As the leading poster boy of a multi-million dollar teen film franchise, the world, it seems, just can’t get enough of Robert Pattinson. But while he prepares for the release of his new new indie flick Remember Me, will R-Patz’s career be remembered for anything that isn’t Twilight-related?
Two years ago most people, aside from Harry Potter enthusiasts, had no idea who the man was. Now he’s hounded wherever he goes. While this year’s Orange Rising Star Award went to his Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart, and deservedly so, there is no other actor whose life depicts its literal meaning greater than Pattinson.
But fame is fickle; it’s expected that the Twilight saga will wrap up at the end of 2011, so where will that leave its stars? Inundated with scripts now they are household names, Stewart chose wisely with her in-between films; one might argue that she knew it was time to prove herself as a ‘serious actor’. The same could be said for Pattinson… except that, post-Potter, his non-Twilight films thus far have been box office disasters.
How To Be, in which Pattinson plays Art, a musician having an early twenties crisis, and Little Ashes, for which he acquires a questionable Spanish accent as Salvador Dali in a romanticised biopic of the artist’s early life, were both filmed before the first Twilight instalment, but released, presumably for the cash-in, afterwards. However, they were critically ignored and, despite the Brit boy’s new found success, vastly underperformed both at the box office and in DVD sales.
Why they haven’t done well is a matter of opinion, but the fact is while Stewart might be criticised for appearing moody, at least her job is given the attention it deserves. In Pattinson’s case the media is far more interested in picking apart his personal life than his professional one. His acting skills are rarely panned, they’re just ignored; it is assumed that audiences would rather know what hair gel he uses.
Time for a new film then: Pattinson stars opposite Lost star Emilie de Raven in romantic drama Remember Me, out April 2. It is his first outing since becoming an undead vampire, but whether anyone will take it seriously remains to be seen.
Indeed, despite the relentless production-publicity cycle of the Twilight films, Pattinson found time this year to sign up to three new projects; Unbound Captives (also starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz), Water For Elephants (Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz) and Bel Ami, which he’s currently filming in London alongside Uma Thurman and Christina Ricci.
So, gone are the days of budget indie filmmaking with a cast of unknown college students; Pattinson has bagged some big roles to prove himself as a versatile and promising young actor, which in all respects is what he is. But such is the fame machine that if, by the end of 2011, the world is still talking about who the gossip rags say he had dinner with the night before rather than his standout performances, Pattinson is unlikely to be remembered for being much more than everyone’s favourite teen vamp.
