LOS ANGELES?WE interviewed two actors, both named Robert, in the same week ?one, a legend, the other, a heartthrob. Robert de Niro and Robert Pattinson don?t have much in common except their first name and sense of humor. Yes, De Niro can be funny once he warms up to the interview while Pattinson virtually chuckled from beginning to end of the press con.

?Will you marry me?? our female colleague proposed to Pattinson. She was, of course, joking since we all know that in the ?Eclipse? volume of ?The Twilight Saga? series, Edward Cullen and Bella Swan finally get engaged. Or at least we thought our Asian friend was only teasing Pattinson because he was downright charming and easygoing in our latest encounter with him.

Marriage proposals

?Why not?? Pattinson shot back, his blue-green eyes smiling but he was blushing. With his three days? facial hair growth and trademark bed hair adding to his roguish charm, Pattinson probably gets several marriage proposals every day. Even Megan Fox said in an interview, ?I want to eat Robert Pattinson.?

In case you?ve been living in Mars, Pattinson is vampire Edward to Kristen?s mortal Bella in the film adaptation of the ?The Twilight Saga? series. The latest installment, ?New Moon,? is expected to be a huge hit. De Niro, on the other hand, stars in the comedy-drama, ?Everybody?s Fine,? with Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell playing his offspring.

We talked to Pattinson in LA; a few days later, we interviewed De Niro in New York.

Let?s begin with Pattinson, who was understandably nervous when we first met him on the London set of ?Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire? in 2005. ?Thank you very much?you?re one of a few people who have seen it,? he said with a laugh when complimented about his performance as Salvador Dali in ?Little Ashes,? which tells of the painter?s friendship with poet and dramatist Federico Garcia Lorca (played by Javier Beltran) and director Luis Buñuel in pre-Civil War Spain. The film explores Lorca?s rumored infatuation with Dali.

On falling in love with his onscreen girlfriends, Pattinson grinned and said: ?I haven?t done that many things with leading ladies. The only other love story I did was with a guy playing Lorca which was last year. I guess I fell in love with him a little bit but he couldn?t speak much English though.?

Reminded that last time he told us he was having problems dating girls, Pattinson remarked: ?Yes, you?re always going to have problems. I mean (laughs) just like with being a guy, I guess.? Ribbed about now being engaged to our female peer, he gamely said: ?Yeah, I do. They always want you to marry them immediately (laughs). It?s all the series? fault.?

?I?m honestly being self-deprecating,? he said of his disarming, self-effacing British trait. ?Eventually people are like, ?Oh, we?re so sick of the self-deprecating act. Why can?t he grow some balls?? I guess you have to roll with that. You do realize that if you keep putting yourself down all the time, an audience suddenly says, ?That guy is an idiot? (laughter). So it?s strange. You have to push in certain areas. It?s always two steps forward, one step back.?

?I don?t like having people around me that much,? he admitted. ?I don?t want an assistant. I don?t like having a publicist. The more people you have around you, the more people are telling you what to do. And also, the more people you have to pay. It sounds terrible but I find most people?s opinions irrelevant (laughs).?

While he has stayed firm about not having that LA accouterment ?a publicist? and that?s unusual for an actor of his stature, Pattinson confessed to enjoy living in La La Land. We like him even more for his candor. ?It?s weird because I always thought of myself as very English until this year,? he declared. ?Then you kind of realize it?s not. I can?t claim it to be my home anymore so it?s strange. I feel very comfortable back in LA now. I?m much more comfortable than I thought I was going to be so it?s nice.?

Paparazzi culture

Yet he observed, ?The craziest paparazzi have got to be in LA. It?s weird what kind of paparazzi culture is here.? Then he quipped, ?A lot of people move here to be followed by the paparazzi.?

And where are the most rabid fans? ?The craziest fans that I have encountered were in Mexico,? he replied. ?And there?s something about the South American people?they?re very enthusiastic.?

On how his family is taking in all this Pattinson mania, he explained: ?They?re pretty good at staying separate from everything. It?s a different situation in England. My sister was so shocked when she came to visit me?with all the gossip magazines and stuff. She had no idea at all. So I don?t really talk about it to them. They?re not really aware of it. Luckily, no one has tried to do anything. I think it?s because they?re such good and nice people. There are no stories to write about them (laughs). It?s all boring.?

The actor in the family is definitely not boring, though. Asked why vampires wear so much makeup in the ?Twilight? films, he replied, ?That?s an unusual little thing. Yeah, they wear makeup to hide their actual faces. They?re all conscious of wearing makeup. That?s the strange thing as well because the girls, especially, have mascara on and stuff. Is that trying to imply that they just naturally have mascara on their eyelashes when they turn into vampires or do they put on makeup everyday? It?s a weird thing. I have no idea.? He quipped, ?I guess there?s only a limited number of ways to look pale.?

On his 12-hour workdays filming the series (they just finished ?Eclipse,? the third installment), Pattinson commented: ?If you woke up at 5 in the morning to go to work, when you go home, you very rarely want to do anything. You just want to go to bed (laughing). I still don?t really know what my life is. The best answer I could give to that is that you get to see a lot of nice bathrooms in hotels around the world (laughs). You always get to see the nicest ones.?

Day-off in Italy

Well, the poor guy got to see a nice hammock during a rare filming break in Montepulciano, Italy, so he?s returning there. He said, ?I?m going back to where I stayed just outside Montepulciano because it was the most incredible place I?ve ever stayed in. It was like a villa with wine tasting. I had one day-off in Italy. I was just sitting in a hammock all day. And this guy came up with a glass of wine and said, ?You?ve got to try this.? That was the best day I?ve had all year, I think.?

On what makes him different, the guy whose hair is always unruly deadpanned: ?Oh, I have bad hair days occasionally.?

While Pattinson is on his way up, the great De Niro was knocking on the table in front of him at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel as he wished to be around much longer. Asked what he is proudest of in his 40-year-plus career, De Niro replied: ?That I?m still here. I couldn?t tell where I would wind up. I?m happy I?m still here? knock on wood?healthy, working.?

He rattled off what?s important in his life right now: ?My family and the kids and they?re doing okay, moving on and doing well. I just got a report card for both my twins (Julian and Aaron, 14) and they did very well. I?m so happy about that and about working. I hope this movie is received well and does well. I want to stay alive as long as I can and that?s about it.?

A journalist prefaced her question to De Niro about ?Everybody?s Fine? (he plays a widower who goes on a road trip to reconnect with his grown kids) with: ?You and I probably belong to the same generation?? With the muscles on that iconic face relaxing and those eyes dissolving into mirthful slits, De Niro joked, ?I?m a generation younger than you.?

He claimed that he does not look back at his previous work. ?I was always thinking, I?d like to find time to look at all my movies from the very beginning to the latest but I don?t know if I?ll ever do that,? De Niro said. ?Maybe I will. I find myself sometimes talking to people who I?ve known for many years like Harvey Keitel. I am doing a few scenes with him in ?Meet the Little Fockers? and we were reminiscing about some things because we?ve known each other for a long time.? Again breaking into that impish smile, he cracked, ?You start doing that when you get older.?

Media-shy

Since De Niro is famously media-shy, he was asked if he is more loquacious in private. ?It depends,? he answered. ?Sometimes I can talk. I like to talk to the kids about things that I think are important for them to know, not to lecture. Sometimes it?s hard to communicate with your kids. They?re in their own world. But even though they look like they?re not listening, they are actually listening, that what you?re saying made an impression. You just have to accept that you?re not going to get much more from them at that point but it made an impression.?

As an actor, De Niro is busy but he?s itching to direct again. ?I want to do like the second part to ?The Good Shepherd.?? He helmed that Matt Damon movie. ?I have to rely on a terrific script by Eric Roth. Then I get the actors who will make it happen because the money people will want to put their money in what they want to do. It?s that simple. But that?s just the beginning of the battle.?

The man who gave us Travis Bickle, Jake La Motta, Vito Corleone and many memorable characters matter-of-factly said that he does not think about the impact he?s going to make when he?s giving life to roles on the set. ?You don?t realize the effect you?re having when you?re doing a movie,? he stated. ?You?re doing it and then people react.?

Of the comedies he acts in, De Niro is candid about them: ?Well, I have fun with those, too, and I earn a good living from them.? With that statement, the soulful De Niro eyes again dissolved into cheerful slits.

Email the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com and read his blog, ?The Nepales Report,? on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.