‘He stole the show’: Will the Oscars attract Robert Pattinson, star of four of the year’s biggest films – and Batman? | Robert Pattinson

Today, former teen idols can no longer disavow those projects, no matter how trite, that turned them into stars. In an age where even horrific social media dramas of actors devouring chicken wings or competitively cuddling puppies are promoted, any mention of a cheesy hack role should be embraced with courage, before once again thanking the fans, for the opportunity.

However, what trophy-hunting celebrities don’t do is actively raise such skeletons. Leonardo DiCaprio won an Oscar for The Revenant with nods to his late 1980s sitcom Growing Pains. Likewise, Joaquin Phoenix rarely talks about SpaceCamp, and Jacob Elordi remains silent about The Kissing Booth 3.

Not so Robert Pattinson. The British actor, 40, is now being talked about as the lead character in Christopher Nolan’s version of The Odyssey. As well as being the most star-studded production in some years, the $250 million blockbuster is easily the most anticipated film of the year and, so far, the top Oscar winner of 2027.

Pattinson’s performance as Antinous, the evil suitor of Penelope (Anne Hathaway) in the absence of her husband Odysseus (Matt Damon), has been praised by critics who have shared first thoughts before the film’s review embargo is lifted next Wednesday. “He completely stole the show from me,” wrote American critic Eric Davis, describing him as “extremely conniving, manipulative and endlessly entertaining to watch.” Oscar-baiting chatter is rife, and the consensus is that this is the latest crushing blow in a career marked by bending choices and artistic boldness from a man long freed from his established roots.

However, on the red carpet at the film’s world premiere on Monday, Pattinson went out of his way to liken Homer’s 3,000-year-old epic poem — and its hefty cinematic version — to the Twilight Saga, a series about horny teenage vampires that he starred in nearly 20 years ago.

“I keep comparing it,” he said. “[Antinous] He’s kind of like Jacob in Twilight. The theme of the Odyssey is that Penelope cannot decide between the two men. And I’m just trying to help her make the decision. It’s like, “It’s okay.” “He’s dead, get over it.”

In the four Twilight films, Pattinson played Edward Cullen: pale, undead, locked in a love triangle with emo schoolgirl Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and senior werewolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). Born in Barnes in 1986, Pattinson was cast in the role in 2007 — despite having no training and little experience — after producers requested a list of Harry Potter actors who scored highly on IMDb’s “star meter,” an accolade he earned for his role as doomed Quidditch bowler Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (his first screen credit).

Called in for a chemistry test with 17-year-old Stewart at the home of director Catherine Hardwicke, he impressed both women with his extreme commitment to the point that he fell out of bed during a kissing scene, and Hardwicke felt the need to remind him of the age of consent in California.

“He’s a true movie star, and that was clear from the moment he appeared in the first Twilight movie,” says veteran film journalist Stephen Gaydos. “Hardwicke did the movie world a huge favor when she paired Pattinson with Stewart, whose mutual star power masked the crazy silliness of the series’ werewolves and vampires, and kept the focus on the love and warmth between two charismatic new movie stars.”

The pair eventually dated for four years, while the series grossed $3.36 billion. Both actors have had wildly unconventional career paths since then. “For a long time, they were the industry’s joint poster child for the teen idol turned serious actor,” says Jay Lodge, Variety’s chief critic. “And when he followed the final act of Twilight by shaping films for David Cronenberg, Werner Herzog, the Safdie brothers, James Gray, Claire Denis and so on, he couldn’t have expressed his artistic aspirations more emphatically.”

Whether getting his prostate checked in the back of a limousine (Cosmopolis), constantly being cloned (Mickey 17) or gloomily masturbating to a wooden mermaid before being pecked to death by seagulls (The Lighthouse), Pattinson’s constantly skewed decision-making ensured that, as Gaydos says, he never settled for “soothing or meeting audience and business expectations.” Instead, he established himself “as a brilliant, fearless actor of enormous range. His free-form work in drama boasts character fluctuations that would defeat most actors.”

Lodge also highlights The Drama, a raucous and controversial marital comedy-drama released earlier this year, calling it “the perfect vehicle to balance Pattinson’s lightweight and heavyweight skills. He plays disturbing comedy wonderfully, but it’s a performance rooted in deep pain and angst, and perhaps his best yet.”

The actor’s easy, brotherly bond with co-star Zendaya when promoting this film was also an echo of the effortless, comfortable chemistry he had shown the previous year with Jennifer Lawrence, co-star in the exhausting postpartum depression drama Die My Love.

His private life — after his relationship with Stewart, and another with FKA Twigs, he now has a young daughter with long-time girlfriend Suki Waterhouse — adds to Pattinson’s selling point as an actor who, while unafraid to embrace the unconventional in his work, is seemingly happy to remain somewhat uncomplicated at home.

Like many of today’s hottest male stars — Josh O’Connor, Brad Pitt, Seth Rogen — he’s an avid ceramicist, as well as an enthusiastic local inventor, whose ideas include an arancini-like dish called piccolini coccino (“little pillow”), which he almost partnered with a frozen-food manufacturer, and a 9-foot-long sofa with seat-width armrests (“it weighs a ton” — and has yet to find a buyer).

Zendaya stars alongside Pattinson in The Odyssey, as well as in Dune 3, which is set to be a major opening this Christmas — and one of The Odyssey’s main awards contenders. Later this year, Pattinson will also headline Primetime, a low-budget drama based on the American TV show To Catch a Predator. Then, in early 2027, comes his second time donning the black cape and tails as the caped crusader Batman in Matt Reeves’ iconic DC update.

“He drifted back into commercial cinema,” says Lodge, “but now he is a more flexible actor and more interesting in his artistic work. In both.” [2020’s] Tenet and The Odyssey, he brought wit and sarcasm to Nolan’s tough writing, and while there was little fighting against Batman’s darkness, he gave the superhero a rare flash of soul and sexuality.

This provocative wit is perhaps the key to Pattinson’s overall appeal and triumph in The Odyssey, a film that more broadly values ​​moral stoicism and fortitude over the pleasures of the flesh. Speaking about his outfit for the film, Pattinson recently told GQ magazine: “I was like, ‘I really want to wear leopard print leggings – I want them to just come out of my skirt, with a little bit of bright fur.'”

This kind of subversion is easily detected in his performance, says Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw, who describes him as “a Saturnian, somewhat creepy, obnoxious… a thoroughly bad man, to whom his snobbish, aristocratic airs fit.” While Gaydos sees Pattinson inheriting “the cheekbones and chops of Hollywood’s Golden Age leading men like Robert Taylor and Tyrone Power,” Bradshaw instead opts for Alan Rickman: the same devilish sense of fun and sensuality coupled with an impeccable nice-guy reputation behind the scenes.

Two of Pattinson’s films this year have already been huge hits, while the other three are on the horizon. However, regardless of their fate, his future as one of the most charismatic, charismatic and unpredictable actors of his generation seems assured. If only it had been around a little earlier, Gaydos says. “If Alfred Hitchcock were directing films today, one can only imagine the excitement and fun he would create with Pattinson in the frame.”