Robert Pattinson delivered the perfect two-word response after being asked why he quit acting.
The London-born star, 38, recalled in a new interview that he was visiting St Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean with his partner Suki Waterhouse last New Year when an immigration officer said to him: “Hey, you’re the guy from Twilight. Why’d you stop acting?”
Pattinson told The New York Times he wasn’t sure how to respond, saying: “I was like... ‘I’m Batman?’”
“She just laughed,” he recalled.
Pattinson shot to fame in the vampire franchise Twilight, appearing in five films from 2008 to 2012 as Edward Cullen opposite Kristen Stewart’s Bella Swan. He went on to star in a series of lower budget indie and experimental films, including David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis in 2012 and the Safdie Brothers’s Good Time in 2017.
He made his debut as Batman in 2022’s acclaimed The Batman, from director Matt Reeves.
Elsewhere in the interview, Pattinson discusses the fact that he is recognized less frequently than he was a decade ago. “There’s something about the nature of being fresh meat,” he tells the paper. “They thought, ‘You’re not even a human.’”
He adds that for his role inThe Batman, Pattinson suggested that the character rarely be seen without his mask. “That was my one idea for Bruce,” he explains. “He’s been portrayed until now as a playboy. But what if he’s completely socially inept and kind of agoraphobic?”
The film was praised by critics, with The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey awarding it four stars and writing: “[Pattinson’s] performance hasn’t been this tapered down since his Twilight days, stripped of the exhilarating chaos that infects his acting in Good Time or The Lighthouse. I can’t blame him.
“Anything outside the register of growly and monotone would be considered mutiny by fans, so it’s to be expected that he sounds almost exactly like Christian Bale did in Nolan’s widely admired Dark Knight trilogy of the early Noughties.”
Pattinson can next be seen in Mickey 17, a sci-fi thriller from Parasite director Bong Joon-ho that is set to be released in the UK and US on April 18, 2025.
After the trailer was released, fans quickly picked up on Pattinson’s unusual vocal performance.
“One of my favourite things is when Robert Pattinson does a silly voice,” said one fan in response.
A second person wrote: “Robert Pattinson doing another freaky little voice. We won.”
A third continued the praise, writing: “No one can convince that Robert Pattinson is not one of the most versatile actors working today. An actor who is not only fantastic in his physical performance, but emotionally, and also vocally.”
