Although he’s best known throughout the world for playing teenage vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight films, Robert Pattinson’s most recent starring role is in the film Remember Me alongside Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper and Emilie de Ravin. He was recently in the capital to promote the film, where he chatted about attempting New York accents, getting in fights, punching stuntmen and playing troubled characters.

What did you like about this project?
Robert Pattinson (RP): I'd read tonnes and tonnes of scripts over the summer after I did Twilight, I mean, hundreds, and everything seemed to be exactly the same, but with this one - it was Tyler as a character. It seems that most movies which have a young male protagonist as the lead have to be either a virgin to begin with and have to learn everything during the movie, or they go through the trials of the movie and end up completely different person afterwards, but Tyler seems to start off with a lot of baggage and as a very full and developed character, and ends up just being developed in this slightly different way rather than just becoming.

You have great chemistry with Pierce Brosnan, who plays your father. What was it like working with him?
RP: I never thought initially that anybody like Pierce would be playing Charles. He has an innate likeability and he’s very charismatic. Charles on the page was somebody who was domineering and quite a negative character and Pierce, just by being Pierce, kind of changed all that and made it a much more interesting relationship, I think.

You're very sweet with Ruby Jerins, the young girl who plays your sister in the film –tell us about that relationship?
RP: I don't have any younger brothers or sisters – I've got two older – and I think I always wanted a younger sibling, not that I have anything against my sisters! But Ruby's just one of the best actresses I've ever worked with. She's surprisingly articulate about her character. When I first met her she seemed like a very normal kid and then the more she talked about her character and her character's development, I mean she could talk about it for hours and she could also improvise for hours and hours and hours. She was really amazing.

At what point did you realise you could use your powers for good and through the success of those other movies help finance films like this? And what pressures are there on you to do other stuff that might earn more money but be less satisfying?
RP: I never like anything, so it’s quite easy to decide what to do. I’ve never felt any pressure to do anything, particularly. Even when I was shooting it, I never felt any pressure about the box office – it’s only when it came to promoting it that people ask me about this stuff. It’s not a Twilight movie; it’s an original screenplay and doesn’t fit into any genre. It’s not that much of a feelgood movie. They don’t make movies like this any more. That’s how I kind of choose stuff. That’s the only criteria I really have, if there's a gap in the market for something then I just try and do that.

How did you approach the New York accent?
RP: It just sort of came out of the script and the dialogue. It was pretty much the same voice. Sometimes when you read the script it just happens. I wasn’t even conscious of doing a New York accent or what borough or anything [laughs]. I’ve spent a bit of time in New York and tried to pick up on how people speak. I don’t even know where my accent is now. I wouldn’t even say it’s specifically a London accent.

Tyler is quite an angry, punchy young man – how did you psych yourself up for the fight scenes and have you been in many fights yourself?
RP: I haven't been in a fight for quite a long time. I'm too scared now; if I got into a fight now someone would probably just kill me in 30 seconds! I liked a lot of Tyler's character, the rebelliousness and the audaciousness of it, because it is a kind of a fantasy of myself. 'I'm the type of guy who randomly gets into fights. I do it all the time!' But I'm not really. Chris [Cooper] is like unbelievably strong – it's terrifying. The fight I had at the beginning I was doing with a stunt guy and I hit him with what I thought was my full strength - I hit his face about four times, and every time I was like "I'm sorry I'm sorry," and he was like "It's fine, I can't even feel it," and I was like "Doesn't it even hurt?" That was kind of an ego deflater!

We know and love you for playing the deep and brooding types, like Tyler and of course Edward. Could you ever see yourself taking a more light hearted approach, say like a comedy?
RP: I did do lighter stuff before Twilight came out, it just so happens that Twilight has become so much about this archetypal brooding person. I never thought that Tyler was that brooding to be honest, and now every single thing says 'Oh brood, brood, brood!' I hadn't even heard the word before Twilight! I guess I like to play broken, troubled characters – it just seems more interesting, especially as I'm not particularly broken or troubled myself! I'm doing something now which is still quite dark but the character isn't so fractured, he's incredibly focused and has a lot of confidence in himself and nothing can really shake his confidence.