Robert Pattinson finds himself in a ācanāt winā situation
NEW YORK ā Jon Stewart tried to bait him with Ben & Jerryās Karamel Sutra. āGood Morning Americaā host George Stephanopoulos offered him Cinnamon Toast Crunch. But maybe French fries would have been a better ploy to get Robert Pattinson to spill some juicy personal details about his breakup with costar Kristen Stewart.
āMedia culture is a monstrous thing,ā Pattinson lamented Wednesday afternoon, jamming fries into his mouth between puffs on his electronic cigarette. āYou canāt win. The annoying thing is that you canāt attack them, but you canāt defend yourself. The best thing you could possibly do is punch a paparazzi and give them their big payday.ā
FOR THE RECORD
Pattinson box office: An article in the Aug. 17 Calendar section reported that actor Robert Pattinsonās film āRemember Meā collected $8 million domestically in 2010. The movie took in $8 million in its opening weekend and ultimately grossed $19 million domestically.
The 26-year-old actor has run a gantlet of publicity this week that was nominally about promoting his new film, āCosmopolis,āwhich opens Friday. But the promotional blitz, which also included a New York premiere and other stops, seemed to be as much about proving his emotional resilience in the wake of the tabloid bonanza that exploded after photos surfaced of Stewart in compromising positions with 41-year-old Rupert Sanders, who directed her ināSnow White and the Huntsman.ā
PHOTOS: Robert Pattinsonās career in pictures
Sitting alongside Pattinson for moral support at the Mandarin Oriental hotel on Columbus Circle was āCosmopolisā director David Cronenberg. The Canadian filmmaker, whose challenging art house films almost never garner such wide attention, was there as a sort of buffer but also appeared to be quietly amused by the media circus. The actorās manager would not allow Pattinson to sit alone for an interview with The Times, and even suggested that reporters not ask him about his personal life, or āTwilight.ā
But āTwilight,āof course, is how Pattinson has become perhaps the most widely recognized young actor of his generation. In the movie franchise, based on Stephenie Meyerās bestselling young adult novels, he plays a brooding vampire who falls in love with a human girl (Stewart). The film series has grossed over $2.5 billion worldwide since launching in 2008 and will conclude in November with a fifth installment, āBreaking Dawn ā Part 2.ā Pattinsonās off-screen romance with Stewart only stoked the popularity of the vampire movies.
When the Stewart-Sanders affair burst onto the cover of Us Weekly in July, it initially seemed like there was little upside for Pattinson. But Stewartās public apology generated not only sympathy for the man wronged but also a fresh wave of interest for āCosmopolis,ā which had premiered to mixed response at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
PHOTOS: Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart through the years
That could help Pattinson as he strives to craft a post-āTwilightā career. While both of his āTwilightā costars, Stewart and Taylor Lautner, have each taken center stage in studio pictures, Pattinson has mostly stayed in the indie world. His biggest non-āTwilightā film to date was last yearās āWater for Elephants,ā a modestly budgeted period romance with Reese Witherspoon that took in a respectable $117 million worldwide. Pattinsonās less-commercial projects, however, have tanked at the box office ā the Sept. 11 dramaāRemember Meā only collected $8 million domestically in 2010, and the 19th century-set dramaāBel Amiā flopped in June, never expanding beyond 15 theaters.
In āCosmopolis,ā Pattinson plays a young billionaire on the verge of financial ruin who self-destructs over the course of one day, and he has earned some of the best reviews of his career for his performance as the detached whiz-kid.
Cronenberg, who adapted āCosmopolisā from Don DeLilloās book of the same name, said he felt Pattinson was right for the part largely because of his good-looking face, which appears in nearly every frame of the movie. Before casting him, the director watched all of the films the London native has appeared in, and viewed a number of interviews with Pattinson on YouTube to get a better sense of his personality.
REVIEW: āCosmopolisā money and mind games spin their wheels
āThe strength of the āTwilightā movies is not the acting,ā acknowledged Cronenberg. āBut itās not understood that doing āTwilightā requires presence and professionalism. Are you saying this is an Academy Award performance, or Alec Guinness? Thatās a whole other discussion. But you throw somebody on a grueling set like that ā a normal person would be dead in an hour.ā
Warming to his own defense, Pattinson interjected: āWith this movie people keep saying, āIs this gonna be the movie where he can prove he can act?ā Itās like, āWhat do you think I have been doing?āā
āBy the way,ā Cronenberg added, āheās a British guy doing an American accent. People donāt realize that there are a lot of very good actors who cannot do accents, and they donāt give Rob credit for that.ā
āOh, give me anything!ā Pattinson said with a laugh and taking a drag on his cigarette, which glowed an electronic red with each inhale.
Still, itās clear Pattinson sometimes questions his acting ability. Before production began on āCosmopolis,ā he said he was so unsure of his ability to pull off the role that he sat ātrembling, absolutely terrifiedā during the first screen test.
The nerves are somewhat surprising, considering Pattinsonās part in āCosmopolisā doesnāt seem all that distant from his own life. Like his character in the film ā who remains isolated in a limousine for hours as he slowly traverses Manhattan to get a haircut ā Pattinson said that since āTwilightā opened, he has āhad four years of gradually being put more and more into smaller and smaller boxes, and you have a desire to break out.ā Heās also a part of the 1% ā according to Forbes, he earned $12.5 million for the last two āTwilightā pictures ā a number he says is ācompletely not true.ā
āWeirdly, I went to the bar the other day and there were a bunch of people protesting some 1% thing,ā he recalled. āI drive this kind of [junky]-looking truck sometimes because I started surfing ā itās this 2001 Silverado I bought off of Craigslist for, like, $2,000 or something. So I was hiding in the back of the truck when I saw the protest thinking, āI donāt want to get involved in this.āā
The demonstrators, Pattinson said, didnāt recognize him and a friend. āWhen the protesters saw us, they were like, āWeāre not even shouting at you. Youāre driving this piece of .... Youāre not part of the 1%.āā
Pattinson insists heās terrible with his finances: āThe only thing Iām good at with money is blowing it. I donāt even understand [what I spend it on]. I have the exact same lifestyle as when I was 15.ā
āLook at the way he dresses,ā chimed in Cronenberg, alluding to Pattinsonās informal, almost frat-boy get-up of a polo shirt, jeans and backward cap.
The actor said he feels a pressure to appear āunbearably conservativeā because he senses his every move is being scrutinized. He says heād like for bankers to be hunted by paparazzi and TMZ instead, but knows thatās unrealistic.
āThe tabloid industry does terrible, terrible things for the world. It makes people stupid,ā he said, his cheeks flushing. āPeople say [tabloids] are about escapism, and people have got to get away from the misery of the world. Itās like, āNo, people are lazy, and they donāt want to try.ā ā¦ Every time Iāve looked at a magazine like that, Iāve regretted it. I gain absolutely nothing from it. And neither does anyone else.ā
ALSO:
9 things we learned from the āCosmopolisā trailer
Kristen Stewart could still reprise āSnow Whiteā role, studio says
Stewart-Sanders cheating scandal: does it matter if they didnāt have sex?
PHOTOS AND MORE:
PHOTOS: Celebrity portraits by The Times
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TIMELINE: Kristen Stewart cheating scandal
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