Robert Pattinson Would Rather Lie Than Talk About His Workout Routine

Robert Pattinson has an appetite for beer, but not for bullshit—which is why the actor would rather talk about almost anything else besides the physical process he goes through in order to prepare for roles. In fact, Pattinson says some of the things he’s attempted are “insidious” and he’d rather not promote them to a wider audience. It’s a refreshing take in a world where other stars are not only happy to promote whatever cleanse they went through to get in shape for a part, some are actually now selling their own cleanse programs through Instagram.

In contrast, Pattinson actually caught flack when he publicly claimed that he wasn’t working out at all for his role in The Batman. “Literally, I’m just barely doing anything,” he told GQ back in 2020.

“I think if you’re working out all the time, you’re part of the problem,” he added at the time.

In a new interview with ES, he admits that wasn’t quite true. He was working out—he just doesn’t ever want to talk about it. “I got in so much trouble for saying that I don’t work out, even from my trainer, who was like, ‘Why would you say that?’” he said in the profile.

Pattinson added he’s never had body image issues, but he’s found the world of fad diets bleak.

“It’s very, very easy to fall into that pattern as well, even if you’re just watching your calorie intake, it’s extraordinarily addictive—and you don’t quite realize how insidious it is until it’s too late,” he told the magazine.

He once ate nothing but potatoes and sea salt for two weeks, and flirted with Keto until he realized beer was forbidden.

Hollywood’s expectations of female bodies are as well-established as they are toxic, but men’s body transformations can be treated like a spectator sport. Gain weight for a role, and you’re halfway to an Oscar campaign. Get abs for one, and you’re invited to detail your routine in a shirtless fitness magazine cover story. Think about how many times this year alone you’ve heard cast members from Top Gun: Maverick detail their preparation for that football scene. They’ve mastered the art of telling you the most miserable things with a smile on their chiseled faces. (“It was a lot of starvation, a lot of anger,” Greg Tarzan Davis recently told Us Weekly.)

Pattinson is therefore likely in the right for calling it all “insidious” and leaving it at that. The star has always had something of a discomfort with the more performative aspects of fame, anyway, (see: his tortured relationship to Twilight). In the ES interview, he admitted half the reason he keeps working is because he’s convinced his career is about to end. “I find myself going, ‘No, I have to keep working, I have to keep working all the time, this might be my last opportunity, I’ve got to save for a rainy day,’” he said.