Kayla’s Tuesday Talk: why Hollywood Should Stop Casting Robert Pattinson

This was not what I was planning to write about today. Nope. Not at all. I was all set to write about mystery tropes that I love, but then The Batman trailer came out and my feelings started bubbling up uncontrollably.

Necessary Background Information

Here’s the thing, you probably realize from a previous post that Becky and I read and enjoyed the Twilight books. In my opinion, they are fun teenage romance novels. Reading them was a breath of fresh air when I was in college being forced to read really heavy stuff like Rwandan memoirs and Crime and Punishment. Do the Twilight books have some problems? Sure, but they were really fun to read. I feel a little differently about the movies, but I’ll explain that in a minute.

What most of you don’t know about me is this: I have been a comic book fan since before it was cool. I don’t remember a time in my life in which I was not a Batman fan. As a child, I wanted to BE Batgirl; as a college-aged adult, I settled for writing my senior thesis about Batman. In grad school I wrote another 30-page thesis about Batman’s affect on pop culture in the United States. It’s a life-long obsession, and I won’t apologize for it.

Pattinson’s History of Insulting his own Films

I’m not going to say they’re bad. I’ve studied film adaptation and from a purely objective point of view, the Twilight movies do a decent job of staying close to the source material. Could they have thrown more money at special effects and such? Meh, I’ll keep those opinions to myself.

What I will say is this, I have no idea why they kept Robert Pattinson around for the sequels when he actively insulted the fans, character, source material, and the filming process while talking to the press. Look it up on YouTube if you don’t believe me. That man vocally hated the character of Edward Cullen, and he had no problem telling you all about it.

Was his hatred justified? Maybe. But you don’t see Paul Reubens insulting the Pee-Wee character that made him famous, even if that character is the most annoying creature to ever crawl out of the pits of human imagination.

I know that a lot of people thought Pattinson’s behavior was justified and amusing. These movies weren’t exactly winning any Oscars despite their popularity. My issue is that this ACTOR was getting paid millions of dollars and could not even ACT LIKE he supported the film he was making.

I try to think about this from a perspective of a die-hard fan, so here’s an analogy for you. If Robert Downey Jr. spent his press tour insulting Tony Stark, would the Ironman movies have been as successful? Probably not. What about if Michael Keaton had insulted Batman? No way. Everyone would have hated Keaton as most people were not happy with his casting back in the day. Not even Ben Affleck, who starred in the burning pile of garbage that was Justice League, dared to insult the film that basically made him quit his dream job when he was on a press tour.

Why?!

So, why oh why has Warner Brothers decided to cast a guy who is literally known for insulting his own films? I have no idea. Do they think that he simply won’t have the nerve to insult Batman fans? If so, he’s already proven them wrong.

I just don’t see the logic in it. I don’t know of any other actor who insults his own work the way that Pattinson does. Come to think of it, I don’t know anyone who has managed to publicly complain about any job they have in such an audacious way and not suffer any consequences–not to mention someone who is being paid millions of dollars.

When this guy sets fire to his own Batman film (which is rumored to be based on the insanely good graphic novel, Hush) during his press tour, I’m not going to be surprised. In fact, I’ll be prepared to roast some s’mores.