Robert Pattinson to Twilight Haters: ‘Still Stuck on That S––t?’

Robert Pattinson He has a message for the Twilight haters.

“I love that people keep telling me, ‘Man, Twilight has ruined the vampire genre,’” said the actor, 38, in an interview with GQ Spain published on Tuesday, January 21. “Are you still stuck on y––t? How can you be sad about something that happened almost 20 years ago? It’s crazy.”

Pattinson became famous for his role as vampire Edward Cullen in The Twilight Saga moviesthe first of which hit theaters in 2008. It starred alongside Kristen Stewart a Taylor Lautner in all five films in the saga, which grossed over $3 billion worldwide, although critical and fan response remains mixed to this day.

Although Twilight had given Pattinson his big break, the franchise could have looked very different, according to a filmmaker Catherine Hardwickewho directed the first film.

During November 2023 appearance on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, Hardwicke revealed that film studio Summit Entertainment didn’t initially think Pattinson was the right choice for Edward.

“They called me back and went, ‘Do you think you can make this guy look good?'” he said of the studio’s response to Pattinson’s audition video. “I said, ‘Yes, I do. Did you see his cheekbones? We’re changing the hair and everything and it’s going to start working out and it’s going to be wonderful.”

Hardwicke then had to convince the execs that Pattinson was the man for the role after he failed to impress them in person.

“They didn’t believe it at first. He walked over there with a colored shirt,” he said. “It was Rob.”

Pattinson, too, struggled with the studio’s direction for the original film, and wanted to lean into an edgier aesthetic. “I wanted to do it as artfully as possible,” says Pattinson GQ (per Variety) in February 2022. “We had this weird tension where the studio was afraid to do things a little too emo and stuff. I thought that was the only way to play it. I spent so much time (on set) furious… I can’t believe the way I was acting half the time.”