Josh Benson: Can you explain Robert Pattinson to me, please?

Sara Vilkomerson: Oh well gee, where to begin! I guess we should start with Twilight. Are you familiar with it?

Josh: How about let’s assume I’m not totally up to speed on it. Just for the sake of this exercise, you understand.

Sara: Mmmhmmm, sure.

In my humble opinion there is an essential part of Twilight that girls go nuts for that has got a lot to do with the whole vampire, undying-love (literally!) stuff. Which is that the main character, Bella, considers herself clumsy and awkward and not particularly beautiful, which I think speaks to at least 90 percent of how girls felt in high school. And then the coolest, hottest, most unattainable boy in school picks her out as the object of his affection. This is heady heady crack-for-girls stuff already. So then they cast Robert Pattinson in the role.

Oh look, I wrote about this in the Observer when the first one came out!

With production set to being shooting this summer in Toronto, casting on David Cronenberg’s “Cosmopolis” starring Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Paul Giamatti, and Mathieu Amalric is wrapping up. Samantha Morton joined the cast last week—via a Robert Pattinson interview—now she’s been confirmed and according to Entertainment One, who is handling the picture’s distribution in Canada, one more has joined the cast: Canadian actress Sarah Gadon.

Setting a moving love story during the Great Depression might prove quite a challenge, especially considering it unfolds in this whole mysterious world of a traveling circus, no less. But director Francis Lawrence turns Sara Gruen’s acclaimed novel into a sweeping, cinematic drama for the silver screen, and one that promises to take its audience into a world beyond the thrill of the circus and into the life under the Big Top.

“Water for Elephants” follows the story of Jacob (played by Robert Pattinson of “Twilight” fame), whose world changes dramatically after his parents die in a car accident. Boarding a train out of town, he soon realizes he inadvertently joins a circus train where he meets equestrian star, Marlena (Reese Witherspoon).

Robert Pattinson has explained why he chooses not to talk about his relationship with actress Kristen Stewart. People have been going back and forth with the “are they/aren’t they” chatter for years, and just when you think you’ve decided that they are, in fact, a couple, Pattinson says this:

“I don’t talk about my relationships with female friends, not to mention how I don’t talk about the rumors about my relationship with Kristen Stewart, an actress I admire because she’s a real person, and a real actress.”

Wait, what? First of all, that barely makes any sense… and secondly, are they really not a couple? Pattinson and Stewart are usually very cautious when talking about their off-screen relationship, but this comment was even more confusing! Rob always speaks so highly of Stewart’s career as an actress, which is great, but it doesn’t provide any details about their personal lives. While this is perfectly okay, it would be nice if they would just admit they were dating. Maybe people would then give them a break.

Source: Gather

I’ve added a new scan of Robert Pattinson as Jacob in “Water For Elephants” movie featured in “Twist” Magazine.

GALLERY LINK:

• (x001) Scans in 2011: Twist

Met Robert Pattinson again last night and saw Kristen Stewart while we were having dinner. Didn’t get a chance to talk to her, but talked briefly to Rob and he was SO nice.

They were in a group together.. I don’t really want to say the restaurant because I do respect their privacy but it was in Squamish. We were sitting beside them for about 4 hours or so and let them be as I’m sure they are sick of being harassed. Then as we were leaving we bumped into him on our way out and he allowed a picture to be taken with him. He was incredibly nice and down to earth.

The real prototype of these generational mutations is Rob Pattinson: 24 years old, and Englishman in Hollywood, where he became famous worldwide playing the pale vampire Edward Cullen (and, even before, Cedric Diggory, a model student at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series). He jokingly admits to be “nothing special, one of those who live in hotels and travel the world”. However, he created a new masculine identity, surprising even for the Facebook sub-culture who’s made him a star via the social network. Today is the eve of an important test for him: his new movie, WFE: he’s the protagonist of a melodramatic film, set in a circus, from the bestselling book by Sara Gruen. […]

Having been labelled as a teen idol, you’re now being tested as a true actor.
I had this chance to act with Cristoph Waltz and I fall in love with Marlena (Reese), his wife. Travelling with the circus, I visit areas of America far from Hollywood. There are dark secrets in this movie, as in life. And there’s this idea of life-saving love, which I believe in. I’m not cheesy, but I have a romantic soul.

Do you get on well with girls?
I grew up with two older sisters, and I have a great respect for women. I hate the lack of prudishness, I get bored when people are ostentatious of their body. Sex and feeling for me walk side-by-side.

Your rock side: people say you spend nights with your friends listening to Tom Waits, Van Morrison and the late Jeff Buckley.
Music is a key aspect of my life. I wish I could play a movie about Buckley, his voice, his songwriting gave me a lot. I’m interested in his creativity, in his existence, even in his death by drowning in 1997, in the Mississippi.

I’ve added new outtakes of Robert Pattinson did for “Entertainment Weekly” with Reese Witherspoon in promotion of their new movie together, “Water For Elephants” this month to the gallery.

”[Water for Elephants] makes you think about opportunities and missed opportunities and how important it is to live a full life.” —Reese Witherspoon

”That was the other thing about Water for Elephants. There was something about the posture of the ’30s, something that I felt my body could fit into — it was quite languid, which I find easier. I think modern-day things generally, I don’t understand. I can watch actors move and there’s something, there’s some kind of snappy thing to it and I don’t… I’m not snappy. There is a lack of snappiness.” —Robert Pattinson

”There’s something about her. She’s just this genuinely nice person. I don’t know if she puts an effort into creating a nice aura, but her mood dissipates over the whole set. It was a completely different environment from when she wasn’t there. All the kids and the animals were just drawn to her.” —Pattinson talking about Witherspoon

”He’s dedicated. And he loves what he does. It’s amazing, he got such an incredible opportunity so young and he intends to use every bit of it to make creative choices from here on out.” —Witherspoon talking about Pattinson

”Well, it’s a boy thing, right? To have dirty fingernails and dirty hair, and his clothes were dirty all the time. It was a nice escape for him to be tan and in the sun all the time instead of the vampire gear.” —Witherspoon talking about Pattinson

GALLERY LINK:

• (x004) Photoshoots in 2011: James White [EW]

“Pattinson says that signing on to Elephants, directed by I am Legend’s Francis Lawrence, was a no brainer, and that he’s considering his post-Twilight career very carefully- though ultimately he knows whatever will be, will be. “It’s impossible to predict anything,” he sighs before grinning. “When it all goes down the toilet, you can just weep.” After the labour intensive shoot for the final two Twilight films, Breaking Dawn parts 1 & 2 (in theatres Nov 2011 & Nov 2011), wraps in April, he’ll start shooting David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis, with Juliette Binoche and Paul Giamatti. “He’s an incredibly hard working person with an incredible work ethic,” says Witherspoon. “He doesn’t ever complain. Not once. Which is sort of lower than the national average for actors. They’re always complaining. Especially the men!”

Twilight lovers will be happy to know that Pattinson is as good looking and thick-maned in person as he appears on screen. But they shouldn’t confuse him with any of the broody characters he’s played. He’s talkative and laughs easily- about the intense fame that’s followed him since Twilight became a phenomenon (“How is this still a story? It’s boring.”), about the darkness of the Breaking Dawn movies (“It’s going to be sooo weird.”), and most of all, at himself. “I’d love to play a big fat person,” he says, contemplating a different look in a post-Edward Cullen era. No doubt it would just mean more of him to love.

EW: You and Tai, the elephants, have a special bond in Water for Elephants. Do you think she’ll remember you at our photo shoot tomorrow?

Robert Pattinson: I don’t know. I’m terrified that she won’t. I’ll be so so happy if she does.

EW: There were a lot of animals on the set. What was that like?

Pattinson: It could be really scary. The bars of the cages for the lions and tigers were too wide, and they could fit their arms out completely. There were tigers like, battling at the top of the Steadycam operator’s camera. But Christoph! I’ve never seen anything like it. Once he was in character, he somehow managed to take away every bit of fear and walk down this passageway that was only a foot wide, and there were all these tigers literally jumping out, and there wasn’t a single flinch! I was like, “That’s not acting, that’s actually schizophrenia.” [Laughs] It was crazy, because I’m genuinely terrified.

EW: And then there are your human co-stars. How was working with Reese?

Pattinson: There’s something about her. She’s just this genuinely nice person. I don’t know if she puts an effort into creating a nice aura, but her mood dissipates over the whole set. It was a completely different environment from when she wasn’t there. All the kids and the animals were just drawn to her. It made it incredibly easy to do my part- all my reaction shots are just watching her work brilliantly. She’s really cool and she’s just…never, ever annoying. God, that’s the worst description isn’t it?

EW: You played her son in 2004s Vanity Fair, but your character didn’t make the final cut.

Pattinson: Yes, my big break. [Laughs] Me and my best friend- it was both of our first jobs, and we had adjacent scenes. We went [to the premiere] and we saw his scenes but not mine. They forgot to tell me. I was jealous of him for about 5 years.

EW: Did you and Reese remember each other from that time period?

Pattinson: Yeah, completely. No, actually, I don’t know what I’m talking about, not really. I only worked with her for two days. But she was lovely to me, I remember that. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was freaking out. It’s pretty much the only time I’ve forgotten my lines, and it scarred me so much I’ve never let it happen again. We did a scene where she cries, and we started doing the scene and immediately there were tears…and I couldn’t remember a single thing in my head. And then they say, “Cut” and she wasn’t crying anymore. I was like, “How are you doing that? That isn’t fair. I want to be able to do that!”

Robert Pattinson is busy promoting his latest film, Water for Elephants, due out April 22. It’s another film, however, that is getting most of the attention: Breaking Dawn.

Part one of the final installment of The Twilight Saga is due out this November. Breaking Dawn follows Edward and Bella as they get married and find out they are going to have a baby, a vampire and human hybrid. Pattinson called filming “hilarious,” according to USA Today.

Pattinson can’t see how the film is going to be given its usual PG-13 rating. The main story line is “so far outside of the box,” he says. “It’s really different from the other ones. There are some days on set just watching you go ‘How is this going to be PG-13?’ It’s like totally ridiculous.”