As Pattinson stars in Brady Corbet’s new 1664 campaign, we speak to the actor about his filmography, playing many characters at once and his good taste in beer
Provocative antagonist, naif brother, complicated lover, young billionaire, minor criminal, desperate criminal, brooding superhero, vampire, British, American, Australian, French – every character Robert Pattinson plays is vastly different. What links each is the multidimensionality with which he embodies them, how convincingly complicated each character becomes. He has an affection for challenge, never limited by genre nor scale, indie or blockbuster. “I’ve always liked things that are subversive, provocative,” the actor says, before colouring himself a “sensitive punk … with a lot to say, quietly and politely.” Now Pattinson joins 1664 as a global brand ambassador, lending his on-screen excellence to the brand for its latest campaign, a short film directed by the Oscar-winning filmmaker Brady Corbet.
Set in a cinematic Paris, Corbet’s short film sees Robert Pattinson play three contrasting characters: a modern minimalist, an avant-garde artist and an eccentric older dandy, with a fleeting visit from a vampiric fourth. Worlds collide in a Haussmannian apartment building as opinions clash on music, art and aesthetics. Their only common ground? Good taste in beer, as they all sip 1664 Blanc (and, Pattinson points out, good taste in apartments). The campaign is a humorous exploration of identity, individuality and the contention surrounding ‘good taste’ as both a subjective and objective concept. “I enjoyed playing characters with completely different identities and points of view, each convinced they’re right,” says the actor. “Trying to figure out how to portray good taste was a long process. You want to make something fun and interesting that also epitomises good taste. It was a lot of costume and make-up, and being very pernickety, right down to what each of them might eat.”
This isn’t the first time Corbet and Pattinson have worked together. “I’ve known Brady since I was about 15,” the actor shares. In 2016, Pattinson starred in Corbet’s first film as a director, The Childhood of a Leader, in which he also took on multiple roles: first, as a journalist friend of the young boy’s parents, later as the young boy matured into the titular leader himself.
Multiplicity in part and character is a thread that runs deep throughout the actor’s career. In Matthew Reeve’s 2022 rendition of The Batman, Pattinson played the dichotomous role as awkward, reclusive, brooding Bruce Wayne-by-day and the avenging, fearless and even more brooding Batman-by-night. Then, in Bong Joon-ho’s affronting 2025 blockbuster Mickey 17, Pattinson poses as 18 versions of one character, each reprint slightly different in persona due to imperfect cloning technologies. Multiple parts, one director.
“You have less control when you’re multiple characters,” says Pattinson. “You become reliant on the director’s perception of what you’re doing. On something like Mickey 17, I found myself asking Bong, like ‘Is this okay?’ You have to just keep experimenting with things. It’s interesting, the little quirks on your face that you’re not particularly aware of, little ticks – like flaring your nostrils, for example. Those little things can make you look really different. Bong would be like: ‘Make your 17 face.’ ‘Less 17.’ ‘Do more 18.’”
Pattinson has also experienced the counter, maintaining the singular role of a telepathic vampire across the five Twilight films, which each had a different director. “Once you bought the ticket, you have to take the ride and trust that the director will land the plane.” While the franchise remains a cult classic among the mock-gothic, Pattinson has long moved on. As the actor has evolved, so has his taste. In 2017, a peroxide blonde Pattinson played desperate small-time bank robber Connie Nikas, who does everything he can to get his brother out of prison in the Safdie brothers’ breakout film Good Time. He served a death sentence in outer space in Claire Denis’ 2018 film High Life. One year on, he descended into madness and paranoia while stuck on an island opposite Willem Dafoe in Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse. And last year, in Lynne Ramsay’s raw and psychological drama Die My Love, he played an ex-musician and absent partner opposite new mother Grace (Jennifer Lawrence) in remote Montana.
“You want to do something that’s different from what you’ve done before,” says Pattinson, of the parts he’s played. “It also depends on where you’re at in life – different things appeal to me at different times. I definitely do know that since I’ve had a kid, I’m way less into violent stuff. That probably means I’ll end up doing the most violent movie ever,” he laughs.
The year ahead is busy. Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama, starring Pattinson and Zendaya, lands in UK cinemas this week, just mere days after the launch of the 1664 campaign. Summer will see the release of Christopher Nolan’s take on the Homeric epic, The Odyssey, in which Pattinson is rumoured to play a central antagonist who attempts to seize power over Ithaca as Penelope (Anne Hathaway) awaits Odysseus’s return (Matt Damon).
From feuds of past to feuds of distant and interstellar futures, Pattinson reunites with Zendaya for Dune: Part 3 as the eyebrowless Scytale, who conspires to overthrow Emperor Paul Atreides. Pattinson’s excited about it: “I love those movies so much. It’s funny, I was doing The Drama with Zendaya and one day I said, ‘I want to audition for that.’ Then a few months later, I got a call from Denis [Villeneuve].” It won’t be his first spat with Timothée Chalamet, having played the unhinged French Dauphin opposite Chalamet as King Henry V in David Michôd’s The King. And, to add fuel to an intergalactic fire, Chalamet was recently seen in a Team Jacob tee. “Going from the Odyssey into Dune, filming in the middle of this beautiful desert … Anyone saying the film industry is dying, they just need to see these movies.”
There’s something unnerving about each of Pattinson’s performances, a weight, a brevity, a sensitivity. Something evidently comes from deep within. “I like to really break things down into its constituent parts, to the annoyance of everyone involved,” he says about his preparation for each role. “Then it becomes pieces and I’m like, ‘This doesn’t make any sense. I read a script over and over again, by default about 20 times, and by the tenth [time], I realise I’ve not actually read it properly. Also, learning your lines well helps. [Laughs].”
There were many parts to Corbet’s 1664 campaign, which, given Pattinson’s filmography, he was more than ready for. Outside of his ambassadorship with Dior (suitably, he’s wearing a Dior suit when we meet), the actor seems to have avoided brand work. But working with 1664 felt like kismet, he tells me. “Kronenberg is my favourite beer. It always has been. I would always go to this pub in Soho called The Spice of Life. I went for years and years, and we’d always get Kronenbergs. And it’s French … I like doing French things. It’s chic.” Perhaps it’s the Dauphin in him. “1664 is a chic beer.” Cheers, or rather santé – to good health, good taste, good films.
The 1664 ‘Unquestionably Good Taste’ campaign is out now.
