Imagine if Robert Pattinson’s portrayal of Edward Cullen in Twilight never happened. A world without his brooding vampire? That almost became a reality. During a recent chat with GQ, Pattinson spoke about nearly getting fired from the film for taking the “emo vampire” vibe too seriously.
When he first took on the role, Pattinson was 21 and determined to make Edward as “arty” as possible. He wanted to inject some deep, emotional passion into the character, making him as tortured and mysterious as any good vampire should be. But, as he recalled, the studio wasn’t exactly on the same page. “I think I wanted to make it as arty as possible,” he asserted, “but there was this tension because the studio was a little scared to make it too emo.”
Things come to a head during one scene where Edward introduces Bella to his family. Pattinson’s agent and manager showed up for a surprise visit, and that’s when the reality check hit. “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,’” he laughed, still incredulous at his 21-year-old self. Talk about a wake-up call. It’s almost comical now, considering how seriously he took every scene. Yet, if he’d tried to lighten it up, Pattinson admits it would’ve come off way worse, possibly making him look like a “psychopath.”
Kristen Stewart, his Twilight costar and onscreen love interest, later reflected on how their shared attitude shaped the film. She got Pattinson’s approach. “He had an intellectual approach that was combined with ‘I don’t give a fuck about this, but I’m going to make this sing,’” Stewart recalled, with a smile. “I was, like, ‘Ugh, same.’” Looking back, Stewart believes that youthful recklessness was exactly what Twilight needed. They weren’t just acting out a script but bringing authenticity to the roles that no one expected.
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Pattinson. Before his Twilight audition, he was a bundle of nerves, so his agent suggested something a bit out of the ordinary—Valium. “I’d started to develop this absolute terror of auditions,” he admitted. “I could be so enthusiastic about something, and then my confidence would just collapse on the day of the audition.” To calm his nerves, Pattinson took his agent’s advice, popped a Valium, and got in a cab. “I just remember feeling so glorious in the back of the taxi with the window open, just being like, ‘Wow, this is what I’ve been missing,’” he recalled. That spacey, detached feeling ended up working wonders for his audition. Maybe the Valium helped channel his inner Edward?
In the end, Pattinson’s quirky, offbeat take on Edward made the character iconic.
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