Rob's Interview with Grazia Magazine (Scans + Translation)

 

Translation of the quotes only and summary of the journalist's comments. The interview took place in a hotel in Bervely Hills at the end of July.

The journalist mention his 2011 Vanity Fair interview were he talked about not being able to write anywhere or to go out of his trailer. They say he refused the roles that were offereed to hom. "It was hard, he tells us smking his electronic cigarette. I was watching all the Twilight actors getting big while I was doing nothing. Sometimes I would tell myself: come on Rob, do a blockbuster, a stupid comedy..." He didn't cave and he was right.

The journalist mentions that he reads a lot, from Marton Amis to David Foster Wallace but also Houellebecq, that he idolizes: "The last time I went to France, he asked me out for coffee..." Robert blushes, rolls his eyes and continues while laughing. "But I didn't go! I was scared! I didn't read La Carte and le Territoire (The Map and the Territory) and told myself it wasn't right." Since forever Robert writes. He even developed an adaptation from one of Lilian Hellman's books, an american author victim of the McCarthyism in the 1950s. (Rob mentioned this in his Vanity Fair 2011 interview). This project never saw the light of the day, just like the dozen of scripts that sleep in his drawers. "I met producers here but nothing I ever write could ever be produced. For studios, if the concept isn't simple enough to be put on the market, it's dead. Thus, the movies the most distributed in theaters aren't the most demanding. And the funny thing is as an actor you have to try getting those roles in those kind of movies to gain popularity. In short, you have to be in stupid things, those are the rules in this industry."

The journalist says Rob is always preparing himself for the worst. "I'm waiting for people to tell me in a few years: 'yes i remember you but what have you done after Twilight?' It's kind of scary, isn't it? "Sometimes I feel like I'm in this huge black hole of douchebags... In those moments, I have to make the effort of reconnecting with reality or it can be unfathomed."

When asked what's the greatest thing Twilight brought him to this day, Robert gives a surprising answer: "On the set, I discovered the best shawarma of the world, in Vancouver." About celebrity, he would get rid of it if he could. Money? "Yes ... but I have a tormented relationship with money, I don't like spending too much. I thnk the most extravagant purchase I've made was a batch of 50 baseball caps on Ebay but in the whole lot I only like one."

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