Next Movie Interviews Robert Pattinson and David Cronenberg

The pair talks about Twilight fans becoming Pattinson fans and where responsibility lies among other topics.

In casting Robert Pattinson, you have an interesting tension between a big percentage of his fanbase — teenage girls, many of them — and a film they might find inscrutable. Is that conflict appealing to you?
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David Cronenberg: It was not really an issue at all, in terms of casting. On the other hand, what was interesting was while we were shooting the movie, all these “Cosmopolis” websites popped up that were created by “Twilight” fans and Rob fans, and they were reading the book and exchanging notes about the book and how it might work in the movie. Really, I wasn’t thinking that this was necessarily going to be an audience for this movie, but then I started to think, “Well, some of them, it definitely is going to be.” And that was exciting ’cause these are young girls who maybe had read “Twilight” and “Harry Potter,” and suddenly they’re reading Don DeLillo. That’s pretty good.

I don’t really have an audience in mind when I’m making a movie … I’m making it for me and all of us who are excited about the script. I’m making it for an audience, but that’s kind of an unknown and amorphous audience, so anybody who’s part of that audience is okay with us, let’s put it that way.

Robert, knowing that younger fans will cross genres for you, do you worry that you need to choose parts carefully? Is that on your radar?

Robert Pattinson: It’s like I feel a responsibility to myself. If you’re doing stuff just purely for money, you’re probably disrespecting your audience as well. It’s not good for anyone. It’s not even really good for you. The only thing I really know is what I think I would find interesting to watch and if I try and make that, I feel like I learn a lot out of doing it and watching it. And so , I don’t know, I think I fulfilled my responsibility.

I think you do [have a responsibility] in a lot of ways. Not a massive one. But you know, I think your responsibility can also include failures as well. I mean, you can learn something from doing a sh**ty movie, too.’

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