Allison: In Defense of Robert Pattinson

This may surprise you, but today I’m writing in defense of Robert Pattinson.

I’m not a huge fan of the Twilight franchise, and I don’t mean “not a fan” in the derogatory sense, just the literal one. The Twilight movies were ok, which, as you’re learning in Allison blog world, means we’re glad we saw them… don’t need to see them again. I haven’t read the books, but the excerpts I’ve seen indicate they’re probably not my thing.

I’m also fairly ambivalent about Robert Pattinson himself. I actually had to look up Mr. Pattinson’s name to verify the spelling. He’s a decent actor, but he hasn’t reached must-see status where I’d watch a film simply because he’s in it. (Unlike James McAvoy. I’d pay theater prices to watch him shop for a loaf of bread because I know he’d somehow make it fascinating). Still, something has really bugged lately me about Pattison’s situation and I will use him as today’s token soapbox to rail against our propensity toward hero worship.

Entertainment bloggers, fans, film critics, and everyone else it seems are all speculating about whether or not he can have a career after the unfortunately fortunate blockbuster success of the Twilight films. Will he be forever branded as Edward Cullen? Has the actor suffered the career death of becoming the character? (The fact that we even waste so much brain power and server space on that topic is a massive issue for another day.)

I recently saw Remember Me. It wasn’t a masterpiece, it wasn’t terrible. But I only thought about vampires for the first ten minutes. I also tried to watch How to Be a couple times when it came out. I really wanted to like it which is why I gave it two chances, but I have to admit that I didn’t. Still, vampires didn’t enter my head even once in that one. Can he act NOT like a vampire? I can answer that question. Yes.

But that’s not the problem, is it. You and I both know that. The 10-year-old neighbor girl who swears Edward is her boyfriend despite what her friend Amanda tells everyone knows that.

Hey, it’s no secret I love movies. I’ve seen hundreds if not thousands of films that cross many genres from all over the world. But when they’re over, I’m happy to return to the frequently overwhelming version of my own life. I barely have enough time and energy to keep that one on track. I know I’m not alone. We all have our challenges, ambitions, responsibilities, fears, and circle of supporting characters in our own stories. Why do we add fake versions of Robert Pattinson (and many other celebrities) to them as well?  Why did we collectively turn a good-looking 24-year-old young man from London (almost 25!! OMG! Happy Birthday, Rob!) into a hundred-something vampire? That’s the disturbing part. That’s what we’re talking about here. He agreed to act like a vampire for a few hours and we decided to make him one.

Fiction is fantastic. I hope to have a career in it someday. But we have to preserve that wall between fiction and reality. I have no problem when fiction leans against the wall, peeks over it, or even punches a fist through it, but when the screen goes black, we absolutely have to turn around and start our journey back to our own stories. Every. Single. Time. The wall allows Robert Pattinson to have dinner with his buddies on one side while Edward Cullen like, totally woos Bella on the other. We need to reinforce its power. Not for his sake, but for ours.

Robert is not Edward, and it’s not fair to him or our daughters to imagine he is to the point where we have to ask: Can Robert Pattinson have a career after the Twilight Saga?

I’m begging you world, please let Robert Pattinson have a career after the Twilight Saga. It’s too depressing to imagine we’ve created one where he can’t.