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The vampire we'd love to sink our fangs into
The heartthrob of millions of screaming fans everywhere must really hate to be Edward Cullen.
Because Robert Pattinson is unlike the perfect vampire he plays so seamlessly in the Twilight saga movies which are based on Stephanie Meyer's bestsellers. He's essaying the role of Edward Cullen once again in part two of the series titled New Moon, which releases in India on Friday.
Born Robert Thomas Pattinson, the 23-year-old Brit who has two elder sisters, grew up in London. Back then he never dreamed that his mere presence would drive girls crazy.
To begin with, young Pattinson was anything but manly when he was growing up. In fact, it was his androgynous look which landed him many modelling jobs when he first started out at age 12.
Paradoxically, when Pattinson started filling out, the offers stopped coming. He attributed this to him becoming too much of a guy. Which was bad news on the job front, but good news for his female fans.
Before you read on, here's how you can become a fan of the Twilight gang.
The next Jude Law
Before Twilight made Pattinson a phenomenon, he was struggling to make it as an actor.
Pattinson revealed that should his acting career fail, he was prepared to turn to plan B -- music. The actor, who honed his acting skills at a theatre school in London, said he was prepared for the worst and would be keen to turn towards singing.
'Music is my back-up plan if acting fails. I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket,' Contactmusic quoted him as telling the Los Angeles Times.
The actor added that he had no intention of 'cashing in' the opportunity to launch himself as a musician with the inclusion of two of his compositions in the hit vampire movie.
'That's what I was scared about, it looks like I'm trying to get a music career out of it or something. I'm not going to be doing any music videos or anything,' he said.
Luckily for his fans, Pattinson never got a chance to put plan B into action.
Before landing Twilight, Pattinson appeared in television shows like Ring of the Nibelungs in 2004 and a brief appearance in director Mira Nair's Vanity Fair -- his scenes were deleted and only appear on the DVD version.
His career showed promise when he played Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. He was named the British Star of Tomorrow by The Times as well as touted as the next Jude Law.
The imperfect hunk
Then in 2008 Twilight hit the theatres. And life was never the same for the handsome hunk and his co-star Kristen Stewart, who he is rumoured to be dating in real life.
And to think Pattinson felt he was not attractive enough to play Edward Cullen. The actor says he finds it embarrassing to portray Edward because he feels the character is nothing less than a perfect man, unlike him.
The Brit further revealed that he felt like an 'arrogant punk' when he went for the audition, and could only imagine flawless High School Musical star Zac Efron doing the role, reports the China Daily.
'The Edward in the book is like an enigma of everything that's perfect about a man. It's like, 'He walked into a room and it hurts to see how beautiful he is.' It's just kind of embarrassing,' he says. 'I just couldn't figure out a way to act perfect. I felt like an idiot going into the audition -- even having the gall to go in means you're a bit of an arrogant punk. Who could possibly play it apart from Zac Efron?'
Pattinson also said that he had expected the initial rejection by the fans of the book series.
He told Look magazine: 'Twilight' fans are very loyal to the book and to the author Stephanie Meyer. And I got a 100 percent negative reception when I got cast. I kind of expected it though.'
But it looks like he was wrong, because now his fans can't accept anyone else as Edward.
'I'm a dirty, smelly, boring loser'
Another reason why fans just love Pattinson besides his good looks is that the actor is refreshingly unceleb like.
In fact, the Twilight star insists that the best part of being famous is the luxury hotels he stays in.
'Everything else I can live without,' he says. "Of course I am delighted that the Twilight series is so successful. But the cult of personality that is around me and Kristen is a bit frightening.'
Even the fact that he reportedly suffers from body odour doesn't seem to affect his fan base, a fact that baffles Pattinson.
The British actor has admitted that his personal hygiene is disgusting, revealing he rarely washes his clothes when he's on the road promoting the vampire movie franchise.
'The ones who are fans of just me -- they're the scary ones, the weirdos,' Contactmusic quoted him as saying. 'From what people can pick up from what I'm about, from my public image, I'm a dirty, smelly, boring loser and anyone who is a fan of that, I don't really want to hang around with them.'
How to be Rob
Well, smelly or not, the world's sexiest man (yep, People magazine does know a thing or two about their sexy stars) is going places and his fans are eagerly awaiting the third and fourth installments of the vampire franchise.
And it's not only as a vampire that Pattinson wants to be known as. He is also doing other films like Little Ashes (in which he plays Salvador Dal), How To Be (a British comedy) and the short film The Summer House.
And for fans wondering if he's dating anyone, here's some good news. This hunk is available though getting his number may be a problem.
'I don't have people's phone numbers. I almost don't want to have a girlfriend in this environment,' says the hunk.
Don't say we didn't warn you.