Robert Pattinson has put a lot of effort into forging a reputation as a credible actor over the last ten years, distancing himself from his breakout role in the Twilight movies by choosing material that is challenging and controversial. His latest movie, The Lighthouse, is no different; it’s an atmospheric black-and-white story of two men and their descent into madness from Robert Eggers, director of The Witch.
Stories which have started to emerge from the set of the film indicate Pattinson’s dedication to the craft of acting knows no limits… and includes as many bodily fluids as possible. According to Eggers, the very first day of shooting set the tone: “On day one we shot Rob masturbating in the shed,” he recently told The Daily Beast. “It’s the very first thing we shot — and Rob really, really went for it… And you know, it was inspiring.”
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The Lighthouse isn’t the first of Pattinson’s films that has required him to choke the chicken; in fact, he has something of a streak going, and he’s well aware of it, bringing it up in a recent interview. “I keep masturbating,” he said. “In the last three or four movies, I’ve got a masturbation scene. I did it in High Life. I did it in Damsel. And The Devil All the Time. I only realised when I did it the fourth time.”
Pattinson also went method for some sequences in The Lighthouse; his character drinks heavily, and so he would get blackout drunk to the point of passing out and even pissing himself. “[I was] basically unconscious the whole time. It was crazy,” he told Esquire. “I spent so much time making myself throw up. Pissing my pants. It’s the most revolting thing. I don’t know, maybe it’s really annoying.”
Pattinson also reportedly ate mud off the ground in order to make himself throw up convincingly, and his co-star Willem Dafoe has confirmed that Pattinson even sticks his own fingers down his throat in order to make himself cry on demand.
“He wants to throw himself into deep water and he feels like it will only be true if he’s drowning,” Dafoe told Mr Porter. “Which, for this role, is perfect because that’s the state he’s going to be in. For me, that seemed wacky. But I’m not trying to judge. He has a good sense of the visual, of what’s needed in a close-up. Sometimes he’d beat himself up so bad. He’d stick his fingers down his throat, things like that.”
Maybe for his next role, instead of putting himself through torture, Pattinson could simply do what other actors do and… pretend?
This article originally appeared on Men’s Health
