On playing brooding types, and whether he'd consider a lighter role: "I did the kind of lighter stuff before Twilight came out, and it just so happened that Twilight’s become so much about the archetype of the brooding person. I mean I never thought that Tyler was that brooding to be honest [laughs], and then I just get it at every single thing, people saying, "brood, brood, brood" — I hadn’t even heard the word before Twilight! I guess I like to play broken and troubled characters because it seems more interesting, especially because I’m not that broken and troubled myself."
On his new roles: "I’m doing something now [Bel Ami] that’s still quite dark, but the guy, his character isn’t so fractured, he’s just someone who’s incredibly focused and has a lot of confidence in himself, and nothing can shake his confidence. And then after that, I think there’s a kind of lighter thing as well. I don’t know, it’s not really that they’re angsty it’s just that joy seems to be more a universal emotion in script, it’s quite difficult — if you’re happy, you’re happy."
On how the character of Tyler developed: "The script changed so much over seven months and just had loads and loads of re-writes. I tried to tailor things to what I was interested in, like the relationship with the dad changed quite a lot because I thought one of the things when you’re a young guy one of your biggest fears is this irrational fear of walking in your dad’s footsteps and living the same life as him. I thought, even if your dad’s a good guy, you just want to assert your independence on everything and it causes these irrational sort of rages."
On his own fighting history: "I haven’t been in a fight in quite a long time, I think I’m too scared now. I think if I got in to a fight now, somebody would just kill me just for the sake of it [laughs]. I liked a lot of Tyler’s character, the rebelliousness and audaciousness of it, it’s like a fantasy of myself, like yeah, I’m the kind of guy who just randomly gets in fights. Yeah, I do it all the time. But, not really [laughs]."
On filming the fight scenes:
Producer Nick Osbourne: "I felt scared for you because the day you were doing the Chris Cooper fight, Chris was doing press-ups against the wall [laughs]."
Robert: "Yeah, he’s like unbelievably strong, he’s terrifying. And the fight I was having at the beginning I was doing it with this big stunt guy and I kept hitting this thing against the wall, next to his head. Then I was hitting him with what I thought was my full strength, I hit him in the head about four times and every time I hit him, I was like, 'I'm sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry'. And he’s like, 'It’s fine, it didn’t even hurt'. Yeah, that was kind of an ego deflater!"
On his friendship group: "It’s nice that I’ve grown up with the same friends since I was 12, I have a very close knit set of them... I grew up with a lot of people who a lot of other people regarded as heroes, and no one ever came to me for advice, no one ever came to me for protection, and so I don’t ever really think I’ve been looked at as a hero."
On who he considers his hero: "Outside of my family, I don’t really know. They’re great people and my parents are great parents, and they brought me up very well, I think. I don’t know, I think that’s about all the heroes I’ve had."
On his new roles: "I’m doing something now [Bel Ami] that’s still quite dark, but the guy, his character isn’t so fractured, he’s just someone who’s incredibly focused and has a lot of confidence in himself, and nothing can shake his confidence. And then after that, I think there’s a kind of lighter thing as well. I don’t know, it’s not really that they’re angsty it’s just that joy seems to be more a universal emotion in script, it’s quite difficult — if you’re happy, you’re happy."
On how the character of Tyler developed: "The script changed so much over seven months and just had loads and loads of re-writes. I tried to tailor things to what I was interested in, like the relationship with the dad changed quite a lot because I thought one of the things when you’re a young guy one of your biggest fears is this irrational fear of walking in your dad’s footsteps and living the same life as him. I thought, even if your dad’s a good guy, you just want to assert your independence on everything and it causes these irrational sort of rages."
On his own fighting history: "I haven’t been in a fight in quite a long time, I think I’m too scared now. I think if I got in to a fight now, somebody would just kill me just for the sake of it [laughs]. I liked a lot of Tyler’s character, the rebelliousness and audaciousness of it, it’s like a fantasy of myself, like yeah, I’m the kind of guy who just randomly gets in fights. Yeah, I do it all the time. But, not really [laughs]."
On filming the fight scenes:
Producer Nick Osbourne: "I felt scared for you because the day you were doing the Chris Cooper fight, Chris was doing press-ups against the wall [laughs]."
Robert: "Yeah, he’s like unbelievably strong, he’s terrifying. And the fight I was having at the beginning I was doing it with this big stunt guy and I kept hitting this thing against the wall, next to his head. Then I was hitting him with what I thought was my full strength, I hit him in the head about four times and every time I hit him, I was like, 'I'm sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry'. And he’s like, 'It’s fine, it didn’t even hurt'. Yeah, that was kind of an ego deflater!"
On his friendship group: "It’s nice that I’ve grown up with the same friends since I was 12, I have a very close knit set of them... I grew up with a lot of people who a lot of other people regarded as heroes, and no one ever came to me for advice, no one ever came to me for protection, and so I don’t ever really think I’ve been looked at as a hero."
On who he considers his hero: "Outside of my family, I don’t really know. They’re great people and my parents are great parents, and they brought me up very well, I think. I don’t know, I think that’s about all the heroes I’ve had."
PopsugarUK
