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Sydney Press Junket: Rob's Full Interview with Ten:

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Rob's Interview with Glamour UK:

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See interview transcript here. 

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LOS ANGELES — The pert blonde in the headset peeks into the airless basement conference room. “Rob will be here in five minutes,’’ she says, flashing a smile.

The Rob to whom she refers is Robert Pattinson, the 24-year-old British actor whose penetrating gaze and masterfully moussed hair have helped propel the “Twilight’’ films into a $1.8 billion franchise — with two installments still to be released. Teenage girls around the globe fill Tumblr pages with testimonies to his hotness. Paparazzi stalk him tirelessly, mouths watering. Perimenopausal women, old enough to be his mother, dare to dream.

The blonde in the headset returns. “Rob will be here in one minute.’’

It’s clear now this is no mere estimation. Watches have been synchronized. Spreadsheets distributed. Clipboards clipped.

For two days, Pattinson has been holed up at this luxury beachfront hotel, talking to swarms of reporters, bloggers, and television crews about his latest film, the Depression-era drama “Water for Elephants’’ that opens Friday. Based on the romantic bestseller by Sara Gruen, it’s the story of a young veterinary student (played by Pattinson) who, after losing his parents in a tragic accident, jumps a circus train and falls in with the crew, including the show’s brutal and ambitious owner and his beautiful wife.

Costarring Oscar winners Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz, the film marks Pattinson’s first big-budget role since “Twilight’’ turned him into a pop-culture sensation. If the young actor hopes to have a broad career beyond the B-movie (some would say C-movie) realm of angsty teen vampires, “Water for Elephants’’ could smooth the way.

When the conference room door finally swings open and the superstar lopes in — shuttled apparently through some sort of underground utility tunnel — he is flanked by his manager and a massive bodyguard. The blonde waits nearby, not smiling now, but looking at her phone, her schedule, listening to the voice on the headset.

In the windowless hallway beyond, a cluster of studio types mill about, texting, talking about what’s next, who’s next. Off to one side is another man, eyes like black ice, who looks as if he would happily sink a steel throwing star in your left temple if you made one wrong move.

The main attraction has arrived.


Investing in earnestness

For a guy on the twisty tightrope of mega-stardom, Pattinson is surprisingly candid, less cagey than you would expect. When the situation calls for it, he can be jokey, such as when he quips to reporters that he took the role of Jacob Jankowski so he could work with an elephant. Or that wearing authentic 1930s underpants helped him get into character.

But ask him serious questions and Pattinson gets thoughtful, reflective, invested

Sitting in this nondescript basement, door closed, bodyguard gone, the blue-eyed Brit muses about the difficulties of playing Jacob, whose life has been marred by tragedy, but who holds on to an essential goodness. He gets theater geeky about character and motivation. At one point, he goes so far as to toss out a line about “moral transience.’’ Suffice it to say, this is not the kind of stuff that gets the readers of Us magazine all tingly.

“Sorry,’’ he says, taking a swig of coffee and grinning sheepishly. “I’m just, like, rambling.’’

And there it is. That strange alchemy that’s made Pattinson one of the biggest stars on the planet, that’s earning him an estimated $25 million combined for the last two “Twilight’’ films. One part self-deprecating charm, one part smoldering sincerity, one part unbelievably effective hair products.


Impressing the director

There are plenty of people who would take issue with such a reductive view of Pattinson’s gifts, and not just the fan girls who trawl YouTube and websites that keep tabs on his every move. Waltz, who plays the vicious circus boss, doesn’t understand why anyone might question whether his young costar can hold his own in the sweeping period romance.

“I take offense, in a way, on Rob’s behalf at the interest in his ability as an actor,’’ said Waltz, who won an Oscar last year for his brilliantly creepy portrayal of Nazi Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds.’’ “He’s an actor. He’s a grown-up. He is not some silly kid. Why does everybody expect something else? It’s unfair.’’

Of course, Hollywood is littered with promising castoffs. Kids who couldn’t make the jump to adult roles. One-hit wonders. Actors who got typecast and never escaped the strictures of the role that made them a star. For all his success, Pattinson comes with baggage, a corona of fame that can make it difficult to see the actor behind the celebrity. It’s the kind of baggage that can pique a director’s interest, or make him run for cover. “Water for Elephants’’ director Francis Lawrence fell into the first category, with a few qualifiers.

“I was wary about him,’’ Lawrence says. “All I knew was ‘Twilight,’ and it’s such a stylized piece, and it’s hard to see who the guy really is with the makeup and the contacts and the hair.’’

In truth, when it comes to Pattinson’s resume, there’s not that much else to know. Born and raised in London, he made his first splash in 2005’s “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’’ as the doomed Cedric Diggory. TV roles and a couple of minuscule art-house films followed, but Hollywood was not clamoring. Pattinson has famously said he had almost given up on acting when he landed the role of Edward Cullen in “Twilight’’ opposite Kristen Stewart (now rumored to be his girlfriend). Besides starring in last year’s tepidly received “Remember Me,’’ the vampire franchise remains the actor’s calling card.

So Lawrence, who directed Will Smith in the 2007 apocalyptic thriller, “I Am Legend,’’ sat down with Pattinson to kick around ideas about the “Elephants’’ role and get to know him a little. Lawrence came away impressed. Then the director got him in front of a camera and came away, in a word, stunned.

“I thought he was right once I met with him for the role,’’ Lawrence recalls. “But then you suddenly see him onscreen that first day, and you kind of realize, holy [expletive], I think we’ve really found something here that’s pretty amazing.’’

Pattinson felt the same way.

“I like to think that I have quite good taste in movies, and I want to make the kind of movies that I’d like to see,’’ says the actor, who has previously named “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’’ “The Exorcist,’’ and Godard’s “Prenom Carmen’’ among his favorites. “Water for Elephants’’ “is definitely in a direction of things I want to make,’’ he says. “I think it fills a need. I haven’t seen something like it for a while in the cinema, just the level of detail that people put into it, and artistry.’’

As evidence, he launches into stories about legendary production designer Jack Fisk, best known for his work with Terrence Malick; costume designer Jacqueline West; and the joy of working on a set that felt as if it had been created in the 1930s.

“I really felt like it was only about making a movie with this film, which was one of the big reliefs,’’ Pattinson says. “There’s going to be no sequels. And you just get people who are the best at their jobs and you tell them, ‘I just want you to do your best work in a creative way.’ ’’


Minding the juggernaut

That, of course, is not always the way it works on a franchise, especially a multi-billion-dollar juggernaut such as “The Twilight Saga.’’ Department after department has a say, and a vested interest, in how “Breaking Dawn,’’ the two-part finale of the series, looks and feels when it finally hits theaters — the first part this November, the second part next year.

Pattinson is both frustrated by and fiercely protective of the franchise that has made him a superstar. On the one hand, he grouses that after doing three of the films, “you’d think you’d get more power as an actor, but you get less and less and less.’’ On the other, he is obviously excited by the work he has done on “Breaking Dawn,’’ which is being helmed by Bill Condon.

Which is why today, amid the reporters and the film crews and the cold coffee, Pattinson is furious. Just a couple of days earlier, top-secret pictures from the “Breaking Dawn’’ film set had been leaked online. At this point, these movies are like his children. His costars, like family. For someone to hack in and spoil the surprise, to ruin it for the multitude of fans out there, well, Pattinson won’t have it.

“I’ve been sending out messages to all the good ‘Twilight’ fans to find out who [the hackers] are and kill them,’’ he says. He is joking mostly. But not completely. Pattinson’s got a lot riding on all these movies. He knows this time in the spotlight is precious. Because sooner or later, the circus packs up and moves on.

SOURCE |Youtube|alexandra1116| Via 

LOS ANGELES- “It’s a secret,” said Robert Pattinson, breaking into laughter. He was just asked to talk some more about the script he is supposedly writing, based on a novel by Lillian Hellmann, as disclosed in a Vanity Fair cover story on the actor by Nancy Jo Sales.

Robert claimed that it was “one of those times when you say in an interview that this is off the record, when you are just really excited about something. She’ll say, ‘Yeah, of course.’”

The “secret” was disclosed in the cover piece but Robert clarified that his screenplay project is not based on one of Lillian’s novels. “It’s just something Lillian Hellman wrote.” Laughing again, he said, “I can’t really say what it is.”

The “Twilight” series star balked at giving more details.

But other than that, he was his usual, easygoing self, quick to be the first one to laugh at himself. In our latest encounter at a meeting room in the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, he played with a water bottle as he fielded questions.

“I used to write a lot more when I wasn’t getting acting jobs,” he revealed. Chuckling, he said, “You dream about writing parts for yourself.”

He added: “The more scripts you read and the more movies you see get made ... you think, what’s the point in just producing something when you feel you can write something? I used to write all the time when I was younger … I will probably write under a pseudonym, because otherwise everyone will just tear me apart immediately.”

Robert revealed details on another matter that has been drawing a lot of speculation—that he is playing Jeff Buckley in a biopic about the singer-songwriter who drowned in 1997. “I met his mom who’s really great,” he said of Mary Guibert, executive producer of the film reportedly going to be directed by “Welcome to the Rileys” director Jake Scott. That Robert talked to Mary indicate that both are at least exploring the idea. “I don’t know,” he said, then hinted, “It’s really not up to me. I love Jeff’s music. He was amazing.”

He is modest about his own musical abilities. “I don’t really think I can sing like Jeff,” Robert said. “He was unique. Also, I can’t play guitar like him either. It would involve quite a lot of work. If someone just imitates Jeff’s voice, it wouldn’t be right. It’s always about the script. You have no idea how it’s going to represent someone.”

In “Water for Elephants,” he plays a veterinary medicine student who drops out and joins a traveling circus that’s trying to survive during the Depression. Asked for his memories of watching a circus, he reminisced: “I’ve been to a circus once in my life. My sister told me that a clown died when they did a stunt. I was only about 7 years old. I freaked out, but my sister told me when I was about 19 that she made it up. I still haven’t been to a circus since I’ve done the movie. I really want to go again.”

Robert, 24, who pretends to be a fully licensed vet in the film, was asked if he has bluffed in real life. “Definitely,” came his quick answer. Flashing his mischievous grin, he narrated: “I was unemployed in London for ages. When I came to LA to audition, everyone and all the casting directors would be like, ‘So what have you been doing all these years?’ I was like, ‘I’ve been studying. I went to Oxford and then I went to RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art).’ If you have an English accent, you can get away with it. I did it for years. A little bit after that, I realized that didn’t really work anymore when loads of English people started moving to LA.

“So then I pretended to be an American for a bit and then when ‘Twilight’ came out, I still tried to pretend to be American. People thought I was insane at the auditions, so I stopped.”

Pressed for some details on “Breaking Dawn” Parts 1 and 2, Robert, who of course plays Edward Cullen, said: “The first film out of the last two is definitely less solemn just because of the subject matter. There’s a kind of finality to it. Edward is always so fraught about everything … But in the second one, there is a kind of rage to finish off all his problems once and for all. It’s definitely a lot looser. Bill Condon is a very different director compared to the other ones we’ve had. So yeah, hopefully, it will be really different.”

On whether he still finds time to go back to England and if his fans there are not as fervent as in other parts of the world, Robert answered: “It used to be like that but it has become a bit more intense in the last two years or so. I hardly ever get time to get back though, which is annoying. Generally, the people who come up to me in England are Italians and Americans.

“The English people are a little bit embarrassed to come up, but it’s funny. I was in an HMV (music/video store) when I was last there. I was buying some ridiculous movie and there were ‘Twilight’ posters all over the store. These two guys just literally refused to look up when they were ringing up the register.”

He acknowledged how being away is a challenge to keeping in touch with family and friends. “It’s quite difficult to stay close to your family because of the time difference,” he admitted. “My family is in London. If you’re working 16-hour days, you can’t really call, especially because whenever you have a break, you just want to go to sleep. But luckily, my friends do jobs which also involve tearing around all the time so they’re in the same boat. We all very much rely on our friendship staying strong even if we don’t see each other for months.”

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With his new film Water For Elephants, Robert Pattinson stars as Jacob circus veterinarian who falls in love with Marlena (Reese Witherspoon), the wife of an ill-tempered ringmaster (Christoph Waltz). Based on Sara Gruen’s bestselling Depression-era set novel, the picture was directed by Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend) and shot by renowned cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (Amores Perros, Brokeback Mountain).

“I think it definitely has a lot of romantic elements to it,” said Pattinson, when asked what his fans should love about Water For Elephants. “I think it’s a pretty beautiful movie, I think it’s different to a lot of other stuff that’s come out. I haven’t seen anything like it in a few years. When I was making it I felt like I was being transported somewhere else and hopefully that will be captured in the movie.”

You might know him best as the vampire Edward from "Twilight," but Robert Pattinson is full of life in his newest movie.

Tara Hitchcock sat down with Pattinson to talk about "Water for Elephants."

When he first signed on for the movie, he thought it was a relatively small role.

"It's strange. When you read the script, I hardly have any lines at all," he said. "I read it really quickly. I read it the same day I met Tai, the elephant. I really wanted to work with the elephant so I kind of rushed through the script."

Pattinson shares much of his screen time with Tai, and the two developed a bond.

"There's something about knowing that this creatures kind of knows you," he said. "You're so proud of it. ... There was a scene when we were both inside the train car and we both fell asleep together and she literally had her trunk around me. We were both fast asleep. I thought, 'How many times can this happen in your life?'"

Pattinson also adored his human co-star Reese Witherspoon.

Based on The New York Times Bestseller, "Water for Elephants" opens on April 22.

Later this year, Pattinson will appear in the third installment of the "Twilight" series.

Source / via: LaSagaRobsten

LOS ANGELES – “She is quite a flirt,” the 24-year-old heartthrob, Robert Pattinson, said of his 9,000-pound co-star, Tai, the lovable pachyderm in his latest action-drama movie, “Water for Elephants.”

The feeling is mutual as the “Twilight” sensation kisses the trunk of Tai during our pictorial with both of them in the parking lot of the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica.

“Tai has done more movies than me,” Robert said blushing. Tai, who lives in Perris, California with principal trainer Gary Johnson, is a motion picture veteran who has done several movies already including “Bigger than Life” and “The Jungle Book.”

Based on Sara Gruen’s 2006 novel of the same title, the movie is about Jacob Jankowski (Robert), a vet student, who falls in love with The Benzini Bros. Circus’ star performer, Marlena (Reese Witherspoon), who is married to the controlling ringleader and circus owner, August (Christoph Waltz). Jacob and Marlena become closer to each other when both take care of Rosie the Elephant (Tai) who is nearly nine feet tall.

So how did he bond with his new pet love, we asked. “I don’t know if there was a real trick to the special bonding,” he said. “I just fed her a lot of peppermints. That’s about it. That’s the way to get an elephant to like you. Feed it Jelly Beans and peppermints every time you see them and then she started following me around. But I don’t know if I learned a lot about elephants in general. Tai is unique in just being so intelligent. She is phenomenally intelligent and she could even do impressions of other animals. It was totally ridiculous. She was kind of a freak among the elephants but I like them. I had an amazing time working with her.”

Robert admitted that working with animals gave him a different perspective on animals. “It’s definitely a totally different experience being on a set where there are a lot of animals,” he revealed. “There’s a calm that it creates. People are a lot happier. Nobody was complaining about anything every single day. I guess it provides a perspective on what you’re doing when you see an elephant that is just kind of content with pretty much anything if you give him some food. I treat animals in many ways the same as I treat people. I’ve met a bunch of new people on the job. God, that sounds like I’m completely insane.” He laughed.

Robert, who lost a dog last year, just adopted a new one from a shelter recently. “His name is Bear,” he disclosed. “He’s just a mutt from a shelter and he had this thing called Parvo. We took him to the vet. I don’t know but I think I am the kind of person who will adopt a whole shelter. In fact, if I were an animal, I would be a dog. A dog kind of fits into my lifestyle quite easily sitting around watching TV, doing nothing.”

With the last installment of the “Twilight” series almost over, Robert revealed he would love to have more control over the jobs he do. “I hope my career will allow me to do that as I get older,” he confessed.

But what he is really looking forward to, he said, is “to be able to live in a neighborhood without worrying that people are going to break into my house. I’m pretty happy with things really. I’d like to write some of my own material and have a little bit more time to do jobs rather than being a rush through everything. And maybe, do movies where it doesn’t mention ‘Twilight’ in the first line every single time. I’ll see what happens.”

• • •

Reese Witherspoon, who just got married to agent Jim Toth in a private ceremony at her ranch estate in Ojai, California, revealed that she wore a classic Monique Lhuillier wedding gown at her wedding.

“The gown was just really beautiful,” she said. “Monique can probably describe it better than I can. All of her gowns were so beautiful and she’s been a family friend of Jim’s for a very long time. So it was very nice to be able to go into her atelier and have her make this beautiful dress. It was really an honor.”

Her daughter, Ava Elizabeth Phillippe, also wore a Monique Lhuillier creation at her wedding. Reese also changed into another Monique Lhuillier dress for her wedding party.

The 35-year-old actress revealed that it was inevitable to marry somebody who is also in the industry. “It’s one of the inevitable things about love and work. I work a lot and I usually run into people who work in the same business as me. There’s sort of a shorthand. This business has its own shorthand, its own vernacular and the same people you see over and over again. It’s kind of natural that you would gravitate towards someone who understands what you do for a living.”

We asked her where her bravery comes from in the choices she has made in her life like starting over in love, dating a younger man, singing in a movie and the like. “Maybe it’s just foolishness,” she said and laughed. “As I get older, I get more nervous. I don’t profess to any kind of expertise in love. I’ve had all my ups and downs. And when I do films, I literally shake for five days before I start a film.”

As for working with Robert, Reese said, “When you work with Rob, there are lots of paparazzi and lots of fans around and they were showing up in buses like literally on the set. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s definitely a phenomenon that I haven’t seen this amount of attention or excitement about an actor in a really long time. Before I met him, I wondered how he handled his popularity. I didn’t have that kind of instant popularity. It built slowly for me. The loss of privacy is always difficult.

“Meeting Rob, I noticed he really handles it as best as you possibly can. As a 24-year-old man who travels the world and is internationally known, he’s a very quiet guy. He loves to read and watch old movies and he’s very smart. He’s not out at nightclubs, trying to make himself more famous and getting throngs of women following him around. He’s very quiet and shy and sort of stays at home a lot. I’m always trying to drag him out and he’s like I can’t go there. His family is really nice too and they came to the set. That helps tremendously to make you feel grounded. He has a great support system from his mom, his dad and his sisters. It seems like he’s got his head on straight.”