Archive for 9/1/14 - 10/1/14

'Maps to the Stars' is the title of the new David Cronenberg film starring Robert Pattinson.

It refers to the Hollywood cartography that informs tourists where to find the homes of their favourite actors. Anyone buying one of these plans will be tremendously disappointed if they are looking for the home of Britain’s most famous vampire. Last year the actor decided to sell his mansion in Griffith Park, near the famous Hollywood sign in central Los Angeles, saying he was too young to be tied to such a lavish property and instead wanted to lay low and live life to his needs rather than his means.

“The house was so amazing,” he says of the abode that he sold for $6.37m. “I wasn’t really thinking when I got it. I was just living in LA and had been living in and out of hotels, and you have money for the first time.”

TORONTO – For a man who emerged as the fully formed and fully fanged vampire heartthrob in the Twilight saga, Robert Pattinson almost seems too fully dimensional, too human, too real to be locker pin-up material. But he’s managing.

The British actor who played Edward opposite Kristen Stewart’s Bella Swan says he’s learned to adapt to a complete lack of control when it comes to public perception, which is one reason why he loves working with David Cronenberg so much.

Pattinson played the lead in Cronenberg’s 2012 outing, a limo-bound narrative about greed, corruption and self-contained narcissism called Cosmopolis. And he returns to Cronenberg’s bizarre landscapes in Maps to the Stars, a truly odd Oedipal yarn woven through a Hollywood loom.

It’s late afternoon in Cannes, and heartthrob, Robert Pattinson, 28, appears to be having a good time at the world’s most glamorous film festival promoting the Rover, starring alongside Guy Pearce, 46. He will also star opposite Julianne Moore, 53, in Maps to the Stars, both slated for release this summer.

His hair is short, he has a little facial stubble and he’s wearing a turquoise jacket, black shirt and dark jeans and sneakers.
Pattinson is of course best known for his role as Edward, a vampire who falls in love with a human, Bella, played by on again off again girlfriend, Kristen Stewart, 24, in The Twilight Saga.

Since then, Pattinson has taken on more serious roles such as Remember Me (2010) and Water for Elephants (2011) in which he starred alongside Reese Witherspoon.

The Twilight star was curious about how the local favourite tasted. So managing and artistic director at the Jean Yip Group, Mervin Wee bought her a packet.
"She loved it," chilli and all, he said.
Kristen Stewart had her hair cut at a private room at the Jean Yip Loft at Chinatown for her role in sci-fi Hollywood film Equals.
Co-star Nicholas Hoult had his hair done at the one-north MRT Station while the 107 other cast members had their at the Infinite Studios at Portsdown Road over five consecutive days.

As a freelance entertainment journalist/writer/hack you can tell how valuable an actor’s time is – at least to the studio offering him up for interview – by the amount of time you are given with him. Other factors include how many people he has around him and whether or not you are asked not to ask any personal questions.

In the case of Robert Pattinson, he is pretty valuable. While I am not asked to refrain from personal inquiries – the publicists know I don’t go in for that s*** – the former star of the Twilight series is having his time here at TIFF divvied into four-minute increments, such is the demand.

The movie Pattinson is here to promote is Maps to the Stars. It is his second film with Canadian director David Cronenberg after 2012’s Cosmopolis. He was the lead in that film but has a secondary role in Maps, playing Jerome, a Hollywood limo driver with screenwriting ambitions. Mia Wasikowska (Only Lovers Left Alive) plays Agatha, a disfigured young woman with a secret connection to a high-powered Hollywood family, who employs Jerome to drive her around.

In your films you’ve portrayed talented men who burn out young – Ian Curtis in Control, and now James Dean and photographer Dennis Stock. Are you interested in the myth-making process that happens around these guys?
Anton Corbijn: If anything, it’s unmasking because I always bring it down to very normal life. In photography I can imagine that people think I make images iconic, but with films I don’t think that’s the case. The film with James Dean is actually about the photographer. He’s the lead role, they just share screen time. I had a similar experience when I was young in Holland. I became the photographer of somebody who became the biggest rock star we ever had there (Herman Brood), so it was interesting to see how that balance works when I thought I was helping him and he probably thought he was helping me. It’s the same with this story.

Was it an easy process casting Robert Pattinson and Dane DeHaan in your upcoming film Life?
Anton Corbijn: Dane didn’t want to take a meeting with me initially, as he couldn’t see himself in James Dean’s shoes. But he was persuaded by a mutual friend, and said yes in the end. He’s fabulous, a very good actor. Rob was interested in the film because he really wants to prove himself and for me that was great for that role. If you look at the roles he’s taking on – like the ones withCronenberg – he really wants to do very different, non-mainstream films and get out of that pigeonhole.