Robert Pattinson Says He Wouldn't Be Acting If It Wasn't for Harry Potter: 'It Was Very Special'
Before Edward Cullen, there was Cedric Diggory.
Robert Pattinson’s first appearance on the big screen came when he starred as Cedric in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), the fourth film in the franchise. The actor admitted in a recent interview with HFPA’s Kristien Gijbels that it was his brief but fan-favorite turn in Harry Potter that actually inspired him to keep acting.
“It was very special. And I really like that movie as well… I wasn’t going to be acting professionally if it wasn’t for that,” Pattinson, 33, admitted.
Earlier in the interview, Pattinson described how welcoming the set was, and how protective the environment was of its young stars. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint were all 11 or younger when they were cast in the main roles of the book-based franchise.
“It was a really nice environment on Harry Potter,” he said. “Even compared to movies I’ve done since, it was very protected, the way the kids were treated. I’ve watched on movies where you see a kid who’s got their tutor and it doesn’t exactly seem like they’re really going to school. I mean, it’s just kind of [like] they are fulfilling a legal requirement. But in Harry Potter, it was like they were at school and they were kind of doing work at the same time.”
While he only appeared in one Harry Potter movie, Pattinson went on to be the face of another hugely popular one when he starred as Edward in Twilight.
Pattinson told USA Today in April that he had recently rewatched the franchise’s second film New Moon on TV “just the other day” and admitted, “it genuinely does have an incredibly good soundtrack.”
“I completely forgot, but the soundtracks were quite ahead of their time,” he said.
He also said that it’s nice to think about his time in the franchise now that he’s had a few years away from the frenzy. He and costar Kristen Stewart faced massive media attention over their on-screen and off-screen relationship at the time.
“It’s lovely now that the mania is not so intense,” he said. “People come up [to me] and just have very fond memories of it. It’s a really sweet thing. I think the only scary part was right in the thick of it all when it was very, very intense.”
Pattinson currently stars in The Lighthouse, which is playing in theaters.
