“I remember it vividly”: the cult movie Robert Pattinson was too intense to be cast
2026 is going to be a huge year for Robert Pattinson, who’s currently enjoying the limelight as part of The Drama, a wedding-based comedy-drama that has paired him up with fellow golden child Zendaya.
He’s then set to reunite with his Tenet director Christopher Nolan for his epic take on The Odyssey, and Zendaya’s in that one too, and finally, at the end of the year, he’ll officially join one of the most exciting franchises in Hollywood right now, Dune, which kind of makes it seems like the guy’s just following Zendaya around.
In all seriousness, R-Patz has come a long way since his days of being a ‘sparkly vampire’. However, as is the case with all megastars, there are roads not taken, and the Briton has missed out on his fair share of iconic roles, some by design, others very much not so. He filmed scenes for the 2004 movie Vanity Fair, but they were cut from the final product, he infamously rejected an audition for There Will Be Blood, something he regrets to this day, and on the other hand, he also missed out on a part in the Transformers franchise, something he almost certainly doesn’t lose sleep over.
Then there’s Scott Pilgrim vs the World, where Pattinson auditioned for Edgar Wright’s high-energy comic book adaptation, hoping to land the part of Lucas Lee, one of Ramona Flowers’ seven evil exes. The role eventually went to Chris Evans, however, as Wright explained to Vanity Fair (the magazine, not the movie we talked about earlier), Pattinson made a big impression in his audition.
“I remember it vividly,” the director recalled, “He did a much more intense read of it as well. Obviously, Robert is an incredible actor and someone who I’d love to work with now. But it was a very different take from what Chris did.”
This was corroborated by casting director Allison Jones, who said, “He was really good at an American accent”.
Scott Pilgrim came out in 2010, the same year as the third Twilight movie, and Pattinson was firmly in a box at this point, having pretty much exclusively starred in teen franchises and sappy romances. Lucas Lee would have been a huge departure from this and, if he’d been able to pull it off, might have changed his entire career trajectory.
He wasn’t the only young star in the mix for the part, though, as Sebastian Stan was also in the running, one year before his career-altering role in the first Captain America movie.
Speaking of Cap, though, we have to acknowledge the elephant in the room: as good as Pattinson, Stan, or anyone else might have been as Lucas, nobody was going to compete with Evans. He nails the part of the obnoxious, meathead actor/skater who delivers every line like he’s in an action movie trailer. He’s funny, he’s imposing, and he even has his own skate company, so no wonder he came back for the anime version.
Pattinson might have missed out that time, but it worked out for both actors in the long run. At least we now know the answer to who’d win in a fight between Captain America and Batman.
