Robert Pattinson's First Voice Acting Role Leaves Twitter Users In Disbelief
Despite entertaining audiences for years with his wealth of charismatic performances, Robert Pattinson's resume had yet to include a voice acting role — until now. Not only is his first animated project a highly anticipated one, but Pattinson's promising performance already has fans foreseeing a bright future ahead for him in the realm of voice acting.
The "Batman" and "Good Time" star will be amongst a cast of other A-listers, including Florence Pugh, Willem Dafoe, Mark Hamill, Gemma Chan, and Dave Bautista, to headline the English dub of animation master Hayao Miyazaki's upcoming "The Boy and the Heron" for its December 8 North American release date. A recent teaser of the dub showcases Pattinson using a creepy, raspy cadence for his part as the titular Grey Heron. The voice isn't comparable to anything in Pattinson's catalog beforehand — which is exactly why fans are in love with it.
Users across social media are in stunned disbelief at the actor's dynamism. Redditor u/WillandWillStudios is one of these individuals, commenting, "I'm amazed that he has such a voice acting range after decades of soft talking pretty boy."
Even those who have been up to date with Pattinson's recent line of challenging parts admit to being awestruck, such as u/Da_Do_D3rp, who wrote, "I've already been super impressed by his films recently and I had pretty high hopes for him in this, but d**n I wasn't expecting him to be that good." More than anything, Pattinson delivers where a lot of other actors of his caliber often miss.
Other celebrity voice actors can learn a thing or two from Pattinson
It's commonplace in animated films for major movie stars to voice the lead roles. While a handful of instances make for fitting combinations, more often than not, actors who are accustomed to live-action roles fail to give their animated characters a memorably distinct vocal performance. Thankfully, that seems to be far from the case for Robert Pattinson in "The Boy and the Heron."
Fans who have heard the provided snippets of his performance as the Grey Heron are blown away by how much effort the actor has put in to make the character sound completely different from his regular voice. On X, formerly known as Twitter, @812filmreviews lauded his efforts, saying, "Robert Pattinson is one of the few major actors who understands that animated films require you to vocally work within the character."
Others agreed with that sentiment, with @JacobTalks4ever loving how seriously Pattinson has taken his job compared to other celebrities. "He didn't just fall back on his natural voice like so many celebrity voice actor stunt-castings, he's doing what voice actors are supposed to do," they commented.
Many see this as only the beginning of Robert Pattinson's career in voice acting, such as @english_shamar, who excitedly tweeted, "I hope Robert Pattinson does more voice acting roles in the future because he's really good at it." Given that "The Boy and the Heron" only required Pattinson to dub over the work of a prior performer, it's tantalizing to imagine what he can do with a character of his own to build from the ground up.