Actor Robert Pattinson has shown a deft ability to dodge the typecasting potholes of many a young, highly attractive actor.
His star first went supernova with the massively popular “Twilight” films. But since then Pattinson has challenged himself and fans with some interesting roles that weren’t the expected easy choices, but proved his considerable acting chops.
Now, in a new, expansive interview with GQ, the actor explains how his ability to draft different personas in his films has aided him in, shall we say, crafty truth skewing when it comes to interviews and his own history.
The interviewer first delves into Pattinson’s creative process at finally coming to his take on Batman, which leads to a wider discussion of how he defines himself or even the job of acting.
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The interviewer claims, “Pattinson tells me that sometimes he’ll just make something up in an interview, in order to say anything at all -- and that it has at times come back to bite him (for instance, comments he made years ago about not washing his hair that have followed him to this day)."
"It all gets a little slippery," he continues, "when someone tells you they sometimes deliberately lie. But it feels like it adds up with several of the other stories Pattinson shares with me.. and in between there are just a bunch of roles Pattinson’s playing besides a movie star and celebrity."
Then comes a flurry of funny to bizarre stories Pattinson relates of times where he chose to take on characters in real life.
A particularly strange tale involved his desire to get with the cool kids in high school, and thought pretending to be a drug dealer was one way to accomplish that.
“Some of us decided that I’d pretend that I was importing drugs. But I didn’t even know what drugs looked like,” Pattinson admits. “So I had this idea I’d get floppy disks, open up the floppy disk, pour this kind of powder stuff inside, and then spray it with, like, some kind of cleaning product so that it’d smell chemical-y, and seal all of it in. I bought, like, 40 floppy disks, and then I’d show it to kids who were probably 15 or 16, and I’d be like: Yeah, I’m importing drugs in floppy discs. And everybody believed me. And I kind of got this reputation that: This kid is crazy. He’s a drug dealer!”
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Despite the many surprisingly wacky scenarios of his youth that Pattinson details in the piece – which the interviewer admits seem to swerve from “honest” to “constructed” – the actor seems to have condensed those follies into his character building and script choosing.
“I’m constantly doing risk assessments,” said "The Lighthouse" star, in regards to choosing roles, “which drives everybody crazy, trying to predict every single element that could possibly happen.”
Now though, as "The Batman" soon comes to theaters, supernova status should beckon again for Pattinson, especially given the intriguing trailers that have promised a fulfilling reboot.
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