Vogue Australia
Triple J
25:45
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The five blockbuster "Twilight" films aren't fondly remembered as an actor's showcase, but since saying goodbye to the franchise that made them into overnight superstars, both Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart have proved their worth as performers by taking on challenging fare not tailored for the Twihards of the world.
This was especially obvious at this year's Cannes Film Festival, where the duo were both on hand in support of what many deemed the best performances of their respective careers. For Stewart, that was as an assistant to an actress in Olivier Assayas' "Clouds of Sils Maria." For Pattinson, it was as Rey, a socially awkward American struggling to stay alive in the Australian outback in David Michôd's grim follow-up to "Animal Kingdom."
With "The Rover" opening in select theaters on June 13, Indiewire spoke with Pattinson about this challenging post-apocalyptic role.
David said he put you through the "wringer" during your three hour audition for the part. What did he make you do?
I mean, he did it at his house in LA. I don't know, it was kind of, it was slightly nerve-wracking. I always get incredible anxiety attacks when I audition. I try to avoid them at all costs. But I loved the script so much. I had an idea of how to do it as soon as I read it.
[The audition] was just long. Normally you do two takes in an audition and that's that. I think that's why I've always messed them up over the years... I also had a really good actor reading with me as well, which helps. But yeah, I mean, it wasn't like it was grueling or anything. It was quite exhilarating. You could tell that David was great even in the audition. I would have almost been happy not getting it. It was a great experience just doing the audition.
You obviously sold him on your interpretation of the character. What specifically was it about Rey that clicked with you?
I really like the structure of the character. There's basically only two long dialogue scenes where he reveals anything about himself, when he's not under total duress. But I really like having these incredibly dense dialogue scenes that are filled with subtext. Even the rhythm and the cadence of his speech reveals a lot, and it's put in the context of a sort of stark story, where people don't really speak in any other scene. It just allowed you to do tons with the character. It was so loose. That really appealed to me.
Rey speaks in a really specific halting manner. Was that all in the script, or was that something you brought to the character?
Sort of [laughs]. I remember reading it the first few times… It didn't even say which state he was from. It just said the South in America. I kept saying to David, "I think there are some Australian accents in the Southern." Australian speech is very staccato and clipped. And Southern is kind of lilting and wistful traditionally. I think that's what created the halting thing. But that's just how it read in a lot of ways. There's a lot of repetition in the script -- just to make repetition engaging, you have to figure out something weird to do with it instead of just repeating yourself.
My favorite scene in the film is also its most unexpected, when you break out into song, singing along to Keri Hilson's feel-good "Pretty Girl Rock." Did you have any say in the choice of song?
I think it was originally the Pussycat Dolls song, "Don't You Wish Your Girlfriend Was Hot Like Me?" I remember reading that in the script and thinking, "That's incredible." Then they found the Keri Hilson thing and it was the absolute perfect choice of song for it. I sing basically the whole song. I thought it was kind of genius.
You sing the track with complete conviction, which I found oddly touching in a way.
I liked the idea of this guy who's just about to make probably the biggest decision of his life, as a normal film moment. He's deep in concentration but there's nothing going on. I kept thinking about that moment in "The Simpsons," where you see what's going on inside Homer's head — the organ grinding monkey [laughs]. I kept thinking it was kind of that moment.
The film is so bleak and unforgiving. It looks like it must have been hell to shoot. Was it?
Oh, no! It was literally one of the most fun shoots I've ever done. That always seems to happen when you're doing something that's incredibly depressing. It was one of the most fun characters to play as well. You're so free to do almost anything that you don't even know what you're doing to do when you turn up to work. It was quite exciting. Also I hadn't done a movie in a long time where the whole crew is there with you. It's such a different environment when you're working like that. It's like camping. I thought it was really fun.
You've worked with David Cronenberg twice now, and have upcoming projects with Werner Herzog and Oliver Assayas. Are you drawn more to the director rather than the character you'll be playing?
It's a bit of both. It also kind of depends on the size of the part. Most of the parts I'm playing in the last few things are supporting roles. In the Herzog movie I was just working for ten days or something. When you're doing a lead in something, you obviously have to think about if you can do it, for one thing, or if you can add something to it. But I think it was just that after working with Cronenberg, it's working with really ambitious, confident filmmakers. I've got a checklist of directors I want to work with and a lot of the time I'll do anything in their movies. But it's not just kind of willy-nilly, I'll do any movie. I do think about it a little bit. [Laughs]
On the list of life's great pleasures, walking down a grim street in a one-horse Australian town probably doesn’t rank very high.
Yet if you're one of the world most recognized -- and harangued -- faces, it can have a remarkable effect on your psyche and work.
So it went, at least, for former “Twilight” star Robert Pattinson. The actor made the new post-apocalyptic Western “The Rover” in the otherworldly solitude of remotest Australia -- veritable ghost towns with names such as Leigh Creek and Quorn -- allowing him to escape the maddening swarms and focus on his acting as never before.
"It was great, just being able to be out there with no one around,” the British heartthrob recalled of making David Michod’s Aussie indie, which opens Friday, before giving his trademark laugh: a nervous chuckle that can seem to go on a half-beat too long and is decidedly at odds with the suave sullenness of the vampire role that made him famous.
Added Michod: "I don’t think I ever saw an actor so happy as when I saw Rob coming down the street toward me all by himself. He was practically bouncing."
Maybe big stars should shoot in a down-under desert more often. In the waning years of his "Twilight" period and in the two years since, Pattinson, now 28, tried to redefine himself several times. He made a romantic melodrama, a period circus piece and a tale of the French nobility adapted from a Guy de Maupassant novel.
Yet though there have been shards of promise -- his oddly introspective Wall Street tycoon in David Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis" in 2012 -- Pattinson has never shown the range he does here.
The tabloid fixture plays a vulnerable-yet-resolute man left for dead by a cruel older brother (Scoot McNairy) in a post-apocalyptic wasteland (10 years after “the revolution,” in the movie’s cryptic title card). He’s able to tap into new acting depths opposite Guy Pearce, the veteran Aussie actor who also does some of his most notable work in years.
Set in a futuristic world that resembles the violent desolation of the Old West as much as anything in “Blade Runner” (though “Mad Max” comparisons are inevitable), “The Rover” centers on Eric (Pearce), a stoic survivor type who seems to have lost any ability for human connection. When his car is stolen by a gang led by McNairy's Henry, Eric sets out on an unexpectedly zealous quest to find them, and it.
Soon he comes across the apparently slow-witted Ray (Pattinson), left for dead by the side of the road after an altercation with Henry. Eric and Ray then become an unlikely pair, each haunted by their particular circumstances but united in their desire to track down the man who wronged them.
Though some viewers have objected to Michod's deliberative narrative pacing, the director is after something different than a conventional road movie, an exploration of theme and character as much as where its heroes are literally going. Pearce and Pattinson exchange few words in the film, but "The Rover's" ultimate takeaway is of the bonds of human connection that persist (sometimes) despite the lack of civil society.
These relationships, the actors say, came naturally to them.
“We didn’t have to go out of our way to connect," Pearce said. "When you’re living like that in a small town and doing nothing else besides the movie, a relationship can’t help but develop.”
As he speaks, he and Pattinson find themselves in the opposite of an apocalypse, hanging on a couch together on the rooftop deck of a Cannes Film Festival hotel, the Riviera coastline stretching out glitteringly below them. "This isn't terrible," Pearce said, grinning. Pattinson is wearing the kind of moth-eaten clothes that look trendy only on famous people.
But the actors went the extra mile for the movie, shooting in southern Australian towns that time forgot to serve the vision of Michod, the indie darling who returned to difficult terrain after his debut crime drama “Animal Kingdom,” also starring Pearce, garnered him Hollywood attention.
Pearce bicycled and jogged early in the morning before shooting, or late in the evening after hours of takes, trying to keep focus in the sweltering heat for a role that often required him to convey complicated emotions without speaking a word.
Pattinson too spent long hours hammering out an accent -- it’s somewhere between an exaggerated Southern drawl, an Australian outback dialect and Lennie Smalls -- that even he assumes (not incorrectly) can’t always be understood. He also arrived in Australia two weeks early to work on the character and, while shooting, demonstrated a curiosity about the role that his colleagues describe as surprisingly diligent.
“I think Rob was really inspired that people were so into it,” said the Australian actress Susan Prior, who has a key scene opposite the film’s two stars. “In a way, maybe he hadn’t experienced that before because on the bigger ones an actor isn’t really part of that process of exploring.”
She cited one scene in which Pattinson gamely agreed to lie motionless on a tabletop while Prior’s character, a doctor, sutured him up, even though he had a body double and could have left at any point. (The film's producer, David Linde, called Pattinson "really intellectually curious.")
Still, working on an indie requires a certain adjustment for a star such as Pattinson. When his agent first called with news of a conversation with Michod, Pattinson believed he had been offered the part. "’No, no,’ he said,”Pattinson recalled, quoting his agent, “‘it's just an audition.’ I had to stop celebrating."
The actor wound up going for an audition at Michod's house in which he became so hesitant to do a scene he hadn't prepared that he nearly walked out. "Rob said he hadn't prepared it but I think he just didn't want to do it,"Michod said. "But we started working on the scene in the audition, and then it became play, he swam to it like a little fish."
Pattinson said that despite having to audition, he was grateful for the shot at the "Rover" role. “I was quite conscious that I was not part of a group that gets roles like this,” he said. “In my experience, a part like this goes to the skinny little weirdo.”
He added, “The one for us and one for them doesn’t exist anymore. There’s no guarantee of getting a cool indie after a big studio movie.”
For all the perceptions that he can write his own ticket, Pattinson said that assumptions about his career -- including the one that he’s routinely offered big studio parts -- are mistaken too. “I've never really been part of that group either,” he said. “Maybe because I don't work out enough," he added, giving the nervous laugh again.
Pearce said he didn’t give Pattinson acting or career advice but did find himself wondering about aspects of the actor's fame. “There was this curiosity about how Rob does his job with all the attention he’s gotten, just how he copes with it.”
He said he did tell Pattinson to avoid the kind of movies, especially bigger ones, that he might cringe at later, no matter the money or advice of his representatives. The "humiliation," as Pearce called it, isn't worth it, and if you don't feel it, chances are the audience won't either. (The veteran added that this philosophy has motivated him to work more with directors such as Michod, or a then-green Christopher Nolan in “Memento,” rather than take the mostly villainous supporting parts in studio blockbusters. Incidentally, and perhaps tellingly of this post-"Twilight" moment, as this story went to bed, Pearce was being cast in another indie, the sci-fi love story "Equals" -- opposite Kristen Stewart.)
Not that Pattinson entirely has a problem with embarrassment.
He was so taken with the solitude of the "Rover" set and the absence of paparazzi that came with it that one day before shooting he decided to shock the crew -- a Pattinson specialty -- by relieving himself on the set just outside of camera range.
“’Rob, we’re ready,’” he said, mimicking the voice of an assistant director. "And I walked onto set and I could almost hear them saying, 'This guy is weird.'"
Pattinson said he believes that some of the real value of doing an indie like this is on the marketing side, because it will help new audiences discover the movie.
“That would be amazing," he said, when asked if some of his teenage-girl devotees might now see a violent Western they never would otherwise come out to. Then he gave the nervous laugh again. “I don't know. I might end up losing a bunch of fans.”
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A Hardworking Pupil
How would you describe your character, Rey?
‘He’s very… dependent. He’s been told by everyone around him that there’s something wrong with him, that he’s kind of deficient in some way, and it’s not really established whether he is or he isn’t.’
What were some of the challenges in bringing Rey to life?
‘Mainly the costume! It sounds ridiculous but that was the most important part. As soon as I got the right pair of jeans – we went through, like, a million pairs of jeans! – And once we found the right jeans for him to plod around him, and sneakers that were slightly too big, [it all came together].’
The former vampire of The Twilight Saga was one the starS in Cannes where he presented The Rover, a radical road movie.
"I'm starting to like it". Outside, a huge wind is sweepinp across La Croisette. But this time, Robert Pattinson is not responsible. They are real blast of winds that are trying to destroy the tent that has been set up on the terrace in the Palais des Festivals. The actor will trigger off a tornado in the evening while he was going up the stairs for the midnight screening of The Rover. Since the selection of Cosmopolis last year [in 2012], Pattinson feels at home in Cannes "When I saw the reactions to the film, I thought I was on the right path. I started to be recognized as a true actor, not as the Twilight hearthrob anymore."
However we won't see The Rover as a mere excuse to achieve it. The movie made by the Asutralian director, David Michôd, known for Animal Kingdom, should stay as one of the striking alien movie this year. We discover an Australia burdened by an economic apocalypse, a guy (Guy Pearce who is aweseome) angered by the robbery of the only thing he had: his car. The quest to get it back becomes an obsession. And the corpses are going to add up. We think a lot to Mad Max, another post apocalyptic australian delirium and we are admirative in front of the project's radicalism. (A few words but a lot of driving). Nihilism to which Pattinson, with rotten teeth, contributes. We'll soon find him with another crazy director, Werner Herzog "I will never deny the Twilight era. But I love the cinema. I'm currently buying tons and tons of DVDs, in order to improve my movie culture. In front of Herzog, I behaved like a fan. I still have a lot to learn."
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Hi Robert! Welcome to Sydney. Tell us, what piqued your interest in the film?
‘I thought the script was so sparse and direct. It even looked different on the page, like the formatting was different. There were no commas! I thought it was so original, and my agent told me it was an offer, and I was like “Really? I never get offered stuffed like this!” And then he was like… “Oh no, I sent you the wrong email, everyone’s auditioning for this.” [laughs].’Can definitely relate to that feeling! How important is fashion and costume is to a movie? Is it something you really focused on?‘It’s massive for me! It’s weird though; I had such a specific look in [The Rover] – down to the colours of the t-shirt. We did a few screen tests and [when you have the right clothes] you suddenly walk different.’
What was the hardest scene to shoot? There are so many graphic, confronting moments.‘My hardest scene – and this is probably a bit of a giveaway – but I had to have a pipe up my leg, with three guys controlling my pump, and that was probably my biggest scene in the movie. I didn’t know how complicated it would be with the set up.’
What do you think makes Australian film unique?'For the last few years, it suddenly became such a unique genre. I don’t know what it is! There’s something about it being so isolated – I think it feels very foreign. I think there’s a confidence in the filmmaking that doesn’t exist elsewhere. In Australia, there’s kind of vitality to it. A grim vitality.'
News Australia
I don’t know, it’s all a great unknown to me. You know, I love the idea of being able to take a person who I can only imagine his talents have been grossly underestimated.
This is a good movie for him, along with the Cronenberg films.
He’s a really smart guy with great taste. And he knows the filmmakers that he wants to work with. But, who knows what it will mean for the movie in the public consciousness, you know? I have no idea whether or not it will work for us or against us. But, I don’t really care — because I love the surprise and the revelation of it. And I would hope that people embrace it, because I think he’s really good in it. It was never going to be enough for me that he gave just a good, solid performance. It was always important for me that he give an extraordinary one — and I think he does it. He and Guy both.
Whose idea was it for Robert Pattinson’s character to have tics?
That was his. They felt organic. I don’t know how conscious and deliberate they were for him, but when I was watching them, they felt like this nice little organic manifestations of the character.
And you dirtied him up.
[Laughs] It had to happen. For me, Rob’s character is like a lost puppy dog. He’s lost his owner and he just kind of latches on to the first person he finds. It happens to be a particularly bad choice.
Such was the hysteria, even The Rover’s director, Sydneysider David Michod, admitted he sympathised for his leading man who — even three years after the last Twilight film wrapped — cannot shake the adulation.
“All the time ... I feel for him all the time,” Michod said on last night’s red carpet.
“It’s kind of nuts the bubble that he has to live inside.
‘Beatlemania’ and it was one of the extraordinary experiences of working with him out in the desert. It was so freeing for him.
“Those leading guy roles are all extremely confident characters and I am just not confident. I would feel weird faking that confidence.
“The action guy who does the little quip at the end of killing somebody? I would sound like a psycho.”
Pattinson said he and co-star Guy Pearce, with whose character he forms an uneasy alliance in The Rover, had compared notes.
“We’re not really considered for those normal leading man roles — well, maybe I was for a little period after Twilight. I guess I gravitate towards niche things but also those are the things I get offered.”
Pattinson, who spent a month on location in South Australia while filming David Michod’s hotly-anticipated follow-up to Animal Kingdom, says the closest he is ever likely to come to playing a classic leading man is his role as T.E. Lawrence in Werner Herzog’s Queen of the Desert, which stars Nicole Kidman.
“I was playing Lawrence of Arabia! They are huge shoes to fill,” he said.
“I think it was my most challenging role so far. It was certainly the scariest, even though I only had a few scenes.”
The 28-year-old actor said Kidman was very different to how he expected she would be.
“I guess maybe I saw her as quite untouchable. I was only in Morocco for about 10 days, but she is really funny and super accessible — just hanging out with her kids.
“She was really easy to work with. I really liked her.”
Pattinson, who was photographed coming out of an LA gym immediately prior to boarding the plane to Australia, puts his relatively recent conversion to treadmills down to age.
“When you get to your late 20s, you start turning to fat. It’s crazy. You actually have to think about what you eat. It’s so annoying,” he said. “I thought it would happen a bit later.”
Source: NewsAustralia via: rplife
David Michod Talks about Rob
ABC
Starts 15:10
From Screen Crush:
I know you hadn’t seen the ‘Twilight’ movies before casting Robert Pattinson, but what does his fame bring to this movie? Does that help? Can it possibly hurt?
From The Herald Sun:
“I hadn’t seen the Twilight movies but friends of mine had said he (Pattinson) was an interesting guy,”Michod said in Adelaide.
Did they get along off screen?
Totally. They’re both really beautiful human beings and given the nature of the shoot and that we were out in the middle of nowhere in really challenging conditions meant that after a days work was done we really bonded in a warm and special way.
From Daily Telegraph:
“I hadn’t seen the Twilight movies but friends of mine had said he (Pattinson) was an interesting guy,”Michod said in Adelaide.
Did they get along off screen?
Totally. They’re both really beautiful human beings and given the nature of the shoot and that we were out in the middle of nowhere in really challenging conditions meant that after a days work was done we really bonded in a warm and special way.
From Daily Telegraph:
“There are kind of very few people in the world who can inspire that sort of bizarre
“To be able to sit out in the street with him at the end of the day and drink a beer.
“It was quite amazing.”
Pattinson, who gives a standout performance, hates auditioning but Michod used the process to explore the character of the wounded man who Eric (Guy Pearce) kidnaps in the movie.
“I put him through four hours of what he would call hell and I used three hours and 55 minutes to explore the character with him,” says Michod. “He has a really beguiling physical energy, clearly smart, and he was actively seeking out directors whose work he liked.”
From Cinema Australia:
How exciting was it for you to get Robert on board. There’s a huge commercial element and a built in audience that comes with Robert, so was that a factor in your excitement?
It remains to be seen because I never know what the commercial results of having an actor in your movie might be but there is certainly a thrill to be had in knowing that you’ll be working with someone who is as profoundly famous as Robert is and giving them an opportunity to demonstrate a skill set that people possibly don’t even know he has. I think Robert is extraordinary in this movie. I’ve obviously seen it a thousand times and I just love losing myself in his performance and I love watching him and Guy bounce off each other. Two wildly different characters having to figure each other out performed by wonderful actors. This is what the thrill of directing is all about.
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