Critics Were Too Harsh on ‘New Moon,’ Says Robert Pattinson

Robert Pattinson is not a man of many words, being one of the few young actors to avoid media attention almost completely unless he’s not promoting new material. Speaking with Parade magazine in a recent interview, the star, who is now seen in the romantic drama “Remember Me,” reveals how he’s coping with this much attention, what he wants from his career and how he feels “New Moon” was thrashed by critics for no good reason.

First things first, Pattinson says “New Moon” wasn’t by far as horrible a movie as critics made it seem in their reviews. The actor, who plays Edward Cullen in the “Twilight” franchise, believes this came to happen because they looked at the second installment as being a part of the franchise instead of appreciating it for its own merits, such as they were. In doing so, they missed out on a good movie – and managed to “annoy” Pattinson in the process as well.

“I didn’t like the way New Moon was treated by the critics. I think it was reviewed in the context of just being a big franchise movie. When something is so hyped, inevitably, there is a backlash against it. I think Chris Weitz is an amazing director. I really enjoyed the film. So the naysayers kind of annoyed me,” Robert tells Parade. However, he’s not letting that get him down: he’s out to try his best as an actor and landing the lead in “Remember Me” proved an extraordinary opportunity for him to use some of his past experiences to play the brooding and tempered young male character.

“I try and pick roles that will help me develop as a human being and I think I was going through a similar kind of experience as my character Tyler, which I guess you could call being rebellious. I thought just doing the film would actually help me to think about and discover things that would help me in my life. I was kind of using it as a therapy exercise,” Pattinson says of how he attempts to use acting as some sort of therapy.

In the same interview, the British heartthrob also speaks of his biggest personal struggle, that of coping with being a superstar. The secret is, he says, in trying to focus on the faces of people that seek him out and not see them as a mass. He’s also learned to control himself in the presence of paparazzi no matter how annoying they are – all with the aim of being allowed a fair shot at being the best he can be as an actor.