How Robert Pattinson went from a 'Twilight' heartthrob to the star of 'Tenet' and 'The Batman'

Pattinson described himself as a "triple Taurus" during a Wired autocomplete interview because his zodiac sign, ascendant, and descendant are all Taurus.

He grew up in Barnes, London. His mom, Claire, was a model booker and his dad, Richard, was a vintage car salesman. Pattinson also has two older sisters named Lizzy and Victoria.

"I think they always kinda wished I was a little sister, and I always wanted a little brother," the actor told Seth Meyers of his siblings in June 2014.

He attended an all-boys school called Tower House School (whose famous alums include "Venom" star Tom Hardy and comedian-actor Jack Whitehall) until he was 12 years old. Then Pattinson attended The Harrodian School, according to Vanity Fair.

During a 2017 interview with Howard Stern, Pattinson came clean about being caught shoplifting.

"I've never actually said this before," the actor said. "I was, like, stealing porno magazines and selling them at school."

"I got so cocky that I would take the entire rack," he continued.

Eventually, Pattinson got caught by an employee, who gave him the option of calling the cops or his parents. He went with the latter choice, but word got back to his school because the clerk told, plus "every single one of my friends snitched on me."

That's not the only time the actor spoke about his school days.

During an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in August 2017, Pattinson said that he and a bunch of other students in his 12th-grade class bullied a substitute teacher into leaving by "locking her in a cupboard until she cried."

Pattinson told W magazine that when he was in school, his drama teacher "actively" discouraged him from pursuing acting "and do geography instead."

"She just thought I wasn't cut out for the creative subjects," he said.

Pattinson shared similar comments during a 2019 interview with Backstage, saying: "I didn't audition for any school plays because I was so embarrassed."

When he was 13 years old, he joined the Barnes Theatre Company at the suggestion of his parents, who thought it would be good for Pattinson to get over his shyness.

Pattinson worked backstage. His first audition was for the role of Nathan Detroit in "Guys and Dolls." He instead got cast as a Cuban dancer.

"I'd had no interest in acting until then but one audition broke the seal," he told Time Out in 2017. "It was so scary. I hadn't sung, danced or acted in front of anyone, and suddenly I was doing all three in this audition for 'Guys and Dolls.'"

He went on to star as George Gibbs in a stage production of "Our Town."

Pattinson also portrayed Alec in theater production "Tess of the d'Urbervilles," which led him to get an agent, according to Vanity Fair.

Speaking to Willie Geist in 2019 for "Sunday Today," Pattinson reminisced about being on stage and "getting high" off the thrill of performing.

As a teenager, he worked as a paperboy for Natsons in Barnes, London for a little over a year. He also did a bit of modeling, but said he was "terrible."

"I was really tall but still looked like a six-year-old," he told Vanity Fair in 2009.

Pattinson also considered being a political speechwriter, per Vanity Fair.

And in 2014, the actor told Seth Meyers that he "100%" wanted to be a rapper when he was younger.

"I still kinda do," he said, explaining that his rap name was Big Tub and the Tabbycats.

"I was very paranoid about my weight," he told the late-night host.

At one point Pattinson, who can play the piano and the guitar, thought that being a musician might be a more attainable career than being an actor. He was in a band called Bad Girls and performed as a solo artist under the name Bobby Dupea, according to The Guardian.

He portrayed 17-year-old Rawdy Crawley, Witherspoon's on-screen son.

Pattinson didn't learn that his role was cut until he attended the film's screening with longtime friend Tom Sturridge, who also starred in the movie, and realized that his scenes were missing.

If you're curious, you can find the deleted scene on YouTube.

"The casting director, Mary Selway, she felt so guilty that no one had informed me that she basically gave me the first run at the part in 'Harry Potter,' so I was quite glad I got cut in the end," Pattinson told W magazine in 2017.

In "Goblet of Fire," Pattinson portrayed Cedric from the Hufflepuff house, who participated in the Triwizard Tournament with Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe). The two formed an alliance and helped each other with the tasks, but Cedric was ultimately killed by Peter Pettigrew.

Even though Pattinson's character was only part of one "HP" movie, the actor is grateful for the experience. The movie also prevented him, then 17, from going to university because the filming ended up being longer than projected.

"It was so nice to be a part of it," he told Time Out. "That, more than anything, changed my life."

After "HP," Pattinson landed a role in a production of "The Woman Before" in London's West End. But the 19-year-old was let go before the show's opening night.

"I thought I was doing something interesting, and I ended up getting fired for it," he told Vanity Fair in 2009. "I think I just got confused, doing random mannerisms, as if that made an interesting performance."

"I kind of went nuts for a while," he said.

He also appeared in two TV movies ("The Haunted Airman" and "The Bad Mother's Handbook") and starred in the films "Little Ashes" and "How to Be."

When Pattinson auditioned at 21 years old, Hardwicke had already chosen Kristen Stewart for Bella Swan after being impressed by her work in "Into the Wild."

But finding the right actor to portray Edward was challenging and approximately 5,000 boys auditioned for the role.

Pattinson traveled to LA for an audition for a rom-com called "Post-Grad," which went on to star "Gilmore Girls" actress Alexis Bledel. At the time, he slept on the couch of his agent's (Stephanie Ritz) house.

"I went in and just completely blew it," he told The Hollywood Reporter of the rom-com audition.

Feeling dispirited, he met with Hardwicke at her Venice, California home the following day for "Twilight," which was in the screen test stage (he had previously submitted an audition tape from his London home and spoke to the director on the phone).

After his less-than-great prior film audition, he didn't have high hopes. Pattinson also famously took Xanax before his "Twilight" audition to calm his nerves.

Hardwicke told Vulture that she had the actors go to her house and work on three scenes with Stewart: the biology scene, the meadow scene, and the kissing scene.

"With Robert, it was abundantly apparent that they had sexual chemistry," the director told the publication. "It was like the first moment they met, you could just feel it."

Pattinson didn't really resemble Edward when he met with Hardwicke.

"When I turned up for the audition, I had done a job where I'd dyed my hair black, but I had an inch and a half of roots, and I had waxed my body," Pattinson recalled during an interview with Allure. "And then I had a few months where I'd been drinking beer all day, so I had this hairless, chubby body. I looked like a baby with a wig on."

"They called me up and they literally said, 'Catherine, do you think you can make this guy look good?'" Hardwicke told Vanity Fair in 2009.

The director promised that she'd change his hair color and style, get him a trainer, and work with the film's crew to "make the guy look good," and the studio finally agreed.

News of Pattinson's casting came in late 2007.

Meyer previously said that Henry Cavill was "the only actor I've ever seen who I think could come close to pulling off Edward Cullen." When Pattison nabbed the role, the author said she was "ecstatic" with the studio's pick.

"There are very few actors who can look both dangerous and beautiful at the same time, and even fewer who I can picture in my head as Edward," she wrote. "Robert Pattinson is going to be amazing."

Pattinson told Howard Stern that he wanted to lean into Edward's brooding personality and intensity, whereas the producers wanted him to be more cheerful.

"I remember the producers giving me a copy of the book," the actor recalled. "Every single instance where my character smiled and stuff, they'd highlighted."

In response, Pattinson took his own highlighter and emphasized instances in which Edward frowned. His agent had to intervene and fly to the set to give him a pep talk, because if he didn't cooperate, he could be in danger of losing his job.

"I was probably going a little bit too miserable so there was some kind of compromise made," he said.

Instead, the movie (based on Meyer's 2005 book) became a pop culture phenomenon that was impossible to ignore.

"With 'Twilight,' it wasn't really an established thing," Pattinson told Jennifer Lopez during an interview for Variety's Actors on Actors series. "To me, Catherine Hardwicke, who directed it, had done 'Thirteen' and 'Lords of Dogtown.' They were little movies, and they were kind of hard-core."

He continued: "Kristen was in stuff as well; she'd been in 'Into the Wild' and some other things. And it was very indie."

Pattinson went on to tell Lopez that he was bewildered by the popularity of "Twilight," calling it a "weird story."

"It's strange how people responded," he said. "I guess the books, they are very romantic, but at the same time, it's not like 'The Notebook' romantic. 'Twilight' is about this guy who finds the one girl he wants to be with, and also wants to eat her. Well, not eat — drink her blood or whatever."

The actor added: "I thought it was a strange story. Even the way I promoted it, I was very open about how strange I thought it was when I was doing it."

The popularity of "Twilight" resulted in midnight screenings, a surge in tourism in the real-life town of Forks, fan-fiction (which Pattinson said was "surprisingly hardcore. And very well written"), and an endless supply of merchandise — including a whole collection of Barbie dolls based on the fictional characters.

Remember Bella Swan's purple bedding from Target? Even that became a hot commodity after the release of the first film.

The "Twilight" stars graced the cover of countless magazines, attended San Diego Comic-Con, and participated in mall tours (which Pattinson "actually did love it. One of the more fun things to do with 'Twilight'").

There were also wax figures that didn't quite capture his likeness and a 2011 Vanity Fair cover shoot that involved the actor posing with a real alligator.

And Pattinson's famous tousled hair, which he often pulls while posing for photos or participating in interviews, was a big part of the frenzy around him. Fans dubbed the star "R-Patz," a moniker that he wasn't really fond of.

In a 2014 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he recalled being followed by eight cars for 10 hours.

In another interview, Pattinson detailed the elaborate schemes he created to throw off paparazzi, like switching cars, hiding in trunks, and changing his clothes in parking lots.

During an interview for Esquire UK in 2014, he said that the frequent attention meant that he couldn't go to trendy spots and his LA home wasn't as private as he would have hoped.

"They photographed anyone who came up to the gate, anyone who rang the bell, and they followed any car that came in and out," he said. "I used to dress up my assistant as me, and get him to drive off with like five cars following him around for hours."

"It sounds awful, but I got these massive highs when I escaped people," he told The Sunday Times in 2019. "Especially when you see the absolute frustration on their faces when they're trying to follow you."

"New Moon" (2009) chronicled Edward and Bella's breakup and the protagonist's friendship with a newly-buff Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner).

"Eclipse" (2010) centered on the love triangle involving Edward, Bella, and Jacob — plus the rise of an army of newborn vampires at the hands of returning villain Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard).

"Breaking Dawn: Part 1" (2011) and "Breaking Dawn: Part 2" (2012) focused on Edward and Bella's wedding, the birth of their daughter Renesmee, Bella's transition into a vampire, and a confrontation with the Volturi.

It's unclear when they began dating, but it was likely sometime in 2009. No one knows for sure because the two stars (aka Robsten) were tight-lipped about their relationship.

"I would never cheapen my relationships by talking about them," Stewart told Elle in a 2010 cover story. "People say, 'Just say who you're dating. Then people will stop being so ravenous about it.' It's like, No they won't! They'll ask for specifics."

The couple split shortly before the final franchise installment, "Breaking Dawn: Part 2," was released in 2012. Stewart had been photographed kissing Rupert Sanders, the married director of her film "Snow White and the Huntsman."

Stewart and Pattinson briefly got back together following the cheating scandal but split for good in 2013. In 2015, Stewart called their split "incredibly painful."

Meanwhile, Pattinson told Esquire that "s--- happens, you know?"

"It's just young people… it's normal! And honestly, who gives a s---?" he said.

For people who were skeptical of the genuineness of their relationship, Stewart told Howard Stern in 2019 that it was real and Pattinson was her first love.

When the radio host said that the biggest mistake an actor could make is falling in love on set, the "Charlie's Angels" star said that "'there was nothing that I could do," and they had immediate chemistry during the "Twilight" audition.

"I've actually never been allowed to just say what happened because I was so self-conscious about seeming like an attention seeker," Stewart said.

She continued: "We didn't walk down the street holding hands because we were like 'we don't want to give it to them,' but then we didn't get to walk down the street holding hands — and it sucked."

Pattinson described "Twilight" as "a safety net" that allowed him to explore smaller films in his career.

"Whatever I did I knew that I'd have another 'Twilight' movie on the way, which is theoretically guaranteed to make a lot of money," he told The Guardian in 2011. "So I could always afford to fail."

While filming the 2010 drama "Remember Me" in NYC, he got clipped by a taxi in his attempt to escape fans.

"But at least that's an experience, something new," Pattinson told Harper's Bazaar of the incident, which he escaped unscathed. "If it's just screaming — and I know this sounds so ridiculous — that gets old."

He continued: "But sometimes when there's literal chaos, it's like being in a war zone, and that's kind of exciting. You're just running through the crowd of people chasing after you and no one knows what's going on."

Then Pattinson portrayed Reese Witherspoon's love interest in 2011's "Water for Elephants," starred in "Bel Ami" with Uma Thurman, and teamed up with director David Cronenberg (who he was a big fan of) for "Cosmopolis."

There are plenty of video compilations showing Pattinson appearing unenthusiastic about the franchise, from how long shooting was to how bizarre the premises of the movies were.

In an interview with Access Hollywood, Pattinson struggled to come up with a proper response when asked: "Did your 'Twilight' experience turn out to be what you expected?"

When Moviefone asked if he thought he'd be a "Twilight" fan if he wasn't the star of the movies, Pattinson replied: "I think I am a judgmental and cynical person who would just mindlessly hate it without having seen anything. I just think I'm a bad person."

Pattinson also joked that he "stopped mentally progressing around the time when I started doing those movies."

And in a 2011 interview with Vanity Fair, he reiterated that he couldn't comprehend the "Twilight" hype. He also recalled the tedious process of shooting the poster for "Twilight" in "every position" to accommodate the film's marketing.

"There's nothing you can do about it," he said. "That's the way it is. But it is weird being part of that, kind of representing something you don't particularly like."

Though he remains firm in his belief that the synopsis of "Twilight" was bizarre, it appears that the actor has come to terms with that period of his life.

"It seems like with younger people in their late teens, early 20s, it's sort of become quite a hip thing to like," Pattinson told USA Today of the first film. "It's a fascinating second wave of people appreciating it, which is kind of cool."

Speaking about "New Moon," Pattinson added that the sequel "genuinely does have an incredibly good soundtrack."

"I completely forgot, but the soundtracks were quite ahead of their time," he added.

Pattinson also said that he has "warm memories" now that the hype has faded.

"It's lovely now that the mania is not so intense," he told the publication. "People come up [to me] and just have very fond memories of it. It's a really sweet thing. I think the only scary part was right in the thick of it all, when it was very, very intense. Now the intensity has died down and it's just very warm memories."

On talk shows and interviews, he's charming, nervous, self-deprecating, and awkward all at once.

Just take a look at his June 2020 cover story for GQ, in which he chaotically threw together some kind of bizarre dish during his virtual interview, microwaved pasta, and accidentally set one of his latex gloves (which was on his hand) on fire.

Years prior in another interview with GQ, Pattinson said that he has a habit of blurting out "the first thing that comes into my head out of nervousness."

He also once told Allure that "lots of people tell me I smell like a crayon." And while being followed by Vogue for 24 hours for a video series, Pattinson claimed that when he was a child, he used to eat pencils.

During an appearance on the "Today" show in 2011 to promote "Water for Elephants," Pattinson told a strange story about how a clown died the first time he visited the circus. He fully committed to the lie, elaborating on what supposedly happened to the clown ("His little car exploded. The joke car exploded on him").

In another interview sometime after, Pattinson admitted that he "made the whole thing up."

"I definitely do get a certain high from it," he told "The Lighthouse" costar Willem Dafoe of interviews. "There's a little gremlin inside of me that thinks, 'Just say something shocking. You're only here for a few minutes, say something terrible.'"

He added: "There's a kind of perverse glee I get from that. But I've given my publicist a number of heart attacks."

Just take a look at his 2017 GQ cover story, in which he appeared wary of sharing personal stories or even slightly controversial comments.

It's valid, given how much attention he's faced. Nowadays, his talk show appearances generally don't dig into his personal life (the biggest exception being his 2017 interview with Howard Stern) — but that wasn't always the case.

Shortly after his 2012 breakup with Stewart, questions about the split permeated his interviews. On shows like "Good Morning America" or "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," he dodged the questions.

"You get into [Hollywood] to do movies," Pattinson said on "GMA" in August 2012. "I've never been interested in trying to sell my personal life and that's really the only reason people bring it up."

He gave a similar comment during a 2019 interview with The Sunday Times, saying: "If you let people in, it devalues what love is. If a stranger on the street asked you about your relationship, you'd think it extremely rude. If you put up a wall it ends up better."

Pattinson dated singer FKA Twigs and the pair made appearances together at the Met Gala and other red carpet events. They reportedly split in 2017 after two years together and possibly being engaged.

Speaking to Howard Stern, the actor called FKA Twigs "super talented" and said that they were "kind of engaged."

He also spoke about the toxic side of fandoms in regards to the racist comments directed at FKA Twigs.

"They get so addicted to just wanting to cause hurt and pain on someone," Pattinson told Stern. "It's one of the most difficult things to know how to confront. It's a faceless enemy."

The actor is currently dating Suki Waterhouse, who he's been linked to since summer 2018.

They were quarantined together in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, per People and his June 2020 GQ cover story.

He starred in 2014's "The Rover" with Guy Pearce, reunited with director David Cronenberg for "Maps to the Stars," appeared in "Queen of the Desert" with Nicole Kidman, played real-life photographer Dennis Stock in 2015's "Life," and had a role in "The Childhood of a Leader."

None of the aforementioned movies were nearly as large in scope as "The Twilight Saga," but Pattinson has insisted that he didn't make a purposeful effort to do films that were a departure from his previous work.

"I didn't make a conscious decision at all to do smaller things," he told Jennifer Lopez in 2019.
"I've just kept doing what I wanted to do in the first place."

Pattinson also told Wonderland magazine that he gravitated toward those movies because they're "so unabashedly themselves. You can feel they are extremely personal to the directors. They're not trying to please anyone."

The 2016 film was based on a book and starred Charlie Hunnam as Percy Fawcett, who was determined to find a lost city located in the Amazon.

Critics praised Pattinson's performance, with Business Insider calling it "the best one yet for Pattinson" while the Los Angeles Times applauded the "Twilight" alum's "wry, witty understatement."

Again, critics were thrilled by the performance delivered by Pattinson and the movie received a critics score of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. "Good Time" also got a six-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival.

Pattinson was the one who reached out to the Safdie brothers after seeing a still of Arielle Holmes from their movie "Heaven Knows What" on Indie Wire and being fascinated by the aesthetic. He met up with the directors, who didn't even have plans for "Good Time" at the time, and voiced his interest in working with them on a project.

To play the role, Pattinson completely immersed himself in the culture of Queens, NY, which is where the movie took place and was filmed for five weeks.

He changed his hair color and style, pierced his ears, and mastered a fake accent. He was surprised that people didn't recognize him, especially in a place where there are typically hordes of fans.

Pattinson told Time Out that he "spent a whole day in character," which is something he never did for a movie.

"Benny [Safdie, who played his on-screen sibling] and I spent a day in Yonkers, hanging out in Dunkin' Donuts and meeting people he knew. We went to a couple of prisons too."

As for the Queens accent, he modeled it after the Safdie brothers, but also "spent a lot of time in Queens Center Mall."

"I was in the tattoo shop there for ages and ages," he recalled during an appearance on "Good Morning America."

"I've always kind of liked doing accents," Pattinson added during his "GMA" interview. "My mom is one of those people who, she'll be talking to someone on the phone with an accent and by the end of the conversation, no matter how strong their accent is, she's fully imitating that accent. I find it really fun."

Pattinson also joked that he and the directors coined a new film genre, "panic," based on the movie's sustained intensity.

"I like entering worlds that feel foreign," he told Wonderland magazine. "And when I got involved in 'Good Time' I loved the idea of highlighting a subculture and magnifying it until it seems almost unrecognizable."

Pattinson described the space film to GQ as "a lot about sexual fantasy and how your past intermingles, and this thing about kind of having your semen stolen from you in a spaceship and like forcibly impregnating people."

That year, the actor also starred as a wealthy pioneer in a 2018 film called "Damsel" alongside Mia Wasikowska.

After Variety reported the news, people (including opinionated comic-book fans) took to social media to voice their opinion.

Some thought that Pattinson was perfect for the role and had the acting chops to pull it off, but others disagreed because they were only familiar with his work in "Twilight" and not his critically acclaimed post-vampire roles.

Pattinson finally spoke out about his role months later in an interview with Variety, saying that he was "f---ing furious" when the news leaked before he was officially cast. The actor said that at the time, he hadn't even auditioned and feared that the leak would deter his chances of playing the Caped Crusader.

Pattinson also said that the response to him being cast "was less vitriolic than I was expecting," especially compared to the backlash he felt when he joined "Twilight."

Not everyone was a fan of the period film but audiences were thrilled by Pattinson's role as a dauphin and the humorous, over-the-top French accent he brought to "The King."

The movie, which starred Pattinson and Willem Dafoe, received a critics score of 90% and an audience score of 72% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Critics praised Pattinson's performance in the 2019 black-and-white psychological thriller, which centered on his character and Dafoe's being overcome by madness while in isolation together.

"The Lighthouse" was filmed in a small fishing village called Cape Forchu, located in Nova Scotia, Canada, and the filmmaking process was far from glamorous.

Pattinson grew a mustache (which he called "one of my greatest achievements" during an interview with Seth Meyers), hardly spoke to anyone on set when the cameras weren't rolling, and worked with a dialect coach for his character's accent.

The actor also put stones in his shoes to make himself hobble, spun in circles to disorient himself, and described himself to Esquire UK as "basically unconscious the whole time."

"It was crazy," he said. "I spent so much time making myself throw up. Pissing my pants. It's the most revolting thing."

Pattinson met with Nolan in early 2019, but the topic of "Tenet" wasn't brought up until the end of their lengthy conversation.

Pattinson told Capital FM that he "completely" understood the movie when he first read the script. But every time he read it after, he became more confused.

"I think even when me and John David were shooting the last scene, I was still asking him fundamental questions," Pattinson recalled. "I think my last question was saying, 'Am I alive or dead?'"

The globe-trotting espionage film (released in summer 2020) was filmed in seven countries, from Estonia to Italy. For the movie, Pattinson pulled off an elaborate car chase sequence, struggled to keep up with costar John David Washington, and learned how to speak backward.

He portrays Preston Teagardin in the film, which is based on Donald Ray Pollock's 2011 novel of the same name and set in the South, post-World War II.

The star-studded cast also includes Tom Holland, Sebastian Stan, and Bill Skarsgård.

You can watch the trailer here.

The first teaser trailer for "The Batman" was released in August 2020 at DC FanDome, a virtual convention.

Because production was shut down early in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic (Reeves said they were only able to film about 25-20% of the movie), there was limited footage to share with fans.

The teaser finally gave fans a proper look at Pattinson as The Batman/Bruce Wayne, Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, and Colin Farrell as the Penguin.

Speaking about casting Pattinson as the Caped Crusader, Reeves said that he was impressed by the actor's ability to completely disappear into his roles over the past few years.

He described Pattinson as a "chameleon" and said that the movie isn't an origin tale. Instead, it will explore the main character during his second year of being a vigilante.

Production resumed in summer 2020, but was shut down after Pattinson reportedly tested positive for COVID-19.

The movie is currently expected to hit theaters on October 1, 2021.