When ‘Twilight’ first hit theaters in 2008, no one really saw the cultural appropriation coming. It started out as just another adaptation of a popular young adult (YA) novel, but became a worldwide obsession: hit numbers and heavily influencing teen movies. Even now people can’t stop talking about it, be it nostalgia, memes or pure love. And in the center itself? Robert Pattinson went from smaller indie work to instant heartthrob as the dashing, flamboyant vampire Edward Cullen.Looking back, ‘Twilight’ changed Pattinson’s life overnight. Big numbers at the box office, fans watching every move and endless debates, even from critics. That legacy stuck. Now, almost 20 years later, Pattinson is reflecting on his ‘Twilight’ days, and noticing some things he never caught on to.
What Robert Pattinson revealed about his ‘strange’ acting choices
As he reflects on his first film franchise, ‘Twilight’, there is one acting opportunity that Pattinson still thinks about. In a recent chat with Vogue, Pattinson, now 39, joked about finding a bit of unintended weirdness in an opening cafe scene.He described how, sitting down for the first time, he pressed two sets of index and middle fingers on the table to lower himself, and it felt “elegant”, maybe even “vampiric”.“I saw something the other day, which is quite funny, when I’m sitting in the coffee shop for the first time, and I literally didn’t notice this, and I, for some reason, go sit on the table like this,” he said in the interview. “I thought it was a cool, vampiric thing to do. I think that was the thought process,” he laughed, adding, “But looking at it 20 years later, you’re like, ‘Wow, that’s really weird.‘”That’s what ‘Twilight’ is all about. Pattinson’s performance was dead serious: it wasn’t winking or ironic. Everyone took the story very seriously, even though it’s literally a romance about a vampire and a human girl.Pattinson told the outlet: “I really love that movie. I think I would do it the same way, to be honest, I don’t even think I’d be able to do the performance now,” adding: “Everyone was taking it really seriously and they took it really, really, really seriously.”“There was no tongue-in-cheek element. No one is winking at the audience,” he continued. “It’s like it’s very real, which is rare for a movie about vampire romance.” He even admits to envying his younger self for being able to dive in without cynicism.Pattinson, in fact, has always been pretty candid about the whole “Twilight” phenomenon, too. In 2019, in a chat with Jennifer Lopez, he called the story “weird” but found out why it worked. “I mean, it’s a weird story, Twilight. It’s weird how people have responded,” she said, “They’re very romantic, but at the same time, it’s not like The Notebook is romantic. The Notebook is very, very sweet and heartfelt and stuff. Twilight is about this guy who finds the only girl he wants to be with, and he also drinks blood.“I definitely thought there were parts of it that were very romantic,” he added, “But to me, it felt like a pretty weird story, and even when I was promoting it, I was pretty open about how weird I thought I was doing it.”That odd commitment really says a lot about where Pattinson’s mind was at the time. He wasn’t trying to make Edward look realistic or average: he wanted every movement to feel a little bit off, to remind people that Edward wasn’t even human.And for that, he wouldn’t change anything. Pattinson shared that his love for the film comes back to him every time he talks about it, especially how seriously everyone took it.
Robert Pattinson’s filmography over the years
For Pattinson, ‘Twilight’ took him to crazy levels of recognition. But he also threatened to enter as nothing more than a teen idol, and over the years, he really had to work to escape. So instead of following the obvious path, he took big swings.He also started choosing indies with unusual directors and strange scripts. ‘The Lighthouse’, ‘Good Time’, etc. Each role pushed him and the audience in a new direction. Some choices paid off; others were, well, weird. But at least it was unexpected.Finally, Pattinson returned to huge blockbusters, but on his own terms. With ‘The Batman’, he returned to prominence as a vibrant and complex leading man, not just another face of the franchise.To date, Pattinson is still a box office draw, but he’s just as respected in the indie world.His latest work, ‘The Drama’, co-starring Zendaya, is a romantic comedy-drama about a borderline relationship. The film has got a lot of appreciation. As for the rest of the year, ‘Dune: Part Three’ (where he will dive into another big science fiction world with Denis Villeneuve) and ‘The Odyssey’ (another ambitious collaboration with Christopher Nolan) will hit the theaters.
