Robert Douglas Thomas Pattinson (born 13 May 1986) is an English actor.
He first rose to prominence in 2005 with his role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as Cedric Diggory, before achieving fame almost overnight several years later as Edward Cullen in the film adaptations of The Twilight Saga.
Afterwards, he worked on a bunch of smaller-scale and indie projects, many of which have been critically acclaimed, such as Good Time, The Lost City of Z, and The Lighthouse. He returned to mainstream fare after snagging the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Matt Reeves' take on the bat-vigilante, as well as a major supporting role in Christopher Nolan's Tenet.
Selected Filmography:
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) as Cedric Diggory
- How to Be (2008) as Art
- The Twilight Saga (2008 — 2012) as Edward Cullen
- Twilight (2008)
- The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)
- The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)
- The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (2011)
- The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012)
- Little Ashes (2009) as Salvador Dalí
- Remember Me (2010) as Tyler Hawkins
- Water for Elephants (2011) as Jacob Jankowski
- Bel Ami (2012) as Georges Duroy
- Cosmopolis (2012) as Eric Packer
- Maps to the Stars (2014) as Jerome Fontana
- The Rover (2014) as Reynolds
- The Lost City of Z (2017) as Henry Costin
- Queen of the Desert (2017) as T. E. Lawrence
- Good Time (2017) as Connie Nikas
- High Life (2018) as Monte
- The King (2019) as The Dauphin
- The Lighthouse (2019) as Ephraim Winslow / Thomas Howard
- Tenet (2020) as Neil
- The Devil All the Time (2020) as Preston Teagardin
- The Batman (2022) as Bruce Wayne / Batman
- Untitled The Batman sequel (2026)
- The Boy and the Heron - The Grey Heron (Voice)
Associated Tropes:
- Alternate Character Interpretation: Invoked by himself.
- He views Edward as a creepy stalker that hates himself, and played him as such.
- And related to the man himself, there are those that are convinced he was the one that leaked Midnight Sun (2020), though he denies it.
- Career Resurrection: Initially dismissed as a "pretty face" during his Twilight days, he made a comeback in the late-2010s/early-2020s with roles in The Lighthouse and Tenet that won over people who had previously dismissed his acting chops, before donning the iconic cape and cowl in The Batman (2022) and winning over just about everyone else.
- Chronically Killed Actor: Has died at least ten times in his movies, most notably Harry Potter and Remember Me.
- Deadpan Snarker: Many of his characters and interviews show that he's very much one in real life as well.
- Groupie Brigade: A Real Life incident with one nearly ended his life: he made the mistake of dashing out into the street, upon which he was struck down by a car. He was not pleased with the mob.
- I Am Not Pretty: Despite his status as a teen pin-up, he's been open about his feelings of insecurity about his looks and struggles with body dysmorphia and how it took him years to feel more comfortable with his appearance.
- I Am Not Spock: It's no secret that he hated playing the role of Edward in the Twilight movies and doesn't like being associated with the role, and was upfront about his distaste for the character and how he played him as the creepy incel loser he saw him as. He's worked very hard to distance himself from the series since then; this was reportedly a big part of his decision to take on the role of Batman.
- Man of a Thousand Faces: Is an impressively dedicated and transformative actor. Compare the difference in appearance, facial or otherwise, between Connie in Good Time, Reynolds in The Rover, Winslow in The Lighthouse and of course his performance as the sparkling vampire Edward Cullen of Twilight.
- Man of a Thousand Voices: To go along with his transformative powers as a film actor, he possesses a wide vocal range and variety of accents. Compare, again, the difference in voice/accent between Connie, Reynolds, Winslow, Edward and a wide range of characters, usually troubled and mysterious men. His voice for the Grey Heron is also a million miles away from his voices for any of those characters.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Earlier in his career when he playing Americans, his accent was good but he had a tendency to slip here and there. He’s gotten better about it over the years.
- One of Us:
- Demonstrated an in-depth knowledge of various Batman media and was described by Matt Reeves as a huge fan of the character.
- He's stated in multiple interviews that Final Fantasy VII is one of his favorite video games, and admitted that he cried when Aerith died.
- Playing Against Type: While he's a versatile actor with no set "type", he generally tends to play handsome, serious, and often brooding characters. In the English dub of The Boy and the Heron, he voices the titular Heron, an ugly, comedic bumbler and trickster complete with a raspy, high-pitched voice completely unrecognizable as Pattinson's.
- This Loser Is You: His interpretation of Edward is this trope, portraying him as a dysfunctional loser who has No Social Skills. Not that it stopped the fangirls.
- Trolling Creator: He's been known for years and years to make things up in interviews to troll but people, for some reason, still take some of the things he says at face value. Most notably, when he was first cast as Batman, he said that he wasn't even going to work out or put on muscle for the role. Certain corners of the internet went crazy, calling him lazy and undedicated. When the marketing rolled around, this was proven to have been a lie, although he's certainly of a leaner build than the other actors who've played Batman (especially coming right after the one with the most muscular build to date in live-action, the DC Extended Universe Batman played by Ben Affleck). He admitted in a profile with GQ during the final stretch of promotion on the film that that was one of the things he deliberately said to mess with people and they'd fallen into his trap.
- Unkempt Beauty: Pattinson is known for his rather unkempt appearance with his messy hair and usual permastubble, but that hasn't stopped him from being highly attractive.
