Entertainment :: Movies
Robert Pattinson on "Twilight" by Fred Topel
EDGE ContributorWednesday Nov 19, 2008
Since its publication in 2003, Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books have become a literary phenomenon, the teen equivalent of Harry Potter if you will. Its Hollywood adaptation was inevitable, as was the scrutiny its fans would heap on the casting decisions.
In "Twilight," Washington state transplant Bella falls for her classmate Edward Cullen, who she finds out is a vampire. Meyer’s book describes Cullen as being impossibly beautiful, so it took fans a while to warm up to actor Robert Pattinson. He thinks they were right the first time.
Wrong for the role?
"I still believe the initial reaction I had when I first found out I had been cast was the true reaction," Pattinson said. "Now everyone is like, ’Okay I just love the book so much I’ll just let him go with it’ and ’Yeah, okay, alright, he’s beautiful, whatever.’ But the initial reaction was ’He is completely wrong for it’ and I agreed with them. But I didn’t play it like some guy who knew he was some beautiful person, I hope. I still don’t really feel it. I don’t really feel it at all."
They must not be paying that much attention anyway. Obsession over his broody Edward hair has made people neglect to notice he’s no longer sporting the vampire coif. "I cut it yesterday. No one’s even noticed all day. They’re all like ’So they’re still not letting you cut your hair?’ And I’m like ’I already did cut it."
Facing such obsessions, Pattinson keeps things in proper perspective. Nobody would care much about some British actor were it not for Meyer’s creation. "It’s bizarre. You kind of know that it is essentially the book. The book has so many obsessive, obsessively loyal fans. It’s strange because people just immediately relate you to the character right away rather than you as an actor."
His new fans may be surprised to know that Pattinson is a part time musician. He actually has a song on the "Twilight" soundtrack, under the deceptive pseudonym "Rob" Pattinson.
"[It happened] just by accident. I think Nikki [Reed] gave a CD of stuff I had recorded on my computer to Catherine Hardwicke and I recorded it years ago. I think Catherine just put it into a cut and then said ’Look at this’ and she played it and it kind of worked. I hadn’t even realized what it was at first and it kind of fit really well. I did not really think about it other than that. I didn’t know it was going to be on the soundtrack or anything. I wanted to do it under another name because I thought it would be distracting, which it has been. So it’s probably all been a big mistake but I like the idea of it and I just think the song fit and I did not think it sounded like me. So I thought it would just work but I don’t know I’m not trying to get a music career out of it or anything."
Music informs Edward Cullen too, as much as the audience gets to hear excerpts from his record collection. "I think it’s the outsider thing. [Vampirism] has always been associated with kind of goth culture and it’s become more mainstream now so everybody seems to be an emo now and I think it’s because young people feel like they don’t connect with anything anymore. There’s no such thing as an insider anymore I think everybody feels like outsiders and I think vampires are really the definition of them. I mean, anyone who preys on the rest of humanity is obviously going to be an outsider to society so I guess that’s why it is. I don’t know, I’ve never really understood it. I guess all the other supernatural things are pretty ugly. They are either ugly or they are kind of silly. I mean, not a lot of music is inspired by fairies, or zombies for instance. It’s quite difficult to say ’I’m obsessed with zombies. They are so cool.’ It doesn’t really work."
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