Robert Pattinson eats "nothing but tuna out of little cans" when he needs to lose weight.

Robert Pattinson

Robert Pattinson

The 31-year-old actor deliberately didn't take care of his appearance while shooting 'Good Time' - in which he plays robber Connie Nikas alongside the film's co-director Benny Safdie as his younger brother Nick - and a limited diet plays a part in that.

He said: "[I walked around the city] way more and way more brazenly. Part of it is that if you look really dirty [and have greasy skin]... That was the main thing. When we realised the pockmarked thing ...Literally, that was almost an immediate transformation.

"I ate nothing but tuna. Out of little cans. I have this unhealthy thing where when I'm trying to lose weight I only eat tuna. And at the same time, I thought, It's kind of healthy, I'll eat tuna."

And the British star refused to have any visitors because he was living in squalor and his apartment spelled like "rotting fish".

Co-director Josh Safdie said: "It was pretty great. He stayed in a basement apartment a few blocks from my house and I remember going over to his place and it was just like a bombshell had gone off."

Robert laughed: "I didn't let anybody visit me. And I didn't take the trash out. So the entire place just smelled like rotting fish. Filth everywhere."

Asked if that's how he usually lives, he told New York magazine: "If I am left to my own devices."

The 'Twilight Saga' star had reached out to the directors to work with them, and they decided to craft a movie in which he could play a criminal because of his "alien" good looks.

Josh explained: "I'll say one last thing about Rob and his face. Glenn O'Brien, may he rest in peace, wrote this awesome piece years ago about how the American criminal had a very specific look to him. And it's a look which has since been co-opted by the fashion industry -- this idea of the criminal as uniquely good-looking, with a charm they used to their benefit ...

"Charles Manson, Richard Ramirez. And we're not going to sit here and pretend he's not a good-looking guy; he's uniquely good-looking. Sometimes you look like an alien."

Robert quipped:I'll take it."


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