Robert Pattinson’s Creepy Arthouse Horror Movie With Willem Dafoe Gave the film’s Crew Sunburns Even at Night Due To One Weird Reason
Robert Pattinson made an appearance in the 2019 film The Lighthouse, playing the role of Ephraim Winslow/Thomas Howard alongside Willem Dafoe, who played Thomas Wake. Robert Eggers, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Max Eggers, is the film’s director and producer.
The actors played nineteenth-century lighthouse keepers who are in distress after becoming marooned at a distant outpost in New England by a violent storm in the horror-psychological thriller and survival movie. The film had its world premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival before being released in theaters in October. Both the public and critics gave it high marks. The cast and crew were taken aback by the black-and-white film for an odd reason. Let’s explore.
Robert Pattinson talks about using vintage cameras for filming
Robert Pattinson’s character in 2019’s The Lighthouse alongside Willem Dafoe was highly appreciated by the audience and the critics. The movie’s direction and visuals were also applauded and during an exclusive interview with Collider, the actor noted that they used vintage cameras to film the 1890s period on-screen.
During the interview, that actor was asked about his experience with working with vintage cameras, to which he said,
“I knew that the script said that the movie was going to be in mono and it was going to be black and white negative and then a spur and the Academy aspect ratio, but I did not know about the lenses and stuff until we did the test.”
Robert Pattinson further added that it was quite shocking for them to know and see how much light one needs to film because he had no idea, adding, “When you basically got a spotlight where people were getting sunburned from the amount of light and that’s to shoot a night scene.”
In an interview with Musicbed via Digit, Jarin Blaschke, said that he felt bad for the actors as they kept looking at spots and were barely even able to see each other during the shoot because the lights were blindingly bright.
Also read: Before Twilight and Batman Fame Robert Pattinson Used to Steal and Sell P*rn to School Kids
Robert Pattinson on accepting the role in The Lighthouse
During an interview with Screen Daily in 2019, the actor was asked about the reason he decided to say yes to the part in The Lighthouse to which he said,
“We talked about a couple of things which were more conventional, but also big and kind of gothic. I’m always a little wary of playing in an English period [production], so I said to him, ‘I just want to do something weird.’ And then he sent me this.”
The actor said that he couldn’t get his head around the script when he read it, adding that it’s such a feat of maintaining multiple different tones that when he read it, he thought he could not actually imagine how it was going to get together. He added, “I could see that it was really good, but I did feel a bit of a risk doing it.”
The Batman actor noted during the interview, that he always feels that it’s just rolling the dice, adding that acting i just so much easier and also much more enjoyable if a person knows their lines but is not sure where it’s going to go.
Pattinson’s character is presented without much backstory and the director and writer did not fill any gaps for the actor, who decided to use the mystery as an insight to approach the character.
Also read: Willem Dafoe’s Cheek was Savagely Brutalised by Emma Stone for this Shocking Reason
Willem Dafoe talks about working with Robert Pattinson
During an interview with Den of Geek, Willem Dafoe was asked about his working relationship with Robert Pattinson, to which he said,
“it changed after the shoot. We didn’t really talk or hang out much when we were shooting and now that I know [him] a little bit as we do some press, it’s like, ‘man why didn’t you talk to me before!’ Because in many ways, he’s a very pleasant guy and I enjoy talking to him. But during the shoot, we spoke very little.”
He noted that people pointed out that they have different approaches in their process and clarified that even though it’s not a big deal, they just have very different characters. He explained that he liked to rehearse before the actual scene as Pattinson is a reactive character and was not interested in that, which is also fine with him. The actor lastly added that they were able to improvise a little during their physical scenes.
