Robert Pattinson debuted as Edward Cullen in 2008’s Twilight and immediately became a household name because of his infamous performance as the perpetually brooding vampire. But despite playing the character exactly how Edward is written in the Stephenie Meyer books, Pattinson says he almost got fired because he was making the vampire “a little too emo” with his acting. “I do think there’s something in that first movie,” Pattinson told GQ. “You could see that people were taking it seriously and it has a passion to it. I was 21, and kind of wanted to make it as arty as possible. And so we had this strange tension where the studio was kind of a little bit scared to make things a little too emo and stuff and I thought that was the only way to play it.”
“It just seems so ridiculous talking about it now because I was literally—I spent so much time infuriated,” he added. “That’s definitely something about being 21 as well because I can’t believe how I was acting half the time. Like when I think back on it, the scene where Edward introduces Bella to his family for the first time, I remember that being the day because my agent and my manager came up for a surprise visit, and I was like, ‘oh hey,’ and just thought everything was fine and then at lunch, they were like, ‘okay, so whatever you’re doing right now, after lunch, just do the opposite or you’ll be fired by the end of the day.’ And I was like, ‘okay,’ so that was the only thing that got me to smile a little bit.” Pattinson continued, “I also think if I tried to play it lighthearted, the way I would do it would end up looking so wrong that I’d end up looking even more like a psychopath.” It’s interesting to know that Robert Pattinson’s performance was considered too emo when it was actually spot on if you’ve read the books. Still, we’re glad that Pattinson got through it and is now one of the most celebrated actors of his generation.
