Hometownstations.com-WLIO- Lima, OH News Weather SportsPattinson leaves vampires behind in 'Cosmopolis'

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press

CANNES, France (AP) - Robert Pattinson has gone from playing a vampire to depicting another kind of bloodsucker - a billionaire financier whose world crumbles in the course of a nightmarish cross-town drive in "Cosmopolis."

The "Twilight" heartthrob stars in David Cronenberg's Cannes Film Festival entry as sleek, self-centered moneyman Eric Packer, who sees his fortune and sense of self evaporate during an eventful day in his stretch limo.

Pattinson's famously handsome face is on-screen in every scene, but "Twilight'''s young fans may be surprised and confused by a film that explores Cronenberg's fascination with physical, social and psychic violence.

The 26-year-old actor is not worried.

"If some 12-year-olds went to go and see that, or got the video for their birthday - sitting down and watching that, it's incredible," the actor said during an interview on a Cannes hotel rooftop. "I would love that to happen if I was a kid."

It's a bit of amiable mischief-making from an actor who wants to be known as more than doe-eyed vampire Edward Cullen, in love with human Bella Swan in the "Twilight" saga.

He said he craves the cinematic understatement that blockbusters don't always provide.

"I remember when I was in the first 'Twilight' movie, I really wanted to not have Edward touch Bella, apart from when he saves her life and when they kiss the first time," said Pattinson, lightly rumpled but friendly and poised after a long day of press interviews. "I was thinking of the (Ang Lee) movie 'Lust, Caution,' and thinking there should be this tension there the whole time - just standing near someone there's electricity.

"But sometimes it just makes things too hard. You kind of forget that most people want to go to the cinema just to watch a movie rather than watch something really weird."

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Hometownstations.com-WLIO- Lima, OH News Weather SportsPattinson leaves vampires behind in 'Cosmopolis'