Into the limelight: Robert Pattinson

'Twilight' actors face newfound celebrity.
By Rick Bentley / The Fresno Bee
11/19/08 00:00:00

BEVERLY HILLS -- For a guy who plays a pasty-faced vampire, Robert Pattinson's cheeks have a lot of color. He gets slightly embarrassed as he relates the story of how he reacted when a mob of fans started screaming his name.

"I cried," says the "Twilight" star during an interview at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Bits of crimson can be seen sneaking out between openings in his beard stubble. "I have been going to cities all around the world the last three weeks to these planned mobbings. Everybody just screams and screams and screams.

"Every time, I get so nervous. I started crying in Italy. It was really embarrassing."

He should give himself a break.

Being cast as Edward, the vampire lover in the best-selling book is the biggest break in the British actor's career. Until now, the best way to describe him was as the guy who died in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."

Now the 22-year-old's face graces magazine covers. Fans wait in lines for hours just to catch a glimpse of him. A recent scheduled autograph session in San Francisco was disrupted when a young girl was hurt. An unexpected crowd of more than 3,000 fans had showed up to see the "Twilight" star.

The attention is enough to make anyone cry.

He would have been equally justified to shed a tear or two with the way some fans savaged him online after his casting was announced.

Pattinson read a lot of the comments. And he actually agreed with the fans.

"I really didn't want to go out for the part initially because it is really putting yourself out there by saying, 'Oh yes, I can play this part, the perfect guy,' " Pattinson says. "Even going to the auditions, I felt like an idiot. I felt prejudged by anyone who turned up at the casting.

"I thought having the gall to go in means you are a bit of an arrogant [expletive]."

Tears aside, Pattinson is glad he forged ahead with the audition. Part of that has to do with the casting of Kristen Stewart to play Bella. He liked working with her because Stewart would never back down when playing a scene.

Pattinson likes to play each moment with a deep intensity. And Stewart gave him back just as much as he would give.

It also helped that both actors were determined to take the film seriously. The last thing either wanted to do was a "teen movie."

Despite the vampire story line, they wanted to make the relationship feel real.

Many actors find that once they put on extensive makeup, they feel like the character has become a second skin.

That wasn't the case with Pattinson. He found his bouffant hairdo did not come across as too terrifying. He had to go deeper emotionally to play Edward.

"When I was breaking down the character, if you looked at his life and situation before he met Bella, he would be extraordinarily unhappy. I know most girls don't want to be with a manic depressive. So he is not the perfect guy. But I thought the initial attraction, when you have a really troubled soul, would be more attractive to people," Pattinson says.

For better or worse, Pattinson has been launched into the kind of stardom through his role in "Twilight" that he saw with the "Harry Potter" actors. He's following their lead in dealing with his own newfound fame.

"They are still very, very normal and sane," Pattinson says. "They just ignored the surreal of their lives from an outside perspective and just dealt with everything as complete reality and lived their lives normally. They didn't treat anyone else differently and didn't treat themselves differently.

"The only reason to change, if you want to be an actor, is if you are completely insane and you don't want anyone to find out. If you are a normal person you can pretty much do anything you want."

Even cry.