Commenting on the Critics with Simon Columb…
Robert Pattinson keeps schtum about his relationship with Kristen Stewart. Amy Kaufman for the LA Times writes…
“The actor’s manager would not allow Pattinson to sit alone for an interview with The Times, and even suggested that reporters not ask him about his personal life, or Twilight. But Twilight, of course, is how Pattinson has become perhaps the most widely recognized young actor of his generation.”
Read the full article here.
It is an interesting read because, though I’m not following the Kristen Stewart / Robert Pattinson / director-of-some-film drama, I have noticed how quiet Pattinson has been on the issue. I also appreciate the film choices he has made, and what that says about his character. I haven’t seen a forced effort to make a point, merely a quiet confidence and awareness about what he needs to do at this stage in his career. Silence is Pattinson’s forte.
Pattinson broke out in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire when playing Cedric Diggory, a crucial role in the film. Only a couple of years later he was cast as the infamous Edward Cullen in Twilight. After the almost back-to-back filming of the series, Pattinson has only appeared in smaller films Bel-Ami (earning only $7m worldwide!) and Remember Me, as opposed to the action lead role of Twilight co-star Taylor Lautner in Abduction and Kristen Stewart’s Snow White and the Huntsman.
Now, Pattinson has released a film with Cronenberg in Cosmopolis and soon he is due to appear in David Michod’s follow-up to Animal Kingdom (with always-appearing-in-Oscar-winners-actor Guy Pearce) in The Rover. After this, he is in Werner Herzog’s alternate-take (it seems to be about a female traveller and explorer in the same time period) of Lawrence of Arabia, as he plays the role of T.E. Lawrence himself, in Queen of the Desert. Then he appears in Mission: Blacklist – directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire – director of celebrated African, brutal-realist film Johnny Mad Dog.
These are not A-list choices – these are films that prove your acting chops. Personally, I have no real interest in the Twilight films and, in the same way as Shia LeBeouf has recently claimed how he does not intend to star in blockbusters anymore, it seems that, silently, Robert Pattinson has made the same decision.
This can only be good – as I hope that when the R-Patz fans inevitably get a little older and see the Twilight series as a nostalgic guilty pleasure, they will appreciate the decisions Pattinson has made. I have a funny feeling that, as Leonardo DiCaprio starred in Woody Allen and Danny Boyle films following Titanic, Pattinson is choosing his roles carefully and waiting for the craze to blow over. In the same way that his romance with Kristen Stewart is a temporary filler for the pages of the tabloids, his popularity in the actors circuit could equally be temporary. Out of Daniel Radcliffe and Robert Pattinson, for me, I think I know who will be around in ten-years… and he doesn’t have glasses.
Originally published August 20, 2012. Updated April 10, 2018.
