Robert Pattinson goes undercover in NYC for ‘Good Time’

Co-director Ben Safdie, from left, actor Robert Pattinson, and co-director Joshua Safdie pose for a portrait to promote their film, “Good Time” at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles. (AP)

LOS ANGELES: To say that Robert Pattinson is a recognizable actor is an understatement, but the “Twilight” star says he was able to somehow stay under the radar while shooting an indie film on the New York subway at rush hour.
The film is called “Good Time.” It made waves at the Cannes Film Festival and hits theaters in limited release on Friday.
Pattinson plays a small time Queens crook named Connie Nikas whose bad night continues to get worse as he tries to get his mentally handicapped brother out of jail after the two botch a robbery.
Filmmakers Josh and Benny Safdie took Pattinson to a variety of offbeat New York places, including a jail and bail bonds office, to help prepare for filming.
Actor Robert Pattinson, accustomed to luxury trailers and gourmet food, was reduced to taking a catnap in a dog cage on the set of his latest movie “Good Time,” a fast-paced nocturnal crime thriller set in New York City.
“We were setting up lights and I was like, ‘Where’s Rob?’ I look over and there is a dog cage, a huge dog cage and (Pattinson) is in there sleeping,” the film’s co-director Josh Safdie said in an interview.
“The dog was pissed,” an amused Pattinson added. “Just shooting at the pace we were shooting at, you’re kind of always on. We didn’t even have trailers.”
The British actor, best known for playing vampire Edward Cullen in the “Twilight” young adult romance film franchise, portrays a psychopath named Connie in “Good Time,” who is obsessed with breaking his developmentally challenged brother out of prison after a botched robbery attempt.
“Good Time,” out in US theaters on Friday, was shot mostly with handheld cameras on the streets of the New York City borough of Queens, following Connie on an all-night odyssey filled with misadventure. The actor’s sacrifices for the low budget independent film has paid off in rave reviews for his post-“Twilight” performance.
TheWrap.com film critic Sam Fragoso compared Pattinson’s “manic adrenalized performance” to Robert De Niro in 1973’s crime thriller “Mean Streets,” while Emily Yoshido of New York Magazine said the British actor delivered “some of the best work of his post-franchise journeyman career.”
The movie received a 100 percent rating with top critics on movie aggregator RottenTomatoes.com.