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The early aughts were full of vampire content, largely inspired by the wild success of the Twilight franchise. That five-film franchise was a bonafide sensation, making household names out of its young cast of actors. It turns out that Robert Pattinson was worried he wouldn’t live up to fans’ expectations of Edward. And the studio wasn’t originally convinced either.
The cast of Twilight were all super popular during its run in theaters, but none as much as the trio of Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, and Robert Pattinson. The latter has one of the most daunting jobs, given how Edwards’ beauty is described in the novels. Original Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke recently appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, where she revealed that Pattinson was actually quite nervous about portraying his signature character. In her words:
Rob is a very modest person, and very humble person, and self-deprecating in a way. So he was nervous about ‘Am I living up to the book? Am I gorgeous enough for the book?’ And I would say ‘Let’s just do the scene and if I have any problems I’ll let you know. But don’t stop in the middle, just keep playing, you’re doing great.’ So I tried to really give him a lot of love and encouragement.
There you have it. Despite how Twilight would turn Pattinson into a sex symbol and heartthrob, he wasn’t originally sure he could actually pull off playing Edward Cullen. The books were already hugely popular, and everyone had their own vision of what that vampiric leading man looked like. And as such, Pattinson didn’t want to disappoint the OG fans out there.
But not only would the Batman actor do just that, but Robert Pattinson would end up getting insanely famous from his role in Twilight, as well as his offscreen relationship with Kristen Stewart. Later on her same podcast appearance, Catherine Hardwicke revealed that the studio behind Twilight also wasn’t convinced that he was the right actor. Namely because during auditions he had dark hair and was out of shape. As she put it,
I sent it over to Summit and then he went over to meet them. And they called me back and go ‘Do you think you can make this guy look good?’ And I’m like ‘Yeah, I do. Did you see the cheekbones? Here’s a photograph, we’re doing a makeover on the hair, everything. He’s going to start working out, and he’s going to be gorgeous.’ But they didn’t believe it at first.
Of course, anyone who saw Pattinson’s role as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter 4 knew he had the dashing good looks to pull off Edward. But the studio needed to be convinced originally, thanks to the actor’s grooming habits at the time. Clearly that Cullen makeover did wonders for him at the time, and he definitely looked the part.
This BTS Twilight story actually makes it somewhat surprising that Robert Pattinson signed on for The Batman. The Caped Crusader is one of the most popular superheroes of all time, and he had some big shoes to fill. And Pattinson got into killer shape to play Bruce Wayne in the burgeoning franchise.
The Twilight franchise is streaming now with an Amazon Prime subscription. Be sure to check out the 2024 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.