Sometimes the stars of major book-to-movie franchises are humble, gracious, and totally comfortable around their legions of fans, no matter how obsessive — like Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe, a beacon of British politeness in a world of celebrities run amok. And other times they’re like Robert Pattinson, Twilight’s hilariously reluctant vampire heartthrob. To publicize Friday’s release of the first film in Stephenie Meyer’s teen-romance saga, Pattinson has been traveling the country signing autographs, shaking hands, and posing for pictures, and, as he’s made clear to all reporters covering his promotional appearances, he is completely miserable.
Bad! In the past couple of weeks, Twilight fans have shown a tenacity heretofore unseen in fans of YA fiction, rioting in San Francisco for the chance to meet him and camping out in front of theaters for nearly a full week before his movie’s release (don’t kids go to school anymore?). At the autograph sessions, he seems baffled and more than a little uncomfortable with the throngs of screaming teenagers lining up for hours just to meet the star of a movie they’ve not even seen yet. See below!
Bad! In the past couple of weeks, Twilight fans have shown a tenacity heretofore unseen in fans of YA fiction, rioting in San Francisco for the chance to meet him and camping out in front of theaters for nearly a full week before his movie’s release (don’t kids go to school anymore?). At the autograph sessions, he seems baffled and more than a little uncomfortable with the throngs of screaming teenagers lining up for hours just to meet the star of a movie they’ve not even seen yet. See below!
In yesterday’s Times:
“What is with all the screaming?” Mr. Pattinson asked when he came out.
[…]
“The connection that I am an actor playing this character is sort of skipped,” he said, laughing during an interview before the throng was admitted to the Hot Topic store here. “They are in denial. They think I am Edward Cullen.” Mr. Pattinson, 22, said he had no idea what to make of his situation, about to meet thousands of teenage girls — and many of their mothers — who were flat-out in love with him.
“It is bizarre,” he said. “People come from three states away and walk up to you trembling. I feel that I am at a disadvantage here because I can’t provide this mystical thing that they came for in the two seconds we have.”
From Collider:
“My brain doesn’t really accept it. So it’s fine. I can be put anywhere and it just goes completely over my head. I just don’t want to get stabbed or something. Literally, my representation asked me, ‘Do you have any problems with this? Is it going to be okay?’ I said, ‘I just don’t want to get shot or stabbed. I don’t want someone to have a needle and I’ll get AIDS afterwards.’ That’s only my real fears.”
In an EW recap of last night’s movie premiere:
“This is crazier and louder than I was prepared for,” said Pattinson, running his fingers through his trademark floppy locks and looking sharp-dressed goth in his fitted black suit. “With every week, the fervor and anticipation seems to grow. This is my life. People know my name and ambush me in public and try to figure out what hotel I’m staying at and ask me to bite them and want to touch my hair. I have accepted it as real now, but it still feels surreal.”
In this weekend’s “Sunday Styles”:
“I don’t know how many girls with braces tried to kiss Rob,” [Twilight director Catherine] Hardwicke said.
“They’d ask, and if you said ‘no,’ they’d kiss you anyway,” said Mr. Pattinson, who is probably best known for his role as ill-fated Cedric Diggory in two Harry Potter films.
From a local-news report about a signing in Chicago:
“Oh my God,” said Pattinson, laughing nervously at the uproar. “Are they going to blow [the place] up?”
Earlier: ‘Twilight’ Autograph Session Marred by Vampire Riot