Robert Pattison was nearly fired from Twilight for 'not smiling enough'

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Eric Garcia

Washington Bureau Chief

Robert Pattinson will likely always be remembered as the guy who won a thousand teenage girl’s hearts after playing Edward Cullen in Twilight.

However, the actor — who has taken steps towards the more serious world of acting with Good Time, Lost City of Z, and Life — almost lost the famous role.

Speaking to radio host Howard Stern, Pattison said he originally envisioned himself taking the vampire and Bella Swan’s relationship down a completely different route.

“If you’re going into a relationship with someone, the way to make it really intense is if you can barely talk to each other, you can barely touch each other, it’s incredibly serious all the time,” he said.

“That’s what teenage relationships are. But everyone kind of wanted it to be, like, ‘No, they should just be, like, happy and having fun. That’s what people want.' That's the teen romance thing. Now the whole series is known as this brooding thing.”

However, his agents managed to persuade him around, even taking a copy of the book and highlighting the moments the character smiles: “I thought I was pretty safe. They flew up and were like, ‘You have to do the opposite of what you’re doing now or you’re going to get fired today.”

Stern joked how Pattinson had to become the 'smiling vampire', the actor adding: “I was probably going a little too miserable, so there was some kind of compromise made.”

Pattinson also revealed that he took half a Valium before his first audition for the series to calm his nerves, taking a full Valium for the second: “I could barely keep my eyes open when I talked to the producers,” he said.