Robert Pattinson once called ‘Twilight’ author Stephanie Meyers “mad”
An actor’s breakout role that launched them into international stardom and in the vision of countless fans and accolades should be a treasured career stage for which an actor is grateful. Breakout roles can become a star’s most significant and recognised, the ones their fans and the public immediately align with their name. However, not every actor appreciates the role that introduced them to fame, just as Robert Pattinson, who openly resents his iconic role as a lusty vampire called Edward Cullen in the Twilight franchise.
The Twilight movies are a cultural phenomenon based on Stephanie Meyer’s books from the late 2000s to the early 2000s. The series consists of Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn Part I and Breaking Dawn Part II, all released from 2008 to 2012, respectively. The films follow the love story between a painfully ordinary girl called Bella Swan, played by Kristen Stewart, and Pattinson’s Cullen after Swan moves to Cullen’s school and immediately becomes the object of his desire. After Swan learns her crush is a vampire who can control his thirst for human blood, the two begin a relationship, interrupted by traditional vampire occults and a werewolf, called Jacob, attempting to win Swan over from Cullen.
The Twilight series is an interesting case study in reception and cult classics, as when the series was first released. There was an unequal distribution between the dedicated fanbase who adored it and those who despised and mocked it. The movies were deemed romantic and beautiful by the first side but cringey and painful by the latter. Furthermore, despite catapulting the vampire trope and other supernatural elements into the mainstream, the series was accused of ruining vampires by turning them from vicious, bloodthirsty predators of horror to whiny and watered-down figures in cliche romances.
The Twilight films fell short compared to the other popular franchises adapted from young adult novels. They were ridiculed to lift Harry Potter (which Pattinson also appeared in before Twilight) and The Hunger Games. The attacks mostly specified the weakly written Bella, who was controlled by love and overshadowed by the intelligent and directly active Hermoine Granger and Katniss Everdeen, who fought against dark magic or dictatorships rather than chasing after a 104-year-old vampire. However, the series has proven itself as an underdog, undergoing a cultural reassessment to become a popular and acclaimed series of filmmaking, as argued heavily online.
Everyone seems to love Twilight and hate Harry Potter as it is no longer socially acceptable to enjoy it due to the ‘bigot’ accusations against J.K Rowling in contemporary entertainment. Everyone except its star, Pattinson, attacked the movies every chance he got during their era and continues to do today.
During a sit-down interview with E! during the first film’s release, Pattinson was asked about his relationship with Meyer’s original books and the reception they received, responding with the interpretation that the author was writing from a place of self-imposed fantasies and desire. “When I read it, I was convinced that Stephenie was convinced that she was Bella,” the English actor confesses. “It was like it was a book that wasn’t supposed to be published, like reading her — her sort of sexual fantasy.”
Meyers has shared that the novel’s concept came to her in a dream about a young girl being lusted after by a vampire, even remembering the date as Monday, June 2nd, 2003. Meyers wrote a transcript from this dream that was then transformed into the first book’s 13th chapter.
“Especially when she says that it was based on a dream, and it’s like, ‘Oh, then I had a dream about this really sexy guy’, and she just writes this book about it,” Pattinson continued. “I was just convinced that this woman is mad, she’s completely mad, and she’s in love with her own fictional creation.”
To shed his Twilight image, which coincided with heartthrob status, pining looks of sick puppy love and stale dialogue, Pattinson threw himself into independent artistic works, including the Safdie brothers’ edgy Good Times in 2017 and Roger Eggers’ haunting yet eccentric The Lighthouse in 2019. These performances allowed Pattinson to exhibit his talent and energy onscreen, winning over the respect and admiration of the same voices who panned his work as Edward Cullen, including this writer.
Speaking to Variety in 2020, 8 years after the franchise ended, the star reflected on the movies and their status with a hint of disapproval: “It’s a weird story, Twilight. It’s not just like – it’s strange how people responded a lot to it. I guess the books are very romantic, but at the same time, it’s not like The Notebook romantic.”
The actor has recently killed it as a moodier interpretation of billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne, also known as the nighttime vigilante driven by justice Batman, in Matt Reeves’ successful The Batman, adapted from DC Comics’ iconic comics and graphic novels. Pattinson will reprise the role in any expanding media and is also set to star in Bong Joon-Ho’s upcoming science-fiction film Mickey 17 as further steps in his mission to bury Twilight further down his filmography.
Watch the interview here.
