rHodas: Robert Pattinson Calls His Elephant Co-Star A 'Full-On Method Actor'

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Robert Pattinson Calls His Elephant Co-Star A 'Full-On Method Actor'

'She's an incredible creature,' RPattz tells MTV News of 'Water for Elephants' focal point Tai.
By Aly Semigran, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Robert Pattinson
Photo: MTV News

Robert Pattinson has certainly had some very nice things to say about his "Water for Elephants" leading lady Reese Witherspoon, recently telling MTV News that she has a "nice energy about her." But it's obvious that RPattz holds a special place in his heart for another female co-star: Tai the Elephant.

"She's an incredible creature," the 24-year-old actor said of his famous pachyderm co-star.

In fact, he and Tai (Pattinson previously joked that she has "done way more movies than I have") got incredibly close at one point. Pattinson revealed to MTV News that he actually got in Tai's mouth, describing the moment as "the most incredible thing in the world. You're being lifted up by her gums. ... She puts just the right amount of pressure on so she isn't hurting you. It's so strange."

But it wasn't just the closeness he and Tai shared on the "Water for Elephants" set that made him appreciate working with a wild animal. "The best thing is that it takes away from the mundane [parts] of the day. If you're doing 20 takes or something, and there's a character who's going to be doing something totally different every time, it's always exciting. It's like working with a full-on method actor who's just improvising," Pattinson said of the experience.

Still, it's not always a day in the park working with animals, as Pattinson and Witherspoon quickly came to find out. As he recalled during "MTV First: Robert Pattinson," one day on the set, his beloved Tai let loose the "most incredible fart into Reese's face ... like a hurricane. Thunderous."

Even Pattinson had his moments where Tai's presence was a distraction. "If there's, like, an actual moment you have to get across [emotion], and suddenly there's, like, a trunk in your face," Pattinson said with a laugh.

Still, the actor seemed to find that the positives outweighed the negatives when it came to working with Tai and all the other "Water for Elephants" animals. "It's incredible," he said. "It just makes everything more interesting."

"Water for Elephants" arrives in theaters April 20.

Check out everything we've got on "Water for Elephants."

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