I didn’t know a lot of Rob’s stuff, but I was aware of him. I’d seen the Harry Potter movies but I hadn’t seen any of Twilight films. He was a name to me, and not really somebody I could closely identify with. When I went in to work with him, I was like ‘who is this guy?’ When I started to understand the Rob fascination, it turns out that Rob is a really down to earth, sweet, kind of silly, very bright young man. That was the thing that surprised me the most. I thought of him as a Tiger Beat, Teen Beat matinee idol, when actually in this film he’s a leading man. He’s a rugged leading man with still a sweet boyish face that can really carry a film. He carries two hours of this epic story on his back and I think he carries it off beautifully. One of the charming things about Rob is that when we’re not filming, often times he’s off reading a book and he’s very well read. He understood so much about the depression era in America, so much about circuses. He would reference old movies and old pictures he’d seen and done research on. He’s not just ‘what movie am I doing next?’, he really dives into a role and I think he’s an actor. He does his work and research and he comes prepared.
People are saying this is Rob’s real breakout role. It would be great to see ‘Academy-award winning actor’ before his name as well.
I think at some point it’s going to be there, whether it’s for this or not, he’s got the chops to be able to be that guy at some point. It’s a matter of when, not if. The thing about this film, is that Rob is this film, in the sense that it is completely told from his characters prospective. He’s in every shot of every scene and knowing that, we knew that he was going to make or break this film. I really do, honestly, think he makes it. He looks fantastic, to no ones surprised, but he carries himself and is so committed to the character. He’s on screen with Reese and Christoph and he absolutely holds his own and totally delivers. Everyone has this big question of can he do this, and he’s got this big target on his forehead. He can, and he did.
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