‘Twilight’: Robert Pattinson Once Said 75% of His Performance Came from His Hair
Robert Pattinson has always had very interesting things to say about his Twilight experience. When he was first cast as the brooding vampire, Edward Cullen, he had absolutely no idea how much the role would change his life. In fact, Pattinson and his fellow castmate, Kristen Stewart, have both likened the experience of filming Twilight to filming a small indie movie.
Because the executives at Summit Entertainment had absolutley no idea how successful Twilight would become, the first film was not given the blockbuster treatment that New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn – Part 1, and Breaking Dawn – Part 2 all received. In fact, the budget for Twilight was incredibly modest and Pattinson didn’t think that anyone would see the film.
Robert Pattinson took his role in ‘Twilight’ very seriously
But even though Pattinson wasn’t expecting Twilight to blow-up didn’t mean he wasn’t extremely committed to the role. In fact, The Batman star was overly committed to the part. He really embraced Edward’s broodiness and was constantly arguing with producers who wanted him to bring a bit more carefree charm to the role. Furthermore, Pattinson refused to talk to his fellow castmates about anything other than the movie for the first half of filming. He and Stewart were determined to make the movie more than just a cheesy teen romance, and they did everything in their power to subvert expectations.
But just how did Pattinson manage to build his character of Edward? The Twilight star recalled reading the eponymous book by Stephenie Meyer to help get a sense of his character. Furthermore, Meyer provided the actor with an advanced copy of Midnight Sun, which is Twilight reimagined from Edward’s perspective. This proved to be wonderful source material for Pattinson. But, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Pattinson also revealed that his hairstyle helped build his infamous character also.
‘The Batman’ star gets candid about the importance of Edward’s hair
“I sound so stupid, but in a lot of ways the hair is 75 percent of my performance,” the Twilight star revealed. “So in the second one [New Moon], I said, ‘Listen, I need to tone down the hair. Let’s make it a little more real, a little bit more…Method.’ And then in the third one [Eclipse], I’m doing fight scenes and there’s a strand going down my forehead and they’re like, ‘We need to do it again because no one will recognize you! No one will know who it is!’ I have to look like the poster at all times. Just in case they want to use any clip for the trailer. Any clip at all! There were about five people in different departments who, because of my forelock, ended up in tears.”
It’s certainly interesting that Pattinson’s hair was such an important aspect of his Twilight character. And even though the hair was often a pain for the actor, he managed to get out of wearing shoulder-length hair extensions for the part, so it would appear that he won the hair war even if he didn’t always win the battles.
