Robert Pattinson has come a long way since playing a supernatural teen heartthrob in the Twilight franchise and a handsome nice guy in Harry Potter, hasn’t he? In the past few years he’s taken a dramatic turn as a gritty bank robber in the Safdie brothers’ Good Time and a horny, brooding astronaut in High Life. More recently, he’s aligned himself with eccentric oddball characters: a deranged French prince in The King and an unhinged lighthouse keeper in the dark indie The Lighthouse. Considering these choices, it was something of a surprise when it was announced that Pattinson would be the next Batman. He seems aware of this fact, and when The Guardian asked him what he’d turn to if he failed to capture the superhero’s “vibe,†he responded by saying “porn — but art-house porn.â€
While the comment was made in apparent jest, Pattinson has arguably been dabbling in artsy porn his entire career. He himself noted in a Variety interview that he’s frequently called upon for his excellent onscreen masturbation scenes: “In the last three or four movies, I’ve got a masturbation scene. I did it in High Life. I did it in Damsel. And The Devil All the Time.†It’s true. And what is arthouse porn but Pattinson’s one-man sex scene in High Life — which takes place in space inside a so-called “Fuckbox� Or the part in The Lighthouse where he very vividly hallucinates about having sex with a mermaid? And last but not least, what of his extremely hot Dior Homme ad from 2013?