’s it’s because all of these sort of blog sites have become way more popular in the last few years than they were then. And I guess that’s where most of the gossipy things go to.
14. Would you do full-frontal nudity like Daniel Radcliffe did?
I think it would depend on what it is. Yeah, it really does depend on what it is. And I don’t think a lot of people would really want to see that. I think it would ruin the illusion. [Laughs]
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