Robert Pattinson Scene Stealer Extraordinaire

Jeva Lange from The Week has written an opinion piece about Robert Pattinson and his scene stealing performances. Below is an excerpt, but you should read the entire article by clicking on the link HERE:

I wish I could tell you more about their performances [ensemble cast in The Devil All the Time], but by the end of the film, the only thing I could think about was Robert Pattinson.

It’s admittedly baffling that the former Harry Potter and Twilight star somewhere along the line morphed into one of the greatest living actors, but it’s even more baffling still that he keeps somehow getting cast in secondary roles where he then effortlessly snatches the movie away from the sorry souls who’d signed up thinking they were going to get to be the “leads.” How has no one learned better yet? You don’t want to be in a movie with this guy; he’s only going to steal the show.

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The Devil All the Time is only the latest example …

Part of why Pattinson’s performances in The Devil All the Time and The King rise above his hapless costars’ is because it seems as if he frequently operates on a totally different page than the rest of the cast and crew. In the moody and atmospheric The Lighthouse, where he plays more of a true co-lead, for example, Pattinson claimed that he “didn’t really think it was a horror film, because I thought it was so funny.” Some believed he was trolling with his over-the-top French accent in The King. Mashable’s Angie Han, in sharing her pan of The Devil All the Time, suggested that Pattinson was actually doing a sort of meta-performance with his campy, whining reverend, claiming he was the only one on set who seemed to recognize how comedic the movie actually was. Though I felt more generously toward The Devil All the Time than she did, I’m convinced by her argument; Pattinson stands out because his performances are often cleverer than the movies he’s in. When that’s the case, his more earnest costars don’t stand a chance.

The Best Robert Pattinson Is Weird Robert Pattinson

The Ringer believe that some of Rob’s best work is when he plays a secondary character, and here’s why:

The Devil All the Time is uncompromisingly bleak stuff … and that mood is matched in the ensemble’s somber performances.

But Pattinson proves to be the exception to that rule. As a predatory preacher in small-town Ohio, the actor seems to relish the chance to play a preening snake oil salesman—the kind of person who sees faith as the best means of manipulation and coercion. The phoniness of the preacher’s behavior is matched only by Pattinson’s hilariously over-the-top Southern accent and sacrilegiously poofy dress shirt. I’m not sure whether he deserves an Oscar or a Razzie; perhaps both.

The sheer campiness of Pattinson’s performance runs counter to everything else in The Devil All the Time—it’s the equivalent of a player ignoring a coach’s set play to do whatever the fuck he wants. But the effect of Pattinson’s work here is almost contagious: I couldn’t get enough of it, and suddenly I understood why all those parishioners couldn’t see through the preacher’s obvious facade. They were simply too beguiled to care.

The Devil All the Time is not the first instance of Pattinson appearing in a Netflix production where it appears he got a totally different memo from everyone else on set. In David Michod’s ultimately underwhelming The King, which was supposed to be another star-making turn for Timothée Chalamet, it’s Pattinson’s supporting work as the Dauphin of France that steals the show from his costar. Sporting Prince Charming–like blond locks and a French accent so thick and egregious it sounds like he’s constantly choking on a mouthful of escargot, Pattinson almost single-handedly saves The King—one ridiculous line reading at a time. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard Robert Pattinson with Pepé Le Pew’s voice call Bowl Cut Timmy Chalamet someone who has, and I quote, “giant balls with a tiny cock.”

But just as well as Pattinson can call attention to himself, he can disappear into a role that requires something a bit more understated. In yet another supporting turn for James Gray’s masterful The Lost City of Z, Pattinson plays the aide-de-camp Henry Costin to Charlie Hunnam’s fabled real-life British explorer Percy Fawcett, who obsessed over finding an ancient lost city in the Amazon. Hiding behind a scraggly beard and old-timey spectacles, Pattinson is virtually unrecognizable, but carries a rugged grace while constantly following Fawcett through ordeals in the jungle that most would consider a living nightmare. It’s only when Costin starts a family of his own that he refuses to keep searching for Z with Fawcett, a choice Pattinson conveys with quiet consternation. 

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It’s within this arthouse space, and in taking on bizarre supporting roles that appear antithetical to the interests of someone who has the look of a prototypical movie star, that Pattinson continues to impress. Call it the Jake Gyllenhaal Principle: He might be good-looking, but Robert Pattinson never seems more content than when he can get his freak on.

Despite his taking on one of the most sought-after superhero roles in Hollywood—not to mention starring in a time-bending Christopher Nolan movie—I hope filmmakers continue to let Pattinson cook as a weird character actor trapped in a leading man’s body. (While I haven’t seen Tenet because I care about my well-being, the fact that he plays a character who stole Nolan’s haircut is promising.) He’s sneakily become perhaps the single most exciting actor working right now; someone whose body of work radiates true chaotic energy. There’s no reason Robert Pattinson’s post-Twilight career can’t continue to sparkle, like a horny vampire in the sun. 

Edit above also done by The Ringer

GQ UK Ask Who Did it Better ~ Robert Pattinson or Tom Holland?

GQ UK decided to see who went all out between Rob and Tom Holland on their southern accents in The Devil All the Time. Rob pipped out Tom with an overall score of 14 to Tom’s 11 and here’s how they decided Rob’s overall score (click on the link to read the comparisons):

Drawl

Robert Pattinson: 5/5

As an unsavoury, manipulative preacher, Pattinson brings less fire-and-brimstone energy to Teagardin and more of a visit-your-wife-while-you’re-away-at-work vibe. He wears shirts with ruffs down the front, drives a Cadillac and is so generally smarmy that he could dial the drawl up to 100 per cent and it would still be convincing. Which he does – and it is. When he whines, “Goddamnit, boy, I ain’t going to take the blame for no bastard child! It would ruin me, man,” it comes out as a sort of “Goddaymn it bwoay, I ain’t gunna take the blay-um for no bastard chahld! I’d ruin me, mayn.” A wonderful Yosemite Sam impression for a man raised in Barnes.

Bombast

Robert Pattinson: 4/5

Pattinson gets some great bombastic moments, including a brilliantly dumb sermon about fried chicken livers at a church community lunch that begins with him whispering, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness,” and ends with him very dramatically suggesting that he’s, “going to eat these organs because I model myself on the good lord Jesus, whenever he gives me the chance”, selflessly consuming the cheap livers and offering the better meat to his flock. What a showman

The Mary Sue love the ruffle shirt worn by Robert Pattinson as Preston Teagardin”

Emma Potter talked to The Mary Sue about the challenges and enjoyment of bringing so many costumes and characters to life on The Devil All the Time. Like us, the Mary Sue were especially taken with Rob’s outfit “And boy do I love Robert Pattinson’s ruffle shirt as Preston Teagardin”. Below is an excerpt:

There are so many cast members so to me, the fun was never really being locked into one look. It was being able to go from picking Charlotte’s 1940s/1950s dresses or picking Sandy’s 1960s shorts. And floating around with all these different characters. It never got boring there was something new to play with. I do think certain people, like the Preacher, were looks that I hadn’t really explored in other projects so that was definitely something that was interesting to me.

Emma also spoke with Esquire, below are excerpts relating to Rob:

It’s not just a sea of denim and misery, though. As Robert Pattinson enters – his stomach-churning turn as the lecherous Reverend Preston Teagardin one of the film’s high points – there’s a sudden change of pace. He’s not one of the masses living hand-to-mouth. Instead, Teagardin is their master of ceremonies; the closest thing to a rock star for the religious people of these parts – a saint in a pastel suit. Immediately, something feels different. That was an intentional move by Potter and the film’s director, Antonio Campos.

“We talked about the idea that Teagardin is this preacher that comes into this environment and really disrupts it, y’know,” she says. “So we decided to lift this idea of a lounge singer, somebody who might’ve looked at late Elvis Presley, or Vegas lounge singers, and we put Robert’s character in that vein. He’s not inherently a good person. He’s someone that’s very showy.” Which translates to ruffled dress shirts, and a flip of perfectly coiffed hair: both tropes that were so ostentatious on their first run (and in retrospect) that they seemed almost sinful.

Screencap thanks to @Netflix

Robert Pattinson and Tom Holland in #TheDevilAlltheTime

‘xcuse me preacher – you got time for a sinner

Antonio Campos talks to USA Today about his favourite scene in The Devil All the Time (and it might just be mine too):

Pattinson’s preacher Preston Teagardin presents his own level of creepiness, with his insidious preacher serial-prowling on his young flock. Campos gave the British actor a look at an early draft of the screenplay and offered any part. Pattinson was “drawn” to the complicated, highly flawed preacher and owned it. 

Teagardin’s wicked behavior comes to a reckoning in a confrontation with Tom Holland’s revenge-seeking Arvin Russell. The emotionally charged moment, which has behind-the-scenes superhero implications for Spider-Man (Holland) and the Caped Crusader (Pattinson), is Campos’ favorite scene in the whole movie.

It begins with Russell pretending to confess to the crimes for which Teagardin is guilty.

“It was like doing a piece of theater. We focused on every single line, every single moment,” says Campos. “And then I thought about that scene every day for eight months of editing. It was my obsession to nail every moment. And I’m so proud of it.”

Robert Pattinson as Preston Teagardin in #TheDevilAlltheTime

With the release of The Devil All the Time on Netflix today, we have a new promo photos. I just finished watching and all I’m going to say is Rob does dirtbag well. Another scene stealing performance.

Source 1 | 2 | Netflix