All the Times Robert Pattinson Hated on 'Twilight'

Vampires live forever and true love can trascend silly things like a human falling in love with a shimmering-skinned supernatural being. It's a tale as old as time, or at least 15 years, which is when Robert Pattinson and his Twilight cast mates burst onto the scene, brining Stephenie Meyer's beloved book series to the big screen. Since then, Pattinson has managed to stay in the Hollywood scene, leading everything from superhero flicks (see: 2022's The Batman) to Dior fragrance ads and art house favorites like The Lighthouse. Fans know that the brooding, fanged Edward Cullen has become a pop culture mainstay, but the man who brought him to life has been reluctant to celebrate his role in the films. 

To commemorate the movie's anniversary this year, here's everything Pattinson has ever said about playing an eternally teenaged vampire, including his 2022 about-face that saw him changing his mind.

Right after the first film came out, Pattinson came under fire for saying that he couldn't believe the books managed to get published in the first place. He saw it as nothing more than a piece of fan fiction that Meyer had written for herself. He even went as far as saying it was "uncomfortable" to read.

Speaking to E!, he said, "When I read it, I was convinced Stephenie was convinced she was Bella and it was like it was a book that wasn’t supposed to be published. It was like reading her sexual fantasy, especially when she said it was based on a dream."

"Like some things about Edward are so specific, I was just convinced, like, ‘This woman is mad. She’s completely mad and she’s in love with her own fictional creation,'" he finished. "And sometimes you would feel uncomfortable reading this thing."

A year later, he casually compared Edward to an "axe murderer."

"You always get weirdos like Edward who seem to attract women for some reason," he told OK! (via MTV). "If Edward wasn’t a fictional character and you met him in reality he is like one of those guys who would probably be an axe murderer or something." 

In 2003, Pattinson pointed out a major plot hole (to him, at least). Reflecting on Edward's perpetual teenaged state, he sad said, "There's a lot of stuff in the Twilight world that doesn't make sense. It's like, why are they still going to high school? Like, up until last year? They're a hundred years old."

During the same interview, he also mentioned that he can't keep his cast mates' roles straight and that he's never seen any of the films more than once.

"I've seen bits and pieces a bunch of times but basically, I've only seen any of them once. Either at the premiere or just before the premiere," he shared before adding that he "struggle[s] with character names."

In a 2011 Vanity Fair profile, Pattinson questioned the fandom once again, though he mentions that the Twilight series brought out something "primal" in its fans.

"I can’t really understand it even now. It does have an angle which is attached to something quite primal in girls. I guess people want it to define them, like, ‘I’m a Twilight fan.’ That’s crazy to me. I think people really just like being part of a crowd."

As the series came to a close, he also had to point out that so much of the movies were "nuts." In an interview with W Magazine in 2017, he pointed out a few medical inaccuracies. 

"It’s nuts. I had to give her a cesarean by chewing through a placenta. I don’t know the medical, how it works but there was definitely chewing through something," he said. "No, it’s wild. Once you got it in your head you’re like, 'Oh, this is just the thing for little girls. And then, like, it’s difficult to get past."

In 2018, Pattinson told Variety that he "stopped mentally progressing around the time when I started doing those movies."

“Whenever anyone says [Twilight]’s their guilty pleasure, it’s like, you say guilty, what you really mean is just pleasure,” he said of people begrudgingly enjoying the films. 

Just a year later, he addressed the cult-favorite status of the movies, saying that upon reflecting on the films, he was glad that it was finding more fans after its initial release.

"It seems like with younger people in their late teens, early 20s, it's sort of become quite a hip thing to like," Pattinson told USA Today. "It's a fascinating second wave of people appreciating it, which is kind of cool."

He also mentioned that he was more comfortable with fans as Twilight frenzy seemed to settle down and everyone in general was more chill about the movies.

"It's lovely now that the mania is not so intense," he added. "People come up [to me] and just have very fond memories of it. It's a really sweet thing. I think the only scary part was right in the thick of it all, when it was very, very intense. Now the intensity has died down and it's just very warm memories." 

Not so long after that, in 2019, Pattinson sat down with Jennifer Lopez to talk about the films for Variety's Actors on Actors series.

He summed up the entire franchise by saying, "Twilight is about this guy, and he finds the one girl he wants to be with, and also wants to eat her. I mean, not eat her, but drink her blood or whatever."

During an interview with Variety in 2020, Pattinson mentioned that he thought it was strange that people thought the film was romantica at all, calling it "weird" instead.

"It's a weird story, Twilight. It’s not just like – it’s strange how people responded a lot to it," he said. "I guess the books are very romantic, but at the same time, it’s not like The Notebook romantic."

Even with everything he'd said before, Pattinson did a 180 as he gained more and more distance from the film, its fans, and the spotlight of playing a vampire. While he was doing press for The Batman, he mentioned that he's changed his mind and that he doesn't, in fact, hate Twilight at all.

"It's not even cool to be a hater anymore," Pattinson said in a 2022 interview with People, which went viral on TikTok. "That's so 2010."