Robert Pattinson has revealed that he lies a lot — which could also be a lie, but if so, he’s still a liar.
The “Batman” star spoke candidly about his deceptive whims in a GQ profile published Tuesday.
One of the more interesting reveals is that the 35-year-old actor often makes things up in interviews “in order to say anything at all.” GQ refers to a quote the then-“Twilight” star gave to Extra in 2009 in which he said he “probably” hadn’t washed his hair in six weeks.
“I don’t really see the point in washing your hair,” Pattinson said 13 years ago. Now, according to GQ, he admits this was an outright lie.
But telling falsehoods about himself is something Pattinson says he’s been doing pretty much his entire life.
The actor told GQ that as a teenager, he claimed he imported and dealt drugs to impress older kids, even though he “didn’t even know what drugs looked like.” His grift was pretty elaborate. It involved opening up floppy discs, pouring “this kind of powder stuff inside,” spraying them with cleaning products so they’d smell “chemical-y” and then sealing them back up. The idea was that it appeared that the discs had drugs hidden inside.
“I bought, like, 40 floppy disks, and then I’d show it to kids who were probably 15 or 16, and I’d be like, ‘Yeah, I’m importing drugs in floppy discs,’” Pattinson said. “And everybody believed me. And I kind of got this reputation that, ‘This kid is crazy. He’s a drug dealer!’ Like, ‘Want to try some? Some sawdust with Febreze on it?’”
Another interesting tidbit is how Pattinson used to want people to perceive him as a skateboarder, although he was “terrified of hurting myself” and “never” got on his skateboard “ever.”
“So, I’d just sit there, dragging the skateboard around,” he said. “Rolling it back and forth, hit it with things, and kind of put little gashes into it, so that it looked like I’d been riding it.”
When he began acting professionally and casting agents expressed concern about his British accent, Pattinson had an interesting fix for that as well.
“I used to always come in as a different person, an American. I’d say, ‘Hi, I’m from Michigan,’” he told GQ.
Pattinson’s penchant for trying on new personas has followed him into adulthood, and not only in his career as an actor.
The magazine notes that Pattinson is now trying on the role of furniture designer and thinks about chairs “incessantly.” Apparently, the actor had a studio in London where he attempted to make chairs, but “now he just makes little chairs out of clay” and sends photos of them to people who can actually build them. But his efforts aren’t completely lost. One of the clay prototypes that Pattinson describes as “an insane sofa” is apparently going to be made.
But, as the GQ profile proves, Pattinson has no problem exposing his own ruses (which, of course, could also be a ruse, so who knows what to believe).
In 2011, while Pattinson was promoting his carnival-themed movie “Water for Elephants,” he told Matt Lauer on “Today” that he never thought about running away to the circus as a child because a clown died onstage the first time he went to one (video above).
“His little car exploded,” Pattinson told Lauer. “The joke car exploded on him.”
When Lauer asked him if he was serious, Pattinson doubled down, saying:
“Seriously. Yeah. My parents had to — everybody ran out. It was terrifying. It was the only time I’ve ever been to the circus.”
A few weeks later, Pattinson told another reporter that his clown-death story was a complete fabrication, per The Cut.
So, if you’re interested in getting tangled up in a web of lies, read Pattinson’s full profile at GQ.