MTV: Your character Tyler has some issues with anger, being tormented and especially his parents. Do you have any kind of new insight into why teenagers rebel like this?

Robert Pattinson: I knew a lot of teens who were troubled, and then you meet their families and you’re like, “I don’t know what his problem is.” The families always seem really nice and supportive, and it’s just this unknown. You have this energy, and you don’t know where to place it. I think the reason why [Tyler] has a problem with his father and not his mother is that he knows his mother isn’t strong enough to take it. If he started attacking her, she’d just break. His father is still a fighter, so he’s always going to fight against him.

MTV: The movie seems very realistic in its depiction of NYU students — how much did shooting in New York with real locations help?
[Phone Interview]

Pattinson: I always thought about the apartment. If this is just a typical NYU student’s apartment — living in the East Village in this really nice apartment — I always thought that was a bit much. It’s like a million-dollar apartment! It did help. Annoyingly, I couldn’t spend as much time as I thought I could [researching the role].

MTV: Why not?

Pattinson: Before I went to New York, I thought it’d be really easy; I could hang out there and pick up on a lot of New Yorkers’ mannerisms and things. But it ended up being more of a circus than I thought it was going to be.

MTV: Was it harder getting into character with all the craziness surrounding you during the shoot?

Pattinson: Kind of. At the beginning it was. But then, halfway through, I had an epiphany, and then I was fine. It’s just a matter of learning how to block things out. At the beginning, it was just driving me insane. Especially with a character that’s lost and supposed to be looking for [answers] all the time — and you can’t look up, because then all the [paparazzi] shutters accelerate. You can’t smile, you can’t behave normally. You just have to be more disciplined about it.

MTV: Do you think your “Little Ashes” performance as Salvador Dalí was harmed a bit because people couldn’t look at you and not think Edward Cullen?

Pattinson: I think it was. I mean, I shot it before “Twilight,” but I think people do judge things differently after the “Twilight”s. But there’s nothing you can really do about that. I do take it into account more now than I used to. But during the Dalí thing, when I was doing it, I didn’t think anyone was ever going to see it! It’s a very different place to be at when you think you’re making a movie which no one is ever going to see. I mean, you’re not afraid to experiment with things.

MTV: So knowing that you were famous and people would see “Remember Me,” do you feel like you were able to give the film your all?

Pattinson: I don’t know. I don’t really know what my all is. I think I always felt very connected to it, right from the beginning when I read the script.

MTV: A lot of the anger in the film comes from your relationship with your dad, played by Pierce Brosnan. In real life, do you have a good relationship with your father?

Pattinson: My relationship with my dad is the opposite. The part was written as much more controlling, arrogant — and Pierce seems like a nice guy, so he just read the character as not a horrible man; he’s not a monster. It completely changes the relationship Tyler has with him. You’re looking at a [father] who you know the audience is going to be thinking, “He’s all right,” which I thought was quite interesting. It’s this guy’s rebellion against nothing. You’re just attacking someone because you know they can be attacked, and he’s going to keep standing afterwards. Pierce was great.

MTV: Did you enjoy the fight scenes? Is it very different than acting with words?

Pattinson: Yes, I loved it. It’s completely different. I never do stuff like that, so it was quite cathartic.

MTV: Was it daunting doing those scenes with Oscar winner Chris Cooper?

Pattinson: Yeah. I don’t know how I’d feel if I had any fighting back to do. I just continually get beaten up by him. [Laughs.] It’s hard, especially being strangled. It’s difficult to look like what’s actually happening. You’re doing it [for the camera] as well, so it’s like you’re being strangled but nothing really happens. You’re just standing there, experimenting with myself. I don’t really know what the face is like for someone getting strangled.

MTV: Were you hurt in that particular scene? Because it’s very convincing.

Pattinson: No, not at all. But I did hurt myself in a scene they cut out, where I flipped out. [In the scene] I walked into a big confrontation and ended up getting completely destroyed by your competitor. I was doing this thing, hitting myself afterwards in a spur-of-the-moment thing, which they cut out of the movie. But I kept hitting myself so hard. I was in so much pain for the rest of the shoot. It was the most stupid thing I’ve ever done.