Robert Pattinson on Telling People He’s a Pathological Liar & Working with Zendaya on Three Films

Our first guest tonight is Batman, and the Vampire, and a lot of other stuff, too. His latest with Zendaya is called The Drama. It opens in theaters April 3rd. Please welcome Robert Pattinson. It's very good to see you, you know. I did not see you at the Oscars, but I saw you on television. I saw you. Oh, you did? I was sneaking up behind you, and I couldn't find a good opportunity to say hi. Oh, wow. You're very light on your feet, I guess. Yeah. Do you hate doing that? You're presenting at the Oscars. That seems to me like something you would dislike. I like it. You do? Yeah. Okay. It's kind of, it's just like really any kind of public appearance now, like for some reason my anxiety just gets worse, and worse, and worse. And yeah, the Oscars, actually no, everything was fine, and then Zendaya said to me just before we went on stage, she was like, the vein in your forehead is really, really popping out right now. And I was like, what? And they're like, and go. And I was listening the entire time, I was trying to just calm myself down. Did she do that to curse you, or did she, was she being helpful? I think she thought it was funny, I thought it was being funny, and then they're like, they think it's being funny, but really, like, you know, how's it go to lunatic asylum afterwards? Like, I had to immediately check into a mental health facility. Did you meet anybody that you'd not met that you were excited to meet at the Oscars? I met Lionel Richie for the first time. Lionel Richie? Yeah. That's a good one. He was incredible. I hear you're a big fan. I am a big fan of Lionel Richie. Yeah. I'm surprised you are, because I think you were born when, like, his albums came out, right? No, like, absolutely. What year were you born? 86. Oh, yeah. That's, like, right in, yeah, like... He just left the Commodores. No, no, he had left the Commodores quite a bit before that. Yeah. Let me take you through the history of Lionel Richie. That was my one... I'll tell you something interesting about Lionel Richie. He was in a duo with John Oates of Hall & Oates, the group was called Lionel & Oates. Did not know that. That's not true. I made that up. And I did that because you make things up, and I was... Actually, we spoke about this on Monday with Zendaya while she was here. I saw. She told me that... She's like, I'm doing a promoter, she's like, you're a pathological liar. I'm like, what are you doing? Don't say this. Well, you told her when you started shooting, according to her, that you said, hey, I just want you to know I used to be a pathological liar. Used to be. But now I'm not a pathological liar, which we decided is what a pathological liar would say if they were still a pathological liar. It's such an awful thing to folly around. Because I have said this to people before. It's why would you ever admit this about yourself? It's such a stupid thing to say. And now it's part of my shtick now. The reason I know it is because you have... You've told me things over the years. I think you were like 22 or something the first time you did the show. That turned out later to be patently false. I'm going to go through a list of some of your lies. And now you can tell me if I have any of this. But as far as I know, these are not true. You told me repeatedly that you were living under an archway in Venice under trash can lids. No, right? There was an archway in my house. That was what that was based on, I think. You said the only piece of furniture you had in the house was an inflatable pool raft. That's 100% true. That is true? Two separate houses, that was true. Okay. You claimed you owned a thousand suits? Could be. I remember trying to sell them on the RealReal. Didn't add up too much. You claimed you bought... This is after the Twilight movies. You claimed you bought a car from a guy on Craigslist. That's true. That was before the Twilight movies, though. Oh, it was? Okay, all right. Let me rearrange it. You claimed that you have extraordinarily heavy saliva? I think that was based on something. I can't exactly remember what it was, though. I think it might be true. Well, it seems like it would be easy to check. Well, now I'm very, very aware of it, though. Yeah. I think it might have got lighter. It's got a little bit lighter as I got older. And finally, this one was interesting because we fact checked it in real time. You claimed that you did hand modeling as a kid, and your mom happened to be here with you that night. And I checked with her, and she said, not true. No hand modeling as a kid. It's a good story, though, though. It is a good story. So anyway, I'm going to proceed with the interview not knowing whether any of what you say to me is true or false. Truth be told, it doesn't matter. So just go crazy. Yeah. Oh, man. Were you always like this? Like when you were a kid, did you make stuff up? I mean, yeah. I don't know why. Because I kind of thought it was something which I did when I was older just because of interviews. But I did get in trouble quite a lot. So I don't know. And where did you get in trouble? At school? I got in trouble at school. I said my dad was Michael Jackson in show and tell. I mean, he had literally given me. Do you know that stuff, ginkgo biloba? Uh-huh. Yeah. Because I always really liked the name of the pills. And then I guess my parents were taking that. And I had this tape. I just recorded a tape. Michael Jackson's actual album, recorded it. And so my dad's been taking this medicine called ginkgo biloba. And this is him singing. And I got in lots of trouble for that. That, to me, shows creativity. Well, now you're a dad. And how old is your daughter now? Just turned two. So you know there's a whole new avenue of lying. You can lie to her all the time now. Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, et cetera. Are you going to? I don't think she'd believe me. Already I can tell. She can see through me very, very easily. Interesting. Yeah. Maybe she's got the same thing. Well, she's definitely, yeah. She's definitely. She can find it very easy to lie herself already. She'll walk into the room. She's like, I see giraffe. And I'm like, you do? And it's incredibly convincing. She's either got a sixth sense or she's a fantasist. Or she broke into the ginkgo biloba. Yeah, exactly. All right, we're going to take a break. We're going to come back. We're going to see a clip from Robert Pattinson's new movie. It's called The Drama. We'll be right back. It's in theaters April 3rd. Oh, Spider-Man's going to be furious when he sees this. Now, this movie, I want to be honest with you. I'm scared to explain it because I feel like I'm going to ruin something if I say. I actually had a long conversation with the guys up in the office who were planning to go see it. And I was like, and they wanted to know what it is. And I was like, well, something happens. I can't really tell you what happens. It's kind of, even the title, it's kind of misleading. It's the drama, but it's kind of romantic. It's kind of funny. It's kind of, we went to have the premiere the other night and everyone was leaving. And the array of reactions, like some people were coming out going, oh my God, that's absolutely horrifying. And then other people coming out saying it's the most vulnerable romantic thing I've ever seen. So I literally have, when it goes wide release, I have no idea what genre it is. Have you been warned not to reveal the key points in the film? I mean, like, really? I mean, the only difficult thing is, I think if you go in blind, it definitely is more impactful. But the movie's really cool. I mean, I thought the script, I thought the script was really, really, really powerful. And when I saw it the other night, I was like, it's kind of, it's quite beautiful. You know what's weird? You play so many Americans that it was strange to see you with an English accent, even though you have one. I know, I seem, it's like, for some reason, with American accents, because I'm just not as familiar with them, I'll just be like, I'll do a southern accent. That sounds kind of, that sounds right to me. And I have no kind of embarrassment about it. But doing local English, well, like London dialects, I was just, it really, really drove me crazy. Because I thought it was, I thought everyone's going to think it's me. And I suddenly thought, like, all American actors who do an American accent all the time, it must be horrendous. Just naked, it must not feel like you're acting. It's interesting. I wonder if you feel like there's a different, like you'll be held to a different standard by people back home than you would here. If you're, yeah, that's kind of strange. I just really, I judge all of his behavior. Like, normally, you kind of find what you love about a character. And because he kind of sounded like me, it was just so horrible to him the whole time. And in the movie, he's not a particularly horrible guy. He's nice. Right, yeah, he's a nice guy. Yeah, yeah. Well, you shouldn't have revealed that he's nice. This is one of three movies you have coming out with Zendaya. Is that just coincidence, or did you guys say, hell, that was fun, let's do another thing? Total coincidence. I mean, she was attached to this before, and I was really, really excited to work with her. I think she's kind of incredible. And it also puts the movie in a different category. Like, it kind of, it makes the stakes of the movie a lot higher. It's very exciting. And then we ended up doing The Odyssey, which was totally the most secret casting in the world. So we didn't even say it to each other when we got cast. Oh, really? Yeah. You found out on set? Or on the movie. And I was like, are you going to do a thing with a guy? So you didn't know who was in that movie? No one. You must have been so bummed when you found out Matt Damon was in it, right? He is unreal in it. He's terrible, right? He's just terrible. Also, in the most insane shape I've ever seen. I mean, it's completely... Who do you think you're talking to right now? I thought we were Lionel and Oates all of a sudden. And then you're doing Dune, Dune 3 with Zendaya. Yes. And I have a photograph of your character here, and I wondered if your daughter saw you as this guy. She immediately recognized me, which is really strange from the trailer. But she kind of looked at my head and pointed at it. She's like, eggy. I was like, are you saying the whole head looks like an egg? Or is there an egg on top of my head? You do look a little bit like an egg, yeah. Oh, an egghead, I guess. Yeah, yeah. She thought you were an egghead. Denis Villeneuve, when he told me this look, it was like a three-hour makeup job. I remember looking in the mirror and being like, okay, okay, this is how it's going to be. And Denis is looking at me and going, you're so sexy. I love the hairline. So sexy. And I was like, interesting. Seems like an HR violation to me. You're a sexy egg. Well, it's great to see you. The movie is called The Drama. We can't tell you anything about it. It opens in theaters April 3rd. I will tell you, Robert Pattinson is in it. Robert Pattinson, everybody. Thanks for being here. We'll be back.