Robbert Pattinson has proven time and time again that he will go to great lengths to convey the character he is portraying.
However, on one occasion, he opted to throw acting out the window and perform an unsimulated sex act on camera... and the performance nearly cost him his career.
The 38-year-old actor rose to international stardom thanks to his roles in the 2000s in movies like Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and the Twilight Saga.
Following these roles - which earned him the hearts of teenage girls all over the globe - Pattinson soon became recognized as a critically acclaimed performer, thanks to his roles in more hard-hitting movies like Christopher Nolan's spy film Tenet (2020) or his portrayal of the Caped Crusader in Matt Reeves' The Batman (2022).
But his esteemed career was nearly over before it started in 2008 when he accepted the role of legendary artist Salvador Dalí in the movie Little Ashes.
In one scene in the movie, Pattinson had to m*sturbate - but rather than simply act like he was, he revealed he actually "rubbed one out".
Speaking to Germany's Interview Magazine in 2013, he saidL "If you google something long enough you will soon know everything there is to know about me: what I eat, what my poop looks like, with whom I’m sleeping, what my d**k looks like, even what I look like when I m*sturbate.
"Well, that might be a little exaggerated. But my orgasm face is recorded for eternity."
He then explained that trying to act like he was orgasming just wasn't cutting it - so he opted to let Mrs. Palm and her five lovely sisters go to work: "Try it. I can tell you right now, no chance. It just doesn’t work.
"So I rubbed one out in front of the camera."
But in a subsequent interview with HuffPost, Pattinson revealed that the role almost led to him quitting acting entirely.
“I once decided to quit acting; it was when I did Little Ashes," he said. "I played Salvador Dali and had to do a lot of scenes where I was naked, and I also had to m*sturbate.” He continued to narrate the incident and added, “I mean really. My org*sm face is recorded for eternity.”
Once again stressing that faking it just wouldn't cut it on camera, Pattinson added: “So, I pleasured myself in front of the camera.”
And this isn't the first time Pattinson nearly lost his career.
In an interview with GQ, he revealed that he was nearly fired while working on Twilight.
"I was 21 and kind of wanted to make it as arty as possible. So I was kind of - we had this strange tension where the studio was kind of a little bit scared to make things a little bit too emo and stuff, and I thought that was the only way to play it," he revealed, adding that he was 21-years-old at the time and felt "infuriated" while on-set.
"The scene when Edward introduces Bella to his family the first time, I remember that being the day because my agent and my manager came up as a surprise visit," Pattinson continued. "And I was like, 'Oh, hey!' I just thought everything was fine. And then at lunch, they were like, 'Okay, so whatever you're doing right now, after lunch, just do the opposite, or you'll be fired by the end of the day.'
"And I was like, 'Okay!' And so, that was the only [way] they got me to sort of smile a bit."
Considering the Twilight Saga really kicked off Pattinson's career, it wouldn't have been surprising if his hypothetical firing ended his career there and then. Fortunately, it didn't.
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