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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Hannah Roberts

Robert Pattinson says he based Mickey 17 accent on Steve Buscemi ‘by accident’

Robert Pattinson at the world premiere of Mickey 17 (Jonathan Brady/PA) - (PA Wire)

Robert Pattinson has said he based his Mickey 17 accent on the voice of Steve Buscemi “by accident”.

In the sci-fi film, directed by Bong Joon-ho, the Twilight actor, 38, plays Mickey Barnes, whose body is continually regenerated after he dies while undertaking dangerous work assignments.

One of his clones, Mickey 17, is incorrectly assumed dead, and the previous and current version, Mickey 18, have to grapple with the idea of being expendable.

Asked about his American accent at a press conference in Berlin, Pattinson said: “I actually think I realised today what I was doing, because I remembered we were doing an interview earlier, and Bong said one of the thoughts he was having in his head for Mickey 18 was Peter Stormare in Fargo.

Mark Ruffalo, Anamaria Vartolomei, Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Robert Pattinson and Toni Collette at the world premiere of Mickey 17 (Jonathan Brady/PA) (PA Wire)

“And then when we were talking about it, as we prepped for it, I think I just went home, and then how that kind of went into my head was to do Steve Buscemi as 17, but I kind of did it by accident, but I don’t think I realised that until today. I thought I was doing something else.”

US actor Buscemi, 67, starred opposite Stormare in 1996 thriller Fargo, playing Carl Showalter.

Pattinson is best known for playing vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight film series, Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, Connie Nikas in Good Times, and Bruce Wayne in The Batman.

Joon-ho’s films include Memories Of Murder (2003), Snowpiercer (2013), and Okja (2017) as well as Parasite, which won him the best director Oscar in 2020.

Mickey 17, which also stars Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo and Steven Yeun, will be released in the UK and Ireland on March 7 by Warner Bros Pictures.

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