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.