VIDEO: Robert Pattinson & David Cronenberg Interview with Filmstarts (Berlin)
Cast Interview David Cronenberg Director Interview Robert Pattinson Video
This is a good interview, repeats some things we’ve heard from Pattinson and Cronenberg before on the film’s link to today’s economic news, but there’s some new things. We love how, while both Rob and David are asked about the same things so often, they always offer something fresh or a little bit different.
In speaking of his character, Eric Packer, Pattinson raises again this issue of the lack of different films like Cosmopolis being made, lamenting why is there no “New Wave” in American cinema? (see end of notes/interview.) With the summer blockbuster season kicking off in the US, we know just what he’s talking about….
Note to readers: we’re having technical difficulties embedding the original video source, or the YouTube version of it, here. Until we fix it, here’s the direct link to the source. We’ve taken notes on the content, for you.
Click here for Film Starts.de Video Interview
Pattinson:
- I think the whole idea [in the film] is the world it totally crazy, so there’s no way to be normal. The people who are the most normal are probably the most crazy.
Cronenberg:
- The movement of the film is towards a kind of liberation.
- Eric forces people to come into his limo, he seems in control. He controls and manipulates.
- As the movie goes on he feels this world he has created is a prison, that he is trapped by his own life.
- So there’s this move towards freedom. Even though it’s perhaps a very desperate kind of liberation.
- In that sense it’s kind movement from madness to some kind of sanity
Rob and David both talk about how contemporary this story turned out to be:
- Rob: I only started to think about how contemporary a story it was after we starting shooting it. Had thought of it as an obscure movie about this guy, a character study. Didn’t think I was playing a banker, thought finance was just the world he lived in. It’s strange the parallels, but we weren’t doing it on purpose.
- Cronenberg: It’s almost like the world is catching up with Don DeLillo, e.g., Occupy Wall Street, in a way DeLillo was clairvoyant and prophetic.
Rob on playing his character Eric Packer:
- My ideas for it, was looking more at sociopathic people. There’s a YouTube video of Jeffrey Dahmer being interviewed with his Dad. I looked at that a lot and learned that Paul Giamatti was doing the same for his own ideas, we hadn’t realized we both were!
- My character is one direction, so egocentric. Forces everyone to not only to come into his train of thought, but they have to adjust their day because he wants a haircut, and they speak his language. He’s invented this form of English.
- Everyone around him is a little bit scared. He’s so determined to become God. That is his one thought the whole time.
Rob on where’s the American “New Wave”?
- This is so David’s movie so I never feel any pressure doing it. It was really rewarding.
- I really felt with this one. You read the script, and nothing like this is made. When you look at the cinema, there is nothing comes out apart from superhero movies. Why is no one else trying?
- Why is there no American New Wave? It’s like every other country has a new wave, everyone else has a renaissance of movie making, but American actors and English actors are so scared to do anything other than franchise stuff, it’s crazy, maybe it’s because I’ve already done a franchise.
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