rHodas: Robert Pattinson Is In 'Every Second' Of 'Cosmopolis'

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Robert Pattinson Is In 'Every Second' Of 'Cosmopolis'

'It's a very, very tricky part, and he was really at home with it,' co-star Paul Giamatti tells MTV News.
By Eric Ditzian, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Robert Pattinson
Photo: FilmMagic

We've got a load of questions about Robert Pattinson's "Cosmopolis," chief among them how director David Cronenberg intends to adapt a novel, penned by postmodern wizard Don DeLillo, which takes place in one day, largely within one traffic-stalled limousine.

It all makes sense on the page, with so much of the action in this novel of ideas taking place in the head of Eric Packer, a young and rich asset manager who every so often hops out of his ride to sleep with women and get into violent confrontations with menacing strangers. But how all this plays out — and how strictly Cronenberg, who also penned the script, sticks to the source material — remains to be seen.

If we can read into co-star Paul Giamatti's recent comments to MTV News, it seems the film and book will retain one key similarity: It's all about Packer.

"He's in every second of this movie," Giamatti said of Pattinson while promoting "The Ides of March" at the Toronto International Film Festival. "The whole thing is him."

That's a lot of pressure for a young actor who has shined in the "Twilight" films and taken on romantic dramas like "Remember Me" and "Water for Elephants," yet has never worked with such dark, cerebral material — and a director so comfortable with such things. Nonetheless, Giamatti says Pattinson nailed the role.

"He seemed absolutely great. It's a very, very tricky part, and he was really at home with it," he told us. "I was really impressed."

The novel intercuts, every so often, the psychotic musings of Benno Levin, the character played by Giamatti. "I get to stalk him," the actor told us at Sundance back in January.

That's not all he does. We'll leave it at that, lest we dive into spoiler territory. But the story gets dark. Really dark. And that's right up Cronenberg's alley, a director who made his name in the horror genre and has lately taken on brashly violent material like "Eastern Promises." Cronenberg the man, however, is very different than Cronenberg the filmmaker, Giamatti assured us.

"[He's an] incredibly sane man, when you think about the movies he makes," he said. "He's an incredibly grounded and sweet, sane guy. It was pure pleasure. I had a great time doing it. I'm a big fan of his, so that was a very exciting thing."

Check out everything we've got on "Cosmopolis."

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