‘Little Ashes’ director on ‘Twilight’ hunk Robert Pattinson’s gay sex scenes

Here’s an interview with Little Ashes director Paul Morrison.

Paul Morrison, the director of “Little Ashes,” a film about the strange, complex and forbidden love between Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca and surrealist painter Salvador Dali, talks about casting “Twilight” hero Robert Pattinson in the period piece.

At the time, Pattinson was just another undiscovered young British actor (he’d done “Harry Potter”), and little did Morrison know that this young man would draw unparalleled attention to this small film, which opens May 8.

Paul Morrison: I love the fact that an audience is going to be drawn to the film, partly through Rob, that wouldn’t otherwise get to this kind of movie. We played the Belfast Film Festival last week and there were quite a few of Rob’s fans there, not the majority by any means, and they loved it and they really took to it, so it’s great that kids will be reached by the movie.

Dish Rag: Playing Salvador Dali is a daunting role for a young actor.

PM: Yeah, I don’t think Rob realized what he was getting into when he agreed to do it, but he really worked hard at it, he really grappled with it, and I think he’s done something very extraordinary. It’s so difficult to do, because you have to tread light all the time between playing Dali as a young lovable young man, which he was, and suggesting the kind of pastiche of himself that he became in later life, that he presented to the public in later life, and that’s a very tall order, and I think Rob pulled it off.

DR: The resemblance is actually quite amazing.

PM: The intensity was important, but I wasn’t really looking for resemblance. And in the performance, I wasn’t looking for mimicry either.

DR: How did you find Robert Pattinson?

PM:  There are a lot of great young actors coming up in Britain, a couple years ago when I cast him, and I guess I saw all of them, all the ones that were available for me to see, and in Spain as well. We had to have a mix, because of, for reasons of the financial co-production, we had to have a mix of Spanish and UK actors. And originally, I was looking at Rob for Lorca, and thought we’d find our Dali in Spain, but he was so right for Dali that I switched it and we cast Dali in England and Lorca in Spain.

DR: So you had no notion of all this “Twilight” stuff, and you just watched all this happen as your film gets ready to be released.

PM: Yeah, it’s just extraordinary, jaw dropping. And great for us. For a little film like this you need a bit of luck.

DR: It’s wonderful to see a young actor like this, who despite the fame and the adulation is choosing a path and taking some extremely challenging and provocative roles. Do you think he will continue on that path?

PM: He is serious about acting and I am sure that, yeah, he will want to do roles that challenge him. I can’t tell you how hard he worked on the role of Dali. I was encouraging him to just play the script, but he was for himself hunting down every day bits of film or tape or interviews or a biography of Dali. He worked really hard at it, both intellectually and emotionally. I think that’s in his blood now, I think. I don’t think he’ll be satisfied with playing less than interesting roles.

DR: Well, he’ll certainly want to do more than climb up pine trees and fly around.

PM: Yeah, I’m sure he’s not complaining about that.

DR: Those gay sex scenes and the nude scenes, were those difficult for young actors Rob and Javier Beltran?

PM: I think they were difficult, but I think all sex scenes are difficult, and for all actors of all ages. And I find them difficult, certainly, to direct, and … you have to get very intense about them, and as a director be clear as to what you’re looking for so they know that they’re acting and they’re not doing it, and I think Rob probably found it harder than Javier, to draw the line between performance and, ah, but that was also in the nature of the part, that Dali’s sexuality was so complicated, complex and mysterious, I think even to himself, and his fear of sexuality, and if you’re playing that role, that kind of rubs off on you, so I think sex and pain were so closely entwined with Dali that to play those scenes is also hard, and the triangle sex scene is an unbelievably difficult scene. One of those scenes in everybody’s life when you’re doing something and you know it’s really really wrong, it really, it goes against the grain, but you’re doing it, so playing that scene is hard, it’s always hard.

We also asked why Rob Pattinson and Javier Beltran appear in a blue-lighted, erotically charged water scene, once with underwear on and later, in Dali’s recollection, without clothing.

PM: Yeah, what happens is that Dali recalls that scene later on, after Lorca’s death, and in his memory they’re not wearing underwear. So there is a nude scene, tastefully shot, of course.”

Darn it — we mean, of course.

Source

Magazine Scans: Life and Style, People, OK!, In Touch and more…

Here’s scans from several magazines including the Life and Style feature of Rob as a little tyke and Peoples 100 Most Beautiful Issue.

2009-05-11 Life and Style

2009-05-11 People

2009-05-11 OK!

2009-05-11 InTouch

2009-06 J-14

2009-06 Double Dish

2009-06 Tiger Beat

Rob leaving NM set

Thanks to RobPatzzNews we have some new pics of Rob leaving the set early this morning.  Location was Bella’s House where they’ve been filming the break up scene.

More Cuteness from Baby Rob

New Pictures have been added to the Baby Rob Gallery (Thanks to LionandLambLove! for some of them)

Examiner Review of “How to Be”

Amanda Bell from the Examiner has posted her review of “How to Be”.  If you haven’t seen the movie yet there are spoilers.

Robert Pattinson’s How To Be is a heartbreaker (spoilers)

While I had no doubt that Robert Pattinson would bring to the world an interesting and complicated character in How To Be, I simply could not anticipate how clever, awkward, and frustrating the film (and the plight of his wayward and romantically lost character Art) would be.

Beginning with the most insipidly unusual and unforgivingly cold of familial circumstances, Art’s hopeless effort at making his place in the small world of those around him is devastating. Nearly deserving tears from your eyes, Art suffers an alienation and endlessness in struggle that leaves one bitter and completely sympathetic.

And Robert Pattinson, star of The Twilight Saga: New Moon and Little Ashes, is the deliverer of that emotion.

While the film itself is surprising, well-oriented between its cherry-picked-with-care sound accompaniments and  eclectic visual elements, and well-written, it is Robert Pattinson who makes the day with How To Be.

From his writhing anger to his ceaseless whining, Robert Pattinson portrays Art in the adorably “stuck” fashion that gives meaning and life to the character’s circumstances. In the film, there is a scene where Art is so frustrated and upset that he wants to hit something, but because he is so fearful of pain and suffering (sort of a wimp, really), he can’t even bring himself to do that. It is clear that even his trepidation with expressing his anger causes him anguish. It is Pattinson’s performance, from his squinted hints of confusion and disallusionment to his choking gasps as he sobs furiously, that pulls this character off. What could have been a role that reaches no identifiability in audience becomes someone you want to just reach out and hug.

My favorite scene is where Art is reaching out for a hug from his mother. I think that this five seconds of the film fairly accurately symbolizes the slightly aggravating message being brought to us with How To Be – a boy whose mommy didn’t love him and what tragic bereavement he suffers as a consequence.

The rest of the cast (including Rebecca Pidgeon, Michael Irving, Jeremy Hardy, Mike Pearce, Johnny White, Powell Jones, and, of course, leading lady (well, sort of) Alisa Arnah) delivered on their bits too. From the stern and bombastic mother who you can’t decide whether to hate or agree with (at times) to the “friend” whose antics and very words you want to reach out, grab, and throw into a garbage disposal, these supporting actors’ performances lend credence to the sympathies for Art’s dilemma.

And yet, you can’t quite put your finger on what Art’s dilemma really is. Is he bitter with his parents or in love with them? In other words, is he trying to get away from them or is he trying to make them hold onto him? Is he in love with the girl or just looking for anyone, yes anyone, to be a genuine friend to him? It’s all very confusing, really, but that gets to be part of the charm of the film all the same. Just watching this giant (yet miraculously not overplayed) disaster unfold in someone’s lap (which already contained a host of other complications in the first place) and seeing that he has no idea what to make of it and is clearly not strong enough to figure it out on his own, it’s heartbreaking really.

As the credits roll, and some semblance of peace is brought to the life of Pattinson’s character, one still can’t be sure whether to feel closure, or to remain sad. The “resolution” that How To Be leaves us with for Art feels more like a semi-climax than an ending, and it is wrought with irony and sarcasm. Yet, it is this very aspect of the film that leaves the viewer thinking (think Sopranos finale, and take it back five or six levels of abrupt) past the ending.

Overall, I was completely taken with How To Be. From start to finish, the rollercoaster ride that is this film is completely entrancing. While it may be deeply frustrating and saddening, and downright affecting, to see the sad-song that is Art go through these toils and tumultuous underpinnings he calls life, the film is still beautiful. In all, great story – worthy of its appraise.

Article by Amanda Bell

Moviefone Interview Part II

Moviefone has posted the second part of their interview with Rob.

When we talked to Robert Pattinson about his upcoming biopic ‘Little Ashes,’ we first ran through some internet rumors with the ‘Twilight’ star. Now we are pleased to present part 2, the rest of our breezy, candid interview.

The remarkably generous and self-effacing actor played along, answering our questions — about doing an indie, stripping for nude scenes, filming ‘New Moon’ — with a refreshing dose of candor and complete lack of any diva-tude.

After chatting with Pattinson, we have no qualms in pledging our allegiance to Team Edward. — By Angie Argabrite

1. How was filming ‘Little Ashes,’ which is such a small production, compared to doing the ‘Twilight’ movies?

I kind of like small productions ’cause there’s not so much waiting around. And it’s strange, there are little things on ‘Little Ashes,’ like we didn’t have stand-ins, so we’d just kind of sit or stand around the set, which I initially found kind of bizarre but after a while it’s great, because you can just kind of stay in character the whole time. And also you can be much more a part of the set up of the shot, so I kind of liked that. I don’t know, it was, I would say, a very different energy. [But] there’s not a huge amount of difference, really. You’re just inside your head anyway most of the time, so you don’t really notice stuff.

2. I read that you were really nervous about filming the nude scenes and the explicit scenes, how did you prepare yourself for those?

[Laughs] I had so many ridiculous answers just come into my head [more laughs]. I had a penis implant! I don’t know, I just kind of, it’s funny because Spanish people are so … have no problem with nudity at all, I mean at all, and English people obviously do have, like, the most enormous problem with it. It’s like little things, like when I saw my father getting changed for swimming I got, like, traumatized by it … I don’t really know what I did, I just kind of freaked out a bit. [Laughs]

3. So was that the most difficult thing about filming this movie?

No, I mean, a lot of it was quite hard. I guess in a lot of ways, the more I read about Dali the more I kind of liked him, and liked what he tried to make himself stand for. I guess the hardest thing was that I didn’t want to disrespect his memory, especially when I met a lot of people who he knew and stuff. People were very, very fond of him, so that was probably the hardest thing. [Laughs] I didn’t want to mess it up!

4. You were playing a real person — how did that affect your preparation? Did you study up a lot on Dali?

Yeah, I mean it’s nice. There are certain things like studying photos. I never really concentrated on my body in a performance before, well not to such an extent, and there were tons and tons of photos of him and he had quite strange posturing … There was one photo where he’s pointing at something, and I guess it’s quite nice, and I was trying to figure out “How do you point like that?” Then you realize “Oh, shit. You get your arm and ohhh…” and suddenly it clicks into place. And then when you realize you’re walking right and stuff, and people — Spanish people! — know who you’re playing, without the moustache, they know immediately just by looking in your eyes, it’s very satisfying. I like the idea of that; I’d quite like to do it again. And I’m always quite attracted to playing real people.

5. Kristen Stewart is going to be playing rock icon Joan Jett. Is there a rock icon that you’d like to play?

I’d love to play Van Morrison, but I doubt I would get the part [laughs].

6. Who would you love to tour with, if you were going to do a tour as a musician?

Rob: I’d quite like to tour with Kings of Leon. I think they’re pretty cool.

7. If you couldn’t be an actor or a musician, what do you think you would be doing?

I’d quite like to be a political strategist and like a spin doctor. [Laughs] I’d really, really like to do that. I think I will end up doing that at one point.

8. Can you talk about the movie you’re signing on, or about to sign on, called ‘Memoirs’?

It’s not final yet, but I think if it does happen it’ll be a fantastic movie. It’s an amazing script. I think Jenny Lumet [who's writing the script] is incredible and Allen Coulter [who's directing] is also. I think it could be. I was quite excited about it. I was working in New York on the script a few weeks ago, and we came up with some really cool stuff.

9. How are you handling the massive, instant fame and the craziness?

It’s quite stressful in a way, but it’s only when you’re by yourself. When I have my friends around it doesn’t make any difference. I just spend a lot of time by myself, and I used to walk around the block by myself in various different cities, and I don’t know, you start to feel a bit vulnerable, I guess. [Laughs] Well, not vulnerable, I don’t know … for paranoid people it does allow your imagination to run rampant, so it’s a little strange. You end up going out a lot less [laughs]. But I guess it’s so early now I’m really still thinking about it in terms of getting good jobs and stuff, so I haven’t really had a chance to be objective about my life, because every single day there’s something new happening in my life. In my eyes, everything just seems ridiculous, like every single day it’s like you’re walking on the street, and then suddenly you step on something and it just starts moving really, really fast, and you’re not entirely sure what direction it’s going in, but you can feel the force of it. That’s about it.

10. What has been your craziest fan experience?

There was one quite weird thing, I was in a Blockbuster the other day, and I hadn’t realized it was the day the ['Twilight'] DVD was coming out, and there were these two — no one recognized me in that place — and there were these two 8-year-old girls who turned up with their parents. They were picking up their preordered DVDs, and they were just shaking and crying just because they got their DVD. I thought that was pretty incredible, I hadn’t seen anything like that before … I mean, I have when it’s in person, when it’s meeting me. But just to pick up a DVD, that was kind of crazy.

11. What was your take on the whole Jacob casting drama? When it was possible that Taylor Lautner wasn’t going to get the part.

It was weird. When I came back, I hadn’t seen him in ages, hadn’t seen him since the summer and when I saw him, I saw him just before he got casted, and he put on like 100 pounds! I was like “Jesus Christ! If he doesn’t get it, it’s ridiculous.” But what are you going to do? There was a video of him on set the other day doing all these kind of fight stunts. That kid is incredible; he is one of the most stunning athletes I’ve ever seen in my life. I don’t know, I think it’ll be interesting. I haven’t seen any of his stuff yet, but everyone’s going a little bit crazy over him.

12. How’s the energy on ‘New Moon’ compared to ‘Twilight,’ because for ‘Twilight’ no one was sure if it was going to do well and now, obviously …

Yeah, it’s scary. It’s a very, very different experience. Last time we were just kind of … it was so easy to get the entire cast together. We’d all have dinner almost every day and be able to talk about it freely and stuff. Now it’s quite difficult to even leave the hotel. And all these random little stories become someway, somehow newsworthy, so you have to be very secretive about everything. Even if you want to just clarify something in the script or something. It’s just strange. It’s just very different … It’s very strange when you’re aware of being observed, I guess.

13. Is that similar to how it was when you were filming ‘Potter’?

Oh, no, not at all. The thing about ‘Potter,’ because everyone was so young, there weren’t really any [gossip] stories. Plus, the way we were shooting it was so impossible to get any pictures or anything. It was so, so private. And by the time I was working on it, everyone working there had worked there for about five or six years anyway, so they all knew each other. So nothing was really newsworthy. There wasn’t a lot happening. It seems that on [the 'Twilight' movies], maybe because they’re a little bit older, it seems like every single day there’s a new story coming out. I also think that’s it’s because all of these sort of blog sites have become way more popular in the last few years than they were then. And I guess that’s where most of the gossipy things go to.

14. Would you do full-frontal nudity like Daniel Radcliffe did?

I think it would depend on what it is. Yeah, it really does depend on what it is. And I don’t think a lot of people would really want to see that. I think it would ruin the illusion. [Laughs]

Source

Video and Pics: Baby Rob on ET!

The Cuteness factor hits the roof with the latest ET Exclusive. Rob is adorable as a little blonde tyke in these photos from Life and Style. You know he was stealing hearts in the sandbox.

Video: Access Hollywood reviews People’s 100 Most Beautiful

Access Hollywood did a feature on People’s 2009 100 Most Beautiful. There’s a snapshot of Rob’s page showing a shot from the VMan Shoot.  You can catch him at 0:16 left in the clip.

Magazine Updates: Girlfriend, Stack

I’ve added scans from two magazines

2009-06 Girlfriend (Thanks to Robsessed!)

2009-04 Stack (Thanks to Bella and Edward.com)

Fandango Exclusive Interview: Robert Pattinson

In this interview with Fandago, Rob comments again on his “top secret” Soundtrack project and even leaves an open to a few songs for New Moon.

“Surreal” is a word that perfectly suits Robert Pattinson’s life at the moment.

Not only is the up-and-comer adjusting to a new, hyper-famous life after Twilight’s rabid fan base sunk their teeth into his brooding portrayal of the undead romantic hero Edward Cullen (and became as addicted to the newly minted star as the saga’s vampire clan is to hemoglobin), he’s also playing the famed Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí in his latest film. Little Ashes chronicles Dalí’s formative years at university, where he became embroiled in a complex, obsessive and sexually charged relationship with future poet Federico García Lorca.

Pattinson paints Fandango a portrait of how he climbed into Dalí’s surreality, bares a bit of fang on fame, stays in the shadows during frenzied fan encounters and even offers a nibble of New Moon scoop.

Fandango: There was the showy, intentionally bizarre public Dalí and then there is his art, which should be taken very seriously. Have you thought about that as it applies to your own work?

Pattinson: Yeah. He had a fanatical control over how he was perceived. But now it’s really out of control – out of your control. Your public image just seems to be in the hands of faceless strangers. You see these stories come up all the time and you’re like, “Jesus. How do you know…?”

Fandango: Is it harder playing a real person, as opposed to playing the fictional Edward Cullen who had his story laid out in black and white?

Pattinson: I think in a lot of ways it’s kind of the same. You’re still playing fiction even though you’re playing a real character. It’s the same kind of approximation of somebody. The only thing that you can take from the book is the general outline, the mood changes, the emotional changes and development. I’m not playing it exactly as it is in the book.

Fandango: Dalí was a famed surrealist and no doubt you’ve had your share of surreal experiences in the last few months – like fans screaming over cardboard cutouts of you at the video store.

Pattinson: I know! I was in a Blockbuster on the day it was being released. I had forgotten it was being released that day. There were two families who had come with eight- or nine-year old-daughters to get their DVD. They were standing in the line crying and I stood watching what all this commotion was about. They didn’t know I was there or anything. I was just thinking “Wow, you’re crying about a DVD.” It’s fascinating.

Fandango: And you never revealed yourself to them?

Pattinson: No way! [laughs]

Fandango: Do you and your castmates try to top each other with the wild post-fame encounters you’ve had?

Pattinson: In a lot of ways they are all quite similar. The funny thing is that I’m always going around trying to look as inconspicuous as possible I find that people are always really disappointed when they actually recognize me. They are like ‘”Oh! At first I thought you were a bum but then I realized who you were.”

Fandango: You’re just getting started shooting New Moon. How are things going?

Pattinson: The interesting thing about this one is that so much of my character is in Bella’s head. It’s based on a mixture of memories and nightmares. Bella thinks she is going mad. I get to do some really creepy stuff. In other words, Bella is really frightened of [her hallucinations]. It’s really, really different than Twilight. I think that a lot of people will be kind of scared by this one. I wanted to try and put that into Twilight but I couldn’t really find a way to make Edward scary.

Fandango: How is working with the new director, Chris Weitz?

Pattinson: He’s a great guy. He’s very, very talented, and articulate. I guess it must be kind of stressful for him to take this on. It’s got so much expectation. He just seems very calm about everything.

Fandango: What was it like attending the Academy Awards for the first time?

Pattinson: I got there and then I’m sitting in the second row. It was unbelievable. I keep thinking that something terrible is going to happen. “Death” is the only thing I’m thinking the whole time. I just used up all my luck so I’m probably going to die at 23 or something.

Fandango: Did you discover that any of the hugely famous stars that were there were actually fans of Twilight, or their kids love the movie?

Pattinson: Robin Wright Penn came up to me. I thought that was kind of amazing after her husband had just won Best Actor. That was very, very surreal.

Fandango: You contributed a couple of songs to the Twilight soundtrack. Are you still pursuing music, and will you be doing more for New Moon?

Pattinson: I’m in talks to do a soundtrack for another movie, composing. I cannot say what it is yet, but I really, really, really want to do. I don’t think I’m going to have anything on New Moon, but never say never.

Fandango: And next you might be doing Memoirs, which has been described as a story of two star-crossed lovers trying to overcome family tragedies.

Pattinson: That will hopefully happen. It’s not finalized yet. It’s a great script and it’s something different from anything I’ve done before. I was in New York working on rewrites the other day with Jenny [Lumet, screenwriter of Rachel Getting Married]. It seemed like its going to be really, really, really good.

Fandango: Finally, for many people, Dalí became known as the artist with the crazy mustache and today you’re the actor with the wild hair. Did you recognize the parallel in the hirsute trademarks?

Pattinson: [laughs] I didn’t think about that, but it’s funny because people are still bringing up my hair, even though I cut it off to make it different. That is quite funny. God. I hope that I don’t get known for that for the rest of my life.

Source

Next Page »