Month: March 2022

There are a lot of folks in the public eye who know how to look like a good person when the cameras are on, but when the limelight goes away they can be someone totally different. In reality, it’s what you do when no one is watching that is the true test of your character.

In the case of former Liberty University quarterback and NFL draft prospect Malik Willis, he’s clearly the type of guy that does good things when he isn’t in the spotlight.

Last week, Willis was in Indianapolis, Indiana for the NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. The combine is a huge deal for former college players looking to get in the NFL. It’s an opportunity for them to show off their skills on the field in the hopes of making it on a team.

On Thursday, Willis was caught on video on a street corner, handing a woman sitting on a milk crate some fresh shirts out of a suitcase. According to Willis, she was there with her son.

Was having lunch yesterday and saw one of the Combine guys helping out someone on some hard timesu2026nn@malikwillis being great even when nobody is watching. How can you not be a fan of this guy?pic.twitter.com/BmFzUM66NU

— Ryan Lacey (@Ryan Lacey)
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“I walked past her on the way to the Nike suite and I chopped it up with them and I walked out with a suitcase and whatnot,” Willis said on NFL Network Thursday. “I felt bad because I saw her son. It was a pregnant lady and she was homeless.”

“I was just like, ‘Shoot, I don’t have no money, but I can give you a couple of shirts,” he added.

Willis said he had no idea that he was caught on video.

“I just felt like I had to do that,” Willis said. “I mean, I’m at a position right now where I’m not worried about much of anything except getting better. So, if I can help her out any way, I felt like I had to.”

Some people noted that while Willis was helping the woman out, another guy in a suit just walked on by without a care in the world.

Picture worth a thousand words pic.twitter.com/Wgo0Hab9um

— Ravi Mahapatra (@doctor_rpm) March 3, 2022

At a time when NFL scouts are judging players not only on their on-the-field performance but off-the-field leadership skills, Willis showed that he’s about a lot more than just football. He appears to be someone that would use his privilege as a professional athlete to help those who are less fortunate.

Last week, he gave a great answer when asked about the responsibility that comes with being a team’s franchise quarterback.

Malik Willis gave us all the aesthetics at the NFL Combine.pic.twitter.com/3e6fWpLhAk

— Cameron Hogwood (@Cameron Hogwood)
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“I mean, you’re the face of the franchise, literally. You’re the face of the city. So, you’ve got to understand everything that comes with that and making sure you’re doing all the right things and making sure you’re doing your job,” Willis said in his combine media interview, according to ESPN.

Willis’ future looks bright in the NFL; the quarterback is one of the highest-ranked players at his position and it’s rumored he’ll wind up with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Washington Commanders or the Denver Broncos.

Scouts on the field say that he is an agile, durable quarterback with a great arm. But off the field, he appears to be a man of character who’s ready to shine while playing a position that demands incredible leadership abilities.

This article originally appeared on 04.16.18

For about a week before the 2018 Boston Marathon, news outlets around the country were busy freaking out about the idea of transgender athletes competing.

Specifically, the worry seemed to be that trans women (people who transitioned from male to female) would have an unfair advantage over cisgender (non-trans) women. Right-wing commentator and anti-trans ideologue Ben Shapiro painted the decision as a type of slippery slope that will eventually lead to the abolition of gender categories as a whole, saying, “Biological women will never win a marathon — ever — in history because men are faster than women on average.”

Do Shapiro and others skeptical about the idea of trans women competing with other women in sporting events have a point? Not really.

I finally found a few minutes to write a bit, in my own words, about all this media coverage around trans women running #BostonMarathon. http://www.amelia.run/posts/2018-04-10-boston-marathon-media/ … #runchatpic.twitter.com/wNoc5A0a9p

I finally found a few minutes to write a bit, in my own words, about all this media coverage around trans women running #BostonMarathon. http://www.amelia.run/posts/2018-04-10-boston-marathon-media/u00a0u2026 #runchatpic.twitter.com/wNoc5A0a9p

— Amelia Gapin (@Amelia Gapin)
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If trans women have such an advantage, why haven’t there been any truly dominant trans athletes? Because they don’t.

A few years back, I wrote a fairly detailed breakdown of trans athletes’ fight to be able to compete in the sports they love for Vice Sports. The article, “Heroes, Martyrs, and Myths: The Battle for the Rights of Transgender Athletes,” centered around Minnesota’s struggle to determine how to handle trans athletes. But the research remains relevant whenever these sorts of controversies arise — which, sadly, is pretty often.

The argument goes like this: Because cisgender (or those who identify with the gender assigned to them at birth) boys and men are typically stronger and faster than cisgender girls and women, transgender girls and women should have to compete against cisgender boys and men.

But this argument leaves out the important fact that trans girls and women are not the same as cis boys and men, especially trans girls and women who’ve undergone hormone replacement therapy.

In 1976, a trans tennis player by the name of Reneé Richards wanted to compete in the women’s division at the U.S. Open. At the time, a number of people argued that she had an unfair advantage and would dominate the women’s circuit.

A quick look at the stats shows that’s not the case. Prior to her transition, Richards competed in the men’s division, where she was fairly mediocre (two wins, five losses). Post-transition, competing against women, she was … also fairly mediocre (66 wins, 110 losses).

Since then, a handful of openly trans athletes have surfaced, almost all with the same “unfair advantage” bogeyman attached to them. Trans mixed martial arts fighter Fallon Fox was never as dominant as people warned (to date, she has a career record of four wins and one loss), never making it to the UFC. In fact, in Fox’s only fight against a fighter who would eventually compete in the UFC, she was knocked out in the third round.

There are no trans LeBron Jameses dominating the WNBA or trans Cristiano Ronaldos racking up Women’s World Cup victories. There’s a good reason for that: Despite concerns, trans women really don’t have an athletic advantage.

Hormones play a big role in determining what sort of advantage an athlete has — or doesn’t have.

“Research suggests that androgen deprivation and cross sex hormone treatment in male-to-female transsexuals reduces muscle mass,” said Dr. Eric Vilain, professor and director of the Center for Gender-Based Biology and Chief Medical Genetics Department of Pediatrics at UCLA in a 2010 report. “Accordingly, one year of hormone therapy is an appropriate transitional time before a male-to-female student-athlete competes on a women’s team.”

In other words, after about a year on hormones, pretty much any advantage a trans woman might have had will be wiped out.

This is why an increasing number of entities are establishing reasonable rules when it comes to determining a trans athlete’s eligibility. The NCAA and International Olympic Committee both require that trans women undergo hormone replacement therapy before competing in women’s divisions.

Anti-trans policies aimed at trans women often wind up creating situations where actual advantages exist — for trans men.

In both 2017 and 2018, high school wrestler Mack Beggs took home the state championship in the girls division. Many say Beggs had an unfair advantage, and they’re absolutely right: Beggs is a trans boy who takes testosterone to treat his gender dysphoria. He wanted to compete against other boys, but a Texas state rule says that athletes must compete against the gender listed on their birth certificate.

Beggs was left with an impossible decision: compete against girls, end medical treatment, or quit the sport he loves. He chose to compete. After all, it’s not his fault that ridiculous rules forced him into a division where he doesn’t belong, and he really shouldn’t have to stop his medical treatment or quit a sport just because of it. Trans athlete Chris Mosier came to Beggs’ defense on Twitter.

Mack Beggs is a just kid who wants to compete in the sport he loves. Texas gave him 2 options: wrestle with girls or quit. He wrestles.

Mack Beggs is a just kid who wants to compete in the sport he loves. Texas gave him 2 options: wrestle with girls or quit. He wrestles.

— The Chris Mosier (@The Chris Mosier)
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Originally, The Federalist, a hard-right anti-trans blog argued that Beggs should compete against other boys — because they thought he was a trans girl (emphasis mine):

“There’s also a distinct athletic advantage for men who transition to women and play on high school and collegiate teams. It’s so clear one would have to be blind not to see how fraudulent this is, given men’s innately greater physical strength compared to women. Transgender male-to-female boy Mack Beggs made waves earlier this year because he won two girls’ wrestling championships in Texas. It’s easy to see why, as a person born male, complete with the testosterone and build of a biological boy, he might have an advantage over female competitors in wrestling.”

Once they realized they’d accidentally made the point advocates for trans rights had been making, the site quickly tried to revamp its argument, saying it wasn’t about “innate” characteristics at all, but the advantage or lack thereof that hormone replacement therapy offers:

“There’s also a distinct athletic advantage for men who transition to women and play on high school and collegiate teams. It’s so clear one would have to be blind not to see how fraudulent this is, given men’s innately greater physical strength compared to women. Female-to-male transgender Mack Beggs made waves earlier this year because she won two girls’ wrestling championships in Texas while taking testosterone. It’s easy to see why testosterone injections might give someone an advantage over female competitors in wrestling.”

(Again, emphasis mine up there. Also, a note that the Federalist’s style guide appears to call for the intentional misgendering of trans people, which is why Beggs is referred to as “she” here.)

In other words, many of those who make these types of arguments against trans people competing in sports clearly aren’t doing so in good faith.

As for the Boston Marathon, those worried about trans women dominating the women’s division will be relieved to know that no, a trans woman did not win.

Yet another false alarm in the never-ending quest to “chicken little” the oncoming trans-athlete-apocalypse. In all seriousness, though, huge congrats to Desi Linden, who, while not trans, is an amazing athlete and the winner of the 2018 Boston Marathon.

This article originally appeared on 4.17.19

This one’s for the girls who know you don’t have to chose between sparkles and sports.

For too long, girls have been sent the message that they have to be either/or. You’re either a girly-girl or a tomboy. You’re either into sparkly princesses or sports practices. From the early days of childhood, we’re told in bold and subtle ways to squeeze ourselves into separate boxes.

But those boxes are bullspit, and most of us know it. Girls don’t have to choose between feeling beautiful and being badass. We can be both at the same time.

Perhaps that’s why a portrait shoot shared by HMP Couture Imagery showing girls dressed up in fancy dresses and sports equipment has gone insanely viral. The shoot is called “Because you can do it all,” and in just a few days it has already been shared 175,000+ times.

The woman who photographed the shoot says a comment from a fellow mom sparked the idea.

Heather Mitchell, the photographer from Alabama who runs HMP Couture Imagery, told Upworthy how the portrait shoot came about.

“My youngest daughter is 8 and she is trying softball this year for the first time,” said Mitchell. “We were at practice a few weeks ago and I was talking with the other moms. I was saying that I hoped Paislee learned to love the game because she was athletic. One of the moms told me that she was not athletic, that she was a girly-girl.”

“I couldn’t sleep that night,” Mitchell continued. “All I could think was, ‘Why does she have to choose?’ I played every sport my school offered and wore lipstick to every game. So the next day we went to the studio and created her shot.”

Mitchell says she only spent about three minutes shooting because she knew exactly what she wanted to create. After she posted the photos of Paislee to her personal Facebook page, she got a ton of requests from other parents for the same kind of shoot. After adding two days to the schedule, they sold out in an hour—and the requests just keep on coming.

Mitchell hopes that girls see these photos and realize that they don’t have to choose one identity.

The idea that crinoline and cleats can’t exist in the same mental space is silly, but common. Girls (and boys for that matter) can love pretty things and kick butt at sports. They don’t have to be one thing or the other.

“My parent taught me that I could be anything I wanted growing up,” Mitchell told Upworthy. “I didn’t realize till I was much older that everyone is not that blessed.”

These photos are an excellent reminder to questions our assumptions and not place unnecessary limits on anyone—and an empowering example for girls who don’t fit neatly into a socially constructed box.

“I hope that every little girl that sees this series can see that there is no box,” says Mitchell. “Whatever their dreams are they can achieve.”

Former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham continues to unload on her old boss, Donald Trump, this time by admitting to the ladies of The View that her own family was ashamed she worked for the twice-impeached president.

Grisham was serving as a guest-host on a recent episode of the daytime talk show when the topic of Florida’s discriminatory “Don’t Say Gay” bill came up. The law seeks to censor classroom discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity and it follows a host of other restrictions right-wing lawmakers are trying to enforce on students like the banning of certain books and teaching Critical Race Theory. Naturally, the women of The View were outraged over the proposed law with Goldberg at one time questioning the point of passing this new bill.

“How about kids who have same-sex parents?” Goldberg asked. “If you’re the child of a same-sex couple, you can’t talk about your weekend with your folks, all the stuff you all did. I don’t understand the point. I don’t understand making kids’ lives harder than they need to be.”

When host Sunny Hostin suggested the bill, and others like it were the result of Trump’s fondness for hate speech and his prejudices against minorities, Grisham piped in.

After working for both Donald and Melania Trump, under a right-wing White House regime that rolled back protections against discrimination in school, the workplace, the military, and healthcare for the LGBTQ+ community, Grisham shared how her own gay teenager felt about her former boss.

“This one is personal to me,” Grisham began. “You bring up a great point. Because of my former boss. I have a 14-year-old son who is gay. Recently came out as gay. I have his permission to talk about this. He didn’t want to tell his friends where I worked. He was ashamed of where I worked, rightfully so, but also the fact that there’s this ‘don’t say gay’ slogan out there, it’s making children feel different.”

She ended her speech by admitting, “It’s creating a problem where I don’t think there is [one].”

(Via Mediaite)

Things that are cool: murder mysteries. Things that are deeply uncool: cruise ships. And yet if you combine the two, both somehow become even better. One of the finest episodes of Columbo is set on a cruise ship (and features Peter Falk in a top shelf Hawaiian shirt). So is Career Opportunities in Murder and Mayhem, a newly announced Hulu show with a long title but a simple premise: Mandy Patinkin solves a murder on a cruise ship.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, showrunners Mike Weiss and Heidi Cole McAdams, of the dearly departed Stumptown, have been given the go for a 10-episode series in which the Homecoming and Broadway vet tools around one of the worst ways to vacation, solving a homicide. Here’s the premise, as per Hulu:

“How do you solve a murder in a post-fact world? Especially when sailing the Mediterranean on an ocean liner filled with the wealthy and powerful. Everyone on board is hiding something … but is one of them a killer? That’s what the World’s Once Greatest Detective, Rufus Cotesworth (Patinkin), and his protégée aim to discover. The truth at all cost.”

Murder mysteries are happily back in vogue. Kenneth Branagh (and his epic mustache) keeps making and starring in Hercule Poirot movies. Daniel Craig may or may not be trying out different accents in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out films. And Hulu already has a delightful whodunnit in Only Murders in the Building. So here’s another! As for cruise ships, you can, uh, always watch The Love Boat channel on Pluto. But that program almost never has Tony winners solving murders.

(Via THR)

The Golden State Warriors have not had the services of their 2020 lottery pick all season. After an up-and-down rookie campaign got cut short due to a knee injury, James Wiseman has spent this season on the sideline as he’s tried to recover from surgery on a torn meniscus. It was expected that he would have been able to play by now, but Wiseman needed to undergo another procedure in December to clean some things up.

In a bit of good news for the young center, Golden State announced on Tuesday afternoon that Wiseman’s progressed to a point that he’s able to play live basketball again. While he’ll have to wait to suit up for the Warriors, Wiseman will join the team’s G League affiliate to play games on Thursday and Sunday.

Wiseman, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, averaged 11.5 points and 5.8 rebounds in 21.4 minutes per game last year, and started 27 of the 39 contests in which he appeared. His debut cannot come soon enough for the struggling Warriors, as the team has dropped nine of its last 11 games and fallen out of the No. 2 spot in the Western Conference.

This is not the only boost the Warriors are expected to get in the coming days, as Draymond Green announced he’s targeting a return from a back injury on March 14.

YoungBoy Never Broke Again — aka NBA YoungBoy — is soon to go on trial on federal gun charges. The Baton Rouge artist was arrested along with 15 others in 2020 on suspicion of possession of stolen firearms and distributing drugs, and today, Rolling Stone reports that the trial date has been set for May 16 in Louisiana’s Middle District. The rapper entered a preliminary plea of “not guilty” to charges of possession of an unregistered firearm by a felon and has been on house arrest since October.

However, he’s got reason to be optimistic about the outcome of the trial. At the end of February, US District Court Chief Judge Shelly Dick ruled that video evidence of YoungBoy brandishing the firearms in question was invalid due to an unlawful search of the SD card containing it. While an anonymous 911 call about men brandishing guns prompted police to break up what was reported as a rap video shoot in September 2020, the warrant only mentioned the video, while the warrant made no mentions of the SD cards or video equipment.

YoungBoy’s defense filed a motion to have the evidence suppressed, which Dick granted after deeming the warrant — and the resulting search that turned up the would-be incriminating evidence — invalid. The rapper’s defense lawyer Drew Findling said of the upcoming trial, “We’re 100 percent convinced of his innocence, and now we have to continue to evaluate our strategy. The unconstitutionality of law enforcement was clearly evident to the court and resulted in a slew of evidence being thrown out. We’re looking forward to going to court.”

YoungBoy Never Broke Again is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Giancarlo Esposito has been stealing movies and shows for over 40 years. You may remember the actor and vaccine cheerleader as Buggin’ Out from Do the Right Thing, but did you know he was on three episodes of Miami Vice? Or that he spent two years on early ‘80s Guiding Light? Alas, the acclaimed actor didn’t become a household name until Breaking Bad, just over a decade ago. Since then he’s been a screen staple, even bringing Gus Fring back on Better Call Saul. Well, it appears he may be employed by AMC for the rest of his days.

As per Entertainment Weekly, Esposito is joining The Driver, an adaptation of a British limited series from 2014. Esposito has usually been cast in meaty supporting roles, but this time he gets to take on the lead. He’ll be playing an “everyman” taxi driver whose life, according to EW, “is forever changed when he crosses paths with a New Orleans-based Zimbabwean gangster who is known to exploit undocumented immigrants at various southern ports in the U.S.” Showrunner Theo Travers (Billions) called it a “high-voltage, dark identity quest for an everyman trying to find renewed purpose in his life.”

AMC isn’t the only place with Esposito on the company payroll. He can also be seen on Disney+ (The Mandalorian), Amazon (The Boys), Netflix (the forthcoming heist drama Jigsaw), and Epix (the also forthcoming crime drama Godfather of Harlem, starring Forest Whittaker).

Meanwhile, anyone who wants to stream the original version of The Driver can do so on Filmrise. And of course, you can still see more Gus Fring in the batch of Better Call Saul episodes that debut on April 18.

(Via EW)

Looks like Florence Pugh might be coming to Arrakis. After becoming a new and well-received fixture in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Pugh is in talks to join the cast of Dune: Part 2, which director Denis Villeneuve is planning to shoot this summer. However, there are a lot of variables in the air. For starters, Pugh’s involvement is contingent upon several factors, including her availability and a final look at the script. The sequel is also scheduled to shoot in Hungary, which might not be feasible due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Hungary shares a border with Ukraine.) If that situation continues or makes a turn for the worst, it may impact the production.

Via The Hollywood Reporter:

Pugh is being courted to play Princess Irulan, the daughter of the Emperor. Several obstacles remain, however, for any deal. The script is still being written, and thus the actress is said to be waiting for the latest draft. Also, scheduling poses another hurdle. Legendary is hoping to begin shooting this summer, but Pugh is also in contention for the Madonna biopic, and it is unclear when that would go, should she nab that role.

Pugh has been on the short list of actresses vying to star in the Madonna biopic, which reportedly has involved a grueling audition process. The other actresses include Julia Garner (Inventing Anna), Alexa Demie (Euphoria), Odessa Young (Mothering Sunday), and Emma Laird (Mayor of Kingstown). Should Pugh snag the coveted role after such an intense casting process, it will probably be a no-brainer to play Madonna over the Dune sequel. But, hey, maybe she can do both? We are not in the business of doubting Florence Pugh.

Dune: Part 2 is scheduled to hit theaters on October 20, 2023.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Now more than ever before, it’s hard to grasp the concept of time passing. But with The Batman finally making its way into theaters after a long, painful, but sensible wait, it’s time to reflect on Robert Pattinson, who has been working as an actor since the 2000s in 2005’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and 2008’s Twilight, which launched a franchise and made him an international movie star and generation-defining heartthrob.

Since his introduction in the 2000s, Pattinson has evolved more than any other actor, from fantasy franchise hottie to indie darling to emo Batman. He’s both a scene-stealer and a generous scene partner, the kind of performer who is as good in chaotic roles as he is in restrained ones. Over the past decade, Robert Pattinson – with the help of his towering hair, sculpted jawline, and piercing eyes – has evolved into something truly unique: a character actor/movie star hybrid.

If you’re trying to figure out what Robert Pattinson films to revisit – or visit for the first time – after seeing The Batman, here are all of his performances (excluding short films, TV movies, and 2004’s Vanity Fair, which he was cut from), ranked from worst to best.

23. The Childhood of a Leader (2015)

Robert Pattinson was not given much to do here. In fact, he was given so little to do here that I didn’t even remember he was in this movie. But that’s not necessarily a critique of Pattinson’s performance, because I also forgot that I had seen this movie.

22. Waiting for the Barbarians (2019)

Unfortunately, not even Robert Pattinson could provide anything memorable to this action drama starring Mark Rylance and Johnny Depp, although he did try. The best thing about Pattinson in Waiting for the Barbarians is his irresistible hair, which falls in his face like Leonardo DiCaprio’s did in the 1990s.

21. Bel Ami (2012)

While Bel Ami does the work to make movies sexy again (Robert Pattinson has sex scenes with Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci, and Kristin Scott Thomas), Pattinson’s static, emotionally empty performance as Georges Duroy leaves much to be desired.

20. Water for Elephants (2011)

In Water for Elephants, Robert Pattinson was trying to prove that was capable of something beyond Edward Cullen. In this adaptation, Pattinson plays Jacob Jankowski, a veterinary student who quits school and joins the circus after his parents die, meaning that Pattinson would get to showcase his exemplary acting with elephant skills. Pattinson holds his own against Oscar winners Christoph Waltz and (NFT queen) Reese Witherspoon, but he never gets a memorable moment in the way he does so easily now. This run-of-the-mill drama based on the best-selling novel of the same name is not terrible, but it didn’t have much impact on Pattinson’s career, which is a good thing, really, because it got him to change directions by choosing smaller indie films in the future. Pattinson’s best performance from Water for Elephants came from the press tour when he said on The Today Show that he watched a clown die at the circus, which he later revealed was a lie.

19. Little Ashes (2008)

Robert Pattinson played Salvador Dalí. Not enough people know this, and we do not discuss it enough. Pattinson committed to the role of the surrealist artist and attempted to deliver a textured performance. While the effort is admirable, the film’s stilted script did not do Pattinson’s performance any favors.

18. Queen of the Desert (2015)

You’d think lovable weirdos Robert Pattinson and Werner Herzog were star-crossed. And while they might be, Herzog’s biographical film stars Nicole Kidman as Gertrude Bell but features Pattinson in a small supporting role as archaeologist T.E. Lawrence. Pattinson does what he can, but given the corny-at-best dialogue and likely pressure from acting opposite Oscar-winning co-star Kidman and working under the direction of a legend like Herzog, the performance falls a little flat, especially compared to most of Pattinson’s supporting roles.

17. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

Robert Pattinson was so perfectly cast as Cedric Diggory, the Hufflepuff heartthrob who meets a tragic end in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, that he really didn’t need to do much beyond show up to work and say his lines correctly. But Pattinson, as (almost) always, went above and beyond by successfully suggesting Cedric make his entrance in the film by emerging from a tree. Pattinson nailed Cedric’s natural charisma that made him so likable – especially in spite of Harry’s jealousy – but he also captured the horrors of death in the wizarding world with his unforgettable, blank literal death stare after Cedric is killed by Voldemort at the end of the film.

16. Maps to the Stars (2014)

Robert Pattinson delivers in his second film with David Cronenberg. The tonally shifty but ultimately quite fun Hollywood satire follows the members of a Hollywood dynasty desperate for fame and relevance. Pattinson only plays a small role as Jerome Fontana, a struggling actor/limo driver, but it’s a memorable one, especially for his hot, steamy, and sweaty limo sex scene with co-star Julianne Moore.

15. Life (2015)

Robert Pattinson’s moody, emotionally intelligent performance alone elevates this strained based-on-a-true-story drama about the friendship that developed between actor James Dean (Dane DeHaan) and Life photographer Dennis Stock, played by Pattinson. Once again, Pattinson is better than the material.

14. The Rover (2014)

I wonder if Robert Pattinson automatically says yes to roles that require an accent of any kind. In the Australian dystopian drama The Rover, Pattinson plays Reynolds, an American living in the Australian Outback a decade after a global economic collapse. I don’t know what to call Pattinson’s accent here. It’s Southern but I couldn’t tell you where, but it works, even though Pattinson barely opens his mouth when he speaks with it. Pattinson again demonstrates his range and that he can work opposite some of the best including Guy Pearce and Scoot McNairy, but the film isn’t good enough for him to deliver a truly historic Robert Pattinson performance.

13. Cosmopolis (2012)

Cosmopolis signified what Robert Pattinson’s career would become once the Twilight Saga came to an end: focused on low-budget indies with artistic directors. In the David Cronenberg film, Pattinson plays Eric Packer, a 28-year-old billionaire whose empire is crumbling while on a slow limo ride in Manhattan to see his barber. The film is a little dry and Pattinson – still in the midst of the Twilight era which typecast him – has potential but is still not quite there with his confidence as a performer, understandably. Cosmopolis was a tease of the great things that would come and is valuable in that it was a significant career shift for Pattinson, but the performance itself feels a little stilted; more like Edward Cullen in a Cronenberg film than Robert Pattinson showing his range.

12. Remember Me (2010)

In the 2010 coming-of-age melodrama that has a (genuinely) shocking 9/11 twist for some reason, Robert Pattinson plays Tyler Hawkins, a young troublemaker living in New York City in the year 2001 (do you see where this is going?) who has a strained relationship with his father who works in an office in the World Trade Center. The film, which ends with Tyler alone in his father’s office on the morning of September 11, 2001, is ridden with cliches but ultimately well-intentioned. Pattinson’s emotionally-charged performance indicates his range from intimate romantic scenes with Emile de Ravin to explosive dramatic scenes with legends Pierce Brosnan and Chris Cooper. While writing this, I realized that the title Remember Me is a play on “remember 9/11” and “never forget.” I will need to stare at a blank wall in total silence for several hours and think about this before I continue.

11. The Devil All the Time (2020)

Although Robert Pattinson only has a minor role in The Devil All the Time and does not appear until roughly one hour into the film, his performance is the only part of the movie I remember. Pattinson plays Reverend Preston, a menacing, morally corrupt preacher in post-World War II Appalachia. Pattinson’s bombastic, cartoonish Southern accent sounds like what would happen if the only southern accents you ever heard were from watching the motion picture classic Steel Magnolias, which is a compliment to Pattinson, who did all of his accent work on his own because, according to the film’s director, he refused to get a dialect coach. The character is his darkest yet, and while it’s one of his more chaotic performances that tilts back and forth on the line of very weird and straight-up bad, it signifies what Pattinson could and will do with darker material.

10. How to Be (2008)

How to Be stars an extremely pre-Twilight Robert Pattinson (the film premiered at several small film festivals before Twilight came out in 2008) who, at the time, was barely even recognized for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Despite his quite obvious good looks, Pattinson plays the awkward, directionless nerd and loser (Art) who uses his inheritance money to have the author of a popular self-help book come to his England home to help him get his life back on track. The must-watch performance for any Pattinson fan has the same fearlessness that we would not see until Pattinson’s later indie film work starting in the mid to late 2010s.

9. The King (2019)

Robert Pattinson’s performance as Louis, the Dauphin in The King is the best example of Pattinson’s ability to make even the most boring movie – one that is so boring not even Timothee Chalamet can carry it – interesting. With a wacky Pepé Le Pew-inspired French accent and one of the most luxuriant wigs in cinematic history, Pattinson manages to make a mundane character in an even more mundane movie sparkle like Edward Cullen in the sun.

8. Tenet (2020)

Tenet is the first mainstream film Robert Pattinson starred in since the Twilight Saga ended in 2012 with Breaking Dawn Part 2. As complex as the Christopher Nolan action thriller is, Tenet is, coincidentally, the most normal (aka accessible to a general audience) movie Robert Pattinson has ever appeared in. For any who are thinking “the Twilight Saga was normal,” please consider that Pattinson’s character glittered in the sun and had a baby named Renesmee. As Neil (the most normal name a Robert Pattinson character has ever had), Pattinson brings levity, edge, and delicious hair to a movie that needed it. Pattinson, who said that he made the movie without understanding the plot, has undeniable chemistry with co-star John David Washington which makes their scenes together (even ones in which they are talking absolute nonsense) more gripping than the film’s complex action scenes.

7. The Twilight Saga (2008-2012)

The Twilight films might not be cinematic masterpieces on par with films like Parasite, The Godfather Part II, or David Fincher’s Zodiac, but they are about as masterful as a bloated, cheesy teen vampire romance franchise can get. The films are masterful because of the narrative incompetence contrasted with Robert Pattinson’s brilliant performance. Pattinson abandoned all expectations for Edward Cullen by portraying him not as a deeply romantic lost soul, but as a deeply annoying, moody, and depressed stalker. Pattinson’s performance as Edward Cullen contains subtle layers of irony, from over-the-top line deliveries to sad empty stares that aren’t obvious, but become more obvious (and more rewarding) the more you see it.

6. The Lost City of Z (2016)

At first glance, Robert Pattinson is nearly unrecognizable in James Gray’s The Lost City of Z. His signature jawline and piercing eyes are clouded in a bushy beard, his voice gentle in contrast. Pattinson could easily ham it up as reformed drunk Henry Costin who accompanies Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) on his several journeys in the Amazon to discover the (titular) Lost City of Z. Pattinson instead chooses to let his character remain a mystifying figure in a subtle performance, allowing only his own natural charisma to pull you in and at times, he’s even resisting that in order to serve the story and Hunnam’s performance.

5. The Lighthouse (2019)

The Lighthouse is a weird, slightly disgusting, gutsy, atmospheric film that would have never worked without its leads, Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe. Pattinson plays Ephraim Winslow, a horny man driven mad by isolation and the sea while working as a lighthouse keeper on a mysterious New England Island in the 1890s. Pattinson does it all with reckless abandon from masturbating on a cot, having sex with a mermaid on a rock, to beating a seagull to death. But this performance’s greatest strength is mild restraint. Pattinson could have gone bigger in The Lighthouse, but he knew better than to compete with Willem Dafoe’s extraordinary, sometimes unintelligible pirate accent.

4. The Batman (2022)

This is not a regular Batman: this is a Batman who listens to Nirvana. On the surface, it does not seem like there’s much to playing a masked vigilante who has been in so many (maybe even too many) movies, including as recently as last year’s Synder Cut of Justice League. But Robert Pattinson brings a fresh new twist to Batman/Bruce Wayne: he’s emo, he’s sexy, and most importantly, he’s a weirdo. Surrounded by big, bombastic performances from Paul Dano, John Turturro, and Colin Farrell, Pattinson reels himself in, showing the most restraint he ever has. Pattinson’s quiet demeanor throughout the film makes a moment when he really pops off chilling and effective for the scene, the character, and the story. Most importantly, Pattinson’s truly unique approach to the character makes Batman a distinct personality outside of Bruce Wayne, and in doing so, he makes yet another Batman movie feel fresh and necessary.

3. Damsel (2018)

Robert Pattinson’s accents have a unique way of feeling both natural and like they’re coming out of the mouth of a completely different person. In the American western black comedy Damsel, Pattinson, with a much higher voice than usual, plays the fast-talking pioneer Samuel Alabaster, who is traveling across the American frontier with a drunk and a miniature pony named Butterscotch. The delightful, energic performance includes his best accent to date, his best acting with an animal to date, and establishes that in addition to being incredibly handsome, charismatic, and good at dramatic acting, he has a natural gift for comedy. Damsel is also a showcase for Pattinson as a giving scene partner. He is almost always a standout, but in Damsel Pattinson lets his co-leads Mia Wasikowska and David Zellner take control when necessary.

2. High Life (2018)

Robert Pattinson and acclaimed French director Claire Denis are not a pair anyone would have imagined to be perfectly in sync but High Life proves that they are a match made in cinematic heaven (or hell, depending on your perspective), like Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese. The film is as visually stunning as Pattinson’s performance as Monte, a criminal in space heading toward a black hole with his baby daughter on board. Pattinson challenged himself here but made it look effortless. Pattinson is a singular performer and Denis a singular director. The two understand each other’s idiosyncrasies, which translates into a deeply affecting film.

1. Good Time (2017)

Chaos meets chaos. It makes sense that Robert Pattinson sought out the Safdie Brothers, who wrote Good Time for him. Their frenetic, stressful energies go together like Danny McBride and Walton Goggins, and make for one hell of a stressful but invigorating cinematic experience. In Good Time, Pattinson plays Connie, a robber who will do pretty much anything to free his brother from prison while on the run himself. In Pattinson’s inventive, nerve-wracking performance which includes a spot-on Queens accent, he goes farther than he ever has before: he’s completely fearless in the first post-Twilight role he went into with complete confidence.