‘Twilight’: Robert Pattinson’s Mom Trolled Him After He Got Cast as Edward

Prior to being cast in the Twilight movies, Robert Pattinson had already experienced a bit of fame. Thanks to his portrayal of Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, he knew was it was like to be involved in a massive film franchise with millions of obsessed fans. But, even that couldn’t have prepared Pattinson for the intensity that the Twilight movies would produce.

Like Harry Potter, the Twilight movies had a large built-in fan base thanks to the books written by Stephenie Meyer. When the news broke that the books would be adapted into movies, fans were all too eager to weigh in on the choices that production made. Fans were particularly vocal about the actors who were cast to play their beloved main characters, Bella Swan and Edward Cullen.

Robert Pattinson was embarrassed to audition for ‘Twilight’

While many fans of the Twilight books were pleased when Kristen Stewart eventually nabbed the role of Bella, Pattinson was a much more polarizing choice for Edward. Now, it’s hard for fans to picture anyone else portraying the brooding, sparkly, vampire. However, initially, many fans were disappointed by the casting choice.

Because Edward was described as beautiful and perfect, it was hard for any person to measure up. Even Pattinson himself didn’t feel like he had a chance at the role. In fact, The Batman star has admitted to being embarrassed at his audition because he thought it was ridiculous that he was being considered and assumed the role would go to a male model. In fact, in a 2008 interview with MTV, Pattinson admitted that he felt that he was wrong for the role.

Fans weren’t happy when Pattinson was cast as Edward Cullen

“I still believe the initial reaction, when I was first cast, was the true reaction,” the Twilight star shared. “Everyone now is like ‘Okay, I love the books so much I’ll go with it. He’s beautiful. Whatever.’ But the initial reaction was 100 percent ‘He’s completely wrong for it.’ And I agree with them. I didn’t play it like some guy who knew he was beautiful. I still don’t really feel it. I don’t feel it at all.”

In fact, some fans were so taken aback by Pattinson being cast as Edward that they started a petition in an attempt to get him removed from the role. By insinuating that the actor was not attractive enough for the role, they vowed to boycott seeing Twilight in theaters unless the part of Edward was recast. While Pattinson may have never found out about the petition, his mom actually made sure to send it to him.

‘The Batman’ star’s mom thought the petition was hilarious

“My mom sent me some stuff, which she thought was really funny, when I was already in America,” Pattinson recalled. “They had this picture from this Viking film I did where I looked like someone had beaten me in the face with a frying pan. I was wearing this disgusting wig. And they were like ‘THIS is Edward.’ It was a petition, which they were going to send to Summit saying, ‘We will not go and see the movie.’ It got up to 75,000 signings. This is about three days after I got cast. I was thinking, ‘Thanks for sending that mom!’ That was my welcome into Twilight.”

Clearly, Pattinson’s mom was going to make sure that he stayed humble while filming such a popular role. Naturally, Twilight fans eventually came around to him portraying Edward, and now it’s hard to picture anyone else in the part.