Robert Pattinson Credits Taking Drugs For How He Landed His Biggest Role

Robert Pattinson had an interesting strategy for landing his biggest role. And I guess you could say that this choice definitely worked

By Douglas Helm | Updated

robert pattinson

Even immortal vampires get anxious sometimes. In a recent interview with GQ, Robert Pattinson went into details about how he landed the role of Edward Cullen in the Twilight series. According to him, he used to get incredibly nervous for auditions. So much so, that before his audition for the biggest role in his career to date, his agent at the time told him to borrow a Valium to settle his nerves. It definitely seemed to work, because we all know who ended up landing the role in the end.

According to Robert Pattison in the interview, it might have also contributed to how his character started to form. He said the Valium made him seem a little spacey and detached in the audition, which is what the casting team seemed to be looking for. You definitely see that characterization in his performance in the movie, and it probably makes sense for a centuries-old vampire to act a little off-kilter.

Since Twilight, Robert Pattinson has likely been able to calm his nerves a little before going out for roles, if they’re not just offered to him outright at this point. The actor and the Twilight movies may have received negative reception in the past, but those movies are far in Pattinson’s rearview now. The actor has more than proven his chops in a number of indie films like Good Time, High Life, and The Lighthouse. All of which have been critically acclaimed and have featured incredible performances from Pattinson. He’s also been featured prominently in blockbusters like Tenet, bringing an electric presence to the time-twisty Christoper Nolan film.

Of course, Robert Pattinson’s next biggest role comes in the form of another franchise character who has definitely been in more books than Edward Cullen. Next month, we’ll get to see Pattinson don the cowl of Batman and the suits of his secret identity Bruce Wayne. It’s probably no coincidence that Pattinson has waited so long to take on another well-known character. He was in two giant young adult franchises in a row with Harry Potter and Twilight. Undoubtedly, he was probably hesitant to take on another role like this, preferring to take on more artistic roles he could really sink his teeth into.

That being said, it looks like Robert Pattinson is really embracing the darker side of Bruce Wayne, talking about how Batman is “a freak” in interviews. This should definitely make for an interesting big-screen take on Batman that we haven’t really seen outside of comics. It should be a great version of the character and should also bring us another dynamic performance from Pattinson. Pattinson has also expressed interest in taking the character further, with a potential trilogy if the first movie does well enough.

Whatever you have to say about the Twilight movies, I think we should all be glad Robert Pattinson was able to rein it in with that Valium. The Twilight movies definitely would have given Pattinson the money to pursue whatever projects he wanted, allowing us to get all of the great Pattinson roles and movies we’ve had since then.