Some children dream of running away to join a carnival, but for Robert Pattinson, the big top was a nightmare. “The first time I went to see the circus, one of the clowns died,” he told Matt Lauer on TODAY Monday. “His little car exploded on him. Everybody ran out, it was terrifying. It was the only time I’ve ever been to the circus.”
The actor (who may have had his tongue in his cheek) could just sit back and bask in the adoration he gets from female fans as a result of the blockbuster “Twilight” movie franchise. But instead, he admits, he’s still figuring out how to transform his pop-culture celebrity into a long-lasting movie career. After the commercial disappointment of his 2010 film “Remember Me,” he’s trying once again to step out of Edward Cullen’s “Twilight” shadow in his new film, “Water for Elephants.”
After greeting the fans who swarmed Rockefeller Plaza Monday morning, the 24-year-old Brit stepped into Studio 1A to tell TODAY’s Matt Lauer that he hopes audiences enjoy watching “Elephants” as much as he loved making it. But he didn’t pretend to know whether the film will break him out from the guy-from-“Twilight” mold.
“I mean, you can’t predict what an audience feels,” Pattinson told Lauer. “But I guess if you keep doing what you like doing, and if you try to make movies that you’d want to watch yourself, then hopefully at least one other person in the world would want to watch them.”
Related: Will ‘Water for Elephants’ help Pattinson put a stake through Edward?
Based on the best-selling 2006 Sara Gruen novel of the same name, “Water for Elephants” was clearly a labor of love for Pattinson. Not only did he get to work with Reese Witherspoon, whom he now counts as a close friend — he also bonded with his pachyderm co-star, Tai. The 42-year-old elephant is a veteran of numerous films, including “The Jungle Book.”
When Lauer reminded Pattinson of the Hollywood axiom “Never work with kids or animals,” the actor said the opposite was true for him. “I like working with kids, I like working with animals. The more unpredictable elements you can put into a scene, the more I like it. Especially if you're doing 15, 20 takes [and you] have an elephant who does whatever she wants every single time.”
Pattinson portrays a Depression-era veterinary student who sees his funding for college dry up with the death of his parents. He hooks up with a traveling circus as its vet, and finds himself enamored with the circus’s equestrian star.
Oddly enough, “Water for Elephants” is actually a reunion for Pattinson and Witherspoon. He played her son in the 2004 film “Vanity Fair,” but his role ended up on the cutting-room floor. Pattinson admitted that “it is rather bizarre” going from playing the 35-year-old Witherspoon’s son to her romantic intererest, but told Lauer it’s a better fit “because I was cut out of the other one [“Vanity Fair”]. It must have meant something.”
Meanwhile, the actor is wrapping a bow around his career as Cullen. The final “Twilight” book, “Breaking Dawn,” is being split into two films. The first part (the fourth film of the franchise) is set for release this fall, and the “Twilight” finale just officially completed filming over the weekend, he told Lauer.
One thing he won't miss about “Twilight”: the discomfort of turning his bluish-gray eyes golden to play vampire Edward. “It was kind of a relief to finally get the contacts out of my eyes,” he told Lauer. “I was just about to kill someone!”