Publicity a double-edged sword for Pattinson

Enlarge Image

Fred Lee / ABC Actor Robert Pattinson, right, dodged questions about his ex Kristen Stewart from George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America. (ABC)

NEW YORK -- Jon Stewart tried to bait him with Ben & Jerry's Karamel Sutra. Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos offered him Cinnamon Toast Crunch. But maybe french fries would have been a better ploy to get Robert Pattinson to spill juicy personal details about his breakup with Kristen Stewart.

"Media culture is a monstrous thing," Pattinson lamented, jamming fries into his mouth between puffs on his electronic cigarette. "You can't win. The annoying thing is that you can't attack them, but you can't defend yourself. The best thing you could possibly do is punch a paparazzi and give them their big payday."

The 26-year-old actor has run a gauntlet of publicity last week that was nominally about promoting his new film, Cosmopolis, which opened Friday in the U.S. But the promotional blitz, which also included a New York première and other stops, seemed to be as much about proving his emotional resilience in the wake of the tabloid bonanza that exploded after photos surfaced of Stewart in compromising positions with married 41-year-old director Rupert Sanders, who worked with her on Snow White and the Huntsman.

Sitting alongside Pattinson at the Mandarin Oriental hotel on Columbus Circle for moral support was Cosmopolis director David Cronenberg. The Canadian filmmaker, whose challenging art-house films almost never garner such wide attention, was there as a sort of buffer but also appeared to be quietly amused by the media circus. The actor's manager would not allow Pattinson to sit alone for an interview with the Los Angeles Times, and even suggested that reporters not ask him about his personal life, or Twilight.

But Twilight, of course, is how Pattinson has become perhaps the most widely recognized young actor of his generation. In the movie franchise, based on Stephenie Meyer's bestselling young adult novels, he plays a brooding vampire who falls in love with a human girl (Stewart). The film series has grossed over $2.5 billion worldwide since launching in 2008 and will conclude in November with a fifth instalment, Breaking Dawn -- Part 2. Pattinson's off-screen romance with Stewart only stoked the popularity of the vampire movies.

When the Stewart-Sanders affair burst onto the cover of Us Weekly in July, it initially seemed like there was little upside for Pattinson. But Stewart's public apology generated not only sympathy for the man wronged but also a fresh wave of interest for Cosmopolis, which had premièred to mixed response at the Cannes Film Festival in May (it played across Canada in June).

That could help Pattinson as he strives to craft a post-Twilight career. While both of his Twilight co-stars, Stewart and Taylor Lautner, have each taken centre stage in studio pictures, Pattinson has mostly stayed in the indie world. His biggest non-Twilight film to date was last year's Water for Elephants, a modestly budgeted period romance with Reese Witherspoon that took in a respectable $117 million worldwide. Pattinson's less-commercial projects, however, have tanked at the box office -- the Sept. 11 drama Remember Me only collected $8 million domestically in 2010, and the 19th century-set drama Bel Ami flopped in June, never expanding beyond 15 theatres.

In Cosmopolis, Pattinson plays a young billionaire on the verge of financial ruin who self-destructs over the course of one day, and he has earned some of the best reviews of his career for his performance as the detached whiz-kid.

Before production began on Cosmopolis, he said he was so unsure of his ability to pull off the role that he sat "trembling, absolutely terrified" during the first screen test.

The nerves are somewhat surprising, considering Pattinson's part in Cosmopolis doesn't seem all that distant from his own life. Like his character in the film -- who remains isolated in a limousine for hours as he slowly traverses Manhattan to get a haircut -- Pattinson said that since Twilight opened, he has "had four years of gradually being put more and more into smaller and smaller boxes, and you have a desire to break out." He's also a part of the one per cent -- according to Forbes, he earned $12.5 million for the last two Twilight pictures -- a number he says is "completely not true."

The actor said he feels a pressure to appear "unbearably conservative" because he senses his every move is being scrutinized. He says he'd like for bankers to be hunted by paparazzi and TMZ instead, but knows that's unrealistic.

"The tabloid industry does terrible, terrible things for the world. It makes people stupid," he said, his cheeks flushing. "People say (tabloids) are about escapism, and people have got to get away from the misery of the world. It's like, 'No, people are lazy, and they don't want to try.' ...Every time I've looked at a magazine like that, I've regretted it. I gain absolutely nothing from it. And neither does anyone else."

-- Los Angeles Times

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 20, 2012 D3