Robert Pattinson Says Film Franchises Like 'Twilight' Can Cause Actors to Lose Their 'Sense of Identity'

Robert Pattinson became a household name when he portrayed the brooding vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight Saga film franchise, but at what cost?

During a discussion with fellow actor Jamie Bell for Variety's "Actors on Actors," Pattinson admits that working on a wildly popular book-turned-movie series like Twilight can take a toll.

"When something becomes really big you really get an awareness of how small you are, like where it is when you first start acting and you feel like a big shot when you’re only doing something small. My ego was a lot bigger when I first started,” he says. “Then you start losing control of a lot of different aspects of your life and also the job, especially when you’re doing sequels to something. It doesn’t matter what you think: a) it’s already been written in a book, and b) the tone has already been set up and the machine is already in motion. It’s frightening when you lose your sense of identity."

That being said, Pattinson still isn't shying away from "massive franchises," but says he hasn't been offered any as of late. In the meantime, the 31-year-old actor is looking to work with directors who he doesn't see "as human beings."

"It’s a name and I just see the movies that have already existed and been really influential to me," he explains.

In the September issue of GQ, Pattinson also shared that he has gone to extreme efforts to go unnoticed after all the fame he gained from Twilight. "There are ways to disappear, like, fairly easily," he said. "But you have to be living a quite strange life. It just involves effort, and most people can't really be bothered to put the effort in."

Pattison's Twilight co-star and former girlfriend, Kristen Stewart, has gone another route. Over the past few years, the 27-year-old actress has become more comfortable opening up to the public, which is a far cry from when she was promoting theTwilight films.

"People started really caring about the details of my life when I was pretty young," Stewart reminded ET in March. "And since then, the media and our interaction with celebrity has changed enormously, even in that short time period. So I kind of have navigated it naturally and adapted."

Here's more of ET's exclusive interview with Stewart:

RELATED CONTENT: