ROBERT PATTINSON WILL NOT FADE INTO THE 'TWILIGHT' - PART THREE

The young actor talks about his acting background and the comparisons between TWILIGHT and HARRY POTTER
By EMERSON PARKER, Contributing Writer
Published 11/19/2008

You might call actor Robert Pattinson an old soul. His favorite actor is James Dean. He’s obsessed with Jack Nicholson and Romain Duris from THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED. “I generally prefer older movies, from the 1970s and stuff,” Pattinson says.


It might seem odd then that Pattinson is co-starring in the what might be called a teenage vampire flick TWILIGHT – debuting in theaters on Friday – as the main love interest of Bella (played by Kristen Stewart), Edward. Oh, and Edward just happens to be an old vampire in the body of a teenager. That vampire then falls in love with the lamb, Bella, and vows to protect her.

An interesting role for someone that never went to acting school or for that matter never even considered it, no it was something a little more right at the male heart that got him started as an actor. “I saw a bunch of pretty girls and decided to [follow] them,” Pattinson says. “And they went to this drama club and say to me ‘Rob, you’ve got to go down to this.’ That’s the only time he’s done anything like that as well. It was just the weirdest thing.”

He actually stuck around long enough at that drama club in London that he got the lead role in the play OUR TOWN. “That was literally the first acting thing I’d ever done, ever,” he says.

Of course, since that time Pattinson had a fairly large role in HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE as Cedric Diggory, a one-time role unfortunately. But he’s moved on to bigger and better things with TWILIGHT and that’s interesting for him considering he never really tried to come to Hollywood in the first place.

“Well, I found an agent here since HARRY POTTER. But I never made the effort to really come out here. And then last year I did this movie where I was playing Salvador Dali, and it was a really low-budget movie and stuff, but I took it really seriously,” Pattinson says. “So I came out to America and, within about three days, booked this and booked something else.”

Any chance of coming to the states permanently? “London is like a part of me, so, I mean, I can’t really leave it,” Pattinson says. “I’ve been there for ages, and I still don’t feel at all like I live [in America] at all. But there’s nothing in London to do unless you’re really famous, so you have to be.”

Having both HARRY POTTER and TWILIGHT makes Pattinson feel a little odd because the magazines and Web sites tend to compare both films together and the rabid following of both fan bases. “It’s really strange, because HARRY POTTER was my break I guess,” Pattinson says. “I hope I don’t seem like some traitor or something, because [TWILIGHT is being compared as] the new HARRY POTTER. It’s really strange, because there’s nothing like HARRY POTTER at all [in TWILIGHT].”

No different? “[TWILIGHT is] a really intimate, small story, “Pattinson explains. “It’s set in the real world; it’s not set in a fantasy world. And it’s just really odd how [people say] it’s completely based on HARRY POTTER. [If so], I hope it makes like $900 million or whatever, like HARRY POTTER made.”