Improper.com Talks Rob's Early Film Roles

Rob Pattinson as Nerdy Geek!
By TheImproper.com
Twilight Star's Early Roles
Rob’s Wild Ride Scene from ‘How to Be’
Rob as Geeky Dan Gale in Bad Mother’s Handbook

What was Robert Pattinson like before the runaway success of the hit Twilight? Two film clips have emerged that show the introspective actor in different lights.

Rob, 22, laughingly says he was drawn to acting because he thought it would help him meet women. But no matter what the role, he displays an endearing charm.

One clip, newly released, is from his indie film How to Be. But the other goes back even further in his career. Rob plays a geeky nerd in a made-for-television movie that aired in Great Britain in 2007.

Before “Twilight,” and before Rob’s role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), and two recent indie films Little Ashes and How to Be, Pattinson had a part in the British television melodrama called The Bad Mother’s Handbook. It shows Rob in one of his earliest performances.

The 2006 movie, and ITV television adaptation of Kate Long's best selling novel by the same name, is about one year in the lives of three women. The star, Catherine Tate, plays Karen, a frustrated 30-something woman whose life is shattered when she discovers a long-kept secret.

The movie also stars Anne Reid and Holly Grainger, and was widely watched when it aired. More than 6 million people tuned it, which is a huge audience by British standards.

Robert plays a supporting role as a nerdy high-school student, Daniel Gale. He’s clumsy and awkward and mostly mumbling with thick, black-framed glasses. His now famous hair is longer and floppier and spends the better part of his scenes hanging in his eyes.

The movie presents an insight into the life of motherhood and childhood, dwelling on the themes that no two mothers are alike, but that ultimately love is the most important thing of all. In that sense, it’s more akin to Rob’s indie film “How to Be.”

The Oliver Irving-directed film is now in advance screenings and will soon be aired on television and in select theaters. In it, Pattinson plays Art, a struggling singer/songwriter who is going through an existential life moment while he tries to figure out his true calling.

He eventually meets a zany “life coach” who seems to have all the answers. In the newly released clip, Art goes full-throttle in a souped-up 1970s era Chevy Camaro. The car looks oddly out of place on the streets of London. (It has left hand drive, while cars in Britain all have right-hand drive.) But that doesn’t slow down Rob in this scene of youthful rebellion.

The film will be shown this week in New York. Then, beginning on Wednesday (Apr. 29) it will air for the next three months on the cable pay channel IFC Festival Direct. The film's Web site has additional info on the movie's worldwide theatrical release, as well as the upcoming soundtrack featuring three tracks by Pattinson.

"Little Ashes," another early indie film featuring the 22-year-old actor, is also touring the country in advance of its theatrical release. The film is a history-based drama in which Rob plays the surrealist painter Salvador Dali, when, as an 18-year-old, he collided with the harsh rule of fascist dictator Spain’s Francisco Franco.

As a role, it couldn't be juicier, according to the UK’s Independent newspaper. Pattinson gets to show us the "self-conscious and hyper-sensitive" creature cowering beneath a persona that, even at that age, was outlandishly flamboyant.”

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