Water for Elephants press conference by Hit Fix

Robert Pattinson on the joys of ‘moonshine’ and flirting with ‘Elephants’

Where does Robert Pattinson begin and Edward Cullen end? At this point in the young “Twilight” thesp’s career it’s tough to separate the heartthrob actor from the heartthrob bloodsucker, but he’s currently making his second attempt at changing all that – after one false start with the disappointing “Remember Me” – with “Water for Elephants”, the upcoming adaptation of Sara Gruen’s bestselling historical novel. In the film, Pattinson plays Jacob Jankowski, a circus veterinarian who gets involved in a messy love triangle with equestrian beauty Marlena (Reese Witherspoon) and her ruthless animal-trainer husband August (“Inglourious Basterds’” charming Christoph Waltz).

Given the talent pedigree of the film, which was directed by “I Am Legend” helmer Francis Lawrence, it would seem a smart choice for Pattinson to take on the more “adult” role opposite Witherspoon and Waltz, though the actor certainly wasn’t about to admit to that kind of career calculation to a room full of image-burnishing journalists (he needs to stay “relatable”, after all). He’d rather have us believe he accepted the part merely for the opportunity to work with “Tai” (in the film she’s named ”Rosie”), the trained elephant who in the film is purchased by August to help boost his traveling show’s anemic ticket sales.

“I basically decided to do the movie at that point”, said the elegantly-rumpled Pattinson of first meeting the pachyderm, who’d earlier been on display outside the swanky Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica where the press conference was being held. “I hadn’t read the script or anything!”

Luckily he wasn’t on the panel for Pattinson to unintentionally offend screenwriter Richard LaGravenese – only Lawrence, Waltz, and Witherspoon, the latter speaking in that slight Tennessee drawl as she described her own first encounter with the enormous animal.
“Francis and I went out and visited Tai probably three months before shooting, or four months before shooting, and [he] brought a camera. [Laughs] And I was like, ‘why [is he bringing] a camera?’ And then he took pictures of me, every moment, the first experiences I had of meeting her”, the actress recounted. “Then he sent me the pictures, and I was like ‘oh my gosh!’…I looked terrified, basically.”
“You were?” Pattinson asked her, seemingly dumbfounded.
“Oh, the first time I was terrified, yeah”, she answered. “I screamed!”

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