ALTERED STATES
Robert Pattinson has an excellent laugh. He giggles at various points during our conversation, which is disarming, because for so long now he has become associated with a cinematic sombreness that comes from watching him undergo lengthy bouts of intense misery on screen. From shedding his tween heartthrob image in David Cronenberg’s stylish thriller Cosmopolis to bleaching his hair peroxide blonde for the Safdie Brothers’ down-and-dirty Good Time, there’s a full-bodied intensity about the roles he chooses. Claire Denis’ High Life is no exception – as wayward cosmonaut Monte, he exudes a rough-hewn pathos, resigned to his gruelling existence aboard a rust-coloured space prison. Yet at the same time there’s a tenderness at play, most readily present in his interactions with infant daughter, Willow.
Far from embodying the intense seriousness of his various on-screen personas, Pattinson brims with an impish effervescence. Over the course of our chat he chides me about the irregularity of correspondence with our publication, opines (“One of my all-time favourites!”). All of which speaks of an actor who still seems bedazzled by his own good fortune – and starry-eyed at the prospect of whatever comes next.
