Often when Robert Pattinson gets a script, one of the first things he does — to the annoyance of his girlfriend, Suki Waterhouse — is try on different voices to bring his character to life.
"I’ve always had that sort of response to a script,” he reflected, but said it became a practice while making his 2014 film, “The Rover.” “I think I feel very uncomfortable just doing something in my own accent. And for a while I felt like just doing an American accent felt like I was acting more.”
It’s unsurprising, then, that when he was offered a starring role in “Mickey 17” — director Bong Joon Ho’s first feature film since his Oscar-winning “Parasite” — Pattinson’s wheels immediately began turning over what his character(s) would sound like.
“Mickey 17,” a Warner Bros. release hitting theaters March 7, tells the story of Mickey Barnes, a naive but sympathetic protagonist who signs up to be an “expendable” in a world that makes use of “human printing” for dangerous tasks and research. When an expendable dies on the job, another version of them is printed with their consciousness and memories of their death intact.
But Mickey’s immortality is threatened when a very different version of him is printed while the 17th Mickey is mistakenly believed to be dead.
“I needed to find an actor who could cover both personalities,” Bong said through a translator, recalling Pattinson’s performances in “The Lighthouse” and “Good Time” as he considered the more sinister and conniving Mickey 18.
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The film is based on Edward Ashton's 2022 novel, “Mickey7.” But Pattinson, who read the book before he got the script, said he still can’t believe how different they are from one another. “When I read the script and Bong’s changes to it, I was like, ‘How did you see this tone in this book at all?’ It’s very, very different tonally. But I thought it’s fascinating to have that interpretation,” he said.
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Although Pattinson was eager to work with the acclaimed Korean filmmaker, he wasn’t given a lot of initial information about the movie or role. “The only thing I knew was that it was in English and that the part was impossible,” Pattinson said, laughing.
As he eventually gleaned more about the story and his character, ideas for Mickey — and Mickey’s voices — began swirling around in his head.
Pattinson envisioned slapstick montages of his myriad deaths à la “The Tom and Jerry Show” — but that portion of the film turned out to be much darker than he expected. One early idea for voices that Bong shut down was inspired by Steve-O and Johnny Knoxville — Pattinson was a devout “Jackass” fan growing up and even repped a “Jackass” T-shirt to school “almost every day.”
But one initial idea the 38-year-old had did stick. “My first thought, on pretty much the first read of it, was, ‘It’s like Ren and Stimpy,’” he said of the irreverent animated Nickelodeon series from the 90's about a cat and dog.
The dynamic between the two Mickeys is an apt comparison given Ren’s short temper and diabolical nature (Mickey 18), which stands in stark contrast to Stimpy’s naivete (Mickey 17). The similarities in their voices can also be heard.
“I kind of wanted to do this like cartoon character performance. You start out really, really extreme and then kind of gradually tone it down," he said of how he refined the characters. “When directors just let you do stuff, you just come out of the box doing whatever and wherever your instinct is taking you."
Working with Bong Joon Ho after ‘Parasite’
In addition to Pattison, the sci-fi comedy boasts an impressive cast, including Mark Ruffalo,Steven Yeun,Toni Collette and Naomi Ackie. Although Ackie, who plays Mickey’s romantic partner in the film, hadn’t worked with Pattinson before, she said they quickly hit it off.
“We’re both quite similar in how we work, which is very chatty up until the point of ‘Action,’ and then we do the acting. And I really enjoy that kind of separation between character and self. I find it quite difficult to hold onto characters once there’s no cameras on,” she said.
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But it wasn’t just Pattinson who made the experience a positive one for her. “I’m pretty certain you could ask anyone who works with Bong Joon Ho, ‘Would you go back?’ And they’d be like, ‘I’d pay money.’”
Despite the notoriety the director has reaped since “Parasite” racked up four Oscars in 2020, including best picture and best director, Bong said the experience hasn't changed him.
“It was fun and exciting to meet with all these famous artists and filmmakers during the campaign, but I didn’t feel like I was like on cloud nine. It was actually very mentally and physically exhausting because the campaign is so long and I just remember thinking, ‘Wow, this is really tough,’” he recalled. “We kept just like handing each other vitamins.”