New Rob Interview with SensaCine - Life Promo Junket

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New Rob Interview with Filmkrant (Netherlands)

“I always feel rather uncomfortable”

First Cronenberg, Michôd, Herzog, now Corbijn, very soon Gray, Korine and Denis: they all want Robert Pattinson. Why? What is the appeal of this teen idol?

By Kees Driessen

The penny dropped when I watched Cosmopolis (2012). The first time the film by David Cronenberg was disappointing to me. In ‘Vrij Nederland’ [dutch paper] I called him ‘bloodless – painful role for leading actor Robert Pattinson, who after his global success as a vampire in the insignificant Twilight series likes to sink his teeth into more serious material, but as autistic financial genius … he can hardly show a more emotional range [to the audience].

The second time I watched the movie I saw it. Then I understood that casting Pattinson was a great, even brilliant move. The hollow falsity of Cosmopolis is not only the reflection of the virtual financial system that is criticized in the film, but also of its leading character and, partly, its leading actor.

Robert Pattinson (London, 1986) plays in Cosmopolis a stunningly handsome stockbroker with huge financial success at a much too young an age, looking through the windows of his limousine with a detachment as if they were monitors, and fears that his inner self is rotting away (for which he gets daily anal examinations). You can almost call it typecasting, as a vampire with world fame.

Uncomfortable in his own skin

There are more great arthouse directors. David Michôd cast Pattinson in The Rover (not seen in 2014); just as Cronenberg, again, in Maps to the Stars (2014); Herzog, in a supporting role as T.E. Lawrence’s otherwise failed Queen of the Desert (2015); and soon James Gray in The Lost City of Z, Claire Denis in her yet untitled sci-fi movie and – very exciting – Harmony Korine, alongside James Franco, Idris Elba and Al Pacino in The Trap.

And now starring in Anton Corbijn’s Life, as a beginning photographer Dennis Stock, maker of the most famous photographs of James Dean. Where Cronenberg, as usual, in Cosmopolis magnified Pattinson’s character metaphorical and philosophical, the down to earth Corbijn uses [Rob] more realistic but nevertheless similar: as someone who feels uncomfortable in his skin, is keen to get recognition and feels a substantial distance to the world. “He’s an actor who wants to prove himself as an actor who plays a photographer who wants to prove himself as a photographer. Therefore the casting seemed like a great idea,” says a grinning Corbijn in Berlin.

Shy

Pattinson himself too is grinning a lot in Berlin. Many apologetic smiles too – like his character. Pattinson seems extremely nice, but is at the same time strikingly shy for someone of his fame and notoriety. Embarrassed BY his fame.

If he, as an actor often wanders outside his comfort zone? “I have no comfort zone at all haha! I always feel always rather uncomfortable.” He seems to mean it. “But so is my character.” And they {Rob and his character Dennis Stock] have more similarities. Like Stock Pattinson doesn’t like to be photographed. He really doesn’t. He mentions it three times. He feels like it’s making him ‘smaller’, “as if they are something away from you.”

Pattinson describes his character: “What I find fascinating is that he he couldn’t feel anything, not even love, as if he was handicapped.” And “Because he’s so restrained, he feels separated from the world, he lacks the experience of a normal person. That is quite tragic…” And: “I found it interesting that he finds solace in his art.”

Later, about all the media attention on himself: “Sometimes you feel just very separated from everything. That is a little worrisome..” And about acting: “You give quite a lot of yourself away, if you really

More New Rob Interviews From LIFE Promo - ELLE Italy, 3 Sat Online, Szene Hamburg

A couple more new translated interviews (some of the interviews look the same, but there are new questions, quotes...) and a new snippet from a video interview.

3 Sat Online (Via)
Click on the picture or link to watch

SZENE HAMBURG
(Via | Translation)

A talk with Robert Pattinson
During the Berlinale we met the actor, who talked about his new movie LIFE, bad fathers, and photography as art and frost bite on fingers.

What was it like to play a photographer under the direction of a legendary photographer like Anton Corbijn?
(laughs) Luckily I didn’t really see Dennis Stock as a photographer in the beginning. For me he was someone who wanted to be an artist but wasn’t sure if he had what it takes to be an artist. I had the feeling that the camera was a means for him to express himself.

How did you work with the camera? Did you only pose with it or did you really use it?
The great thing was that I got the camera a couple of months before we started shooting. It was loaned to us from the Leica museum and it’s the same camera Dennis Stock used. There aren’t many original old cameras left, but they are great and I used mine extensively.

What did you photograph?
I started doing the Werner Herzog film 'Queen of the Desert' right after that and I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the location. I took hundreds of pics of the sets and Marrakesh. I didn’t really do it seriously or because of the movie, but more because it was fun. I figured I could ask Anton how to use the Leica correctly later, but he couldn’t really help me with that (laughs)

But he did show you some tricks, didn’t he? I mean he has to be the best teacher for that.
That’s what I thought, that he would show me how to hold the camera and move it, but Anton told me that I needed to understand the camera myself. Eventually I understood him because he is a different photographer than Dennis Stock was. Anton loves photography, he likes moving on the sidelines and observe everything as oppose to Dennis Stock, who acted more like a painter. Stock wasn’t only focused on his counterpart but also on himself and he was looking for validation. He didn’t really enjoy his role as a photographer because he wanted to be more extravagant.

Is that the reason you were interested in the role?
To be honest the first thing that interested me was that he was a bad father. Usually at my age there aren’t many father roles to play and in this one the father doesn’t love his kid and doesn’t understand why. There is this beautiful scene where James Dean is playing with his nephew and Stock is watching them and wracking his brains how Dean can be so natural and loving with a child. That broke my heart. Another thing is, that everybody thinks that someone like that is an asshole and I thought it was exciting to present him more likable despite of that. Contrary to that Dennis Stock’s pictures are full of feeling.
You can really see that, in his own way, he really loved James Dean. He couldn’t really tell him that but it seems like Stock put a crown on James with the pictures. At the same time bitterness and jealousy also shine through those pictures and one could also see the influence James had on him. I love Stock’s pictures from that era, the jazz musicians whose pictures showed how much he admired them. I think photography was a way for him to show his love for others.

New/Old Rob Interview with Kinowetter for LIFE Promo from Berlinale

New Rob and Dane DeHaan Interview with Associated Press

Compilation of All The Latest Translated Interviews From LIFE Promo (6 Interviews)

Lots of great new interviews have been released this week and were translated by awesome fans that took their time to share them with us. We decided to make a compilation a post on the weekend with all the translated ones :)

Here it is. Enjoy all the new Rob interviews, from LIFE promo. The ones in this post are from Berlinale. There's an audio interview at the bottom of the post.

WIENER ZEITUNG: "Sometimes I wish I had a bigger ego." (Translation | Via)

Robert Pattinson -not unlike James Dean- became a star overnight. Subsequently he has difficulties to loose the shadow of the vampire and that is what we talked about.

Mr. Pattinson would you have played James Dean if you would have been offered the role?
I would never have accepted the role of James Dean. Especially because I do't even look like him. Dane DeHaan does, I would have made a fool out of myself.

In the movie you are not the one in the limelight, but you are on the other side of the carpet as the photographer of the beautiful and famous. That must have been unusual for you.
My character Dennis Stock isn't really made for the red carpet. there is a scene in the movie where it's visible how embarrassing it is for him to do those gossip pictures but he has no other choice because he needs the money. So he becomes part of the photographers that push and shove to get the perfect picture.

How do you deal with popularity? That is the key question for famous people, isn't it?
It is weird, because I never really knew what popularity means. Some people got to know me better in these past years and they know that the character that people cheer for doesn't really exist. It's different for a popstar, because their name is the main focus whereas an actor plays different characters all the time. It is weird when you are cheered on for something and that is not really you, but at the same time this popularity helps you because you are not really hyped up as a person, it's more the character you play.

The movie shows a star before he becomes a star, it's about the months before it really started. I talked to you for the first time in 2008 just after the first Twilight movie was finished and no one knew if the concept would add up. You were a star that wasn't a star yet and a few weeks later everything changed. How did you feel in that moment before the storm started?
There hasn't been another phase like that in my life. Everything fit back then: I think I had the right age for a hype like that. At 21 I was young enough, but not too young and I was able to have a youth. The year before Twilight came into the cinemas was a lot of fun. I experienced the good sides of fame and not really realizing what was happening around me. The very first touch with fame is amazing, some ridiculous things like getting into clubs for example. I got into clubs they threw me out of before (laughs).

Nevertheless you stayed pretty grounded. How did you manage to do that?
I don't know. I think I still have to prove a lot to myself in different aspects of my life. Sometimes I really wish I had a bigger ego. That would help me to take more out of this thing.

Someone like you should not have a problem with ego.
Of course I have an ego. A certain amount of it is necessary to even go in front of the camera, no? Apart from that I see myself as shy and as a control freak. It is weird, because you can't really say it like that. Whenever I work with seasoned directors they always ask me: "Why do you always say you don't know what you are doing? I can see that you are doing something." I always answer: "Yes, but I don't know how."

Rob's New Interview with Neon Magazine

Thanks to Verena for sending us the HQ scans :)

Translation

Q: Robert, when did you last time party the whole night?

R: That is long ago, New Year, I think. Sounds lame. I was with my GF and 50 others at her home, a little room, a broken beatbox, that was fun.

Q: Sounds a bit boring.

R: definitely! I’m drinking Green Smoothie Shakes instead of alcohol and really go to the gym one hour daily. This is embarrassing, but necessary. Genetically I’m more a fatso.

Q: you have smoked E-cigs, the ultimative symbol of health improved vice.

R: yeah, you smoke, but technically not. For me it is a transition to not smoking. Two times I tried to stop smoking, by chewing on toothpicks with Tee Tree oil. But they are worse than cigarettes, they grind your teeth away. the most important thing: 6 month ago I looked like 40, now like 32, maybe I look like 29 after one year without cigarettes.

Q: How else have you changed your life?

R: If we had met for the interview 3 years ago, I maybe had just fallen out of bed drunk and be late - actually I was still drunk on every interview day. Now I go to the gym in the morning and think: wow, you have changed. I just can’t be as crazy as before. Probably I have grown up in the last 1 ½ years.

Q: Your actual movie LIFE gives insight to the old, wild Hollywood. In one scene Dennis Stock and James dean get blind drunk. Is it today even possible that you said to me spontaneously: come, let’s party?

R: In the end it is my decision, why not? As I was at the Berlinale in 2014, I spontaneously got drunk in a bar with my parents, what we never do usually. Later I persuaded them to go with me to the Kit-Kat-Club - without knowing that there are a lot of naked people.

Q: and?

R: we stood in the line, but then didn’t go in.

Q: Before Hollywood actors stand for the ultimative model for an extravagant life, glamourous clothes, wild pool parties and affairs.

R: this times are over. The actor Colin Farrell was the last one who was celebrated for being wild. this is only 7 years ago - and yet unthinkable now. Actors with their wellness IG accounts are more an example for how you have to live an healthy life. The financials have driven the rebellious out of Hollywood. The wild life is dead.