New Print Interview of Robert Pattinson. He Talks about 'Life', his Friend Jamie Dornan and More

Nouvelle Interview de Robert Pattinson. Il Parle de 'Life', de son Ami Jamie Dornan et Plus

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Robert Pattinson finds creative parallels between photography and acting in his new movie role, by Helen Barlow in Seven Days magazine.

When Robert Pattinson first announced himself tot he world in Twilight, it was hard not to be mesmerized by the screaming teens perched above the Cannes beach where our interview took place. Embarrassed, he blinked his eyes in his nerdish manner, knowing it was something he had to get used to – it only got worse when he started dating his co-star Kristen Stewart.

Now 29, he is older and wiser and, although he is still in a celebrity relationship (he’s engaged to singer FKA twigs), he says things have settled down, and to an extent so has he.

Interestingly in his new movie, LIFE, by director and photographer Anton Corbijn, he is the one behind the camera. He’s not playing a member of the paparazzi but Dennis Stock, the photographer who captured the seminal photograph of James Dean (played by Dane Dehaan) for LIFE Magazine. The film chronicles the friendship that developed as they traveled across America.

Could he have played James Dean?

“I liked Dennis’ part right from the beginning”, he replies. I’m not similar to Dean at all. Just in terms of being a famous person, that’s literally as far as it goes. Audiences would look at James Dean and be asking him how to live, whereas my fame was born out of a group of people who were fans of the Twilight books; they wanted me to represent the character they love. No one is asking me how to live their lives at all.”

He was more attracted to Stock’s insecurities in any case.

“Dennis has all these inhibitions of possibly not being as good as eh thought he could be,” Pattinson notes, “That’s what’s holding him back and ruining his potential. I also think there’s something in photography that’s quite similar to acting if you’re doing it as a career, especially Dennis Stock’s kind of photography where it’s about taking photos or talented or charismatic people. As an actor you’re dependent on the material and the people in the same way and it’s quite frustrating.”

“You’re of course dependent on your public image.” So given that Pattinson played a vampire in Twilight, the photos we have of him are like a stunned very pale mullet or with head down avoiding paparazzi. Even photo shoots can be difficult.

“I don’t want to be the kind of person who pulls a face in a photo, especially to look pretty,” says Pattinson. “That’s the most embarrassing thing in the world. So you end up being in this nether-world of facial expressions where you’re trying not to make any expression at all, which ends up looking a bit gormless.

The image of himself being constantly confronted… is annoying”, he says.

“You can’t reinvent yourself which is ironic, given what acting is about.

In any case, he’s learnt to go with the flow. “It’s only now that my brain is vaguely accepting what my reality is, I think it’s calmed down a bit. But you feel you want to use your fame for something. Basically I’ve been trying to just live. It’s quite overwhelming and was a shock for awhile.”

With $100 million in the bank, Pattinson’s not complaining. He has in fact learnt the ropes. Is he imparting knowledge to his close buddy Jamie Dornan, who has experienced a similar sudden rise to fame in Fifty Shades of Grey?

“I don’t know what advice I’d give to anybody, Jamie’s a smart guy. There’s nothing you can say to anybody because it is such a personal journey. You either go mad or you don’t,” he chuckles. “ha ha ha” When I ask about Dornan’s nudity he defends his friend saying, “I don’t want to trivialize it, I think that’s quite an important movie.” He can clearly remember the naysayers himself.

“People sometimes think you can’t be taken seriously in something like Twilight. There’s always been a funny kind of interpretation, a strange stigma attached to it. But with something so massively commercial, that’s not unusual. I remember there was a massive backlash against the Backstreet Boys.”

In any case, reviewers are now applauding Pattinson’s performance in Life. Does that mean something to him?

“Yeah, it’s better than them saying you’re shit,” he chuckles. “But, at the same time, you kind of insulate yourself one way or the other.

Pattinson maintains that his best filmmaking experience ever was on the 2014 Australian film The Rover directed by David Michod.

Likewise, Life has significant Australian involvement: the film writer, Luke Davies, wrote the novel Candy, as well as the screenplay for the 2006 film starring Heath Ledger. and it boasts Lain Canning and Erik Sherman (The King’s Speech) amongst its producers.

And that’s not mentioning his appearance as a British army officer alongside Nicole Kidman (as Gertrude Bell) in the upcoming Queen of the Desert.

Why this gravitation towards Australians?

“I don’t know,” Pattinson responds, “but it keeps happening again and again. I love that though, it’s quite a small group of people who are very, very talented.”

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