Well, here’s an interesting “what-if” scenario: apparently “Twilight” star Robert Pattinson was given the chance to audition for both “There Will Be Blood” and “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.”
Pattinson cites turning down Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Blood’ as one of the “biggest regrets” in his career. It is unknown what roles he was offered, but we surmise that he probably would have auditioned for the role of hackneyed priest Eli and his twin brother Paul, roles which obviously ended up going to the similarly young Paul Dano.
“I remember reading the script and thinking it was the best script ever. I just couldn’t do it. And I was so pissed off afterwards. I was gonna go into the audition, but I was just, like, I can’t do it,” Pattinson told HitFix regarding ‘Blood.’ “Also ‘The Assassination of Jesse James [by the Coward Robert Ford]’ — that was the other. I don’t know why I’ve pussied out of these things. I wouldn’t do it ever again.”
Here’s the thing though. Pattinson’s remarks suggest, at first, that he had these roles offered to him, but it sounds like the case was really that Pattinson was asked, or offered, to audition. Big difference there buddy.
Instead, Pattinson obviously went on to become a huge tween idol in Stephanie Meyer’s vampire series, but can you imagine if he actually ended up doing either or even both of these films (two of 2007’s best) instead of “Twilight”? Instead of transferring from his role as Cedric Diggory in the “Harry Potter” series to another huge young adult tentpole, Pattinson could have potentially established himself firmly in the more well known end of the arthouse crowd (though he did portray Salvador Dalí in the lesser known, though terribly reviewed “Little Ashes” which made festival rounds around the same time as ‘Twilight’).
Pattinson, in addition to the developing remainder of the ‘Twilight’ series, does at least seem to be making an effort to do some interesting projects. He is attached to the Depression-era circus romance “Water For Elephants” with Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz. He also stars in Allen Coulter’s “Remember Me” with Emilie De Ravin, Chris Cooper, and Pierce Brosnan which on the face of it looks like your standard tween drama, but does benefit from an uncredited re-write by Jenny Lumet (“Rachel Getting Married”) which does give us slight hope it won’t be complete drivel. That film hits theaters next Friday, March 12th.
I remember reading somewhere that there was another actor set to play the Dano role, but that actor dropped out (or was fired) and the fact that Dano played both was a last minute thing, no?
Yeah, that was reportedly the little-known actor Kel O'Neill. Dano was playing Paul Sunday and O'Neill was playing Eli, but PTA later replaced O'Neill with Dano. I recall reading a comment from PTA where he said O'Neill (or whomever, he didn't use a name) simply couldn't go toe-to-toe with DDL while Dano clearly could.
yeah, we wrote about Kel O'Neil being replaced back in 2007. In fact probably the first people to point it out. read here.
About The assasination of Jesse James film, I know that Shia Labeouf was also considered for the Cassey Afleck role, but at the end the director thought he was too young next to Pitt.
re: the "big difference" comment. what was quoted by Mr Pattinson made it very clear he understood and was talking about the audition. Not the role.
and the "I couldn't do it" was likely because he was called into another job he had already agreed to. Either on the audition day or in conflict with the expected filming dates he was provided.
Not really too shocking. Or that newsworthy. But yeah it's something about him that's not how he doesn't shower and he won't admit he's shagging what's her name the unsmiling one. So I guess I shouldn't gripe.
"I couldn't do it" was probably because he knew he couldn't do it, because he fucking sucks.