Robert Pattinson has opened up about his experience filming for the first "Twilight" film, saying that it was marked with "tension" that stemmed from the direction the film was taking.
Speaking with GQ, the "Batman" star explained that he wanted to take a more artistic approach — something the studio did not agree with. As a result, there was "strange tension" on the set that almost cost Pattinson his job.
"I was 21 and kind of wanted to make it as arty as possible," he said. "We had this strange tension where the studio was a little bit scared to make things a little bit too emo and stuff, and I thought that was the only way to play it."
Looking back, Pattinson said he could not believe how he was acting at the time.
"It just seems so ridiculous talking about it now because I was literally enraged … I spent so much time just infuriated," he said. "There's definitely something about being 21 as well, because I can't believe the way I was acting half the time when I think back on it."
Pattinson was somewhat oblivious to just how severe the situation was until his manager and agent made a surprise visit and told him he needed to change his attitude or risk getting fired.
"[I] just thought everything was fine," he said. "Then at lunch, they were like, 'OK, so whatever you're doing right now, after lunch just do the opposite or you'll be fired by the end of the day.' "
The conversation was enough to effect change and Pattinson said it even "got me to smile a little bit."
The topic of "Batman" also came about while Pattinson was speaking with GQ. The actor plays Bruce Wayne and his performance is said to be as gritty and dark as the film itself. However, the nature of the new "Batman" is "jarring," Pattinson said.
"I watched a rough cut of the movie by myself. And the first shot is so jarring from any other 'Batman' movie that it’s just kind of a totally different pace," he explained.
"It was what [director] Matt [Reeves] was saying from the first meeting I had with him: 'I want to do a '70s noir detective story, like "The Conversation." ' And I kind of assumed that meant the mood board or something, the look of it. But from the first shot, it's, Oh, this actually is a detective story."
Pattinson admitted he felt "like an idiot" because he did not realize that Batman was meant to be "the world’s greatest detective."
"I hadn’t heard that in my life before — but it really plays," he said.
"Normally, when you see Batman he arrives and beats people up," Pattinson continued. "But he's having conversations, and there are emotional scenes between them, which I don’t think have been in any of the other movies."