Robert Pattinson: Good boy gone bad

Pattinson says his role as 19th century reality TV star in Bel Ami reminded him of today’s reality stars.

BERLIN: Twilight heart-throb Robert Pattinson stars as a 19^th century Parisian social climber who sleeps his way to the top in Bel Ami, a role he told the Berlin film festival reminded him of today’s reality TV stars.

Trading in his brooding vampire for the role of an ambitious bon vivant, Pattinson’s character Georges Duroy seduces the most powerful women in the French capital, played by Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci and Kristin Scott Thomas.

Pattinson said Georges was an upstart who knew how to use the media to his advantage. “It’s basically like being a reality TV star. He found a loophole in life and is making money by basically doing nothing,” he told reporters.

Ricci said the movie’s copious love scenes were anything but erotic to make, with the directors Nick Ormerod and Declan Donnellan insisting on historical authenticity. “It was so intimate and romantic with 100 crew members there and no ceiling,” the 32-year-old quipped. “And I was told, ‘don’t shave your armpits — be accurate’. And then you see it on screen, with your arms raised and you’re just like ‘that was a bad move’. Some accuracy is just not called for.”

Pattinson said he was ordered not to have a chiselled upper body for the love scenes. “Declan said ‘everyone in the 19^th century didn’t have six packs so don’t work out’,” he said, referring to the ever-so-slight paunch he took on for the role.

The actor said that he is hoping he can lure many of his Twilight fans to new material like Bel Ami but also admitted that he is still bewildered by his global fame. “It’s been strange having a pretty much single-sex audience all the time but it’s been great,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2012.