The Robert Pattinson performance that was almost inspired by ‘Jackass’
It wouldn’t have made sense were it said during the height of the Twilight craze, but in the modern age, people are going to be left disappointed if the latest Robert Pattinson performance doesn’t feature some weird shit.
The actor has successfully reinvented himself from sparkling vampire and teen heartthrob into one of the most interesting actors in the business, which he’s accomplished in part by taking some wild swings with his characters and going to lengths that some might describe as excessive in order to make the most of his latest role.
Even when he plays a relatively straightforward character like the suave and savvy Neil in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, he’s still getting up to some classic Pattinson shenanigans away from the camera, which in that case was being rumbled by the Dark Knight trilogy director when he tried to lie through his teeth and excuse himself from production for a spell so he could audition for The Batman.
Is it a top-tier Pattinson performance if there isn’t a physical tic, a weird voice, or some kind of bizarre story about how he got a touch too immersed in character? Arguably not, based on the evidence that’s been accumulating for the last decade and changed, but it would seem that evoking the spirit of Jackass was a step too far.
Most people wouldn’t make the connection between the band of brothers who turned gross-out pranks into a cultural phenomenon and an existential sci-fi adaptation hailing from one of the most acclaimed auteurs in the industry, but Pattinson has always tended to think outside of the box when he begins adding layers to his newest part.
The accent he uses in Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17 is a million miles away from the actor’s natural brogue as it is, but Pattinson revealed to Empire that he was planning to use two of Jackass‘ most boundary-pushing personalities as the measuring stick before his three-time Academy Award-winning overlord shut him down.
“My initial idea was to do impressions of Steve-O and Johnny Knoxville,” he admitted. “I love Steve-O’s voice. We did it on the first read-through. And Bong was like, ‘That voice sounds like nails on a chalkboard’. I was like, ‘Is that a good thing?’ He was like, ‘No.'”
As much as two hours of Pattinson doing a Steve-O impression would be entertaining to watch unfold, it’s easy to see why Joon-ho was in such vehement disagreement. The former clown and current daredevil has a voice that can generously be described as sounding like gargled concrete, which wasn’t what the Parasite director had in mind.
The title character definitely doesn’t sound like Pattinson, but in what’s sure to be a blessing for Mickey 17, he doesn’t sound like Steve-O or Knoxville, either.
