It’s no secret Twilight star Robert Pattinson hates the franchise more than almost anyone else. He stopped bathing during filming, he’s talked shit about the fandom for years. And he was almost fired for refusing to be happy.
Image: Summit Entertainment
During an interview on Howard Stern’s Sirius XM show, Pattinson chatted about how he was almost fired from the first movie for how seriously he took the role. He refused to smile, laugh, or show any emotions other than “this very emo thing”, since that was the nature of the series in his eyes. He said it’s because he wanted the movie to reflect Edward Cullen’s sullen, monstrous personality, but also because teenagers are stupid, hormone-filled weirdos.
“If you’re going into a relationship with someone, the way to make it really intense is if like you can barely talk to each other, you can barely touch each other, it’s incredibly serious all the time, it’s kind of what teenage relationships are,” Pattinson said. “But everyone kind of wanted it to be, like, ‘No, they should just be, like, happy and having fun. That’s what people want.’”
It got so bad that Pattinson’s agent personally flew down to the set and told him: “‘You have to do the opposite of what you’re doing now or you’re going to get fired today.’” The producers then handed Pattinson a copy of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight that was highlighted at every passage where Edward smiled. Pattinson’s response? He sent the book back with added highlights (in a different colour) of every one of Edward’s scowls. That’s bold.
A compromise was eventually made, giving us the Edward and Bella romance that will be remembered for generations. Although the stars clearly want us to forget. You can watch the interview below.
[Variety via ScreenCrush]