(NEW) ROBERT PATTINSON INTERVIEW WITH LIBERATION

Everywhere in the street, Robert Pattinson sees himself on posters, magazine covers and says to himself ‟It's not me”. "I don't recognize the face or the hair, nothing. It's like those people who can leave their body." Yet, perched on the terrace of a grand hotel in the morning sun, the hero of David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis almost looks like his image. Quieter and softer perhaps, and certainly more cheerful. He laughs all the time, with a contagious cheerfulness nothing can disarm. Subtle. The perennial question about celebrity, for example. The hero of Twilight, who caused a riot during his previous visit to Cannes (the security guards had to carry him to rescue him from 700 rabid fans), begins with a serious response. "The most frustrating thing is to know that it's not me they love or hate. To serve as a support to a feeling which has nothing to do with who I am." He reflects. "The paparazzi, you get used to them. But it's still weird to see these guys who made the decision to be assholes for life. I want to ask: "Why did you choose this profession? Everybody hates you!" "He starts laughing and cannot stop. "It's like people who give parking tickets. You watch them, they look all happy! Hmm, cool, I'm going to ruin someone's day!" In Cosmopolis, he is Eric Packer, a gifted golden boy locked in his limo. The hero of a saga for adolescents in a Cronenberg on the fall of capitalism? This was the pitch for weeks, the idea being to puzzle over the fact that Robert Pattinson might be interesting. As if winning a contract worth several million dollars, when unemployed for three years - his case when he signed for Twilight - was the act of a dimwit. Yes, Robert Pattinson is intelligent, cultivated, subtle. Inescapably, he has also a strong, disturbing beauty, an assembly of imperfect elements (long flat nose,forward chin, bushy eyebrows). His blue eyes are piercing. But it's not because he seduces, rather because he probes. When David Cronenberg called him, he jumped for joy, then in fear. It must be said that Cronenberg 's method was a change for him. "There are no rehearsals. A few days before shooting, I phoned him: "Shouldn't we at least talk about it?" He replied: "Oh, no, don't worry. It will just happen." On set, he tried his old method: "I stayed locked up in the limo all day, to experience what my character lived. I was hot, I was sweaty, I fell asleep, they had to shake me to start shooting!" On the third day he comes out. Confidence. Robert Pattinson, 26, grew up comfortably in London. His mother works in an modelling agency, his father imports vintage cars. The youngest child of the family, he is dressed and made-up like a doll by his two sisters, then supported by his mother, he starts attending modelling casting calls. Movie-buff and musician (he played in his own band), he enrolls in a theatre at the age of 15. At 17, he is spotted by an agent and shot two TV-films. At 19, he is Harry Potter's friend in the fourth film of the wizard's adventures. And then... nothing. Three years of unsuccessful auditions. Until Twilight. He says filming with Cronenberg gave him confidence. "I could see the end of Twilight approaching and was wondering about a lot of things: "What should I do? What are the right choices?" Now I just think "I'll choose what I like." One of his wishes is to film with Jacques Audiard. "I love all his films. And then, his male characters are amazing. I want to be like that." For now, he will work with Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire (Johnny Mad Dog), another French director, in a film about the hunt for Saddam Hussein. And probably also in the next Cronenberg film. He lives in Los Angeles, like his girlfriend Kristen Stewart, a 'peculiar' life, where he cannot really go out for a coffee, but he's not going to complain. Just one more anecdote: "When I go to a restaurant, if I'm a bit tipsy... and I see someone with a phone, I think "He's taking my picture!"” He laughs again, holding himself. "So I get up, furious, I stomp to the table:" Show me your phone!" The last time it happened, I almost throw the guy's phone out of the window. He wasn't taking my picture, he did not even know who I was!" SOURCE and translation:ROBsessed