“As soon as I have a set plan, it will just go wrong. Trying to almost purely rely on intuition is better.” – Robert Pattinson
While actor Robert Pattinson is still best known for his roles in the Twilight films, that’s not a result of his lack of trying. Over the last seven years, Pattinson has appeared in a variety of challenging roles, including Maps to the Stars, The Lost City of Z, and Good Time. Speaking with IndieWire to promote his new film High Life, Pattinson spoke about how his acting technique has changed over the years and how he determines his next roles.
Pattinson reveals that his approach to acting has significantly changed since his earlier years as an actor. He explains, “When I first started acting. I needed to know the psychological profiles of my characters very, very intimately. And then I realized that as soon as I try and do something where I feel like I’ve got any kind of understanding of it, it’s just a disaster. As soon as I have a set plan, it will just go wrong. Trying to almost purely rely on intuition is better. It’s easier for me to just guess, basically. I used to have scripts which were covered in notes, and now I have nothing. At all. Pretty much ever.”
After Pattinson finished his commitments to the Twilight series, he concentrated on working on projects that were close to his heart. He says, “The first movie I did after Twilight finished was Cosmopolis, and from that point on every single thing I did was stuff I really wanted to do. None of them were stepping stones to anything. I think for me the main thing is being okay with doing little parts in things — it really, really, really frees you up to do stuff.” Later, he added, “I became an actor to do interesting movies — that’s the thing I care about. If my career becomes making arthouse movies for one patron, that’s cool with me.”
In fact, Pattinson points out that actors can’t listen to naysayers when deciding what to do next in their careers. He says, “There’s always a corner of the audience who feels affronted if you’re trying to make something personal and difficult, and you should never listen to those people. They’re doing a disservice to themselves.”
