Ask Robert Pattinson and Emilie de Ravin about shooting their new movie, Remember Me, and they instantly start talking about the throngs of Twilight fans and pushy paparazzi who swarmed around them as they filmed on the streets of New York.
"It was the most ridiculous experience," says Pattinson, flashing the sweet, shy smile those crowds hoped to see.
"You're trying to stay in character and you're trying to walk down the street, but all those people keep reminding you that you're not this character, you're -----"
"A show pony," cracks de Ravin, and the two burst into laughter.
Although this duo could hardly be more different--de Ravin, 28, boasts the easy physical confidence of a onetime ballerina, while the slouchy 23-year-old Pattinson is all self-effacing bemusement--their effortless rapport is the emotional anchor of Remember Me. Pattinson stars as Tyler Hawkins, an alienated and confused young man from a wealthy family--"It's not too Rebel Without a Cause," he jokes--who gets involved with Ally (de Ravin), the daughter of a cop who arrested him after a street fight. Where Twilight treats him as the object of desire, a role that requires as much posing as acting, this character-driven drama brings out his most emotionally complex performance so far. Whether Tyler's raging at his distant father, Charles (played by Pierce Brosnan), or charming Ally, he has a surprisingly deft comic touch; Pattinson is now the one doing the chasing.
"Rob and Emilie are gifted actors who really like each other," says Remember Me's director, Allen Coulter. "And the movie reveals them in a whole new way."
Which is precisely what both of them wanted--to show what they can do outside the juggernauts of Twilight and Lost.
Remember Me may well prove the big-screen breakthrough for de Ravin, an Australian still best known as the new mother, Claire, on Lost a role that was often undemanding. "I was always holding the baby in every scene," she says, "while everybody else was going off shooting people." Here, she throws herself into the conflicted passions of Ally, a young woman who, eager to escape an adoring but overprotective father, struggles to break through her own veneer of toughness.
For his part, RPattz (as he's known to his teen worshippers) is eager to start playing complicated human beings and not just hearthrobby vampires. Not that he doesn't relish being Edward Cullen or feel loyal to his fans, but he still hasn't figured out how to cope with being an international icon in an era when it seems impossible to escape the public eye.
"Everybody knows where everybody is," he says. "The Twitter thing is unbelievable. I went out a couple of times with Pierce. He's totally recognizable, and he makes no effort to tone it down. Some people were glancing over at us in the restaurant, and he just went over and introduced himself. And it does work. It dissipates all the attention."
So, does Pattinson use this trick?
"Me?" he says, shaking those famously tousled locks, "I just crawl under the table."
