Le Monde: This way of perceiving a script can suprise coming from an author so versed in genre movies?

David Cronenberg: It is often thought that the cinema is a visual art. I think that for me, it’s a more complicated combination. For me, the heart of cinema is a face that talks. It’s what we film the most. I heard someone say that the last 22 minutes of the movie – where’s there is only Paul Giamatti and Robert Pattinson in a room – is like theater. I don’t think so. In a play, you woudln’t have wide shots, movements from the camera, change of lighting. This is cinema. Without close-ups, there’s no cinema.

Le Monde: And Robert Pattinson?

DonDeLillo: The character he plays is really close to the one in the book. I haven’t seen Twilight, but I impressed my two 13 years old nieces when I told them the British Robert Pattinson was going to play in a movie adapted from one of my books. They respect me now!

David Cronenberg: Casting is an occult art. It’s a matter of intuition. There’s objectives factors tho. The character is 28, he’s american. We needed someone who would look that age and that could do a perfect American accent. The movie is partnership between France and Canada. Also, I could only use one American actor and for me, it was Paul Giamatti. I could get an English actor though.
Then of course, there’s the presence of the actor, he has to be able to portray a complex, crual, brutal and almost vulgar character in a way. He has to be really sophisticated and vulnerable at the same time, naiive and childish. If only to make people believe that he’s capable of accomplishing so much, he needs strength and charisma. Moreover, he’s in every scene. It doesn’t mean he has to be handsome bu he has to be nice enough to look at for an hour and a half. And to finish, he needs to have some kind of notoriety. When a movie cost some kind of budget, you need to be able to tease your financial partners. And with all these restrictions, the list of actors you need, gets shorter. I thought about Rob pretty early on.

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Premiere: What made you go back to Cannes with Cosmopolis?

David Cronenberg: The festival and I have a long history. In a sense I have the feeling of coming home. I think it is an ideal film for Cannes and I’m excited about the idea of having ​​Rob with me.

Q: Today it is impossible to imagine someone for this part. However, you offered it before to Colin Farrell …

DC: When Colin left the project to film the remake of Total Recall, it made me rethink everything. Anyway he was too old for the part: he’s 35 and I wanted to be faithful to the book, it was necessary to have 25 year old actor. Then I started to check all the actors of that age and that’s how I thought of Rob. I had seen him in Twilight, of course, but nothing he had done so far really predisposed him to act in Cosmopolis. Even though you choose an actor by the perceived potential you see in him and not by his resume. And the more I thought aout it, the more I liked the idea.

Q: Did he went through an audition?

DC: No. We talked a lot on the phone. Rob is not one of those people with a big ego. He really wanted to make the movie, but seriously wondered if he could. It was his only concern. He said “do you really think I’m good enough to play this part? I’m afraid to ruin your movie.” I told him that this conversation more than convinced me that he was perfect for Cosmopolis.

Q: It’s hard to imagine you watching Twilight. Have you seen all four movies?

DC: (laughs). No, not really. I must have seen one and a half.

Q: The saga has made him a star, but has also created an absurd situation: people who have not seen him act shout that he is an idol for young girls, and lacking any talent.

DC: This reflects the world we live in today, where the Internet, among other things, promotes this kind of hasty and dangerous judgement. I ignore them and try to see beyond. The advantage is that Rob’s fans are waiting for the moment when he will show everyone that he is able to exist beyond Twilight. And if they’re all going to see Cosmopolis, I don’t worry about the future of the film.

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The interview was done in a private club in Sunset Boulevard.

He hid his intense beauty under a baseball cap, a blonde scruff, a lumberkjack shirt, a white tee and washed out jeans. They had the interview on the terrace where he could light up his cigarettes.

Between light coughs and nervous laughs, he explains that he doesn’t feel at home here.

His dream is to work in a black comedy of Todd Solodnz or in dramas for men by James Gray or Jacques Audiard.

“I was scared of being cut off from the art-house cinema that I always felt passionate about. I was scared to never be asked to play in anything interesting, that my life would pass and that someone would ask me one day, ‘so apart from Twilight, what did you do?’. In this industry, you’re easily typecast”

“I never proved anything, I was never fooled by the hysteria that surrounds me. It’s the character that I play, Edward Cullen, the romantic vampire. Besides, before the movie was even made, girls would screams at Stephenie Meyer’s public readings.”

When he got the script for Cosmopolis: He got the fear of the beginner/novice. “I was so scared I would screw this up that I spent a week trying to find a way to refuse the job. And then I told myself that I shouldn’t be so stuck-up. My agent was nervous: ‘why would you accept if you don’t understand it?’. I confessed my confusion to David and he liked it. I think that might be why he hired me. Most actors would have try to act cooler, try to say something smart but I was completely lost.”

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Rob, Kristen, and her SWATH co-star Charlize Theron were all spotted coming out of Quo Vadios Private Members Club in Soho London late last night, pictures have been added to the gallery!