Before Robert Pattinson auditioned for the part of Edward the vampire in Twilight, he took a quarter of a Valium to see where it would take him. He got the part. He had no idea what he'd signed up for: he might have been aware that Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga had attracted 17m readers worldwide and that the Mormon mother from Arizona was the biggest publishing phenomenon since JK Rowling. What he didn't see coming were the teen girls who'd fallen in love with the sensitive, tortured Edward of Meyer's books. First they revolted online, calling Pattinson a gargoyle – and worse. Then they changed their minds, fell in love with him en masse and refused to leave him alone.
Pattinson, who turns 23 later this month, has become an international pin-up since Twilight was released last year. He's probably bigger news even than Daniel Radcliffe. After all, Harry Potter still seems like a little boy while Edward is a passionate, redblooded teen vampire in love with a mortal schoolgirl called Bella. Forget that gargoyle nonsense, too: Pattinson is an unlikely fusion of Johnny Depp and Doctor Whoelect Matt Smith. He favours the same vintage clothes as Depp and the actors share the same tough femininity; he's got the same architectural hair as Smith, the same asymmetrical features and strangely alluring face. Oh, and he's six-foot tall with the lean body of youth.
Yet Pattinson himself can take none of the attention seriously. Educated at a private day school in London, he has the kind of posh English accent Americans love, but he's not remotely pretentious or full of himself. His Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella, once said that Pattinson can't lie; he also can't seem to stop talking. Right now he's describing the hotel room in Vancouver, where he's been filming New Moon, the second in the Twilight quartet. "I've been living in this windowless room on the 30-something floor. Because the people who built it were afraid of people killing themselves! It's one of those business hotels. I guess they're worried about not being able to charge so much for rooms if guests were killing themselves …"
Most actors live in apartments, or at least hotel suites, while on set. But not Pattinson: "I've settled there now. It would take about three weeks for me to gather all my belongings. I don't let the maids in. I don't even pull the duvet down now because I don't want to see what's underneath." (more…)
