Why Robert Pattinson says he feels like a 'total fake' at the start of a film

Almost 20 years into his career, Robert Pattinson says he still gets anxious whenever he steps onto a film set for the very first time – to the point where he feels a bit like a fraud.

The actor revealed during a recent Wonderland magazine discussion with his Batman costar Barry Keoghan that he feels “more nervous when I don’t get nervous” about a new project.  

“That’s why whenever I start a new job… I mean it doesn’t really help that I’m hardly doing any jobs at the moment, because I wish I was doing more,” Pattinson explained during their conversation, which was conducted prior the end of the SAG strike. “I just feel like now I’m back to the start again. I know the next time I do something, I’ll be like, I can’t remember how to do any of this stuff. It’s kind of nice to go into it as an amateur every time and be like, ‘This is a huge mountain to climb.’ It’s like being a total fake again.”

Keoghan pointed out, however, that “you kind of lose spontaneity” by becoming familiar with the filmmaking process too. As a result, Pattinson noted that he has to keep finding ways of reinventing himself for each of his respective roles, which range from the blockbuster Twilight films to arthouse projects like The Lighthouse.

“The nice thing about the job as well, in general, is that if something worked in a previous movie and you’re like, ‘Oh everyone said that was good’ and instinctively you go, well, everyone liked that – I want to do that again,” he said. “And then next time round, everyone just says it’s s--- and you’re like, what the f---? You’re forced into reinvention.”

Once he’s wrapped a film, however, Pattinson is quick to put it out of his mind. “Do you still feel like when the film is done, you’re connected to it?” He asked Keoghan. “I used to really struggle to watch myself. Now, once it’s finished, I feel quite disconnected.”

Keoghan added that, by the end of a film, he generally feels “just drained,” adding, “I try to give what I gave on the first day, on the last day.”

Pattinson previously told Interview that he has a “deep, deep fear of humiliation” when it comes to selecting movie roles. 

“You sort of know it's down to you. You can say it's a s---ty script or the director's a dick or blah, blah, blah, but at the end of the day, no one's going to care about the reasons," he said. "You're the one who everyone's going to say is lame. And the vast majority of people will say you're lame even when you tried your best."

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