Robert Pattinson Says He Feels Like A ‘Total Fake’ Every Time He Starts A New Role

Robert Pattinson’s had an unusual career. Instead of going the usual handsome movie stud route, he’s done pretty much whatever he’s wanted. The recent birthday boy’s post-Twilight life has seen him working with some of the great auteurs: David Cronenberg (twice!), Claire Denis, the Safdie brothers, Werner Herzog, James Gray, Robert Eggers. He’s even the star of the next Bong Joon-ho. Good for him! Not that working with the best has made him more confident as an actor.

In a new interview he conducted with Saltburn star Barry Keoghan for Wonderland, Pattinson confessed that he feel “more nervous when I don’t feel nervous” on a project. He admitted that whenever he starts a new job, he feels like he forgot how to act. At the time of the interview the SAG-AFTRA strike had yet to end, and he was nervous about how he’d feel even more unprepared.

“I just feel like now I’m back to the start again,” he said. “I know the next time I do something, I’ll be like, I can’t remember how to do any of this stuff. It’s kind of nice to go into it as an amateur every time and be like, ‘This is a huge mountain to climb.’ It’s like being a total fake again.”

Keoghan argued that that’s a good thing. “I feel being familiar with this stuff is dangerous because you kind of lose spontaneity,” he said. “You lose a lot of that instinctive thing that we love and the directors love, obviously.”

“The nice thing about the job as well, in general, is that if something worked in a previous movie and you’re like, ‘Oh everyone said that was good’ and instinctively you go, well, everyone liked that – I want to do that again,’” Pattinson said. “And then next time round, everyone just says it’s sh*t and you’re like, what the f*ck”

That said, when a film is done, Pattinson has found it easier to move on. “I used to really struggle to watch myself,” he said. “Now, once it’s finished, I feel quite disconnected. I mean, not disconnected in a bad way.”

Technically, Pattinson and Keoghan have worked together before. They’re both in The Batman, albeit not at the same time. Keoghan only appears at the end, in a cameo as a Arkham Asylum inmate credited as “The Joker.” You might have heard of him.