Before Robert Pattinson played Edward Cullen in the Twilight series and Cedric Diggory (RIP) in Harry Potter, he was just a young British actor hoping to make it big in Hollywood. And as it turns out, initial setbacks paved the way for his major success later on.
In a new interview for W magazine, Rob revealed the untold story of how he actually made it big — and it all started with a major disappointment. You see, the first part he ever booked was as Reese Witherspoon's son in 2004's Vanity Fair, but his part ended up being cut from the film. "I went to the screening, and no one had informed me that I was cut," he told W. Of course, for Rob it worked out OK. "The casting director...felt so guilty...that she gave me first run at the part in Harry Potter, so I was quite glad I got cut, in the end," he said. Talk about a silver lining.
And yet another potential disappointment led Rob to his most famous role, in Twilight. He explained, "I flew out to L.A. to actually audition for something else, which I was told was mine to take, just on a plate. And I went in and completely ruined the audition. And then the next day was the Twilight audition. And I think I was at such a kind of nothing-to-lose state, it was quite easy for me to do."
While the audition may have been easy, the acting sure wasn't. "I never really quite knew how to play a vampire, though. I sort of just was a pale, pale person," he admitted, adding that Twilight had "subversive" elements many critics (and even fans) overlooked when it became a teen sensation. "When we first signed up for it, if it hadn't been so successful I think people would have thought it was really weird. It's a really weird story! But once it becomes mainstream, it's difficult for people to see how strange a story is." For example, he cited the moment when Edward "gives [Bella] a Caesarean by chewing through a placenta." Weird, indeed.
Watch Rob tell the story himself in the first part of the video below:
