A-list actor Robert Pattinson is probably best known for his portrayal of teenage vampire Edward Cullen in the young adult film franchise Twilight, and while that performance did not earn him respect as a serious actor, Pattinson has proven to the world that he is a brilliant performer and a force to be reckoned with.
A majority of his roles post-Twilight are heavy-hitting indies, such as The Rover, Good Time and The Lighthouse. Even Pattinson’s portrayal in the new Batman movie seems gritty and dark. This year, Pattinson has given what is most likely his best performance in Netflix’s The Devil All The Time, and it’s time for the actor to get a supporting actor nomination at this year's Oscars.
Pattinson started his career with a memorable role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as Cedrick Diggory, a fallen classmate of Harry's. Three years later, Pattinson nabbed the role that made him a teen heartthrob and an instant superstar. Pattinson was initially hesitant about taking on his breakthrough role, and has since been very vocal about his disdain for the series. However, if it wasn't for his performance in the schlocky teen series, the actor may have never been given the opportunity to shine the way he does now.
After 2008, Pattinson started to become typecast as a young adult star, making it hard to shake his surface-level image. After a few romances films that were jumping on the young adult movie bandwagon, Pattinson broke out of the box that Hollywood tried to trap him in by starring in David Cronenberg's dystopian thriller, Cosmopolis. Cosmopolis was released a few months before the final film in the Twilight Saga and set off a drastic transformation in Pattinson's career.
Two years after a career-defining 2012, Pattinson did not continue on his path of being an icon for teens, but instead opted to pursue more serious roles. Pattinson delivered what may be his first true powerhouse performance in the Australian dystopian western, The Rover. Pattinson played the childlike Reynolds who serves as a sidekick and nuisance to Guy Pearce's Eric. Pattinson dove into this meaty role headfirst, without hesitation, and really let himself go, fully embodying this simple yet mysterious person. Pattinson gave the character so much depth and heart, making the end of the film much more heartbreaking than it could have been if a different actor was given the role.
Following The Rover, Pattinson had supporting roles in more hard-hitting indies like Maps to the Stars and Childhood of a Leader, but it was with the Safdie Brothers' modern crime caper Good Time that Pattinson proved himself to be one of the finest actors of all time. Pattinson's turn as the unhinged Connie, a wannabe criminal who sabotages his developmentally disabled brother while trying to actually help him showed the actor's range, but he was majorly snubbed by the academy when the 2018 Oscars came and went without any mention of the lead Good Time performance.
Pattinson never returned to his young adult fiction roots and continued to assert himself as an indie darling. His next two starring roles were in Robert Eggers' gothic horror film, The Lighthouse, and French filmmaker Claire Denis's disturbing space epic, High Life. Pattinson dove into method acting in The Lighthouse, providing one of the most memorable movie rivalries and homoerotic bromances of all time. High Life was a calm and collected leading role for the actor that provided more subtle nuances for the character than Pattinson's other explosive performances have in the past.
2020 is the year that Robert Pattinson acted in his first Hollywood blockbuster since the final Twilight film, which was Christopher Nolan's Tenet. Although a departure from the actor's usual work as of late, Nolan is still an auteur and Tenet is nowhere near the genre that made Pattinson famous. The actor is slated to play Batman in Matt Reeves' new interpretation of the caped crusader, which one would think would be a mainstream role, but Pattinson's Batman seems to deviate from the norm in the best way.
After all of Pattinson's incredible performances, he has really outdone himself in Netflix's The Devil All the Time. In the dark thriller, Pattinson plays a predatory preacher who manipulates everybody around him. Pattinson changed his voice and posture drastically, making this probably the biggest transformation the actor has gone through for a role. Pattinson has never received any attention from the Academy, but now, especially since Netflix films will be getting full attention at the 2021 Oscars due to the current pandemic, the talented actor may finally get recognized by one of Hollywood's most prestigious award ceremonies.