Sultry vampire's daring escape from twilight zone

Robert Pattinson wants his fans to know he can act, Paul Byrne reports

Paul Byrne

JUST before the first Twilight movie took over the world's box-office, Robert Pattinson had a pretty good career on the go. During his breakthrough year of 2008, the young London lad picked up the Best Actor gong at the Strasbourg Film Festival, for How To Be and the New Hollywood Award. Shortly after Twilight came out at the end of the year, Pattinson started picking up a very different breed of award.

Hello! magazine gave him its Most Attractive Man of 2008 award. Yahoo knighted him Top Movie Heart Throb of 2008, while Rolling Stone magazine dubbed him the Hottest Actor of 2008.

"Yeah, I did notice a change in the kind of awards I was getting," smiles the 26-year-old actor.

"They weren't so much based on my work as my sudden status as this pin-up. Very flattering on one level, but I knew then, okay, it's going to take a little time before people see beyond that, beyond Edward Cullen, and give me a chance to actually act."

Pattinson has come a long way from when I first met him, in December 2008. Today, he has learnt how to keep his head down when he's not working. And, with the very real danger of being typecast as that sultry vampire, he's had to find roles that he hopes will prove that he's more than just a cute guy. Which goes some way to explaining why he is working with Canada's doctor of strange, David Cronenberg, the man behind Crash, Dead Ringers and Spider.

The film is Cosmopolis, Pattinson playing a multimillionaire whom we follow over 24 hours as he cuts a swathe through Manhattan.

"What actor doesn't want to work with David Cronenberg? He's a true original and you know you're going to have a very different kind of experience making one of his movies. More importantly, audiences are going to know it's going to be a different kind of experience," says Pattinson.

Cosmopolis is in cinemas