LOS ANGELES -- It doesn't take long for Robert Pattinson, looking more unmade than undead, to put a stake through his own heartthrob image.
"I can't think of a romantic thing I've ever done -- it's terrible!" the tousled, unkempt London-born actor confesses with an un-vampiric laugh.
"I would never serenade someone to be romantic -- you have to have balls to do that."
Finally, after a moment or two of wrangling with a question about his real-life romantic prowess, he remembers, "I put a flower in someone's locker when I was 15 years old ... But she thought it was somebody else and the other guy claimed it as well."
The answer, predictably, generates more laughter than female swooning during a Beverly Hills news conference -- but then having your own love life open to scrutiny has proven to be (in more ways than one) a professional hazard for the 23 year old, who portrays Edward Cullen, the brooding bloodsucker at the centre of the bestselling and now box office-topping Twilight franchise.
"I've never played it thinking I'm in a series of girls films or I'm doing something just for girls. I don't feel I'm doing an animated Tiger Beat. I always find it funny when older people come up to me. There was one woman who came up to me the other day who must've been 90. It's very unusual and they say exactly the same things as 12-year- old girls. It's kind of bizarre."
In the sequel The Twilight Saga: New Moon, opening in theatres Friday, the romance between sex-abstaining, cross-species soulmates Edward and mortal Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is threatened on two fronts: First, by a romantic rival (Taylor Lautner's werewolf, Jacob Black) and the Volturi, an ancient vampire coven. (Pattinson isn't above admitting he was somewhat threatened himself when he first saw Lautner after the 17-year-old had put on 30 pounds of muscle: "I thought, 'Now I have to go to the gym.' ")
It is the second instalment of the series that began with last year's wildly-profitable Twilight, which, on a paltry budget of $30 million, grossed nearly $400 million worldwide. Filming has already wrapped in Vancouver on the next film, Eclipse, which is due next summer. And tentative plans call for shooting of the fourth and presumably final sequel, Breaking Dawn, late next year.
Yet Pattinson, who was previously best recognized as Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter films, insists his own life hasn't changed dramatically, or much at all, since his pre-Twilight days.
"Since Jan. 14 I think I've had three days off. I was saying the same thing last year -- I'm still on set all the time. And I'm going to be on set all next year, too.
"Running errands and things, I don't really know what that's like, because I haven't had sustained periods of time off. I don't know how it's changed. I still feel like I'm exactly the same, which is maybe not a good thing.
"But I've been working so much that it's like doctor's hours and every doctor I've spoken to is the same way. You work so much you have no idea what's going on outside."
Well, almost no idea.
"Some magazine, on the cover, had that I was pregnant. But without a hint of irony or anything. I didn't even know what to make of that one. I don't even know if that qualifies as libelous because they could just say that was obviously fiction. But they did it in a non-fiction magazine.
"I'd see a couple of comments under the article: 'That's why he always wears those jackets and layers -- to hide it!' "
And Pattinson, of course, is keenly aware of the persistent reports he and Stewart are romantically involved off-screen - speculation most recently fuelled this week by a photograph showing the pair holding hands. So is the relationship legitimate? Or, as some might suggest cynically, just an added dose of publicity for the franchise that employs them? Pattinson doesn't say one way or the other, but does add he has no problem confusing falling in love on-screen with the real deal. "You've always got to remember that you're getting paid and there's a lot of connotations that come with that. That's one of the major separations."
He is not so clear, it turns out, on the distinctions between himself and the 108-year-old Edward.
Comparing himself to his pasty alter-ego, he notes his "stubbornness about some things. He's pretty self-righteous. I also get quite obsessive about things, and possessive as well. I have very specific ideas about how I want to do my work ... I don't listen to anyone else. That's why I don't have a publicist -- I can't stand it if someone's trying to tell me to do something. Which might be a mistake."
Not that it matters, for now. Professionally, Pattinson is in demand with multiple films lined up until the end of 2010.
"I've only done one movie outside the series, Remember Me, which is going to be out sometime next year. But even that I did with the same studio. So I'm a little bit blind as to what my own economically viability is outside the series. But you get offered stuff you never dreamed of getting offered before," he says.
"But that's also scary because you don't have to audition for anything. You have to question yourself a lot more. Now you're expected to come into the movie and not only provide economic viability but a performance as well because people are like, 'You can't mess around. We're employing you to be a star and an actor.' "
And to, presumably, attract the fans of Edward Cullen. But will he ever be able to extricate himself from the character that's made him famous?
"I think you just do it through doing jobs. It's such a risky thing doing interviews. I try to limit the amount of interviews I do because no one is that interesting, especially when you're not really saying anything. And I don't particularly want to be some kind of character in society. I guess the only thing you can do is jobs and see if people respond to that."
He adds, possibly as much to himself as the roomful of reporters, "I've got to stop being so self-depreciating because people are starting to believe it. 'Yeah, that guy is an idiot.'
"I've tried to stop doing that."
KEVIN.WILLIAMSON@SUNMEDIA.CA
