Have you ever danced with fame under the pale glow of Tinseltown’s spotlight? Of course, that’s rare unless one’s profession is show business. For Robert Pattinson, his waltz into the limelight was as unexpected as finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. With the charisma of a seasoned raconteur, the Good Time heartthrob took a trip down memory lane during his unfiltered chinwag with the legendary Howard Stern, painting the town with tales of yesteryear.
From his formative years to his meteoric rise as the brooding Edward Cullen, Pattinson has weathered a storm of fame that many only glimpse in a New York minute. Now, at 38, it’s as though he’s packed several lifetimes into one.
And as he confided in Stern, even the art of the ‘no tears policy’ on audition cue once seemed like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Twilight: Robert Pattinson’s Secrets to Surviving Audition Blunders
In a 2017 interview with The Howard Stern Show, Robert Pattinson delved into his past, from his childhood days to his unexpected rise to fame as the brooding vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight series.
Although Pattinson had assumed Twilight would be a modest hit, it became a worldwide sensation that shot him to fame. He even admitted to struggling with auditioning, particularly when it came to crying on cue.
“Like at 21 because Hollywood can just beat you up ass up; those auditons are brutal, right?” inquired Howard Stern. To which the actor responded:
I call up my parents afterward but I’m not good at auditioning cause I can’t cry on cue, which basically seems to be like that is the way to get things through an audition.
Pattinson also opened up about his approach to portraying the intense relationship with Bella Swan, played by Kristen Stewart. He believed in portraying their relationship as serious and intense, reflecting the struggles of teenage love. The actor confessed:
If you’re going into a relationship with someone, the way to make it really intense is if you can barely talk to each other, you can barely touch each other, it’s incredibly serious all the time. That’s what teenage relationships are.
However, producers wanted a more lighthearted approach, leading The Batman star to make some adjustments to his performance.
Casting Catastrophes: Robert Pattinson’s Another Audition Revelation
Robert Pattinson, the heartthrob who charmed his way into our lives as the brooding vampire in Twilight, has once shared a quirky yet humanizing detail about his ascent to stardom.
In a candid interview with GQ, the actor revealed a moment of vulnerability that many aspiring actors can relate to: his battle with audition anxiety. Picture this—young Pattinson was so wrought with nerves that his agent recommended a dose of Valium to calm the storm. It could’ve been very disheartening.
Pattinson’s full comment paints a picture of an artist facing his fears head-on—a narrative of triumph that speaks volumes about the unpredictable road to success in Hollywood.
I’d started to develop this absolute terror of auditions, which I’m sure a lot of actors have. I could be so enthusiastic about something and then the day of the audition my confidence would just entirely collapse. The same thing happened the morning of the Twilight audition. I used to live on my agent’s couch at the time in her apartment, and she sent me the e-mail exchange.
Little did he know, this would not only carry him to the audition but potentially clinch the life-changing role.
It was like, ‘I’m freaking out, I don’t want to go to the audition anymore’. And underneath, [she replied], ‘Well, find Valium in my bathroom’, and I’d never taken a Valium before. I just remember feeling so glorious in the back of the taxi with the window open and just being like, ‘Wow, this is what I’ve been missing.’ I think I had this sort of quite spacey, detached kind of thing in the audition, which must have worked for the character.
This anecdote may just redefine the mythos of overnight fame, reminding us that even stars are not immune to the jitters that come with chasing dreams.
Twilight can be rented on Apple TV.
