Pattinson was contracted to do the four Twilight movies and once Eclipse wraps up in Vancouver, only Breaking Dawn remains to be filmed. "They were all filmed quickly and painlessly," he says.
The much-anticipated second instalment, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, is in cinemas next month. In the flesh, Pattinson only vaguely resembles Edward Cullen because he is far from being a tortured soul himself. A lot of the image is created through posturing, make-up and that mop of tousled hair. "I wear contact lenses for the character and in the first movie I wore a bit of lipstick but in New Moon I don't. They've changed my look in this one. I don't pluck my eyebrows so much in this one, either."
Is he wearing make-up today? "Naaa," he replies disdainfully, and seems pleased that New Moon is aimed more towards males. "This was always my favourite book. New Moon will be a lot more relatable for guys, whereas it was quite difficult for me to express all those emotions in Twilight. I think it's difficult for guys to accept those kind of emotions."
Given that expectations are running so high, he approached reprising the role with trepidation. "I was really worried I wouldn't know how to do it again, but I have a natural chemistry going on with Kristen and doing the sequel was so easy. She always says she pretty much got me the part, but I don't really believe her," he says with a smile
"I had three days off between Remember Me and Eclipse and then I've had to start learning Comanche and bareback riding for Unbound Captives. I don't only want to do the same part. I'm doing Bel Ami, based on the Guy de Maupassant novel in January as well, and I don't really know how I'm going to fit that in. I have to gain weight – but I don't think they'll let me put on much as I have to shoot the final Twilight movie afterwards. I have to look older, as the character Georges Duroy has been living hard for a good six years just getting drunk all the time. So I want to look a bit haggard."
While he says that in Remember Me he is basically playing himself, Georges Duroy probably is also closer to his own reality. Currently Pattinson lives out of three suitcases. "I live in hotel rooms," he admits. He had a grungy rented flat in London's Soho but let it go when it essentially became a crash pad for his buddies.
Pattinson's parents are now both retired and live vicariously through their son's fame. "It's funny; I think they expect me to be reacting differently. They think it's more impressive than I think it is. Ultimately everyone in my life knows what's real – apart from my mother, who seems to believe every negative thing that's written about me."
Such as? "Oh, it was about sleeping with people and swearing and I wasn't even in the city at the time. She's like, 'No, I don't believe you; I bet you did say that.' She believes a gossip magazine over her own son. "My sister Lizzy just finds it bizarre. She was in America in May and sent me a text saying, 'It's ridiculous how famous you are!' It's weird, the mags print stuff every week even if I don't do anything."
Initially the fanaticism was stronger in the US, he says. "I came back to the UK at Christmas and was mostly left alone. Now it's everywhere," he shudders, laughing. "I keep waiting for the day when I wake up and I'm just an asshole to everybody."
The security is so tight around Pattinson now that he leads his life in a kind of bubble. "I'm usually half-carried in and out of buildings by bodyguards," he says. "It was driving me a little bit nuts at first, but you just learn to deal with it. If you keep being negative, if you keep saying, 'I hate this, I hate this' then you'd go crazy."
If only he could come up with an answer to the burning press pack question: "What does he look for in a girl?"
"Errr, money," he replies, "and an unbelievable amount of patience." Is it true that famous women try to hit on him? "That's all bullshit. Maybe I don't even realise that they're doing it ..."
He says he doesn't have a perfect girl, though admits, "she would have to be down-to-earth." So is there a celebrity he's adored? "Um," he stutters, struggling for an answer to yet another trite question. "I like Patricia Arquette in True Romance.
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