Robert Pattinson Reflects on Twilight Hate and the Plight of the Blockbuster

Here we go talking about Twilight again. If for no other reason than it won’t just die, we’ll accept it as a blight on the vampire genre. Former Twilight star Robert Pattinson—the Batman who keeps us waiting, and also the lead(s) in Bong Joon Ho’s upcoming Mickey 17—recently reminisced with GQ Spain about the frenzy that surrounded the franchise, and how it’s shaped him in his post-Edward Cullen era.

“I think it’s a fascinating phenomenon. I can’t believe it. I think it’s resurgence is due to [interest] like in Korea [similarly] to K-pop,” he said, comparing the Twilight fandom to K-drama and K-pop fandom, “but then seduced Western teens. I like to believe [Twilight’s] cultural relevance is because they’re very old [movies].” He laughed as he realized “the first one was released in 2008, fuck!”

And his response to those of us who roll our eyes? “I love that people keep telling me, ‘Man, Twilight ruined the vampire genre,’ … are you still stuck on that shit? How can you be sad about something that happened almost 20 years ago? It’s crazy.”

Okay, fine.

Over the years he’s had a contentious relationship with the films. “Twilight is about this guy who finds the one girl he wants to be with, and also wants to eat her. Well not eat her, drink her blood, whatever,” he said in a 2019 Variety  interview. “I thought there were definitely bits that were very romantic. But to me, I thought it was a pretty weird story. and even when I was promoting it, I was pretty open about how strange I thought it was when I was doing it.”

That’s a nice way to be vague about parallels to abusive and gaslighting relationships which abound in Twilight series author Stephenie Meyer’s work. Main character Bella leans trad wife much like the author’s Mormon background encourages and it doesn’t help the writer instructed filmmakers to not cast diversely for the Cullens. So there’s that sense of normalization and of course the handling of Native Americans that many overlook the widespread harm it does to women and the marginalized, because it’s cool to give Twilight a pass now. So we agree with Pattinson on the overall weirdness of the franchise’s story.

Thankfully, he’s broken away from a mere heartthrob lead, playing more little freaks in art house films and bringing some of that into the bigger films he’s been in since like The Batman and, if the trailers are any indication, Mickey 17. He also told GQ Spain how he felt about returning to more mainstream films after working on projects like Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse: “With Batman it was a different sensation. There was so much anticipation, the stress was palpable.”

In the case of Mickey 17, it’s a collaboration he feels more at ease with. “Bong Joon Ho is probably one of five directors in the world who can right now, direct a film of such an enormous caliber and turn it into something idiosyncratic, unique and interesting,” he said.

He continued, describing how Mickey 17 stood out to him as a dystopian film to tackle now; over the years, he’s apparently been offered roles in multiple concepts that explored civilization on the brink. “Honestly, I don’t think the world has changed too much. It’s good that humanity leans toward collective thought,” he said. “It’s rare to work in an industry thats founded on storytelling, because you can see how people think of themselves and about culture. Out of nowhere the post-apocalyptic was the conversation. I think we’ve passed that era but not because we now live in a dystopia and need to talk about other things to distract ourselves.”

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.