Hot Actor: Robert Pattinson
Review: Twilight
Robert Pattinson Vs. the Jonas Brothers: Who Has the Crazier Fans?
How is the Twilight fandom is different from the Harry Potter movies? I think youve mentioned that the sound of the screams is even different.
Its different because I think its almost solely females of a certain age group, and they have a very specific tone. Its much more to do with the sort of sexuality aspect of it. So many girls made this guy [their ideal], so when they see you its like all of their energy is projected onto you. Its a really strange experience. Ive never been in an experience where people just want to touch you its like being in a boy band.
Is it weird to have girls that are so young have this incredibly sexualized thing around you?
Its weird that you get 8-year-old girls coming up to you saying, Can you just bite me? I want you to bite me. It is really strange how young the girls are, considering the book is based on the virtues of chastity, but I think it has the opposite effect on its readers though. [Laughs]
Do you think thats part of it, though? One of the things that seems to make Edward so attractive to younger girls is that you can have it both ways. Hes the ultimate bad boy, and someone that you shouldnt want, who would never harm you.
Thats exactly what it is. Its a certain type of girl. I dont know what it is when you look at fan sites [you can tell] but theres definitely a very large fleet of people, its actually Americans, that want those type of guys. In the book she knows the whole time [hes not going to hurt her], but Kristen [Stewart] and I tried to make it more not caring, more unpredictable. Its what I liked about the story hes literally holding himself back every single turn, never lets up.
Hes such a sort of gentlemanly character, and Kristen and I really, really emphasized that especially when there are intimate scenes. When we did the blocking for the kissing scenes, we would be going way further than [director] Catherine [Hardwicke] thought.
And why did you want to push it in that direction?
I guess to sort of scare little girls and stuff. [Laughs] I mean, people who read the books wont be expecting it, and, for a younger persons film, its also quite shocking. When I read that scene in the book I thought it was kind of sexy, and then when you translate it onto film, the kissing is a little like a thing out of a TV series. So I thought, How can we make this thing a little bit on the verge of wrong?
I think a lot of people have already judged the film before they even started shooting us, and I didnt want to be part of a film that was just a cash-in thing. So we tried to take as many risks as we could, and tried to make it a little bit more serious than people expect. Its quite difficult to take too many risks.
Were there any risks that you wanted to take that you ended up just not being able to do?
Edwards constantly saying, Im a monster, Im a monster, Im a monster, and doesnt end up being one. We shot the final scene first, and I wanted the fight to not just be a fight, but to literally have him turn into that monster. In the book he very much comes in to save the day as the hero, but I noticed when we were doing the blocking its the first time hes seen a lot of her blood and I thought it would be interesting [for him to start] wanting to kill her and then fighting himself for that.
Theres a part that we significantly cut down in the PG-13 when I start winning there are all these stunts, but stunts are so protracted that you couldnt get what me and Kristen wanted to do, which was to literally try to pull his head off. [At that point] its like youve turned into this beast. Then theres a scene where I try to attack [my father in the movie] when he tells me to stop. I think its him looking at me, saying, I thought you were the one. Youre my protg, and youre really, really not.
After that point in the movie, hes certain that once shes seen thats who he [really] is, and there is no way theres a happy ending. I kind of wanted to make it really, really depressing; I just sort of got further, and further away from the book as I picked up on little pieces.
I think a lot of people who like the book and like the love story at the end will be sort of baffled by it. But I also thought thats the best type of love story, where the whole time he knows his thoughts and he knows he has so many doubts and he has so many things about weakness. Like, he couldnt kill himself because hes afraid he doesnt have a soul. He couldnt be a proper vegetarian vampire, cant be a proper real vampire, cant be a real man, cant be anything, and its all like, hes completely impotent about everything. Then he finds this one thing, which makes him feel alive, and he cant even protect that. He cant do anything. He thinks hes a very insignificant human being well, thing.
Right.
Then it makes it so much more amazing the second when both of them literally could just die when they leave each other, and I wanted to make that kind of operatic Carmen type of thing. At the same time youve got to try and please some people [laughs], and you couldnt really go too dark with it because of the book.
I wanted them to touch three times: when he saves her life and it hurts him to touch her, when they try and kiss when he tries to kill her, and when hes sucking the blood out and trying to kill because hes so afraid of what would happen. Then the director gave me a copy of the book with these highlights of all the times that he smiled and all the times that they touched. So
Stephenie Meyer talked about the influence of a lot of Victorian literature, which definitely seems obvious in Twilight, even the fact that his name is Edward. Do you see that theres a Victorian quality to Edward?
Yeah, I definitely think its a lot of Heathcliff.
Whats attractive about that kind of character that made him popular then and still popular now?
Its being unreadable. Its attractive in women as well, just that kind of mystique. Its so obvious, but so few people do have it, especially in characters now and especially in modern society where theres so many celebrities.
Youre in this position where youre playing this character whos attractive because of that mystique and then dont have that luxury.
I just disappear. It doesnt really make any difference. But I didnt play it so old-fashioned; I tried to get in little elements. I think there are so few young characters in modern films who even have any form of restraint unless theyre a geek. I guess Edward would be the jock in a normal type of story, and just playing it sane you cant really touch everything is very understated.
Why do you think hes attracted to Bella?
I think its a progression. The way I did it the, whole thing comes as a complete surprise to him. He has so many issues. Hes stopped killing people for 50 years, she comes in and hes like, Oh, I cant control myself! I just thought that the guy would think, This fucking girl is not gonna ruin [me], like, Shes not better than me and I can control my base instincts. And so the relationship starts as [testing] his own power of will.
Its like, I can go a little bit closer to her, and closer and closer and closer, and then a joy comes out of that where hes just like, See, eating my instincts again. Later on its funny how wanting to kill her makes him realize hes in some way alive. And thats why she becomes so important, because the only thing he wanted to do before is become human and die.
Theres no way to pin down the story. I never really understood it the whole way through. I understood Edwards character. I didnt understand what Bella was all about. I really tried, and I was working with Kristen for ages. Theres definitely some defining characteristics of young girls, which are very, very strange and which arent really explored in movies. Troubled teens, especially girls, in movies are just so one dimensional its ridiculous, and they always have somebody to fix them in the end. Whereas in Twilight she doesnt really get fixed she just gets this addiction.
Shes all right in the beginning and then she becomes completely dependent; even in last scene of the movie, shes saying, Dont ever say youll leave me. Thats what makes the story unusual; when you read it at face value and its just like, Oh, its an easy read. You can read it in a few hours, and its kind of cheesy but as soon as you actually look at it you have to really take massive leaps to join the dots of the character. So I ended up putting tons and tons of thought into it, just to make it not be cheesy cash-in movie 95 percent of the people probably expect it to be.
Do you think thats why it seems to have a stronger following because shes not fixed at the end, and people can identify with that?
People desperately want to read the next book because shes a different person. Even though its a solid ending at the end, it feels like its missing a beat. I havent actually read the fourth one yet so I dont know how it ends, but I definitely like the transition from the first and the second. The second one was my favorite one, even though Im hardly in it.
Have you ever had a situation where fans sent you something kind of crazy or very extreme?
I got sent a lot of different books on Scientology by a Scientologist fan. Its quite funny actually, almost the whole series on Dianetics. She wanted me to be a Scientologist. But I mean it must have cost quite a lot with all the packaging. And I got sent this really well-bound book with all these Unibomber-type notes. I thought that was incredible.
What did they say?
Similar type of things Will you marry me? sort of stuff. I thought it was pretty amazing, just like, long, hundreds of pages.
Did you read the whole thing?
Yeah pretty much. I mean, theres only so much adoration you can take before you start thinking, Is a thank you note enough, or do I actually have to say yes to one of these people? [Laughs]
Do you think people have trouble distinguishing you from your character?
Yeah. Then they always get really embarrassed and they say, Sorry! I called you Edward. [Llaughs] I think people will really want something to pin their ideas on. In Italy [before the movie came out], I was literally walking straight out of the novel. But its probably a good thing.
You said that when you read the fan sites that theyre all kind of similar voice.
I get a lot of e-mails from my agent saying [fans send] complaints about my security and all that stuff, and theyre really professionally written. Its something about fans of books theyre obviously much more literary. When youre in crowds, everyones like, We love you! But the actual letters and stuff you get are amazing, and thats the most surprising thing about it. Theyre surprisingly well written, everyones got really good vocabularies and they correct each others grammar and things like that. Its quite funny.
I dont really know how it defines the group of people, but you always think, youre an obsessive fan, but you seem like a logical person, so I dont understand how the two things go together.
Do you have any gay teenagers contacting you?
Not really. Its really just increasingly more and more straight guys than gay guys unless my gaydar is just not really working. Its just started happening recently. Theyre all kind of a little bit embarrassed about it, but theyll all go up and still get their book signed or whatever. Im so used to like writing to girls I always keep writing like, Love, romance and kiss, kiss, kiss that I have to like cross it out, Oh, sorry about that.
Tell me about an experience you had where you just found someone hiding and watching when you were on set.
Its just weird. I mean again though, all really nice people. It seemed completely logical to them why they were there: We like it. We want to see it. And they were so blunt about it. I think if we were shooting it now itd be such a different story. The crowds were getting bigger and bigger and bigger as we were shooting; theyd be out all night with us at a shoot.
But theres something to be said by it being different group than the people who scream at Jonas Brothers shows.
Yeah, and they defend it as well. They dont want to be associated with other groups. Like, you see little things on message boards and stuff whenever I get any negative publicity, you get literally 400 comments just saying like, Shut up! Youre just writing this like so people will go and do this for your site. I dont know. I never expected any of this from this job. [Laughs]
Who do you think is more intense, the Twilight moms or the younger girls?
The more intense letters and stuff come from younger people. The, Im going to kill myself [letters]. Thats always a little bit worrying. But the Twilight moms are everywhere. Its unbelievable. Every single time we do an appearance theyre always in the front row, and buy their tickets way in advance. Its pretty intense. Theyre always really nice though; no one seems crazy when you meet them. They just like the books.
Theres so little literature aimed at girls, so it becomes very hyped and successful. Theres definitely a kind of clan mentality with the fans, and people want to be part of the group. They like defending it, because a lot of people say its cheesy, and I think a lot of it is an outsider mentality the whole book, the whole kind of fantasy genre
But then outsiders who also arent really outsiders.
Not anymore. When the outsiders become strong its incredibly powerful. As the movies been happening and the magazine covers, more people think its legitimized and more people buy the book; everything is kind of galvanized. Thats why I dont really feel bad about the hype or anything, because its not someone whos forcing it down anyones throat. The reason we were on the VMAs is cause all these fans sent e-mails accosting us. Its not someone whos paying for this its all fan-driven so its completely out of anyones hands.
Related Stories:
- Hot Actor: Robert Pattinson
- Review: Twilight
- Robert Pattinson Vs. the Jonas Brothers: Who Has the Crazier Fans?
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