Robert Pattinson Talks Ego and Identity

Photo Credit: Mark Williams and Sara Hirakawa

Robert Pattinson, who played Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, recently appeared on Variety‘s “Actors on Actors” to chat with Fantastic Four and Snowpiercer actor Jamie Bell about acting. During the conversation, Pattinson spoke about his relationship with his franchise work in Harry Potter and the Twilight Saga.

I never tried to run away from any of it, though. That massive franchise stuff would come up. It’s also frightening as well. When something becomes really big you really get an awareness of how small you are, like where it is when you first start acting and you feel like a big shot when you’re only doing something small. My ego was a lot bigger when I first started.

Pattinson said that his work in larger franchises and in sequels helped reduce his ego, but it also affected his sense of self.

Then you start losing control of a lot of different aspects of your life and also the job, especially when you’re doing sequels to something. It doesn’t matter what you think: a) it’s already been written in a book, and b) the tone has already been set up and the machine is already in motion. It’s frightening when you lose your sense of identity.

Photo Credit: Mark Williams and Sara Hirakawa

Bell agreed with Pattinson that most of his career had been driven by the vision of directors.

It is a director’s medium; there’s no way around it. It’s their vision you’re trying to achieve. A lot of it is there, and a lot of it is if the material resonates with me personally, if there’s something personally I can elevate in the material. Only in the last few years have I developed the confidence enough to say, ‘No, you’ve been doing this for 17 years; your voice is important. You’re the author of this character.’

Watch the full interview below.