{"id":684705,"date":"2026-07-10T18:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T18:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/684705\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T18:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T18:44:09","slug":"he-stole-the-show-do-oscars-beckon-for-robert-pattinson-star-of-four-of-the-years-biggest-films-and-batman-robert-pattinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/684705\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He stole the show\u2019: do Oscars beckon for Robert Pattinson, star of four of the year\u2019s biggest films \u2013\u00a0and Batman? | Robert Pattinson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, former teen idols can no longer disown those projects, no matter how tacky, that turned them into stars. In an age in which even harrowing dramas are promoted by social media reels of actors competitively guzzling chicken wings<\/a> or cuddling puppies<\/a>, any mention of a cheesy breakout role must be gamely embraced<\/a>, before thanks are again offered to the fans, and for the opportunity.<\/p>\n

What A-listers angling for awards do not do, however, is actively raise such skeletons. Leonardo DiCaprio did not secure his Oscar for The Revenant through allusions to his late-80s sitcom Growing Pains<\/a>. Likewise, Joaquin Phoenix rarely brings up Spaceballs, and Jacob Elordi keeps pretty tight-lipped on The Kissing Booth 3<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Not so Robert Pattinson. The British actor, 40, is now being spoken of as the clear standout in Christopher Nolan\u2019s version of The Odyssey<\/a>. As well as being the starriest production mounted in some years, the $250m blockbuster is easily the year\u2019s most highly anticipated film and, so far, the 2027 best picture Oscar winner to beat.<\/p>\n

\u2018Endlessly entertaining\u2019 \u2026 Pattinson as Antinous in The Odyssey. Photograph: Melinda Sue Gordon\/Universal Pictures\/AP<\/p>\n

Pattinson\u2019s performance as Antinous, villainous suitor to Penelope (Anne Hathaway) in the absence of her husband, Odysseus (Matt Damon), was lavished with praise by critics sharing first thoughts before the film\u2019s review embargo is lifted next Wednesday. \u201cHe absolutely stole the show for me,\u201d wrote US critic Erik Davis, calling him \u201cso conniving, manipulative and endlessly entertaining to watch\u201d. Supporting actor Oscar chatter is rife, the consensus being that this is the latest slam dunk in a career marked by curveball choices and artistic daring from a man who has long broken free of his pin-up roots.<\/p>\n

And yet, on the red carpet at the film\u2019s world premiere on Monday, Pattinson went out of his way to liken Homer\u2019s 3,000-year-old epic poem \u2013 and its very weighty movie version \u2013 to the Twilight<\/a> Saga, the series about horny teen vampires in which he starred almost 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI keep comparing it,\u201d he said. \u201c[Antinous] is kind of like Jacob in Twilight. What The Odyssey<\/a> is about \u2013 Penelope just can\u2019t make her mind up between the two guys. And I\u2019m just trying to, like, help her make a decision. It\u2019s like, \u2018It\u2019s fine. He\u2019s dead, get over it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In the four Twilight movies, Pattinson played Edward Cullen: pale, undead and locked in a love triangle with emo schoolgirl Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and hunky werewolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). Born in Barnes in 1986, Pattinson was cast in the role in 2007 \u2013 despite having no training and little experience \u2013 after producers requested a list of Harry Potter actors who scored highly on the IMDb\u2019s \u201cstarmeter\u201d, an accolade he\u2019d earned with his turn as doomed Quidditch dish Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (his first cinema screen credit).<\/p>\n

Summoned for a chemistry test with 17-year-old Stewart at director Catherine Hardwicke\u2019s home, the actor impressed both women with a commitment so intense he fell off the bed during a kissing scene, and Hardwicke felt the need to remind him of California\u2019s age of consent.<\/p>\n

\u2018He\u2019s dead, get over it\u2019 \u2026 Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in Twilight (2008). Photograph: Summit Entertainment\/Sportsphoto\/Allstar<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a real movie star, and that was clear the minute he appears in the first Twilight,\u201d says veteran film journalist Steven Gaydos. \u201cHardwicke did the movie world a big favour when she put Pattinson together with Stewart, as their mutual star power obscured the franchise\u2019s loopy werewolves-and-vampires silliness and kept the focus on love and heat between two major new charismatic movie stars.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair eventually dated for four years, while the series grossed $3.36bn. Both actors have had dramatically unconventional career paths since. \u201cFor a long time,\u201d says Guy Lodge, chief critic of Variety, \u201cthey were the industry\u2019s joint poster children for the teen idol turned serious actor arc. When he followed up the last Twilight chapter by lining up films from David Cronenberg, Werner Herzog, the Safdie brothers, James Gray, Claire Denis and so on, he couldn\u2019t have stated his artistic aspirations any more emphatically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether having his prostate examined in the back of a limo (Cosmopolis), being constantly cloned (Mickey 17) or gloomily masturbating to a wooden mermaid before being pecked to death by gulls (The Lighthouse), Pattinson\u2019s consistently perverse decision-making has ensured, says Gaydos, that he has never settled into \u201ccoasting or fulfilling audience and business expectations\u201d. Instead, he has proved himself \u201can accomplished and fearless actor with tremendous range. His freewheeling work in The Drama boasts character swings that would defeat most actors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consistently perverse \u2026 Robert Pattinson as Monte in Claire Denis\u2019s High Life (2018).
Photograph: Alcatraz Films\/Allstar<\/p>\n

Lodge also singles out The Drama<\/a>, a buzzy and controversial couples comedy-drama from earlier this year, calling it \u201cthe perfect vehicle for Pattinson\u2019s balance of lightweight and heavyweight skills. He plays the knockabout cringe comedy exquisitely, but it\u2019s a performance rooted in deep pain and anxiety, and quite possibly his best to date.\u201d<\/p>\n

The actor\u2019s easy fraternal bond with co-star Zendaya when promoting that film was also an echo of the relaxed and chummy chemistry he had demonstrated the previous year with Jennifer Lawrence, his co-star in gruelling postnatal depression drama Die My Love<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His own private life \u2013 following his relationship with Stewart, and another with FKA twigs, he now has a young daughter with long-term girlfriend Suki Waterhouse \u2013 adds to Pattinson\u2019s selling point as an actor who, while unafraid to embrace the unconventional in his work, is apparently happy to remain fairly uncomplicated at home.<\/p>\n

Nice-guy reputation \u2026 Pattinson and his partner Suki Waterhouse at the 2023 Met Gala in New York. Photograph: Mike Coppola\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Like many of today\u2019s hottest male stars \u2013 Josh O\u2019Connor, Brad Pitt, Seth Rogen<\/a> \u2013 he\u2019s an eager ceramicist, as well as a keen domestic inventor, whose ideas include an arancini-like dish called piccolini cuscino <\/a>(\u201clittle pillow\u201d), with which he almost went into partnership with a frozen-food manufacturer, and a 9ft-long sofa with armrests as wide as the seat (\u201cIt weighs a ton\u201d \u2013 and has yet to find a buyer).<\/p>\n

Zendaya stars alongside Pattinson in The Odyssey, as well as in Dune 3, which is set to be this Christmas\u2019s major opening \u2013 and one of The Odyssey\u2019s chief awards rivals. Later this year, Pattinson will also headline Primetime, a low-budget drama about the US TV show To Catch a Predator. Then, in early 2027, comes his second time donning black cap and tails<\/a> as caped crusader Batman in Matt Reeves\u2019s acclaimed DC update.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s drifted back toward commercial cinema,\u201d says Lodge, \u201cbut he\u2019s now a looser, more interesting actor for his arthouse dabblings. In both [2020\u2019s] Tenet and The Odyssey, he brings wit and irony to Nolan\u2019s dour writing, and while there was little fighting the po-faced darkness of The Batman<\/a>, he gave the superhero a rare flash of soul and sex.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it is this erotic wit, perhaps, that is key to Pattinson\u2019s overall appeal and his triumph in The Odyssey, a movie that more broadly prizes moral stoicism and fortitude over the pleasures of the flesh. At his costume fitting for that film, Pattinson recently told GQ, \u201cI was like, \u2018I really want to have leopard underpants \u2013 I want to have it just coming out of my skirt, a little sparkly fur.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

This strain of the subversive is readily detected in his performance, says the Guardian\u2019s film critic Peter Bradshaw, who calls it \u201csaturnine, faintly reptilian and odious \u2026 an out-and-out bad guy, to which his haughty aristocratic looks lend themselves\u201d. While Gaydos sees Pattinson as inheriting \u201cthe cheekbones and chops of Hollywood golden era leading men like Robert Taylor and Tyrone Power\u201d, Bradshaw instead opts for Alan Rickman: the same devilish sense of fun and sensuality paired with an impeccable nice-guy reputation backstage.<\/p>\n

Two of Pattinson\u2019s films this year have already proved huge hits and the other three on the horizon are set fair. Yet regardless of their fate, his future as one of the most bankable, charismatic and unpredictable actors of his generation seems assured. If only he\u2019d been around a bit earlier, says Gaydos. \u201cIf Alfred Hitchcock were directing films today, one can only imagine the thrills and fun he\u2019d create with Pattinson in the frame.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today, former teen idols can no longer disown those projects, no matter how tacky, that turned them into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-684705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}