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Despite the popularity of Twilight, there is a lot of things to criticize. It doesn’t really promote healthy relationships nor does it give young girls good, strong characters to idolize. It is, of course, a book about vampires and not written with the intent to instill good morals but still, Edward and Bella can be toxic with one another. With that said, Robert Pattinson definitely latched onto one of Edward’s bad traits when playing the character.  

Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) in his meadow in 'Twilight'
Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) in his meadow in ‘Twilight’ | Summit Entertainment

Robert Pattinson talked about how Edward Cullen has to deal with this love that he puts on a pedestal 

During an interview for NPR’s Fresh Air on Nov. 18, 2019, Terry Gross asked Pattinson about any “psychosexual analysis” he might have done on his character of Edward Cullen. 

“What I was thinking was the danger of when you fall in love with someone, the instinct to build a pedestal higher and higher and higher,” Pattinson said, referring to Edward’s thoughts on Bella. “It was something to do with… [Edward’s] self-doubt issue.” 

Pattinson realized that he played a lot of characters like that. And that “self-doubt” and also infatuation with Bella lead to that growing image of her in his mind. 

“I thought when he falls in love with Bella, it makes him feel weaker and weaker and weaker,” Pattinson continued. “And he—and she becomes this kind of enormous kind of—that she becomes his fantasy figure, and that’s what’s terrifying him, is making him feel weaker and weaker.”

There’s a reason why things are so strained between the two, physically

As fans of the books and movies know, in Bella’s head, she has this major platform she puts Edward on as well. That’s partially what makes their relationship so strained and tortured. Adding, of course, to Edward’s already brooding disposition. 

Another reason for this is because Pattinson watched Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution at the time, and became “very, very obsessed” with it. It made Pattinson less interested in “holding hands” and more so in the painfulness of their feelings for one another. 

“I mean, I wanted them to only touch, like, three times in the entire movie and… then those three times are so sort of electrifying that it’s painful to them,” he said. “It’s not a particularly pleasurable thing, how much they’re attracted to each other. It’s just—it’s almost traumatic, which is kind of probably how I felt about all my teenage relationships.”

Really brings you back to their first kiss, when Edward throws himself across the room, right?

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All that brooding was 100 percent thanks to Pattinson’s acting choices

Pattinson did a lot of thinking about his character, and all of it was definitely spot on if you read Midnight Sun. Edward is seriously… tortured and hates himself most of the time. But even though Pattinson was correct about Edward, some of those in charge of Twilight wanted Pattinson to smile more. 

“I mean, I just thought, considering, now that Twilight is known to be this very emo thing… I thought it was very serious,” Pattinson told Howard Stern in 2017. “… You’re going into a relationship with someone, the way to make it really intense is if you can barely talk to each other if you can barely touch each other. It’s incredibly serious all the time.”

And it’s not lost on Pattinson now just how wrong it would have been to make Edward a bit happier. 

“And now the series is known as like a brooding thing,” Pattinson said. “But yeah… I remember the producers giving me a copy of the book and every single instance my character smiled and stuff, they highlighted everything.”

Thank goodness Pattinson took another color and highlighted every time he frowns. A happy Edward Cullen just… wouldn’t fit in with the Twilight that fans know now. 

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