BERLINER MORGENPOST / Translation: Are you afraid of photographers, Mr. Pattinson?

A young man that seems a bit disheartened, that is the first impression one gets during this interview with Robert Pattinson. There is no reason for the 29 year old to feel like that though, because after the massive success of the Twilight series he managed to establish himself as a serious actor. In Life he is seen as the photographer who shot the legendary pictures of James Dean.

Are you a good photographer?
Halfway decent, although I just had started it during this movie. I got the same camera that Dennis Stock had. The quality of my pictures does depend on the place and light. When I was shooting Queen of the Desert with Werner Herzog in Morocco, I got great pictures very easily, but when I returned to London my pictures came out very dark.

Usually you are the one that is photographed all the time. How well do you deal with that?
I’m struggling with it at the moment. When the first Twilight movie came out, I dealt with it very offensively-minded. That means I was out to present myself in a certain way and as long as you can control that it is good. But it became too much and it slipped out of my control. I had the feeling something was taken from me with the constant photo graphs and I got scared and closed myself off. At the moment I’m in the ‘please don’t take pictures’ phase.

What do you do when you go out and photographers are waiting for you?
I get scared.

Seriously?
No. I understand that I couldn’t let it make me go crazy. I’m tired of putting on a disguise or wear a hat.

Did you ever have a close relationship to a photographer like James Dean did?
Not with a photographer, but when the first Twilight movie came out there were some journalists I got along great with and also hung out with. There was one writer for EW who wrote a pretty cool story about me because we got along great. We went to a bar and got drunk.

Should we do that now?
No, I won’t ever do that again, because now people kind of know me through the many interviews I did and some journalists –no offense to you- try to get me to the point where I say something really awful.

Are you able to just go into a bar now?
It’s slowly getting to the point where I can. It depends on how the audience reacts. With a movie like Twilight , there was a lot of pressure and nobody cared for any individual nuances. There were some crazy reactions to certain things I said and everybody would get angry about trivialities, especially when the first movie came out. So many people were crazy, I thought I would get killed.

Don’t exaggerate now.
It’s true. When the first trailer was shown, I had an experience like the scene in Jurassic Park where the protagonists are hunted by the raptors. After a showing in Mexico we all got into a car, but the locks weren’t working and people were pushing to get into the car. My manager had to push them out and then we were followed by 400 people. The driver took a wrong turn and we ended up in a car park with people still behind us. We arrived at the exit, but we had to pay the fee and none of us had enough money and the security guy didn’t want to let us go. We all put together and paid the fee.

Your life not only resembles Jurassic Park, but a soap opera as well, especially your former relationship with your co-star Kristen Stewart. How did you experience that?
It was pretty strange. I always tried not to talk about personal things, but it didn’t make any difference, because people would just make stuff up. I became a part of a story that other people wrote and I could do nothing about it. There was a time when I didn’t do official photos, because I thought no new pictures, no new stories. I was so wrong, people just take old pictures.

Even if the fan hysteria has died down a bit, can you relate to them?
There was a time I was obsessed with Van Morrison, but not that intensely. My situation is special, because everything happened accidentally. I just fell into it. I never had a problem with my fans and I always see them as individuals and they don’t scream as individuals. It’s the mass mentality that I find bizarre. Actually the media and the photographers were the problem, because they are waiting for the moment I will make a mistake or have a bad experience. The fans want me to win and I have no problem with that.

Do you like claqueurs around you?
Absolutely not. Sometimes people around me wouldn’t tell me the truth, just because they thought I would get angry. I was treated like a little baby bird that needed to be protected around the clock. I don’t like ass kissers around me, that is annoying. I have people around me now that contradict me and even my management tells me sometimes ‘Shut up, you are a fool.’

How can you find yourself in this crazy world?
I have my ways. The people around me help me with that. My friends and my family are my solid base and apart from that I’ve also been surfing for a couple of years. I never imagined that that was something that would interest me, but the sea has a positive effect on me, which I love. When I’m far out, I can breathe.

The photographer Dennis Stock subordinates his family to his career. Can you understand this attitude?
To be honest I don’t think that attitude is very nice. His son is a burden to him. When I heard about the project, I wasn’t interested in his relationship with James Dean at first. I found it interesting that he was a person that just didn’t like his son. He is an example for someone that didn’t find happiness with this attitude. He was a tragic figure. From all his interviews it becomes clear that he didn’t learn a thing. Even at age 80 he still complained about just being famous for his James Dean pictures.

And what about you? What if you will only be famous for playing Edward the vampire?
So what? As long as I have the chance to do this for a living I’m happy. Being famous only stifles your growth. You talk to people about the same things all the time and it’s difficult to meet people outside of this bubble. As I said before I consciously searched for people who have a different perspective from mine and openly talk about it –not just trivial bullshit. Ever since Twilight I only did movies that interest me and I play roles I haven’t played before and I always got the roles I wanted. I only hope this streak will continue.