Twilight's Robert Pattinson Refused To Wear One Thing As Edward Cullen
It's an open secret that Robert Pattinson (sort of) despises the "Twilight" films. Regardless of his less-than-favorable opinions about the franchise that launched him into mega-stardom, however, he gave the project his all. Well ... almost his all. According to director Catherine Hardwicke, who spoke with Josh Horowitz on his podcast "Happy Sad Confused," Pattinson willingly reshaped himself to better portray Edward Cullen. He changed his eyebrows, he changed his teeth, and he even started working out with a personal trainer, but he refused to wear hair extensions.
You see, Hardwicke admits to a certain fondness for boys with long hair, and she wanted to apply that preference to Edward's cinematic look. But Pattinson wasn't having it. "He hated them," said Hardwicke. "He's like, 'No! No! Do not torture me!'"
Ultimately, Pattinson's makeup team achieved the tousled aesthetic that Edward would use in all five films, which apparently had the same effect on audiences that long hair had on Hardwicke. "Hairdressers told me right and left that kids would walk into their salon [and say], 'I need that hairstyle,'" said the director. The exact length of Edward's hair is never provided in Stephanie Meyer's novels — it's defined only as messy and bronze-colored — but since the author frequently refers to the vampire as possessing beauty reminiscent of Greek statuary, Pattinson's shorter hair is probably a closer approximation of what she had in mind than Hardwicke's favored style.
Robert Pattinson's hairstyle upstaged his performance
Robert Pattinson made the right choice by refusing Catherine Hardwicke's request for him to wear hair extensions because the mop would've been more of a problem than what he ended up working with ... and what he ended up working with was already a big problem. During a 2009 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Pattinson vented his frustration regarding the integral role his hair played during the filming process. According to him, if even so much as one tousled strand wasn't perfect, entire shots were scrapped.
"I sound so stupid, but in a lot of ways the hair is 75 percent of my performance," said Pattinson. "So in the second one I said, 'Listen, I need to tone down the hair. Let's make it a little more real, a little bit more ... method.' And then in the third one, I'm doing fight scenes and there's a strand going down my forehead and they're like, 'We need to do it again because no one will recognize you! No one will know who it is!' I have to look like the poster at all times. Just in case they want to use any clip for the trailer. Any clip at all! There were about five people in different departments who, because of my forelock, ended up in tears."
Hilariously, Pattinson once admitted to a gross habit on the set of "Twilight." He told Extra that he rarely washed his hair during the filming process because he didn't see the point in it. Considering the actor's penchant for lying during interviews, he could've been fibbing, or he could've been doing his best to make audiences hate the iconic hairstyle so much that no one would ever expect him to wear it again. Who knows?