Robert Pattinson debuts new, 1950s-period look in Toronto: would you hit it?

113464PCN_RainyLife17

Here are some photos of Robert Pattinson and an actor named Dane DeHaan in Toronto. They’re filming their new film Life, directed by Anton Corbijn. Life is set in the 1950s, and Sparkles plays a photographer for Life Magazine who is assigned to shoot a then-barely-known James Dean, played by DeHaan. Rob got a bit of a makeover for this film – he dyed his hair much darker, he shaved off all of his scruff, and he’s wearing 1950s period clothes. It sort of agrees with him, I guess. I never minded Rob’s scruff, although I always thought he should shave his neck beard. And the darker hair just makes him look really pale.

Variety just announced that Ben Kingsley has joined the cast of this film – Sir Ben will be playing studio chief Jack Warner, who saw the photos of Dean and wanted a piece of that (as in, Warner wanted to put him in movies). The film follows this photographer and Dean as they travel from LA to NYC and then to Indiana. So, like a period buddy film. With James Dean and Sparkles.

While this film sounds pretty interesting, I’m also kind of tired of Hollywood doing all of these “untold stories” from real celebrities’ lives, like The Aviator or My Week With Marilyn, etc. But maybe it will be a good part for Sparkles. Here’s hoping.

PS… David Cronenberg’s daughter Caitlyn was seen visiting Sparkles on set. Twihard Conspiracy commence!

113464PCN_RainyLife09

113464PCN_RainyLife48

Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

78 Responses to “Robert Pattinson debuts new, 1950s-period look in Toronto: would you hit it?”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Esmom says:

    Would I hit it? If I could time machine myself back a decade or so I would indeed. Love his early Mad Men vibe here.

    • Sullivan says:

      Agreed. He looks great, but he’s a bit young for me. A time machine would solve everything.

    • ItSetsYou says:

      @Esmom but age doesn’t mean nada these days. Just look at Robin Wright exPenn 😉

      • Esmom says:

        ItSetsYou, I hear you, and don’t forget Aaron Taylor Johnson. But with both those couples I can’t help but feel uneasy, that the happiness might be very fleeting. I guess I was just being realistic, as much as a time machine fantasy is realistic. 🙂

  2. Amy Tennant says:

    best he’s ever looked

  3. blue marie says:

    Would I hit it? Meh, after I was done with DeHaan, probably.

  4. j says:

    suits him, he looks great.

  5. Vee says:

    Yes! He looks fantastic.

  6. Olivia says:

    Is he running? He looks out of breath, maybe he shouldn’t have started smoking again.

    • Anname says:

      I still think those smoking pictures are part of a scene. He is in front of the fancy doors and the camera is pointing right at him.

      • mimi says:

        Could be for a scene but there were other pics of him smoking next to Dean and I saw one of him and Dane having a coffee/smoke break together. I hope the smoking is only for the film. He seemed to be doing well with the e-cigs.

      • Olivia says:

        His bodyguard is in a couple of the shots plus there have been plenty of sightings over the past few months where they said he was smoking.

    • blueclouds says:

      Yes, looking at the whole set of pics, I guess it’s a scene where his character is chasing after James Dean.

  7. JaDeRu says:

    “and an actor named Dane DeHaan” makes it sound like you don’t know who he is, or this is his first gig. Maybe I’m misreading that part. It is early.
    While he isn’t super famous, he has been around for at least a decade. He’s my poor man’s Leo DiCaprio.

    Rob actually looks really handsome here.
    I can’t believe those words just came out of my fingers.

    • Hubbahun says:

      I gotta say I had to look him up 😀

    • Seán says:

      Yeah I agree with you. DeHaan is not exactly a household name yet but he has been receiving a lot of buzz in the last year or so. He was in Chronicle, The Place Beyond the Pines and Kill Your Darlings. Great actor too, he’s an unexpected choice for James Dean though. He’ll also be playing Harry Osbourne in The Amazin Spider-Man 2. Taking all James Franco’s roles! 🙂

      • I Choose Me says:

        I’m glad he’s getting buzz. He is a great actor and definitely one to watch.

        And yeah, he looks a little like DiCaprio but I prefer his face over Leo’s.

    • magda says:

      I had the same reaction!
      “an actor named Dane DeHaan” and I was whaaaat? He is really known and on the rise so watch him 🙂

    • Sixer says:

      He was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star award this year!

      • JaDeRu says:

        I know!
        It’s so funny how if you follow a certain actor or actress before they make it big and then when they do get acclaim you feel like, “Hey!!! I know him!!!” LOL

      • Amy Tennant says:

        I know! I felt like Ewan MacGregor was “mine” because I fell for him in “Shallow Grave.” When they start getting bigger roles, it’s almost like someone from your hometown gets famous.

    • Mario says:

      Omg I know right? He Looks great and I am not really a fan or seen much of his projects.

    • Josephine says:

      Dane did very little before 2010, when he did well on a tv show, so I don’t think the description is that crazy. He did tons in 2013, but nothing that mainstream. The new Spiderman should make him more of a household name, and perhaps this movie as well. He’s a cutie, but he’s a relative newby compared to Pattinson. I suspect he’ll end up the bigger star though.

  8. magpie says:

    I would do DeHann first.

  9. BW says:

    He looks clean. I guess that’s an improvement.

  10. yennefer says:

    I’d hit him. With an aspen stake.

  11. Vivian says:

    I need pics of Charlie Hunnam in TO filming!

  12. wtf says:

    Dane DeHaan – is awesome. He was amazing in In Treatment.

  13. Jennifer12 says:

    God, yes. Men back then looked so much hotter than the backward baseball cap, perennially 21 year old guys we have now. RP looks hot. Cougar moment!

  14. Original Tessa says:

    He looks great. The clean cut look suits him. He has such classically handsome features.

  15. mia girl says:

    I think he looks very handsome. i like a clean Sparkles. He’s picking some good movies, co-stars and directors. Here’s hoping we see an evolution of his acting talent as a result. I am rooting for him.

    Dean Dehann is a great young actor. I loved him in In Treatment. So with both of these guys, I’m into this movie.

    Semi related fun fact – Yesterday I was reading a 20 yr anniversary retrospective on Reality Bites and found that the director of this movie Pattinson is filiming , Anton Corbijn, took the photos for Reality Bites movie posters and was fresh off of shooting all the U2 album art for Joshua Tree. Oh, and the cinematographer on RB, making his first film in the US was Emmanuel Lubezki, who is now nominated for an Oscar for Gravity.

  16. Corrie says:

    Movie set pics look great

  17. Ramona says:

    Thinking about wandering the streets to look for the shoot…..

  18. Sabrina says:

    Doesn’t do anything for me. I prefer him with lighter hair and some scruff. The hair colour makes him look far too pale even though I hate the overly tanned look.

  19. Apples says:

    I thought Caitlyn Cronenberg was married? But, I do think she and Pattinson are tight- she posted some snarky, yet appropriately vague, things around the time he was moving using Hefty trash bags and a pick up truck.

  20. 'p'enny says:

    Since when did Toronto come the hip place for British actors for filming this month?

    Holiday to Toronto anyone?

  21. Anname says:

    Cronenberg’s daughter, recently married, set photographer. Silly tabloid rumors that are probably as accurate as his secret meetings with Kristen Stewart.

  22. kennedy says:

    I know this isn’t a film buff website but it bums me out that this article basically calls the tremendously talented Dane DeHaan “some dude.” Sparkles doesn’t possess an ounce of talent compared to Dane. If you want to see what I’m talking about, please watch The Place Beyond the Pines and Kill Your Darlings – he’s supremely talented.

    • PunkyMomma says:

      ^This. There is good reason why Dane is playing James Dean and not Sparkles. Having said that, Sparkles cleans up nicely.

      • Anname says:

        Totally speculating, but I think maybe Rob was approached to do the James Dean role, but rather enjoys subverting the expected, and playing opposite the character. I am so glad he isn’t playing Dean because I think he has too much baggage to be judged solely on his performance – there would be a lot of “Edward Cullen as James Dean” type comments that would be very annoying.
        The movie is the photographer’s story, and how his time with James Dean changed him, Rob’s role is acutally the more “meatier” role, so the idea that Rob isn’t talented enough to play Dean doesn’t really work. De Haan is great, I am a definitely a fan of his and think it’s going to be fun to see what he does with Dean.

  23. GoodNamesAllTaken says:

    He has never done anything for me, but he looks less Satanish here.

  24. mimi says:

    @E
    Caitlyn Cronenberg got married this past summer and she seems to be good friends with Robert and has worked with him before on two of her father’s films so I doubt there is a need for conspiracy theories. Since Caitlyn does film still photography, she might be working on this film which I think is great because she’s a very talented photographer. The woman you mentioned seen hugging Robert last year back in Toronto was a crew member from Map To The Stars. Robert, Mia Wasikowska, Jesse Eisenberg, Caitlyn and some MTTS crew went out to dinner after Robert’s last day shooting his scenes. There were pap pics of the group hugging Robert and most likely saying their good byes to him…nothing more.

  25. FreeSpiritedGirl says:

    YES, I’LL HIT IT! YES! YES! YES!

  26. Tig says:

    He looks great- whoever styled him for the movie did a great job. He’s on the hit list for sure-LOL!

    I am glad movies like this are being made- anything but the apparently inexhaustible stream of comic book movies. I like them fine, but when the numbers after the title start resembling Super Bowl numbers, it’s enough!

    • Nikkie says:

      I rather have movies like Her or historical biopics like Lincoln. These stories about random people having limited interactions with iconic people like My Week with Marilyn or Diana always seem kind of tabloidly and questionable in terms of accuracy. Though I’m happy it’s not another Marilyn Monroe biopic.

  27. jess says:

    He looks good. Out of everyone in the twilight cast i think he has the most promising career im glad hes managed to keep himself out of the tabloids for the past couple of months.

  28. gg says:

    Wow! This is the best he’s ever looked. Not a fan of the patchy unshaven look.

  29. Deidra says:

    No doubt he’s a handsome guy. He looks gorgeous in a suit. He should wear coats and scarves in real life, they make him look grown-up and sophisticated. Actually he’s stepped up his looks recently, maybe that’s because of his connections with Dior or he feels differently leaving his teen fame behind. He has the special type of bone structure that makes him so manly and distinctive.

  30. Zimmer says:

    Would.

  31. Corrie says:

    Wonderful talented actor – this movie is going to be a wonderful story of two artists. Dane is a wonderful actor as well.

  32. ashley says:

    This is the best i’ve seen him look,handsome guy.

  33. Emily C. says:

    Nope. He looks a little bit better — average rather than below-average — but he’s still not very intelligent.

  34. Sophie says:

    Yes.

    But he seems so sad that it would be partly out of pity.

  35. Div says:

    Dane DeHaan is not ‘some actor’ as people above said. He’s a huge up and coming star with more critical acclaim than Sparkles can ever dream of. Agree about the hair, he looks very pale and drawn with it. He’s better off with lighter hair IMO.

  36. Browniecakes says:

    Hiddleston and Pattinson? Same studio? Let’s carpool p’enny!

  37. Nikollet says:

    I’ve never been tempted before, but yes, I would hit it now!

  38. Skye says:

    ….like a piñata.

  39. KierneM says:

    In a word: YES. Yes, I would so hit it. Bring on the cougar jokes…

  40. Russian girl says:

    HE DHE BEST!! I love you