@newnewpollution: TURNS OUT THE GUITAR ON DEATH GRIPS' "BIRDS" IS ROBERT FUCKING PATTINSON.
@newnewpollution credits on the new vinyl release of Death Grips' Government Plates.
It's been confirmed that this is true. Zach Hill recorded Pattinson's guitar with his iPhone and the band sampled the recording on the track.
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It’s late afternoon in Cannes, and heartthrob, Robert Pattinson, 28, appears to be having a good time at the world’s most glamorous film festival promoting the Rover, starring alongside Guy Pearce, 46. He will also star opposite Julianne Moore, 53, in Maps to the Stars, both slated for release this summer.
His hair is short, he has a little facial stubble and he’s wearing a turquoise jacket, black shirt and dark jeans and sneakers.
Pattinson is of course best known for his role as Edward, a vampire who falls in love with a human, Bella, played by on again off again girlfriend, Kristen Stewart, 24, in The Twilight Saga.
Since then, Pattinson has taken on more serious roles such as Remember Me (2010) and Water for Elephants (2011) in which he starred alongside Reese Witherspoon.
Famous for his good looks, Pattinson is often seen topping the ‘hottest’ lists in many publications such as People (2008 and 2009) and Glamour UK, yet he remains humble. He is also the face of Dior Homme, which he took on after Jude Law.
THE INTERVIEW:
Q: Are you a fan of the Mad Max films?
PATTINSON: I have actually never seen them. I have been asked so many times this morning and I have never seen it. (laughter) I guess I have got to see it now.
Q: This whole genre, is it familiar to you?
PATTINSON: Yeah, but I think this one is kind of different. I mean, it’s not like everyone has gone crazy, and they are cannibals. There feels something more real about it, and also I think the world where the movie is set, it’s not that the entire world is like that, they are just in the middle of nowhere. The country has just become very unstable and anything could collapse at any second. It’s sort of like the new society is trying to be born again.
Q: Is the collapse of society a familiar fear to you that you can relate to?
PATTINSON: Not really. I think the world is quite resilient, but I don’t know I think it would be a bit of fun. But I am a bit of a nihilist. (laughter)
Q: Was it fun on the set with Guy Pearce? Was he intimidating?
PATTINSON: No, and he’s also really strong as well. So when you are being thrown around, it actually hurts quite a lot. (laughter) And he was really in it the whole time because he’s really not like that.
Q: So he’s a good actor like you. Is this something that’s really important to you when you work?
PATTINSON: Yeah, one hundred percent. I mean, I think, I always hear some actors saying they didn’t read reviews or care about it, and I just think they are making it up. (laughs) Everybody cares about it; whether people think it’s good.
Q: What was the most difficult thing for you to create this character, to make him special in a way?
PATTINSON: I mean a lot of it was just there in the script at the beginning and I just really connected to it. I mean the most difficult thing was getting the job. But I think once I was doing it, it was quite fun. It was an exciting part to play and David Cronenberg [David Michôd - the interviewer probably got the wrong David when he transcripted the interview] kind of let me sort of run with any idea as well.
Q: And the accent thing, was that your idea?
PATTINSON: He was supposed to be from the South, but literally only said he was from somewhere in the South, so I don’t know, that was the kind of voice I heard in my head when I was reading the script.
Q: And you said it was more difficult to get the job.
PATTINSON: I mean, I just hate auditioning and I am really, really bad at it. I get so nervous and mess it up for myself and so I have basically tried to avoid doing auditions at all costs. I read the script and I was like, I really, really, really have got to get this part. It’s weird though, preparing for a part that you are already cast and just actually doing it for real and just kind of hoping that your anxiety doesn’t get the better of you in the room.
Q: And you got a phone call? What happened?
PATTINSON: I got a second audition afterwards and then they told me at the end of it, and it was a kind of amazing feeling.
Q: And so was it the first time you went to Australia shooting?
PATTINSON: I have been to Sydney just a couple of times to work, but yeah, in that area definitely.
Q: Are you done with the blockbuster thing or are you possibly returning to that at some point in your career?
PATTINSON: Yeah, it’s waiting for the right director. Nothing has come up and I mean, that’s not saying I don’t want to do it, but blockbusters, big movies just take a really long time to shoot as well. So I think you have to really, really, really want to do it. There’s a lot of pressure and you just don’t get that many interesting parts in big movies, especially for young guys. It’s just the same thing every time.
Q: Lots of comic book adaptations. Is there some character that you would say, yeah, I would do it?
PATTINSON: Yeah maybe, I was never really that into comic books when I was a kid and stuff so I don’t really have that connection. You also have to work out like tons, (laughter) in potentially a movie you might not like. It’s just a big hassle. (laughs)
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Filming The Rover in a remote part of south Australia with cast and crew all staying in a local pub was just about perfect, says Robert Pattinson. The filmmakers all mucked in together, braved filming in soaring temperatures, and at night bonded over a drink or two. Pattinson wouldn’t have had it any other way and says that it helped director David Michôd and his cast and crew build an unbreakable bond.
“It was amazing,” he says. “Because the whole crew was staying in the same place and there was nothing else to do, we were living in a pub. It’s annoying if you’re in an unfamiliar city and all the people you work with are from that city, they all go home, so you’re just stuck in your hotel.
“When you can hang out with a bunch of new people, you get close to them really quickly, especially when there’s literally nothing else to do. It’s really fun. I hadn’t done that for a long time. I had a fantastic experience making this film.”
Pattinson was born and raised in London and started his professional career as a 16 year old in the TV film Ring of the Nibelungs. A year later, he played Cedric DIggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. He starred in five, hugely successful Twilight films and his other film credits include Bel Ami and Cosmopolis.
Q: How’s it going?
“I always forget in the evening that I’ve got to do a bunch of interviews in the morning, so I stay out all night (laughs). It’s horrible!”
Q: How was shooting in rural Australia?
“For me it was really fun. It was kind of relaxing. I loved shooting out there. There was no pressure, and no one around.”
Q: Was it a relief getting away from people?
“Yeah, just in terms of performance. I like doing little things before a take, sort of staying in character a little bit, and if you’ve got a bunch of people trying to take pictures of you doing a stupid face or something, then you’ve just constantly got it in your head, and you’re never really quite in what you want to do. Out there you can kind of do anything you want. They might think you’re a weirdo, this guy doing all this weird stuff (laughs), but it was quite freeing.”
Q: Did you enjoy playing a less beautiful character?
“Yeah, I mean it takes away constraints. If someone’s saying, ‘You’ve got to look pretty!’ for one thing you feel like a bit of an idiot, because you’re a guy, and then you’re kind of thinking about stuff that really doesn’t mean anything – you’re just posing. As soon as you take away the allowance for your own vanity, then it’s kind of a relief.”
When this photo was taken, Robert Pattinson was skeptical that he’d ever become someone. He played music and acted too, but after his supporting role in Harry Potter, he hadn’t gotten any roles for years. Then there was a casting, and Kristen Stewart was so hung up on this dreamy-eyed British boy, that the rest of his story couldn’t be told until Twilight. Then came Bel Ami with Uma Thurman, Water For Elephants with Reese Witherspoon, Remember Me with Pierce Brosnan, then there were three movies, starring Robert Pattinson himself, in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
Anikó Návai: This is your second time in Cannes…
Robert Pattinson: Third actually.
AN: So now you’re getting an honorary citizenship here, in Cannes. How is Cannes for you?
RP: I love Cannes. Probably because when I came here with Cosmopolis I had such a great experience. Every movie I do I wish would end up here. I think this is what I like about cinema. Every movie is not just a movie, it’s not just entertainment, it’s having an experience and you come out of it, you’ll feel different about life and about cinema as well. And I think this is the only festival out there, that is mainly about the art of film that every other festival doesn’t really showcase.
AN: Is it easier or is it more difficult, life after Twilight?
RP: Uhm, I don’t know. It’s kind of easier to not have to basically do a movie. I was, like, constantly working on Twilight, so whenever I had a gap in between the two Twilight movies, I had to fit something else in, and I had no time to prepare for it and stuff. And now I kind of have that time to really decide what you wanna do and it does make things a little bit easier.
AN: And the call comes in and David Michod said that he wanted you to do The Rover with Guy Pierce who didn’t know you and you didn’t know them, and he’s kind of afraid and other actors want this role too. How do you deal with this?
RP: I mean, I knew.. I hate auditioning. I mean I may have done 3 auditions since Twilight, because I’ve always been so bad at it.
LOS ANGELES—“Don’t hate me ’cause I’m beautiful/ Don’t hate me ’cause I’m beautiful/ Now do the pretty girl rock, rock, rock.” Robert Pattinson singing along to Keri Hilson’s “Pretty Girl Rock” playing on the radio in his car, before a violent moment, is a rare humorous relief in David Michod’s “The Rover.” It prompted a question in a recent interview at LA’s Four Seasons on whether Robert plans to record an album anytime soon.
“I’m always trying to figure out how… but it’s quite difficult,” replied the actor, looking boyish with his short haircut, dark pants, black jacket over a brown shirt and white tee. Laughing, the 28-year-old Robert said, “I want to do it before I’m 30 because I think it gets slightly embarrassing after [that].”
Robert revealed that, originally, he was to sing along to The Pussycat Dolls’ “Don’t Cha.” (That would have been a hoot, too.) “But David e-mailed me that Keri Hilson song,” he said. “I thought it was a new song. I didn’t realize it had like 500 million (actually 48 million plus) views on YouTube.”
He explained, “Initially, David was saying that he wanted me to sing it like it was my favorite song—loudly in the car. Luckily, it didn’t end up that way. That would have been a bit too random. But the song is perfect in the movie.”
In “The Rover’s” post-apocalyptic world set in Australia’s Outback, Robert’s Rey and Guy Pearce’s Eric make an unlikely pair hunting for a stolen car. “It’s strange because people are interpreting the movie as being really bleak,” countered the London native. “But [I’m playing a] character who has no memory of what happened before. He’s relatively at ease. It was a really fun part. I wasn’t thinking about it [as] bleak.”
In that context, Robert expressed an optimistic view of humankind despite the film’s desolate, barren landscape that doesn’t seem to offer any hope. “I think humanity [stays] pretty much the same, generation after generation,” the erstwhile “Twilight” star declared. “Everybody thinks the world is going to sh*t all the time.”
Laughing again, Robert stressed, “It ends up being all right. I think that, essentially, humans are pretty good.”
With his character seemingly in danger of being killed any minute, Robert was asked what he would do if he had only a day to live. “I guess I should say, ‘I would hang out with all the people I love.’ But probably, I [would] just want to go crazy.”
Like, do what crazy stuff? “God, I don’t know,” he said with a grin. “I might like to just walk around the Times Square naked or something.”
Do you like the pressure of Cannes?
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Robert Pattinson knows a thing or two about the price of fame, so it’s worth listening when he says he worries about the child stars he meets in Hollywood. “When you see these kids, there is only one way: you either get in therapy now or become a serial killer, or kill yourself. I mean, you can see it really early on—it’s terrifying.”
There is just such a kid at the center of Maps to the Stars, one of two Pattinson films debuting at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Evan Bird, whom you may recognize from The Killing, plays Benjie, a vicious and entitled 13-year-old TV star, and Pattinson plays a chauffeur looking for a break in show business. Directed by David Cronenberg, who previously collaborated with Pattinson on 2012’s Cosmopolis, the film is a savage satire of Hollywood that also stars Julianne Moore as a hysterical over-the-hill actress, John Cusack as a diabolical life coach, and Mia Wasikowska as a warped avenging angel of sorts.
Pattinson has a meatier role in David Michôd’s post-apocalyptic road movie, The Rover, portraying a not-very-bright hoodlum who falls under the spell of Guy Pearce. As the two make their way across the Australian Outback, Pattinson’s character grows more confident—and more deadly—by the minute.
VF.com spoke to Pattinson at Cannes, where his ex-costar and -girlfriend Kristen Stewart also has a film debuting, and quizzed him about how he prepped for the roles, what he finds most ridiculous about Hollywood, and how he handled sudden superstardom at the tender age of 21.
VF Hollywood: David Michôd has talked a lot about the back story for The Rover, which is set “10 years after the collapse.” How much did he tell you about your character?
Robert Pattinson: Well, not a lot. I kept questioning that aspect of it. “What is this economic collapse? I want to know the details about it.” Then I realized it didn’t really make any difference to my character.
Guy Pearce’s character refers to your character as a “half-wit.” Were you playing him as someone with a real disability, or just someone who hasn’t been that well educated?
I was thinking he’s almost like someone who’s been told there is something wrong with him and there actually isn’t—but he has been told there is so many times that he has just sort of accepted it.
He reminds me a bit of Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad.
Yeah, I think there is a similar trajectory. But even if he does prove himself in a dark situation, he really really never wanted to do that in the first place—and it sort of breaks him.
What about those brown stains on your teeth? Was that a process every day?
Yeah, I mean, initially it was [supposed to be that] they didn’t have fluoride in the water so everyone’s teeth were messed up, but then I end up being the only one with really messed-up teeth. I put it down to, he was just one of those kids who didn’t brush his teeth. I think it’s quite a distinct person, and I knew a few of them in school—kids who had brown teeth at 11 and were always, like, really weird.
Are you an end-of-the-world guy? Do you think the end is near unless we change our ways?
Um, not really. Probably because I’m just quite ignorant and I have a nice life. I think everything is quite cyclical. There are definitely some incredibly worrying things—and for the sake of what? So you can play video games all day? It’s kind of ridiculous.
It does seem like there might be a comeuppance at some point. Especially if we behave like the people in Maps to the Stars.
I think they will just eat each other. I don’t think they will affect anyone else. They’re too self-absorbed.
So when David Cronenberg called and said, “Let’s do another movie together,” were you excited?
Yeah, I hadn’t even read the script and I was like, “Yep.” That was another character who didn’t have any kind of back story or anything. I said, “What kind of guy do you think he is?” And he said, “I don’t know, what do you think?” And we are shooting in two days and I’m like, Great. It’s exactly what happened on Cosmopolis. We don’t talk about it at all and then turn up and every single scene I did was one take. It’s ridiculous.
So he just lets you read the script and find the character yourself?
With Cosmopolis, he knew exactly what he wanted. With Maps, he just liked what I was doing on the first take.
Were you guys worried at all that there may be some backlash in the community if you’re making fun of Hollywood people?
I don’t think we were really making fun of it. Though I like how basically the only bad review we got was from The Hollywood Reporter.
You struck a nerve.
I don’t really think it’s taking the piss out of Hollywood. It’s very specific [to these characters]. I think Benjie is probably the truest character. I’ve met a lot of kids like him. The scene with him and the little girls bitching about everybody—you just see that a lot. When you see these kids, there is only one way: you either get in therapy now or become a serial killer, or kill yourself. I mean, you can see it really early on—it’s terrifying.
You got famous pretty early on. How did you cope with that weirdness of being so wealthy and famous at such a young age?
I did Harry Potter when I was like 17, and nothing really happened after that. I mean, I made loads of money compared to anyone my age—it was incredible. But I mean, then I just did little TV things afterwards. But I got to live from 18 to 21, you get your own apartment and basically I didn’t star in Twilight until 21. It’s different because you’re still young, but you’ve had a life beforehand. Where as if you are 10, it’s a totally different thing.
Did you meet Justin Bieber at the Vanity Fair party the other night?
I didn’t, actually. I’ve met him before, though, on his party bus. [Laughs.] I’ve met him a couple of times. He’s all right. [Laughs.]
If you were going to direct a satire of Hollywood, which part would you single out?
I don’t know. People do a lot about aging women, but have you ever read this book called Money by Martin Amis? I thought the old actor, Lorne Guyland, was such a great character, where you can’t let go of being an alpha-male movie man but you’re like 78 years old. It’s funny, because it’s such a feminine trait. It’s so funny how your entire life is being a macho man, but only in movies.
You do a little singing in The Rover, and I hear you’re working on an album. Can we expect to hear some music soon?
I don’t know where that came from. Every few years, something comes out about that. I’m always trying to work on stuff, but I don’t know. I’m kind of like, way too sensitive to criticism; I’ve got enough criticism on one front.
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