Of course everybody wants to ask you about your star, who
unfortunately has decided not to join us today. I guess he has his
reasons. How and why did you wind up casting Robert Pattinson?
Well, it begins in a very pragmatic way. You get a list of 10 people
from various producers and agents, and you start with the basics. How
old is this character, and how old is the actor? This character is
young, his age is given as 28. So that’s where you start. Does he feel
like the right guy? Eric talks about working out a lot and is very
physical, so you’re not going to cast someone who’s overweight. It’s
simple stuff like that to begin with. And then you get to the
pragmatics: How big is your budget and what kind of star power do you
need to get the movie financed?
And here’s something people don’t think about, which is the passport of
the actor. This is a Canada-France co-production, so you’re really
restricted in the number of Americans you can use. There’s only one
American in this movie, even though it’s set in New York, and that’s
Paul. So the fact that Rob is British helps, because he can fit into the
co-production thing. So that’s the long way round, and ultimately you
get to: Does the guy have the chops and charisma to hold the movie
together? Because this character is in every scene of the movie, without
exception, and that’s very unusual, even for a star.
So I looked at everything I could find that Rob had done, including
“Little Ashes,” where he plays the young Salvador Dali, and I thought,
yeah, he could really do this. And I think he’s actually extraordinary.
It’s ultimately intuition on my part, and casting is a huge part of
directing that’s very invisible. Making-of documentaries don’t usually
cover the casting process, but for a director it’s a hugely important
part of your art. Juggling all those other balls that I was just talking
about, and still coming up with the right guy.
I realize I’d be better off asking him that question, but do you
think Rob is eager to change his image after “Twilight,” and push into
doing different kinds of characters? After this role, and playing a
sadistic sociopath in “Bel Ami,” it certainly looks that way.
Well, I know from doing interviews with him in Europe that he’s not
really thinking in terms of his career. He gets offered a lot of stuff,
and it’s usually very conventional, boring stuff. He’s always been
interested in doing unusual stuff. He’ll tell you that when they started
with “Twilight,” he thought it was kind of an indie film. Which it sort
of was, you know! It had Catherine Hardwicke as the original director,
and it was an unusual, off-kilter vampire story. Nobody knew that it
would be the kind of mainstream success that it became.
In a way, “Cosmopolis” is a lot closer to his heart than “Twilight,” you
know. When he read it, he told me that he was also struck by the
dialogue. He thought it was incredibly fresh and new and surprising and
engaging, and he immediately wanted to do it. He was afraid, because I
think he still hasn’t come to terms with the fact that he’s actually an
actor! He didn’t grow up thinking he wanted to be an actor. As with many
actors, and not just young, inexperienced ones, he wasn’t sure he was
good enough! He wasn’t sure he was the right guy, and he didn’t want to
be the guy who would bring down this terrific project. So my job, at
that point, was to convince him that he was indeed the right guy. That
took me about 10 days, I suppose.
Are you telling me that you have actually watched the “Twilight” movies? That’s a bit hard to imagine.
Yeah — or no, I watched about one and a half of them. I’m interested in
everything, frankly. I’m not a snob, you know. I really am curious about
everything. If something’s hugely popular, it doesn’t automatically
mean I’m going to look at it, but sometimes I’m curious as to why
something is really popular, let’s say. In the case of “Twilight,” I was
watching it for Rob, that was the thing. It’s not like – I mean, I
hadn’t seen them before that.
Source Robsten Dreams
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