Does Robert Pattinson want to be a dad?
It sure is hard to pin Robert Pattinson down. The actor has defied typecasting by building up a diverse portfolio of characters during his screen career. The newest addition: Monte, a convict who is part of a group of inmates tricked into participating in a doomed space mission in Claire Denis’ “High Life.”
But space is only the backdrop to Monte’s story, which changes once he unexpectedly becomes a father.
“The script of the character on paper seemed so incredibly dark, but as soon as you work with a baby — especially a nice baby — you just feel a much softer and different slant on the character,” he says.
At first, identical twins were cast, but that didn’t work out.
“You’d hope if one’s crying, you can have a tag-team twin,” he says. “They hated being separated from each other.”
But Pattinson reached out to his best friend — musician Sam Bradley — to cast Bradley’s daughter Scarlett Lindsey as Willow, Monte’s daughter.
“She’s incredibly fun and easy to work with,” Pattinson says. “The cool thing about this, the script was sort of loose. We had space to see what she wanted to do, and I worked with that. People say, ‘don’t work with children or animals,’ but I find them spontaneously fun.”
But soon, he discovered that Scarlett would get fussy over one thing.
“I realized that after I handed her back to her parents, she would hate being separated again, so I’d end up babysitting her Director Claire Denis and Robert Pattinson speak at a screening for “High Life” on April 4 in New York City. for hours,” he says.
This isn’t the first time Pattinson has been a dad on film. Does playing a father elicit desires of a family?
“There’s definitely a significant amount of pleasures with it,” he says. “But when she wouldn’t stop crying, and I’d hand her to her parents, there’s a great sense of relief afterwards.” Pattinson laughs. “I’m almost 33, but I still think of myself as a 10 year old.”
In the film, viewers learn what happens to the ship’s crew and how Monte ends up on death row. Does Pattinson think his character regrets his actions that arguably landed him on the ship in the first place?
“It’s definitely different to think of what regret means at that point,” he says. “It’s a pretty harsh sentence if you were sentenced to death at 13, 14. You basically spent your entire life in prison. I’m sure, but he also seems like a strange, sadistic character.”
The silence adds to the ever-mysterious Monte. At the beginning of the movie, there’s hardly any dialogue. Instead, the audience sees everyday life in isolation between a man and his daughter who is only old enough to blurt out sound effects.
“I think this shows a whole intimacy having very little dialogue and being in the same set all the time makes you feel like you’re not doing a lot, but it’s nice,” he says. “It’s ... meditative and hard, but doing so felt satisfying.”
“It’s kind of what I really like in all of Claire’s movies,” he says. “It’s about the practicalities and textures. It’s also easier to work with a director who’s made movies before, and it’s nice trusting what she wants to do. There’s no need to question anything ... and I don’t have to learn more lines (laughs).”
Pattinson lends his vocals to an original song called “Willow,” which plays during the movie’s end credits. It’s a gentle lullaby he recorded with English alternative rock band tindersticks, and it fits the movie’s tone perfectly.
“It was nerve-wracking, really,” Pattinson says. “I hadn’t recorded in a recording studio since I was 21, so it was a daunting situation but a lovely experience.”
As his acting career progresses, Pattinson has starred in indie features like “Damsel” and “Good Time.” When it comes to choosing which projects, the director is often key.
“As an actor, the only bit of control is whether or not you’re doing a movie,” he says. “Working with these important directors makes you feel more secure in the choices you’re making. Like, I’m doing a big movie with Christopher Nolan after this. It’s the craziest thing I’ve seen in years. It’s the length of three movies .”