Robert Pattinson received his breakout role as Edward Cullen in Twilight, but he’s managed to transform his career and reputation in the years since. The five-part Twilight franchise started in 2008 and turned Pattinson into a teen heartthrob for the next few years. This greatly benefited the franchise’s box office performance, but the lesser quality of the sequels had many questioning the talents of Pattinson and co-star Kristen Stewart.
During his five year run as a vampire, Pattinson didn’t have much time to do other projects. However, some movies like Remember Me and Water for Elephants continued to use him as a romantic lead. The success of Twilight made Pattinson a young good-looking star and movies wanted to capitalize on the growing fan base that he had. His actual performances didn’t matter much, as Pattinson was already getting typecast. Instead of getting caught doing nothing but romance stories, he went in the completely opposite direction.
Whether it was to get out of the bright spotlight the Twilight movies brought him or to challenge himself as an actor (or both), Pattinson dove into the independent movie scene. He began joining forces with auteur directors that gave him roles that were completely different from Edward. The few years after Twilight saw him appear in David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis and Maps to the Stars and Werner Herzog’s Queen of the Desert. From 2017 to 2019, Pattinson was seen in James Gray’s The Lost City of Z, the Safdie brothers’ Good Time, Claire Deniss’ High Life, and Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse. Not all of these films gave him starring roles, but they did wonders in showing Pattinson’s range as an actor, especially when he’s given great material and filmmakers to work with.
The transformation that Pattinson had as an actor is impressive, and it is one of many reasons why those who saw what he did outside of Twilight were excited by his recent return to blockbusters. He was one of the stars of Christopher Nolan’s new movie Tenet and will be the new Batman in Matt Reeves’ The Batman in 2021. The latter role will likely be responsible for Pattinson becoming one of Hollywood’s biggest stars once again. But, he isn’t just cashing in after years of smaller roles and projects, as Pattinson also just appeared in The Devil All The Time and used an accent that went semi-viral.
All of this work has set Pattinson up to do whatever he wants with the next stage of his career. He might be returning to blockbusters now, but he shouldn’t completely abandon doing independent, character-driven projects either. The best-case scenario would be that Pattinson proves to be a great Batman for years to come while sprinkling in roles that allow him to continue flexing his range. Whether its major action movies or smaller films that give him a chance to contend for an Oscar, Robert Pattinson has moved well past the days of Twilight by now.
