It's taken eight years, 19 movie roles, and a complete revision of his status as the teenage heartthrob of his era. Still, finally, Robert Pattison appears to have emerged out of the gloomy, seedy shadow of The Twilight Saga and into the spectacular, dangerous surrounds of his local gym.
The Londoner, who, professionally, has dabbled in everything from serious drama, horror, crime, action, and even biopics, is the latest big name to shape up for a role. And while excelling on screen in the likes of Lost City of Z, Good Time, The Rover, and The Lighthouse, as the latest ripped and action-ready Batman, this is undoubtedly his most challenging workout yet.
The big-budget Warner Bros project represents a defining experience for the 35-year-old. In himself, physically and mentally, he admits to feeling like a different person, while professionally, his full vanquishing of Edward Cullen now feels complete.
You always felt there was still a significant part of the actor's spirit left behind in something vampiric. It seems all Pattinson needed to do was hit the gym, don the famous bat suit and stoke the fires of expectation.
An implausibly long lead-up to RPatz assuming the Batman mantle has been strung out further by the film industry's enforced shutdown in light of Covid-19, but those delays are now over, and the reinvention of one of the comic book greats is here.
STRIPLV: Did you doubt whether you'd be able to step up to this role in the way you have? PATTINSON: Doubt? Of course, lots of it. I think any actor will go through periods where they will hesitate and question whether they can live up to a character in a script or even the expectations that go with it. You look at the true warriors of the superhero genre, Hemsworth, The Rock, Downey Jr, Evans, and wonder if you're putting yourself in the wrong place. And yet, having spoken to a few, I know everyone is nervous when the opportunity comes about. It's all about pushing boundaries and building up to a point where you know, in the flesh, you can do justice to the physicality required. And past that, so much of it is letting the special effects and on-screen exchanges produce the real magic. Overall, it's just very exciting. STRIPLV: In following the likes of Robert Lowery, Adam West, who played Batman for two decades, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale and Ben Affleck in the modern era, you are placing yourself with quite a bounty of acting royalty. Does that intimidate or inspire? PATTINSON: In every project I've ever taken on, I've come into it wanting to learn and achieve new things. That's usually in the embodiment of a character and someone who has a different personality to me, but taking on a full physical transformation as well feels even more exciting. I like the challenge. STRIPLV: Apparently, you had to revise your body shape for the Batman role? PATTINSON: It was difficult because for too long as far as health and fitness goes, I've been all in or all out; feast or famine. I realized I needed a more thorough approach to the way I undertook fitness because it's too easy for me to go one way or the other, or at least it has been in the past. When you get to the point where you realize you need a break from your break, you've probably gone too far backward. I've been looking for a structure that comes from something constant in life, a job, a relationship, a fitness program. In my head, I've always wanted to ascend to a really peaked level of fitness and then have the wherewithal to stay there, so that's the challenge, and Batman has certainly got me to a point where I feel I am maintaining it. I guess the challenge comes now in staying there. STRIPLV: When you first broke through, you found the attention quite bewildering. Do you still feel that way? PATTINSON: No, I don't worry about that stuff anymore. I'm used to getting stopped and commented on, so it doesn't phase me either way. The fact is I live in London, and I can go around pretty easily, even when I'm exercising outdoors. For the most part, I get left alone. Usually, if someone stops me, it's very polite and friendly, and there's no longer that kind of frantic attention I had before. I feel that's because the whole Twilight thing was with a very different audience; but also because the nature of celebrity culture has changed a lot in the last few years - there are fewer paparazzi than before, and people aren't buying the gossip magazines or newspapers in the quantities they used to. Now everyone can take a photo and put it up on Instagram. I'm done worrying about it, to be honest. STRIPLV: Does the attention your celebrity attracts ever wear you down? PATTINSON: Not really. My career is an extraordinary gift, and I'm so grateful for it that I can't imagine ever becoming depressed or annoyed simply because the success that I've had is attracting attention from the public. You just learn to deal with everything and not be bothered by the attention. First of all, it's flattering, and as a performer, you're obviously seeking the approval of audiences. Secondly, it means that people appreciate your work. So it's pointless to let that attention annoy you because it's a contradiction and self-defeating. If you're a performer, and that's essentially what an actor is, you are performing for an audience, so you can't whine and moan about the fact that you've accomplished what you set out to do, which is to attract an audience and a following for your work. STRIPLV: Why do actors tend to suffer from these feelings of anxiety or get so wrapped up in their careers? PATTINSON: A lot of it is the nature of the business where it's so insular, and your entire life revolves around your work. I've seen some of that in my own experience, and you do everything you can to try to separate yourself from that unreal kind of world. But it's easy for actors to lose themselves in that delusional world and some people get too attached to their success. And when things start to go badly in their careers, they find that they have no real identity or life of their own to fall back on. It can be hard. STRIPLV: You don't seem afraid of failure in any aspect of your life or career. PATTINSON: Definitely not. It's fair to say I'm a little bit more ambitious in the kinds of roles I'm choosing now, whereas a few years ago, I would have run a mile away from anything with a box office or strength edge. You don't advance your career by playing it safe, and perhaps it took me a little while to get to that place where I was really going after the big roles again. STRIPLV: Being in your position, would you say you've developed a good radar by now about the people who are false and want to be friends with you for the wrong reasons or people who have ulterior motives? PATTINSON: Yeah, but I mean, to be honest, there's just not that many people like that. And when someone is, it's just so obvious. You have to remember that I have been in LA for quite a while, so I have quite a good group anyway. But yeah, definitely at the beginning, it's strange, but at the same time, unless you are a total idiot, you are really not going to get that screwed over by people. STRIPLV: Having grown up with sisters, do you think that's informed your view of women in terms of being comfortable around them? PATTINSON: Yeah. I think so. I mean, I wasn't when I was younger. I kind of think also because I went to an all-boys school and then went to a coed school when I was twelve, and I didn't realize that there were coed schools. I think because I was so amazed by it, I sort of think it changed my whole opinion on girls. Whereas for most of my friends, they went to all-boy schools their whole school life. STRIPLV: How would you describe your teenage years? Were you rebellious? PATTINSON: Not really. I was kind of fairly normal, and then I started working quite young, and then when I was 16, I kind of got my first big-ish role. It's gone on from there, but I've always regarded myself as a grounded person, despite it all, and I always want to be that way. STRIPLV: If you could go back and give yourself advice, what you say to yourself? PATTINSON: Not much. STRIPLV: Well, that's a good sign. You've done all the right things then? PATTINSON: I don't know. Perhaps, or maybe I am not seeing it yet. (Laughs)