Robert Pattinson talks about trying to act while surrounded by fans and paparazzi, meeting Pierce Brosnan and memories of 9/11 while filming Remember Me
Robert Pattinson talks about trying to act while surrounded by fans and paparazzi, meeting Pierce Brosnan and memories of 9/11 while filming Remember Meu00a0
Brit pin-up Robert Pattinson takes on American romance drama Remember Me, a film set outside the realm of house elves and vampires. Pattinson talks about sharing screen space with Pierce Brosnan and playing an American youth in Remember Me, that is set against the 9/11 attacks.
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| Pattinson at the Cannes Film Festival last year PIC/Francois Durand/Getty Images |
The notes said this is a story about love and loss.u00a0 Have you ever lost anyone dear to you or a pet?
Yeah, I mean, to an extent. It's terrible. I keep talking about my dog all the time. It was an incredible pet. The dog was the most important part of my life.u00a0u00a0 My family went crazy with me for saying that. However ridiculous it may seem to some people, it was one of the defining moments of my life. It was the worst day of my life when it died. I've lost a lot of family members as well. It's strange that when people talk about acting, they say things like, 'Picture your dog dying if you want to cry.' I would never do that. It cheapens the memory so much. [Laughs] I don't know if that really answers the question.
How do you focus on your performance when surrounded by fans?It is really just like blanking out.
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| Rob gets mobbed at the UK premiere of Remember Me
PIC/ Dave Hogan/Getty Images |
In the beginning, I had loads of problems with it because it was really crazy when we were filming around Washington Square Park.u00a0It was just complete mayhem.u00a0 There was this moment when one of the security guys saw me getting more and more angry with these paparazzi guys and he just said, "Okay, imagine going over and trying to hit someone and missing, in front of 40 cameras," and that was enough. It didn't really bother me afterwards. It's weird.u00a0 I did a film where I hardly knew anyone on the crew or anyone because I couldn't get out of my trailer when we were shooting, especially for the first month. I mean, I didn't know any of them.u00a0 But, at the same time, it's quite a good lesson in life -- discipline.u00a0 At the end of the day, you can't just say, "I'm not doing it until these people go away." It was way more intense than any of the Twilight films. There's never even that many people who turn up for that.u00a0 It was definitely an experience.
Does it distract you while acting?It makes you a little more self-conscious. You can't experiment as much as you would like to. In the rehearsal period, you've got these people videoing it and so you can't do silly things to get comfortable. I'm shooting for a film now where there's no one around and I feel a million times more comfortable. But at the same time, there are certain qualities about Tyler, like being a little bit clenched and hiding and suppressing a lot of his emotions, so maybe it helped.
What are you doing where no one's around?u00a0 Are you shooting in Siberia?u00a0How do you escape it?[Laughs] It's in England for one thing, which is very different from the States. The hysteria around the Twilight stuff, I mean. It's growing a little bit, but it's completely different.u00a0 But it's a period thing, so we're in all these stately homes in the middle of nowhere and so people just can't find the places.u00a0 Half the crew can't find the places.
What is the title?It's called Belle Ami. I've been shooting it for two weeks.
How is it playing an American?u00a0
I grew up watching tons of American films. That's kind of why I wanted to be an actor--from watching Americans. In other words, I feel more comfortable speaking with an American accent in films. I think it feels like more of a film to me.
I feel like I'm kind of pretending when I'm using my own accent.
What was it like working with Pierce Brosnan? You had to keep that tension on the screen.u00a0Did that
bleed over?There was no tension at all.
He's really nice. I had no idea what to expect from him.
He's incredibly hard-working.u00a0 There's not a hint of pretense or anything about him. If I wanted to rehearse or I wanted to talk about something with Allen (Coulter, director), he'd always be willing to come across.u00a0 He'd cancel things to go and talk about it. Considering we didn't have that many scenes together as well, he would always come and I'd want to talk about it all the time.
So yeah, he was great in that respect.
Any tips from him on being a celeb?He did one thing on the first night I went out to dinner with him, just before we started shooting. We were in this old fashioned type of French restaurant with all these banker-looking guys. They didn't recognise me but they obviously recognised him. He's probably their idol in many ways. He noticed these people looking over and I'm sitting there and getting more and more self-conscious. He goes up to them and introduces himself to everybody in the restaurant. At first, I was saying, "You're completely insane." But it worked so well! He talked to them for about a minute, and people stopped looking around. You could tell they were going to go home and say, "That was such a nice guy." And there's nothing weird about it, being in the restaurant with him afterwards.u00a0 You're no longer a kind of freak.u00a0 But he's got phenomenal confidence and so he can do that type of stuff. If I went up, it would look like I was trying to start a fire or something. "Hey, how ya doin', huh?" I mean, it would look really stupid.
Do you seek out counsel from people on ridiculous mobs? I think it's all really simple. From what I've seen of how people are judged in the public arena, the majority of those who get beaten by it are just the people who are seen all the time. If you're not seen that often, you'ore ok. As long as you keep attempting to make quality films, your name stands for something other than just a meaningless celebrity. It's a kind of difficult battle. You've got to make the work mean more than your celebrity.
People like Johnny Depp have done that. He's not judged at all for his public image.u00a0 It's just his work that's judged.
It's a lot of discipline and a lot of hiding, which you have to get used to.
Are you making more music?Yeah, I want to do it at the end of the year. All my friends are recording albums nowm so I'm very annoyed about it. But I can't do two things at the same time.
I don't know how people do it.
All these people like Jennifer Lopez, they do everything all at once. My mind is in a completely differently place. I don't even listen to music when I'm working.
The film refers to September 11th, 2001.u00a0 Do you remember that time?u00a0Yeah, I was still at school. I was doing my mock exams and my teacher came in and said, "You need to stop doing what you're doing and everyone needs to go watch." And the whole school was brought down to watch the television because they were saying, "Your entire generation's lives are going to be completely different from this point on."
I think it will be for maybe the generation after us as well.
It ended up being a massive event in my life.
What was your favourite scene?The scene in which I confront Caroline's (Ruby Jerins) bullies.u00a0 That was the most fun to do.
I really liked working with her, mainly because you don't have to do anything. You could just look at her. It's one of the only times I haven't been self-conscious.
She was always leading the scene.
Remember Me releases in India on May 7
Robert Pattinson sang a number called Never think for the original soundtrack of Twilight, the first film in the Twilight Saga series
