Robert Pattinson has not shied away from getting involved in some rather unique acting methods while fully immersing himself in his diverse roles.
The Batman actor, 38, has spoken about the extreme lengths he has gone to in a bid to give his best performances on screen – though he wouldn’t describe it as ‘method acting’.
He has made headlines in recent days for revealing how one scene in particular from his and Zendaya’s upcoming romance comedy-drama The Drama left him rattled.
He revealed he spent three long days going as far as ‘writing pages and pages of textual analysis’ to find the deeper meaning in one line, before Zendaya, 28, had to calm him down.
‘We had a scene together that was driving me crazy,’ the actor told French publication Premiere.
‘I ended up calling Zendaya the night before shooting the scene. I shared my doubts with her, I spoke for two hours, and after a while, very calmly, she made me understand that the line just said what it meant to say, that there was no hidden meaning.’
Robert Pattinson has not shied away from getting involved in some rather unique acting methods while fully immersing himself in his diverse roles
The actor, 38, once went as far as living in a basement and sleeping in his clothes while starring as a robber in 2017’s Good Time (pictured)
‘And there I was going crazy for three days,’ he humorously added.
And that isn’t the most extreme length he has gone to for a role as he has previously forced himself to throw up on set and lived in a basement as part of his process.
While starring on The Lighthouse with Willem Dafoe in 2019, Robert told how he was ‘basically unconscious’ while playing his drunk character Thomas Howard.
He even went as far as forcing himself to actually throw up for the scenes – with his unimpressed co-star Willem, 69, vowing to leave the set if Robert threw up on him.
‘[I was] basically unconscious the whole time. It was crazy. I spent so much time making myself throw up. Pissing my pants,’ he told Esquire in 2019.
‘It’s the most revolting thing. I don’t know, maybe it’s really annoying.’
He added of one scene: ‘I felt like we’re completely lost in the scene and I’m sitting there trying to make myself gag and Robert [Eggers] told me off because Willem’s looking at him going: ”If he throws up on me, I’m leaving the set”. I had absolutely no idea this whole drama was unfolding.’
However, he didn’t go as far as bringing the character home with him, which he admitted would be ‘impossible’ after going to exhausting lengths on set.
While starring on The Lighthouse with Willem Dafoe in 2019, Robert told how he was ‘basically unconscious’ while playing his drunk character Thomas Howard and threw up on set
‘We’d do these completely wild scenes, and then literally after a take you’d be exhausted,’ he told Variety.
‘It’s kind of cathartic. I don’t know how you’d be able to bring the part home. It would be impossible.’
While he reaches some very extreme lengths in his roles, Robert said he doesn’t practice method acting himself, admitting people only do it when they’re playing ‘a**holes’.
‘I need to know it ends. I need to know there’s a cut coming, and then I’ll feel safe. If it just feels like you can’t get out, that’s when you go crazy,’ he added.
But Robert did somewhat dabble in the field when he went as far as living in a basement and sleeping in his clothes while starring as a robber in 2017’s Good Time.
‘I literally lived in the same basement apartment [as the character] in Harlem. I never opened my curtains, didn’t change the sheets the entire time I was there, for those two months, and I would just sleep in my clothes,’ he said.
‘There was this woman who lived upstairs and she kept trying to see what was going on because she thought I was such a weirdo.’
‘I was like this freak living in the bottom of the basement,’ he added.
He also followed in the footsteps of his Batman co-star Zoe Kravitz to nail his fight scenes in the 2022 action film, watching videos of real-life bats so he could channel their moves
Robert has most recently starred in quirky sci-fi comedy Mickey 17, but it is not known if he used any similarly extreme methods in his futuristic role
The Twilight star confessed he only ate cans of tuna, hot sauce and drank Nespresso capsules the entire time.
However, his dedication clearly paid off as he received a standing ovation when the film was shown at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.
He also followed in the footsteps of his Batman co-star Zoe Kravitz to nail his fight scenes in the 2022 action film, after she watched videos of cats to perfect her moves as Catwoman.
‘I looked up how a bat fights and there was this one video on Planet Earth of the technique of a vampire bat with a chicken in a cage and how it fights the chicken, it flaps around the cage for like an hour, just flap-banging on the cage until the chicken’s been scared for so long the chicken falls asleep,’ he told Jimmy Kimmel.
Robert has most recently starred in quirky sci-fi comedy Mickey 17, but it is not known if he used any similarly extreme methods in his futuristic role.
