“The definition of run-and-gun filmmaking”: Robert Pattinson on the unexpected reaction to ‘Good Time’
While a vocal subsection of purists cried foul when the guy from Twilight was cast as the ‘Dark Knight’, Robert Pattinson has more than enough in common with Bruce Wayne to justify his casting as pop culture’s most famous eccentric outsider in The Batman.
One might dress up as an armoured airborne mammal and beat criminals to a pulp with their bare hands in an effort to clean up the streets of their hometown, and the other does not. Still, Pattinson has earned himself a reputation for being endearingly bizarre in the way he approaches his life.
The former sparkly vampire harbours such disdain for talking about himself and relentlessly promoting his latest projects that he’ll regularly just make stuff up when talking to the press. He likes sitting back and watching the stories – which may or may not even be true – take on a life of their own.
This is the guy who claims that he decided to deal with his own stalker by taking them out for dinner and boring them so senseless they’d feel compelled to leave him alone. That’s exactly why it makes sense that his post-Twilight years would be defined by the most off-kilter and unusual roles he could lay his hands on.
One of the best came when he united with Josh and Benny Safdie for Good Time. He is incredible as Connie Nikas, who dedicates himself to freeing his brother from a prison sentence he was instrumental in causing when the wayward siblings bungle a bank robbery, forcing him to increasingly desperate lengths to try and undo his mistakes before it’s too late.
Comfortably one of the best performances he’s ever given, Pattinson admitted that as much as he enjoyed making the film, he was taken aback by just how enthusiastically Good Time was greeted. “Another good experience, and also a totally unexpected reaction to it as well,” he mused to GQ over just how well the Palme d’Or nominee went down on both the festival circuit and among the cinemagoing public.
It was the actor who tracked the Safdies down for a potential collaboration, only to end up getting his wish a lot sooner than he could have imagined. “I remember talking to Josh and Benny in some hotel in LA, and I said, ‘Whatever you guys are doing next, I want to do it,'” he recalled. “And Josh said, ‘Do you mean that? Because I’ll have a script in six weeks, and we’ll do it.’ And the first iteration of Good Time came after six weeks, and it was unbelievable.”
The Safdies are known for wearing many hats on their productions, but even as someone very familiar with their work, Pattinson was surprised to discover just how hands-on they are. “Benny would be doing a scene with me, but he would be operating the boom at the same time, so he’s holding the boom between us,” he marvelled, describing Good Time as “definitely the definition of run-and-gun filmmaking”.
