What can Robert Pattinson do to keep you guessing?

I love the director, Matt Reeves, and it's a dope character: Robert Pattinson

There is little that Robert Pattinson, 33, likes more than confounding expectations, and plenty were placed on him after the megahit Twilight franchise ended in 2012. Since then, he has reinvented himself as an auteur’s muse, eager to add his mischievous spirit and pop cultural frisson to art-house films by directors like Claire Denis, David Cronenberg and the Safdie brothers.

After spending the last few years in independent films, Pattinson is planning another zig: He’s shooting Tenet, a big-budget summer movie for Christopher Nolan, and he was just cast as the lead in The Batman, a new take on the comic-book character due in 2021. 

Here are edited excerpts from our conversation.

Is it fair to say you’re drawn to eccentric characters?

I’ve always thought that the only reason you’d want to play a good guy all the time is because you’re desperately ashamed of what you’re doing in real life, whereas if you’re a pretty normal person, the most fun part of doing movies is that you can explore the more grotesque or naughty sides of your psyche in a somewhat safe environment. And it’s always more fun if you’re shocking the people in the room. If you end up being boring, that’s the lowest of the low.

Do you think you’ve been boring before?

All the time. You can bore yourself! On The Lighthouse, I’d do two out of 17 takes that work, and on the other ones, I’d roll the dice in a different direction that leads me nowhere. But it’s more fun doing that than making a plan and sticking to it.

You’re currently working on Christopher Nolan’s next film and you’ll begin shooting Batman soon. How does it feel to have traded art-house movies for big studio blockbusters?

I mean, Dunkirk is almost an art-house movie! Chris Nolan is literally the one director who can make an art-house movie for hundreds of millions of dollars, so it doesn’t really feel like a studio thing. With Batman, if I’d done it a few years ago, I would have been incredibly nervous, but I’ve still got a few months before we start shooting. Plenty of time to have a panic attack!

You were saying that we should be sceptical of any actor who wants to play the hero, and yet here you are playing Batman.

Batman’s not a hero, though. He’s a complicated character. I don’t think I could ever play a real hero — there’s always got to be something a little bit wrong. I think it’s because one of my eyes is smaller than the other one.

What is it about Batman that excites you?

I love the director, Matt Reeves, and it’s a dope character. His morality is a little bit off. He’s not the golden boy, unlike almost every other comic-book character. There is a simplicity to his worldview, but where it sits is strange, which allows you to have more scope with the character.

You’ve said that after you were cast as Batman, you anticipated a vitriolic reaction online.

Maybe I’m just used to abuse by now. At least I didn’t get death threats this time — that’s a plus! It’s funny that people are so very angry about Twilight. I never particularly understood it.

Are you worried that by making big movies again, you may invite that scrutiny back into your life?

People don’t really mess with me in the same way now that I’m older. When I was younger, the paparazzi would be crazy to me — I’d be leaving a place, and people would be screaming abuse — but I can’t imagine it going back to that. Do people really care anymore? The gossip magazines have all kind of gone away, and everyone just puts their stuff on Instagram anyway.

Everyone but you.

Well, I’m old and boring. And I only have abs, like, two weeks a year.

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