John David Washington thinks there may be a sequel with the Protagonist and Robert Pattinson’s Neil

Esquire interviewed John David Washington and they asked if he thought there may be a Tenet sequel that features his character, The Protagonist, and Rob’s character, Neil. For those who haven’t seen the film, I’m adding the transcript excerpt below, but be wary to read the whole print article or watch the video interview (even though JDW talks Rob having difficultes driving with that gas mask on) as there are SPOILERS:

In my mind, that’s a yes!” he said. “We will be doing this again, we’ll see you in a couple of years.” But don’t get too excited, Tenetheads—Washington was quick to acknowledge that this could just be wishful thinking on his part. “In reality, I don’t know,” he continued. “Chris does what he wants. Maybe he has something that he’s developed for years that he wants to do next, maybe he’s been inspired by something else he sees and wants to do that, I don’t know. I hope we get to do it again, I hope we get to explore more, because I think we found something really unique.”

Tenet is also a film about Robert Pattinson wearing a succession of truly astonishing suits. For that, we thank Jeffrey Kurland

Esquire spoke with Jeffrey Kurland, costume designer on Tenet, about, amongst other things, the “astonishing suits” worn by Robert Pattinson. Here’s what he had to say about Rob and Neil’s attire:

At Esquire, we were excited about the tailoring as soon as the first stills dropped. Can you talk me through your approach and thinking there?

My feeling was that each character, especially the three male characters – Neil, the Protagonist, and Sator, the oligarch – they all basically are going to be wearing suits in a good deal of the movie. And I needed to separate their characters, so that it wasn’t just a bunch of suits walking around. So I used different tailors for each of those characters, because I knew the way they worked and I knew what I could get from them character-wise. For John David [Washington, who plays the Protagonist], a much more European cut, a more fitted look. Rob [Pattinson, who plays Neil] a little looser, still quite elegant, but much more free and moveable.

…

The other standout suit, for me at least, is the double-breasted pinstripe number that Robert Pattinson wears while scouting out the Freeport. Can you talk me through that one. It’s astonishing.

That’s an extraordinary piece of fabric. When I found that fabric I just fell in love with it. As we’re going along, I talked to Chris, I said: “When Neil goes there, it’s his first disguise, outside of the world of John David. He’s going into the real world. What would his disguise be?” A little fashion-forward in a way, and he’s a little bit forward-thinking, because it pops when it’s lit in a certain way. If you saw it in the IMAX, you literally can see the threads, you can see the colours. There was an elegance and over-the-topness to it that fit Neil’s personality.

…

You can really see that in the suit Neil wears when you first see him – looser, more relaxed, almost a foppish energy that really suits his character. And I can’t really remember seeing a suit like that, especially not on screen, for a long time.

Again, it has a slightly older feel to it. Because my original thought when I read the script was Neil struck me an ex-pat, he’s gone off on his own and he’s just living life the way he wants to. There’s a certain laissez-faire to him, an I-don’t-care quality. His suit is rumpled, it’s not the cleanest in the world, but he still looks good in it because his personality shines through. So the suit was made and then aged so that it was saggy and drippy, and slightly toned and stained so it didn’t look new. But it still stands out in the way that I wanted it to, because it fits his personality.

…

But I love Neil’s suit with a shawl collar. That was a daring move that Chris accepted. He was into it, because it was very Neil. You’re never gonna see this on anybody else. But Neil could wear it. You know, Rob Pattinson could certainly sport it.

…

I wanted to steal that look for myself, with the scarf and the popped collar. It’s such a strong image that really stands out, I guess because like the suit itself, it felt so distinctive and authentic to the character.

It’s a wonderful pairing of actor, character and suit. The actor fit the character beautifully, the suit [fit] the character, and that just all came together nicely. With all of them, to be honest. 

3 New Photos Featuring Robert Pattinson as Neil

Oh hi Neil. Love this look even if it is a mini Christopher Nolan type look.

Source via @JSumerki

How The Devil All the Time’s Robert Pattinson killed the ghost of Edward Cullen

Here’s another opinion piece. I’ve been blogging about Rob for 12 years and although to Rob’s new fans it may feel like Rob’s having this success overnight – I still remember the non-flattering opinions for Bel-Ami, Cosmopolis and even The Rover. How times have changed, it’s so refreshing to see that others have given him a chance (especially knowing how hard Rob’s been working for the past 10 years) and seeing what we’ve known all along. Here’s an excerpt from Paul Bradshaw’s article for Radio Times:

Pattinson, in fact, only has a small role in the film, but he still feels like the lead thanks to a swaggering performance that out-weirds and out-creeps everyone else around him. A sex-pest southern preacher who wrings everything he can out of his small-town influence, he makes his entrance in a frilly pirate shirt, slickly dipping two fingers into a gravy pot as he smooth talks the church widows with one eye on their granddaughters. Affecting a high-pitched voice and a spidery walk, he seems marginally larger than life – overplaying his part just enough to feel odd without tipping over into parody. In a long film crowded with famous faces and big events, Pattinson is the one thing that stands out.

… Christopher Nolan’s Tenet is about as strait-laced as blockbusters get – a coolly grown-up sci-fi with no room for grandstanding – but Pattinson still managed to play the film’s background time-cop as a raffish gentleman sidekick that he modelled on English intellectual Christopher Hitchens. John David Washington might get the film’s Bond role, but it’s Pattinson who gets most of the wit and charm, pushing his affectations to the limit again in another performance that seems to be deliberately different from everything else he’s ever done.

…

Last year saw him overplay The Duke Of Guyenne (complete with panto pantaloons and a thick French accent) in The King, and underplay Ephraim Winslow opposite Willem Dafoe in gothic arthouse horror The Lighthouse. Throw his menacing Reverend Preston Teagardin into the mix from The Devil All The Time and it’s hard to paint a picture of who Pattinson even is – an ever-changing coatrack of characters in different, difficult films that he plays with fierce sensitivity and curious oddness.

Reviews of Robert Pattinson’s performance as Neil in Tenet

**UPDATED: 22 Sept 2020:

The embargo’s been lifted and initial reviews for Tenet are in – slightly mixed, but as per usual I’m just going to focus on what they say about Rob – good and bad. I will update as the film is released worldwide – so here we go.

The Sweet

BBC: … with the aid of a louche British fixer, Robert Pattinson, who deserves his own spin-off film.

Total Film | Games Radar: Pattinson puts forward a strong case for his casting as Bruce Wayne, deploying dapper swagger as the capable and faithful Neil. 

The Guardian: As for Robert Pattinson’s raffish wingman, brilliant and dapper and apparently based on Christopher Hitchens? Pattinson is never less than watchable. And his affectations can be a welcome distraction. But he still just seems like some bloke who’s got drunk in Banana Republic’s scarf department.

The Evening Standard: Neil (Robert Pattinson; jauntily effete and utterly delightful).

The Globe & Mail: … shady-slick operative (Robert Pattinson) in the Tom-Hardy-in-Inception mould … He still has a perfect eye for casting (Pattinson and Branagh delight and surprise), and everything overwhelms in just the right way.

The New York Times: … Neil (a delightful Robert Pattinson) …  is also blessed to be playing off an equally unflappable Pattinson — their chemistry, rather than the sexless semi-flirtation between Washington’s hero and Debicki’s damsel, gives the film whatever romance it has.

Robert Pattinson Kept Batman A Secret From Christopher Nolan during #Tenet Filming

From LADBible:

Obviously Chris somehow knew the most top secret thing that I was supposed to keep under wraps and then he was like ‘oh, you’re doing the Batman screen test aren’t you on Wednesday?’ I was like ‘no’. It’s kind of embarrassing.

Click on the gif of Rob below to watch the interview