What was it about this film that has attracted your attention?
Cronenberg, without a doubt! I shot a few films and I could not imagine how it would work with him. I was not disappointed … I knew he would play with his creativity and that this experience would have scored. I left the script involving the same way you can be fascinated by a long poem, a poem very mysterious. Usually, when you read a script, you quickly understand what it’s about, where it will go and how it will end, although there are unexpected twists and sophisticated solutions that address the course of history. With the script of Cosmopolis, however, was completely different: the more I read and I could not understand how it would be more evolved and pushed me to think of wanting to be part of the film. Would not it be like shooting a movie any, but a separate and unique opportunity.

The first time he read the script we have seen in the role, you imagined how it would be?
Not at all. The first time I spoke with David I have explained that I could not prefigurami nothing and he reassured me that was a good sign. Since then, I have asked many questions and I left all the text to evolve in a progressive and organic, in transforming visual choices that would form the film. It was a living process, although during the first week of filming we were all still wondering which way he took everything once finished shooting. Everything was very charming, it was as if the film was modeled step by step.Now it is ready, the film is very different from the script or, conversely, has stuck to what was on paper?
Hard to say, the film moves on several levels. I’ve seen it twice so far. The first I was amazed by its farcical side: while touring knew what they were seeing on the screen but the tone was alienating. The second time, however, has taken over the weight of what they had been involved. It has been two private screenings to test the reception of the public, whose reactions were varied and wide ranging, from smiles to the tension.
Despite its complexity, I was amazed at how Cosmopolis was able to cause such a wide range of emotions.

In your opinion, who is Eric Packer? As you describe it?
For me, Eric feels like a person who belongs to another world, living as if he had been born on another planet and then tries to discover who really should live. Very simply, Packer does not understand how the world works and how.

However, it has enough knowledge of the world he lives to be able to create a fortune.
Yes, but in a very abstract. Banking, brokerage and speculative activities are unconnected. If managed well in all it is not because it is an industry specialist. If anything, it is very rare with an instinct, something very mysterious and profound, which can treat the algorithms as if they were spells. In the film, as in the book, you can see that his approach to financial data tends to show it again in the future, as they do not know how to live the present. Perhaps, somehow, manages to capture the mechanisms of the world around him but only in a particular way and obscure.

Has discussed this with David Cronenberg?
A little, yes. But he liked when I was looking for answers to something inexplicable. In particular, appreciated as I began to pray without really knowing what I was doing and, as soon as he realized that I was giving birth to the sequences of cause and effect, I froze. It was a very strange way to direct, based entirely on feelings rather than ideas.

How did you prepare for the role?
David does not like tests. We have not talked much about the film before it began to spin. During production, I only met the other actors on the set and only there I discovered how would literally appeared in the limo of Eric Packer. And it was quite pleasant.
Since the beginning of filming, it’s as if I had lived through the film and the machine: I was always there, had become my home and in my space I welcomed all the other actors, came to visit while I remained seated on the kind of throne. Feeling all one with a velvet that environment was comfortable enough and all the others had to practically adapt to what was my world.

You had signs on the appearance of his character, or on clothing?
Yes, the important thing was that Packer had a neutral appearance. We then sought to avoid the most obvious features and stereotypical business people. The only discussion was only on the choice of sunglasses to wear at the beginning, I tried a couple that were anonymous and that they said nothing of the character.

Make much difference shooting the scenes in the same chronological order of the script?
I think it was very important, it creates a cumulative effect that shapes the entire film. At the start of filming, no one knows what will be the final tone…Well, perhaps only David but he has never suggested. For the crew, the identity of the film you constructed as Packer revealed something more about himself. Also, let me turn in order to capture the full essence of Packer when his life is gradually falling apart.

One of the peculiarities of his role is that, one after another, he finds himself having to meet and interact with different actors. How does it feel?
When I agreed to do the film, the only actor Paul Giamatti was already engaged, I’ve always considered a great. Then, it was quite magical and frightening to see Juliette Binoche, Samantha Morton and Mathieu Amalric transformed into their characters. Each of them brought a different tone on stage and has not been easy being in a short time as David had asked of them. They had to transform their acting and be guided by the context. I was inside the world of Cosmopolis long but they had been accustomed to that reality and tune into its rhythm. While we were shooting, Juliette Binoche was also very involved in the creative process, suggesting different hypotheses of acting then put in place.

This means that there are various styles of acting, dictated mainly by the different nationalities of actors? Or all the actors have complied with the provisions of Cronenberg?
There are different feelings and I think David wanted no more. Paradoxically, this diversity is underlined by all the celebrities who are allegedly American, except the one by Mathieu Amalric. This diversity is connected to the city of New York, where everyone seems to come from different places and where the mother tongue of many people is not English. Of course, the film does not aim to recreate the effects of realism: it takes place in New York but never insist on a particular location. Having actors with different backgrounds that mirror those of the city contributes, if anything, to give to Cosmopolis strangeness and abstraction.

For its part, had in mind some model or actor for inspiration?
On the contrary. Actually, I just tried to avoid any possible reference. I did not want the audience in front of Cosmopolis is reminded of other films with Wall Street in the center, the financial world and the rich bankers. I had to find my own approach rather than relying on attitudes and acting in effect already seen.

Remember if Cronenberg has ever had special requests while you working with him?
He insisted that pronunciassimo every word of the script to the letter, the dialogue would be those already written. Would not tolerate any change. The screenplay is based largely on the pace and had to be careful with the words. But David’s approach was very positive, few were clinched take, and this seemed almost scary. Paul Giamatti just arrived on the set had to recite a monologue in one breath, and David was able to shoot it without any interruption. I was fascinated by both the performance of Paul that the readiness and the safety of David.

Have you enjoyed working in this manner and strictly adhere to the dialogues written?
It was something that still does not know and that was one of the main reasons why I agreed to do Cosmopolis. I had never done anything like this, usually the scripts set the stage to follow, and each actor gives his contribution, sewing on itself the character. In my earlier films, the dialogues were flexible. This time, however, was how to act in the theater: when you take Shakespeare on stage, you certainly can not change directions.

Somehow, the limo is a bit like a stage.
Of course. And, since this framework lends itself to different types of scenes, you must always be ready to change the registry. After many years of my early plays, I found myself having to learn all the jokes. You live in constant tension, you have to be careful but always know that you’ll get a better result. Even if I was forced to live as a recluse during the filming – I know the part to perfection, studying dozens of pages a day and put everything in focus – it was worth it: I left a good feeling, than that experienced on most of the set where everything is divided.

What was the major difficulty while filming?
The most disturbing thing was playing a character that does not pass through a clear evolution and does not follow a predictable path. In fact, Packer changed, has evolved from hell, but it’s not like the public is accustomed to seeing. David has kept everything under control. I had never before worked with a director who, taking care of every aspect of his films, is also considered responsible for everything, every little step. At first I found it disturbing but then, little by little, I gained confidence in his methods and I let myself go.

Source: Cinerepublic Film

A critique on celebrity culture, Antiviral, which co-stars up-and-comer, Caleb Landry Jones (seen later this year in Byzantium starring British A-listers Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Arterton, Jonny Lee Miller and Sam Riley) was the ideal successor to the pop culture-laden Cosmopolis. “Coming off of the film with David and Rob, it really got my wheels turning about the whole idea of cultural phenomenon, pop stars [and] celebrity-ism.”

Having been plunged into the media shark tank/celebrity blogosphere last summer by rumours circulating about an off-screen romance with co-star Robert Pattinson during the production of Cosmopolis, Gadon knows something of the cultural phenomenon that is R. Patz. “You’d have to be living under a rock not to realize the far reach of his fan base.” Quick to deny the rumours and highlight the brevity of their working relationship (“I get asked so frequently about Rob and working with him, but we didn’t spend very much time together…we did our scene and then left.”), it’s evident the actress is combating the gravitation pull of the R. Patz orbit. “It’s kind of like this whole different force beyond it. I really honestly feel like I exist on a different planet than he does…I do,” she trails off, laughing. “I don’t live in that world…I go home…living in my bachelor apartment, taking the TCC, reading my school work…it’s weird.”

One Tweet from our photo shoot with the actress alerted a mass of Twilight fans across the globe on the hunt for any morsel of information leading them back to the whereabouts of their deity, something Gadon has becoming familiar with since opening her own Twitter account this January. “My Twitter account is open so anyone can follow me, and it’s really not particularly interesting. I tweet things like ‘Going to New York!’ and I have like R. Patz Venezuela saying, ‘Have a great trip’….it’s so bizarre.”

Asked if her glimpse of R.Patz fandemonium has since made her more protective of her personal life, a reverent Gadon insists: “I just don’t think I will ever achieve that sort of fame. It’s reserved for the teen heartthrobs, it doesn’t exist for us ‘normies.’” There’s no feigned humbleness when Gadon shrugs off any possibility of becoming a cultural icon, though readers would do better wagering the opposite, judging from the momentum of the actress’s rising star.

Source: Sara Gadon Tumblr

CRONENBERG: Well, a benign dictatorship, I think, is what it’s supposed to be on a film set. But Rob Pattinson, who stars in the film I just shot, Cosmopolis, was commenting on that, too. He was saying that because he’s done these Twilight movies, he was sort of astonished that I could just make a decision right there on the set and that was it. But for me, that’s business as usual, of course.

I have a weird relationship with fame. It’s hard to live sometimes but I don’t want to complain. People are nice with me and I think it comes with the way you handle things.

For example, I think it’s totally different from what Rob (Pattinson) lives. He’s a guy I like a lot – and no I do not have his cell phone number, I say this because it’s always the first thing people ask me. He’s a sex symbol. He’s sexy and just need to do his brooding look for girls to fall. He has the perfect height to seduce girls, I’m the total opposite (laughs). He might be charming and cute, wild and sexy .. I do not have this kind of status, just look at pictures in the press. When we’re put side by side, I look a little silly or I make faces whereas Rob always looks like a ladies’ man. Therefore it doesn’t help me when it comes to the ladies. Maybe because now that they grew up with me they consider me more like a big brother than a potential boyfriend.

Source: Premiere France

In the movie, the star of the Twilight saga, plays a vet student that joins the circus in the beginning of last century.

In the movie, Reese plays a character called Marlena, the circus’ star, engaged to an animal trainer.

“He’s great. And oh my God, so handsome!”

The actress praised Pattinson’s effort to manage two jobs at the same time.

“What surprised me was his dedication. He would film all weekend long, then spend the week on the Twilight [set], then another weekend filming, then more Twilight… And he still had that lightness, humility. He’s very grateful for everything he’s been living.” 

Source

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Pattinson isn’t known for playing characters who do much smiling or laughing, either, so the first thing to notice is how readily he does both in person. Decked out in a black-grey ensemble and sporting a new cropped haircut under his black cap, he has barely sat down, with a pack of Camels by his side, before he’s folded up in mirth, talking about the KitKatClub, a notorious Berlin sex joint, and his desire to ­patronise it with his family. Is he joking? I hope not. “I was telling my dad about it last night, and he sounded really into it. ‘I’m coming over — let’s go to the orgy club.’ ”

The 25-year-old actor has been to Berlin many times. One of the best holidays he ever had was a stay in the east when he was 17, “before it was so gentrified”, ­frequenting bars that took up illegal residence in abandoned buildings. Such footloose times are seemingly in the past for the star of Twilight, although his desire to hit the KitKatClub may indicate otherwise. The other observation to make is that Pattinson is a very handsome man, but his face is less wide and flat than the camera makes it appear. And there are enough imperfections to separate him from the standard Hollywood pretty boy.

Nobody wants to see a dickhead succeed — that’s why I wanted to do it
It is easy to see why he is ideal casting as a heart-throb vampire, but equally why he got the role of Georges Duroy, the ­insatiable money-and-lust monster at the heart of Bel Ami. This adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s belle époque novel marks the directing debut of two of our most acclaimed theatre practitioners — Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod, the founders of Cheek by Jowl. Of the projects Pattinson has chosen with the Twilight safety net in place, the first two, Remember Me (2010) and Water for Elephants (2011), were unadventurous romantic excursions, unlikely to ­perturb even the most rabid Twihard. Bel Ami is where it gets interesting.

Georges Duroy is essentially the anti-Edward Cullen, an opportunistic cad who deploys sex for ruthless gain, screwing people — literally, in the case of the rich society wives played by Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci and Kristin Scott Thomas — on his rise from impoverished soldier to powerful Parisian. Cullen is the charming, soulful vampire who gets the girl; Duroy is the charming, soulless parasite who gets everything but his own comeuppance. Pattinson nails his repellent, empty charm, sneering as he seduces.

Sticking closely to the Maupassant source is one of the many strengths of Donnellan and Ormerod’s gorgeously ­realised vision, and Pattinson admits that tweaking Twilight-fuelled preconceptions was an original lure. “But my ideas about it changed as I was doing it,” he says. “Georges keeps getting beaten down by the world, but he never learns. He succeeds because of the bad points of his personality. Nobody wants to see a dickhead succeed — that’s why I wanted to do it.”

For their part, Donnellan and Ormerod are predictably effusive about their star: the former praises his “passionate attachment to us” during the film’s difficult financing, and credits him with “edge and intelligence”. “There’s a huge difference between Georges and Rob,” Donnellan says. “Georges rises to the top with no ­talent. Rob has masses of it.” (Donnellan sees Bel Ami as a parable on modern celebrity culture.) They also attribute the idea for a five-week theatre-style rehearsal process to the actor, a savvy move that allowed him to soak up their reservoir of knowledge about performance and period. He showed up every day for 10 or 11 hours. “I ended up doing mime and crazy improvisations, because you run out of stuff to do,” he says. “One day, Holliday [Grainger, his co-star] and I ran around screaming at each other for four hours.” Pattinson can’t articulate how the process fed into his performance, although when he arrived on set in ­Budapest in February 2010, he was ­worried he had overcooked it.

Meanwhile, Ormerod and Donnellan were taking the baby steps that come with being debut film-makers. The former focused on the design tapestry, the latter on the actors. Pattinson recalls them putting a row of audience heads at the bottom of the monitor, but the graceful story­telling they bring to Bel Ami bodes well for their move from stage to cinema. “We’re now rather bitten, I’m afraid,” Donnellan says.

Published in 1885, Maupassant’s masterpiece was shocking in its day. The author knew he was on borrowed time while writing this, his second novel — he eventually succum­bed to syphilis — and it is infected by a spirit of nihilistic hedonism, of indulging base instincts while you can because, as the antireligious Duroy puts it: “This is the only life; there’s nothing after.” Pattinson wishes they had kept a shot near the end where Georges turns to a crucifix and thanks God for his good fortune. “It was done in the most blas­phemous way,” he says, “thinking of God as Father Christmas, which was funny. There’s a lot of misery in the movie. It’s not as funny as I thought it was going to be.””

“There is plenty of sex, though, with Pattin­son indulging in numerous clinches, mostly with Ricci’s sweetly amorous ­Clotilde. What does he think die-hard Twilight fans will make of Georges? “I’m curious to find out,” he says. “He doesn’t come across as [being] as bad as I wanted him to, so I don’t think anyone will be offended.” Pattinson is right about that — Georges is worse in the novel. As for Twihards, he credits them with more complexity than most, explaining that they are a literary-minded bunch who mostly hadn’t seen a film in years before the ­Twilight series. They are always giving him books, apparently; today, one handed him the works of a 1950s Greek poet. Having witnessed a Twilight premiere in action, I profess amazement that people able to unleash such unearthly shrieks could be that bookish. “Maybe they read a book in the same way,” he grins, as he mimes holding an open paperback. “ ‘He takes his shirt off…’” He widens his mouth into a muffled scream, then creases up with laughter.

Pattinson once claimed he expected ­Twilight to be a “serious indie” film, rather than a blockbuster franchise with fast-food tie-ins. He has also expressed a sort of ­ben­evolent envy at the way his co-star, ­Kristen Stewart — widely assumed to be his girlfriend, although he won’t discuss it — rose up through the indie ranks before her ­casting in Stephenie Meyer’s angst-soaked saga, whereas he is having to fit in his indies while already famous. “Nobody ever believes me about it, but I just didn’t see it as being this huge thing,” he insists. It’s the sequels he has found most difficult. “The whole point of the character is that he doesn’t change, but, after a while, you’re, like, ‘I’m running out of ideas here.’ There was one bit in the last film where he and Bella had their first argument, and I almost didn’t know how to play it, because it’s not like they’re going to break up.”

Bizarrely, our conversation is interrupted when the hotel starts pumping a dreadful pop song into the room. “That’s from the Twilight soundtrack,” Pattinson smiles wanly, not that amused. Mercifully, the sulky track is terminated in time for Pattinson to reflect on where he wants his career to go after Breaking Dawn — Part 2 draws the curtains on the series. Last ­summer, he shot David Cronenberg’s ­Cosmopolis, playing an egocentric billionaire who seeks meaning in his wealth (“One of the weirdest scripts I’ve read”), andhe is currently weighing up three projects, none of which he will talk about, although the cropped head is for a tryout.

He seems unsure where to go next, explaining that, without a definable screen persona, “Nobody’s going, ‘Get me Pattinson’. I always find the best scripts have been written with people in mind, but I don’t really know who I am yet in terms of cinema, and I haven’t done enough work to have an audience perceive something. “It’s still, ‘Oh, there’s the Twilight guy trying to do something else.’ I’m very conscious of what I think people would believe me as, which drives my management crazy”. Where does he draw the line? “I’ve turned down playing a marine, because I don’t want marines to go, ‘This is a disgrace.’ ” His laughter sounds hollow this time.“I want to do something where I have a gun, get to run around a little bit.”

For the past five months, he has been living in Los Angeles, his longest stretch in the industry town, splitting his time between three houses and the occasional hotel — a nomadic reality forced on him by the rarefied nature of his celebrity. Does one of those houses belong to Stewart? “Ummm…” he hesitates. “I just think it’s best never to talk about that stuff.” When I tell him that George Clooney said recently he longed for the days when he could walk into a park and read a book undisturbed, Pattinson reveals that he was driving through LA a few days ago when someone pointed out the house Clooney lived in “when he had his pet pig and stuff”. He was shocked to see it was right on the street, unshielded.

“It reminded me that, 10 years ago, even being the most famous person in the world, you could still have a house where people wouldn’t go and camp outside. I do everything to hide because, if someone finds out where I am, there are people outside 24 hours a day. And that’s what drives you crazy, because you can’t escape. It makes you not want to go out — then you don’t meet anyone and just get insanely bored.”

He hates complaining, though: “The pros outweigh the cons by a significant margin.” But it’s hard to think of another actor his age in a similar predicament — Zac Efron, maybe. To his credit, Pattinson doesn’t show his frustration in public, and is yet to succumb to Sean Penn-style meltdowns. When the pressure valve needs releasing, as surely it must, he rings up his parents, who still reside in Barnes, the riverside enclave of southwest London where he grew up. “They think I’m insane,” he says. “They are the only people I really let rip on — ‘I’m going to kill myself!’ My family all think I hate my job so much, but it’s just the boredom that gets to you.”

A couple of hours later, in a far smarter black-grey ensemble, Pattinson roams the Bel Ami red carpet. There is squealing, but it doesn’t reach violent levels — ­Germans are so restrained — although one teenage girl has to be lifted out of the ­autograph mosh pit to safety. Tears stream down her face, which might simply be anguish at being whisked out of her idol’s orbit. The film plays to a warm reception, but a German hostess abandons all ­decorum on stage afterwards, ignoring Donnellan, Ormerod and Ricci, and hauling Pattinson out of the line-up to coo: “Ladies, I’m touching him.”

The actor smiles patiently — he can’t escape, even if he’d like nothing more. He does better at the afterparty, hiding away from prying eyes with his parents and two sisters in an inner sanctum. If he didn’t, he’d be facing similar encounters all night. Pattinson was last spotted venturing into the Berlin night with his family, on their way, he said, to the KitKatClub.  

Bel Ami opens on March 9

Source: The Sunday Times

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