Robert Pattinson – From child actor to Hollywood heavyweight

Robert Pattinson has been around for a while. Perhaps you discovered him in the 2005 fourth cinematic instalment of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter anthology as budding wizard Cedric Diggory. Maybe you swooned over his portrayal of brooding vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight series (2008-2013). Or perhaps you latterly stumbled over him in the most recent film adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s unfinished horror novel The Lighthouse alongside Willem Dafoe.

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Whatever your first exposure to the talented British thespian, chances are – barring role reprisals – you’ll never see the like from him again. Such is the chameleonic, ever-changing face of Robert Pattinson in a wide range of genres. And it is precisely this ability to switch mindsets and mannerisms with apparent ease that has won him such favour in Tinseltown and beyond.

Although the 35-year-old has gracefully transitioned from child actor to teen heartthrob to full-fledged leading man, given his slender frame and almost feminine features, few could have guessed that he would replace Ben Affleck as the Caped Crusader in the upcoming The Batman film, beating out such other Hollywood heavy-hitters as Nicholas Hoult and Armie Hammer. Yet, the soon-to-air movie has already garnered much anticipation from DC Comics fans and is intended as the opening salvo in a new Batman trilogy. To celebrate Pattinson’s coup in landing the role, we delve into some of the lesser-known facts about the latest Dark Knight…

Schoolboy Porn

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Robert Douglas Thomas Pattinson – to give the actor his full name – was born in London on 13 May 1986 as the youngest of three children. His mother, Clare, was a booker at a modelling agency, and his father, Richard, a vintage car dealer. The family was wealthy enough to send their only son to the prestigious Tower House School, an independent prep school whose alumni include fellow thespian Tom Hardy, comedian Jack Whitehall and journalist Louis Theroux.
Pattinson was soon expelled, however, for a rather shocking misdemeanour; he was caught stealing pornographic magazines and then selling them to his schoolmates. “I used to go in [to the shop] and take, like, one or two, and then put them in my bag. I was in my school uniform when I was doing it, and it was kind of risky,” he recalls sheepishly. “At the end, I got so cocky that I would take the entire rack.” Naughty, naughty.

Magical Debut

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Robert Pattinson as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The not-so-sweet 17-year-old had just three acting credits to his name when he landed the coveted role of Hufflepuff boy-wizard in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It was undoubtedly a coup for the budding actor, and arguably the role that put him on the map. Interestingly, due to delays in the filming schedule, he had to decide between accepting the part or attending university. “It went so far over schedule, I couldn’t go. It was supposed to be four months, but it ended up being 10 or 11,” he says. “I was 17 and I was the only person who wasn’t in school. I’d just hang about.”

First Cut is the Deepest

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Robert Pattinson in Twilight

While Goblet of Fire is his first movie credit, the first part he landed was in an earlier film – 2004’s Vanity Fair. He acted alongside the star of the historical drama, Reese Witherspoon, playing her teenage son. Ultimately, though, his scenes vanished from the final cut of the movie – a decision he remained unaware of until attending its screening.

It was a huge shock for the young Pattinson, but it ultimately worked in his favour when he auditioned for the Harry Potter franchise. He recalls: “The casting director, Mary Selway, felt so guilty that no one had informed me that she basically gave me the first run at the part in Harry Potter, so I was quite glad I got cut in the end.”

Red Carpet Slip Up

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In what may be the ultimate case of misjudgment, the Twilight star attempted to sneak quietly into the 2007 premiere of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in Los Angeles, even though he only appeared in a single flashback scene. His efforts to slip in unnoticed backfired as he was immediately swarmed by Cedric Diggory fans, and was soon ushered onto the red carpet with other members of the cast.

This embarrassing situation was exacerbated by Pattinson’s dishevelled appearance. “I’d just been walking through Hollywood and it was a long walk and it was boiling hot,” he later explained. “I’d been eating pizzas and drinking beer for the whole summer and I looked disgusting.” His agent was furious because he ‘looked like an unbelievable mess’ in photos taken by the press. “My agent still sends them to this day… I was just pouring with sweat, you can just see [from] the photos. I look horrendous…”

Sick for the Part

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It’s not uncommon for actors to embrace a variety of pre-shooting rituals in order to make their portrayal truer to life. However, Pattinson is known for taking this to the extreme. To enter the dark emotional state needed to film The Lighthouse in 2019, he has admitted to spinning in circles and putting stones in his shoes to throw himself off-kilter so his performance in the psychological drama would seem disjointed. He even forced himself to throw up before critical scenes. When asked about the technique’s effectiveness, he answered: “I think everyone feels very emotional when they’re throwing up, and it’s quite a nice little trick to get there.”

Clamouring for the Cape

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Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne in The Batman (2022)

It’s no secret that Pattinson has a penchant for quirky roles and often eschews parts in more ‘mass-market’ productions in favour of smaller, indie films. So, many would be surprised to hear that he’d toyed with becoming the Caped Crusader even prior to being cast in the upcoming Batman reboot. “I’d had Batman on my mind for a while… [though] it’s such an absurd thing to say,” he shared recently. “I sort of had an idea to do it, and I’d been prodding Matt [Reeves, the film’s director]. He didn’t accept any prods, so I kept asking to meet him.”
Clearly his persistence paid off, and Pattinson was the one chosen to don the cape. Judge for yourself if he does the role justice when The Batman hits the silver screen on 4 March.

How well do you know ‘The Suicide Squad’ actress Margot Robbie?

There’s no denying that Australia churns out more than its fair share of A-list actresses. From the chameleonic charm of Cate Blanchett to the ephemeral elegance of Nicole Kidman, screen sirens from Down Under have found wider fame in Hollywood. Headlining among a new generation of Australian talent to make their mark on the red carpet of Tinseltown is Queensland-born Margot Robbie.

Having her start in showbiz with a three-year stint as Donna Freedman in the long-running Aussie soap, Neighbours – a show that catapulted other eventual stars like Russell Crowe and Liam Hemsworth to Hollywood – Robbie hit the big leagues with such blockbusters as The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Suicide Squad (2016) and I, Tonya (2017), for which she picked up an Oscar nomination. On her welcome return to the silver screen in a familiar role as DC Extended Universe supervillain Harley Quinn, we delve into some lesser-known facts about this talented thespian.

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Father from her Mind
Until roughly five years ago, all that was known about Margot Robbie’s father publicly was that he was a ‘former farm-owner’. It wasn’t until 2016 that Aussie magazine New Idea revealed his true identity: sugarcane tycoon Doug Robbie. Perhaps this oversight was deliberate on the actress’s part; after all, he abandoned her and three siblings when she was still a toddler. The two remain estranged to this day – it was her mother who walked her down the aisle when she wed British film producer Tom Ackerley – and when asked in an interview about the qualities she’d inherited from her dad, she fired back, “None. Nothing. I’m not like him at all.”

Margot the Maggot
Despite her status as a gorgeous Hollywood star today, Margot Robbie’s childhood classmates notoriously christened her “Maggot”, a nickname that stuck for years. Recalling this uncomfortable moniker, she has lamented, “‘Maggot’ started when I was five, in Grade One, and I detested it. By the time I was eight, I realised it wasn’t going anywhere so I embraced it, but when I moved to Melbourne [to begin acting], people started calling me it and I hadn’t even told them it was my nickname!”

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Slap in the Face
Playing the character of Naomi Lapaglia, wife of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort, in The Wolf of Wall Street is undeniably the role that got Robbie noticed. But her method of landing the part was unusual, to say the least. It was her unscripted slapping of the Titanic leading man in an argument scene while auditioning that wowed director Martin Scorsese and landed her the role. Recalling her momentous decision, she said: “In my head I was like, ‘You have literally 30 seconds left in this room and if you don’t do something impressive nothing will ever come of it. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance, just take it.’”

No More Nudity
For that same role, Robbie – who until this point had maintained a sweet, girl-next-door image – performed a sex scene atop a pile of money that required full-frontal nudity. But appearing in the buff was so uncomfortable for her that she even lied to her parents about the graphic scenes. In order to avoid any awkward embarrassment, she convinced them that CGI had been used to fit her head to another actor’s body. It’s no surprise, then, that when Hugh Hefner reached out to her to appear nude on Playboy for a substantial amount of money, she turned him down. Interestingly, the scene led to ‘a million paper cuts’, with the star quipping afterwards: “If anyone is ever planning to have sex on top of a pile of cash: don’t.”

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Trapeze Act
Whereas many young girls enjoy learning to dance, sing or play a musical instrument, fearless young Margot bucked the trend with a rather unusual passion – trapezing. At the age of just eight, she was enrolled by her mother in a circus school where she received a ‘trapeze certificate’. However, her love of acrobatics was soon replaced with an inclination towards acting. Years later, she began to have recurring dreams of flying through the air under the Big Top. “I couldn’t stop thinking about that stupid dream,” she recalled. “I feel like I missed my calling.” It was this sense of incompleteness that would eventually push Robbie to return to trapeze classes.

Drunk Tattooing
In addition to being a bona-fide trapeze artist, Robbie has also dabbled in tattooing. In fact, she even inked her Suicide Squad co-star Cara Delevingne and writer-director David Ayer. However, during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, she revealed that she’d given up the hobby after drunkenly tattooing a friend during a bachelorette party. “She walked down the aisle as one of the maids of honour in a backless dress and had this red, raw, scabbing tattoo and her mum was filthy with me … she was so angry and I thought, I really shouldn’t do this anymore,” laughed Robbie.

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Suicide Stunts
In a serendipitous coincidence, the actress’s circus skills would come in handy when she landed her now-iconic role as Harley Quinn. Always a competitive spirit, though, she took things even further by performing many of her own stunts when filming Suicide Squad, including an intense fight scene which required her to hold her breath for minutes on end. Ultimately, her record was a staggering five minutes, though only one minute’s worth was actually used in the final cut. Recalling the intense physical acting by one of his leads, Ayer commented: “She has ridiculous depth, and she’s never been coddled, so she’s very physically courageous. The things she was doing herself as stunts, you wouldn’t believe. There’s only a handful of actors who do that sort of work themselves.”

Quinn-tessential Mismatch
Interestingly, despite the role having cemented her status as one of Hollywood’s major players, Robbie was not enamoured with the character of Harley Quinn, particularly her psychopathic personality. “I thought, I have nothing in common with her. I hate her,” she later said. “It was a really tricky one to get my head around.” Thankfully, she bit the bullet and accepted the part. Not only did this lead to Suicide Squad raking in nearly US$750 million at the box office, it spawned a 2020 spin-off, Birds of Prey, focusing solely on Quinn. Building on this commercial success, she’s reprised the role for a third time in yet another standalone sequel – rather unimaginatively titled The Suicide Squad – which premiered last month. Clearly, regardless of whether she’s overcome her Harley ambivalence or not, Margot Robbie knows which side her bread is buttered on…

 

(Text: Tenzing Thondup)

Late Bloomer: A Hollywood stalwart, Liam Neeson has yet to win any major acting awards

British-Irish actor Liam John Neeson from Northern Ireland is a household name across the world after nearly 40 years in cinema since his first movie Excalibur in 1981.
 
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He is best known for his roles in the Oscars-winning Schindler’s List and Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. His body of work has earned him nominations for numerous awards, including the Oscar. But quite intriguingly he hasn’t won any major acting award, although, Empire Magazine once cited him in its Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time.

At various times in his decades-old acting career, he has been nominated for best actor and other major awards at the prestigious Oscars and Golden Globes. Emerging empty-handed from those nominations must have frustrated and disappointed him to no end. 

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Born in Ballymena, Ireland in 1952 to Katherine “Kitty” Neeson, a cook, and Bernard “Barney” Neeson, a caretaker at the Ballymena Boys All Saints Primary School, the veteran actor had a chequered young life that included flirting with boxing starting at the tender age of nine.

He was progressing as a boxer and won several regional titles, but opted out of the sport when he turned 17. Neeson also discovered a talent for football and nearly became a professional player in 1971 when he was enrolled as a physics and computer science student at Queen’s University Belfast. He played one game as a substitute but was not offered a contract. 

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Acting in school productions during his teens and the positive influence by Democratic Unionist Party founder Ian Paisley were what stoked his interest and eventual decision to pursue acting. “He had a magnificent presence and it was incredible to watch him just Bible-thumping away… it was acting, but it was also great acting and stirring too,” says Neeson, recalling his impressions of Paisley.

“It was incredible … it was acting, but it was also great acting and stirring too”

After leaving university, Neeson returned to Ballymena, where he worked in different casual odd jobs, from a forklift operator at Guinness to a truck driver. He also attended teacher training college for two years in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, before again returning to his hometown. In 1976, Neeson joined the Lyric Players’ Theatre in Belfast, where he performed for two years. 

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He got his first film experience in 1977, playing Jesus Christ and Evangelist in the religious film Pilgrim’s Progress (1978).

Neeson moved to Dublin in 1978 after he was offered a part in Ron Hutchinson’s Says I, Says He, a drama about The Troubles. He acted in several other small productions until filmmaker John Boorman saw him on stage in 1980 in Of Mice and Men and offered him the role of Sir Gawain in the Arthurian film Excalibur.

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The ’80s saw him team up with big-name Hollywood stars, including Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins and Robert De Niro. High-profile roles started coming from 1986 and in 1988, he starred alongside Clint Eastwood in the fifth Dirty Harry film, The Dead Pool. In 1993, Neeson shot to prominence when he portrayed Oskar Schindler in Schindler’s List. From there, he starred in other successful films.

A major turning point came in 2008 when Neeson starred in the action thriller Taken, a French-produced film based on a script by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. The action thriller series brought Neeson back into the center of the public eye and resulted in his being cast in many more big-budget Hollywood movies. 

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After Taken in 2008, Neeson almost overnight went from a well-loved star of wrenching dramatic fare (and the occasional rom-com) to a legitimately bankable action hero with one of the most recognizable faces on the planet — all at the ripe old age of 56. In the years since, the star has leaned head-on into his new status, cranking out an impressive array of big, dumb, endlessly enjoyable action fare.

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While he has not won any Oscars and any other major acting award, Neeson has been listed this year at number seven on The Irish Times’ list of Ireland’s greatest film actors. 

He has garnered various highly prestigious accolades some of which are not commonly available or conferred to performing artists. A case in point was his appointment as Officer of the Order of the British Empire presented by Queen Elizabeth II in her  2000 New Year Honours. In 2016, Irish President Michael D. Higgins conferred to Neeson the Outstanding Contribution to Cinema Award by the Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) at the Mansion House in Dublin. 

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Neeson has a handful of upcoming action flicks. Expected to hit theatres this month is Honest Thief in which he portrays an ageing bank robber who tries to turn himself over to authorities in an attempt to go straight and live an honest life with the woman he loves. In the action-packed bullet-fest The Marksman, Neeson plays the role of a rancher who takes on murderous Mexican drug cartels. 

Now 68, Neeson appears ripe for retirement, especially after more than 40 years in Tinseltown. But gauging from published media reports, the late-bloomer action hero appears to be just warming up for more ass-busting and gun-blasting action flicks in the coming months and in the next few years.

Tom Cruise: A divisive figure adored and despised in equal measures by cinema-goers

Unquestionably one of the world’s biggest box office draws, movies starring Tom Cruise have grossed more than US$3.7 billion in North America alone, with total global takings topping US$9 billion worldwide. Despite being touted as the actor with Hollywood’s most bankable grin, he remains a divisive figure, adored and despised by equally vocal contingents of cinema-goers.

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Whichever side of the fence you fall on, however, Tom Cruise does deserve some credit for overcoming much of the adversity that made his early life something of a nightmare. Not only was he dyslexic, he was also routinely abused by his father. In his adult life, however, many of his problems have been of his own making. Willingly co-opted as the public face of Scientology – a quasi-religion with cult-like trappings – his reputation later barely survived a series of bizarre TV appearances, with the most infamous of these seeing him bounding around Oprah Winfrey’s sofa back in 2005 as he, somewhat unconvincingly, confessed his undying love for actress Katie Holmes, his third wife-to-be. He later went on to duly divorce Holmes in 2012.

Tom Cruise

To be fair, though, crazy-behaving, much-married, cult-loving Tom is a soft target, and it is all too easy to overlook his undoubted status as one of the all-time Hollywood greats.

From the moment he burst onto the scene in his breakout role as Joel Goodson, a doubt-ridden teen in the 1983 coming-of-age comedy Risky Business (1983), he has been unswervingly on course for A-lister superstardom. As proof of his abiding success, he’s currently ranked eighth on the list of all-time Hollywood high earners. With more blockbusters in the pipeline – most notably a sequel to Top Gun, his smash-hit 1986 romantic drama – he will, almost definitely, feature higher still in any future rankings.

Thanks to his boyish and enduring good looks, few probably realise that as of 3 July this year, Cruise is now 56. Born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV in 1962 in New York, he was the only boy of the four children born to Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer, and Mary Lee Mapother (née Pfeiffer), a special education teacher.

Tom Cruise

After a troubled childhood and adolescence, he briefly flirted with the idea of becoming a priest, before finally settling on acting as his chosen career. By his own admission, it’s not been a profession that has always come wholly naturally to him. Airing his own uncertainties, he says: “Every single time I start work on a picture, I always feel as if I don’t really know what I’m doing.”

This particular demon, though, seems to have hardly hampered his career. He first hit the big screen playing a minor role in Endless Love, a 1981 romantic drama co-starring Brooke Shields. Despite getting his first big break in Risky Business two years later, it wasn’t until 1986 that his starring role as Maverick in Top Gun – one of the highest grossing films of the year – suggested how bankable a performer he was destined to become.

While that reputation is now firmly set in stone, fame – and box office bankability – has not always sat easily with the star. Clearly not relishing all its trappings, he says: “I am forever being chased by the paparazzi. They run lights, they chase you and they harass you the whole time. And it is only getting worse.”

Tom Cruise

In truth, though, it’s Cruise’s antics off-screen that have kept scandal-minded journos on his trail for so long. After all, aside from the three official Mrs Cruises, there have been any number of high-profile, non-solemnised liaisons, as well as those lingering rumours that girls aren’t really his thing at all. And then of course, there’s Cruise’s self-confessed obsession with Scientology, the California-headquartered cult.

Notwithstanding such controversies, award-winning movies – and wives – have followed. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was nominated for awards for his performances in the Vietnam war drama The Fourth of July (1989) and the legal drama A Few Good Men (1992). This was also the time he became Mr Nicole Kidman for a comparatively lengthy 11 years after meeting the Australian actress on the sets of Days of Thunder (1990).

Although his love life may have been punctuated by special guest stars and one-off appearances, his celluloid career has remained stable and stellar. Most notably, his continuing role as Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible spy-thriller franchise has confirmed he has lost little of his bankability, even with his 60th birthday now firmly on the horizon.

So, will his boyish looks, Hollywood reign and penchant for middling bouts of matrimony see Tom Cruise cruise through another decade? While it’s certainly Risky Business, it’s no Mission Impossible.

Text: Robert Blain; Images: AFP