New Robert Pattinson GQ interview

French everywhere you turn. That's rare at Beverly Hills Hotel but the whole DIOR team came. Everything today revolves around the new star of the "DIOR HOMME" campaign. Robert Pattinson. EX "Twilight" star, superstar, teeniecrush in Justin Bieber regions and now on the way to a new life as grown up actor with Cannes successes. Pattinson is fidgety, not a nonchalant guy. He used to smoke. those timnes are over. Yet there are 4 packs of cigarettes next to him on the sofa. He's playing with a cigarrette, his hand fidgety. Maybe one's just nervous when attempting to start a world carreer at 27. 

                                                         ***********************

Mr. Pattinson, you have been chewing on this cigarette for quite some time now. Is it made of gum or chocolate?

That would be very embarrassing. But it is indeed an electric cigarette. 

Why aren't you smoking anymore?

 It had to stop. Just like the time as a "Twilight" vampire.

Non-smoker and short hair. Aren't those typical indicators for the next carreer phase?

Probably my hair speaks for itself and I don't need to comment. I wonder why people are so obsessed with my hair. Even Heidi Klum asked me not long ago on a TV show  "Hey Robert, how do you get your hair to look like that?"

Did you ever have real bad hair at all?

A tacky ponytail.  Greased back with vaseline. Loads of perfume on top. Everything was much too much. I would say I wasn't a man back then.

We can safely assume you are one now. In the advertising clip for "DIOR HOMME" there are similarities to Jean-Paul Belmondo in "Breathless".

I indeed aimed to show a man with a sensitive side but loves to be free in the clip. I find it embarrassing when men are overly manly. 

During your model time you almost looked like a girl. Weren't you irritated by it?

No, I was just young.  I did it to meet girls, without the plan for some kind of carreer. I had a simple from the hand in my mouth understanding. Someone took a picture of me and I got £20 for it. 

After "Twilight" you were set for life financially. Did that kind of success make it clearer for you who you are or did it just make you think more about the basic principle of success?

The only thing I know is: I'm getting somewhere. I'm capable of something from which I didn't even know I really was capable of: moving in front of a camera and people really believing it.

Your success was out of any filmstar normality. Even fellow filmstars like Emma Watson are not envying you. How did you stay calm?

I just kept working. Felt like 24 hours a day. I didn't have time to go nuts.Work is the best thing to prevent you from going insane. That way I could ignore the masses in front of the hotels. Different story in bars. There are a lot of guys that want to punch you in the face.

Just like that?

Yes, just because.

Because they saw your face on a billboard at the bus stop? 

Could be. It was enough.

Does someone like you have a five year masterplan?

Every movie I make should be at Cannes. When I chose to make David Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis" suddenly different things were possible for me. David helped me to become an actor.

You are 27 years old now. That's a dangerous age in showbusiness and even outside of that a moment when everything changes. 

Are you asking me if I will day this year? I was dead long enough while I was Edward Cullen. I have a new life since the Cronenberg movie cause people talk to you like they talk to an adult when you turn 27. Durinf vampire times they just thought I'm only famous. And noone can stand famous people.

What makes you think that?

It's the über-Pattinson-powerfactor. Suddenly any faces are rich and famous out of nowhere. It makes people nervous. 

Presents, special treatments, limousines...all that is surely good for your self-esteem.  But what is really important to feel safe?

For me it was and is my family. I even let them decide over scripts.

You let your parents and sisters decide over your carreer planning?

Yes. Since I cause them a lot of stress. They didn't chose to be the family of "Twilight"-Pattinson. And sadly they get a lot of visits from paparrazzi.

What would you want to be like? At which actor do you look closely carreer planning wise?

Joaquin Phoenix. His acting has direct impact on his life.

He makes fun of Hollywood in his documentation about himself and he doesn't want to be an actor anymore.

I don't want to be an actor forever, either. 

What then? Are you going to start a firm in the Silicone Valley and develop apps?

I'm waiting for the next surprise. I already decided once to stop acting. I was just doing "LIttle Ashes". I played Salvador Dali and had a lot of nude scenes, I even had to masturbate. For real. A few days later I got the offer for "Twilight".

Can you take more time to choose roles now? Or is it even with your status contraproductive?

It takes me a long time. But I have to get faster. Today businessmanager decide if they take you or not. And they don't wait long. Besides...for some roles I want to get older, maturer, first to better come across. Cause you can indeed be to young for a movie.

Example?

When I did "Bel Ami" I was way too young for that character. That guy was an alpha-alpha-male. Clever but edgeless and immoral. Everyone who did him a favour, generally they were women, lost out in the end. The character was only good in being an asshole.

Would you play a better asshole today?

I'm absolutely positive.

translated by London Calling

source: scans from ROBsessed