GETRUNTAH

Im playing the young Magnum photographer Dennis Stock, who gets to know James Dean before he became an Icon- no least because of the picture of a moody James Dean in Times Square with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. Stock would have hated it if you called him a papparazzi. He thought of himself as an artist and did everything to be seen as one. That is how I see him.

That would be impossible. l would feel like a psychopath would be after me. But it was different back then. There were no cell phones and not amateur photographers, only professionals and they had to find a magazine to publish their pictures. Today the Internet is flooded with cell phone pictures.

A lot of it depends on my mood. lf l’m in a good mood, everything is okay. When l’m not, I do feel bothered. You have to watch out to not get strange and feel persecuted: Then you start to believe that people take pictures of you, who actually have better things to do with their day than do that.

Most of the time I was busy hiding. You are in shock. You dont really understand what is happening. My personal growth was stopped in a way. It was weird: There I was 22 and suddenly I aged 2-3 years. I was working and did a lot of movies during that time. It was madness. My first real break I had after the last Twilight movie.

Thats true. Now! go to the grocery store without looking around. Fortunately I gained a lot of self-confidence. But l’m still cautious: you dont want drunken pictures of yourself out there.

The real problem was: You are measured according to a weird criteria when you are part of gigantic expensive movies, which are so under pressure to perform. The question always is: How many millions will that movie make? its ridiculous! You have to watch out not to get stuck in that world.

lt’s not that much money. You dont really think about it though. Money is not the primary objective of a young actor. And having enough money is no reason to quit.

Di?icult to say, but a road is appearing slowly, also with my movie choices. During Twilight l basically pushed the reset button every time and then the next movie would come out.

I took careful steps into reality. I always strictly distinguished: There was the character that I played in the movies and on the other side my real life.

Now I try to make more personal movies that have more to do with me and where I have more

control. Im making movies with authors like David Cronenberg and now Anton Corbijn.

They protect you. They don’t let themselves be in?uenced by others- not like a director who works for a big studio. It may happen that there is a call from above and its not the directors ?lm anymore but the studios.

Well, l hope the directors do not only pick me just to get ?nancing. Im also doing very small roles, like in Herzog’s ‘Queen of the Desert’ as Lawrence of Arabia. I don’t believe that an actor is able to guarantee success on his name alone. Those times are over, with a few exceptions though: one of those exceptions is Brad Pitt.

Hold on, it was also a great time. Twilight is something very special, if only because of the

enthusiastic fans. My advice for young actors would be to not get overwhelmed and they should

watch out and keep a healthy relationship with reality. If not you can drift easily and are not even

aware of it. So take good care of yourself.