Robert Pattinson on Tenet: "This is kind of Chris Nolan on steroids

It’s the film that could save cinema – and everyone’s feeling the pressure. Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, a spy thriller that plays with the idea of time travel, has had its own experience of being pushed backwards and forwards through time. Originally due to premiere in July but delayed because of Covid, it’s finally opening in Irish cinemas on August 26, and in select cities in the United States on September 3, before expanding across the country. Tenet also faces a unique challenge in China, the world’s second-largest movie market, where cinemas cannot screen films that exceed two hours in length. Tenet, in true Nolan style, is over two-and-a-half hours.

Made for over $200 million, the film has to do well financially in all markets to recuperate its budget – normally not a problem for a film from the director of Inception, the Dark Knight trilogy, Interstellar and Dunkirk. But these are not normal times, and this is not a normal release. The film is not only a financial guinea pig, but a cultural one. The world is watching to see if the film can overcome pandemic restrictions and the enduring threat and fear around crowded indoor spaces. Is the world ready to go back to the movies?

And if audiences are ready to head to their local theatre, will they keep quiet about what they’ve seen? Tenet, which stars John David Washington and Robert Pattinson, has been intentionally shrouded in secrecy, its enigmatic trailer giving little away about the plot or the nature of the time travel that is briefly alluded to. Its new staggered release across Europe and the States is raising concerns that spoilers will be leaked, lessening the immediacy of people’s desire to see it on the big screen, and its overall impact. But actor Robert Pattinson is still being incredibly careful about what he reveals about the film – which is essentially nil.

“My character is a colleague of John David Washington’s character, and he is English,” says the actor, laughing. “That is all I can say at the moment!”

Pattinson is not reticent about his admiration for Christopher Nolan, however, admitting that he was a huge fan of the director and excited to get to work with him.

“Everybody is a fan of Chris’s films!” says the 34-year Pattinson, whose latest films High Life, The Lighthouse and Good Time have shown the actor’s passion for working on intelligent, intriguing and tonally diverse films. “He’s one of the only directors consistently making incredibly ambitious, complex blockbusters on a massive scope. They’re always original and surprising; you never feel you’re being spoon-fed.  And every film is totally different from the last one. I mean, when Dunkirk came out, it was so subtle. A masterpiece. And then to come out with Tenet after – this movie is just a spectacular feat of engineering and vision in every way.”

Though Pattinson is no stranger to blockbusters, shooting to fame after starring in the hugely popular Twilight franchise and playing Cedric Diggory in the film adaptations of Harry Potter, he says he’s never worked on a film with such an epic individual scope. But he reports that Christopher Nolan never even broke a sweat trying to bring his vision to life.

“I won’t lie to you; pretty much every actor wants to work with him, so I was very excited. It’s quite amazing to watch him work on a huge movie like this where there are so many moving parts.  But Chris is just completely level and even-keeled the entire time; absolutely nothing stresses him out, nothing rocks him!” he exclaims admiringly. “I’ve certainly never quite seen anything like it.  It was a hard shoot in a lot of ways, but it was a great time.”

Pattinson stars in Tenet opposite John David Washington, son of Denzel and star of Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman. The trailer shows their characters bungee jumping off buildings, running through crowded cities, and weaving their way through car chases and shoot outs where the laws of time and/or gravity occasionally seem to be suspended – with Pattinson’s character providing some wry quips along the way. The film also stars Kenneth Branagh and Widows’ Elizabeth Debicki, and Pattinson says the cast’s comradery and commitment to executing Nolan’s vision was wonderful to experience.

“It’s the most incredible cast, and with such a complex script, it was just lovely to know that everyone was on the same page. I’d never met John David before, and I luckily got on so well with him, which is great considering the majority of my scenes were with him and we were working so closely together for however many months it was. It’s probably one of the best friendships I’ve made while doing a movie.”

Some of Pattinson’s stunts involve doing things both forwards and backwards, with choreography that rivals Nolan’s now iconic rotating hallway scene from Inception. The Londoner reveals that the training for these elaborate sequences was intense, and unlike anything he had done before.

“It was complicated because it’s not like actual fighting. I mean, you’re already doing movements that are somewhat exaggerated and completely unnatural, and then trying to do that in reverse was a pretty intimidating task!” he says. “And on top of working against your natural inclinations, your character is supposed to be kind of an expert. Then you’re looking at the stunt guys, who’ve been training for weeks and weeks, and even they were finding it really difficult in the beginning.”

As ever, Nolan shot as much of Tenet on camera as possible, using stunts, sets and a mostly physical environment rather than relying solely on digitally added special effects. For Pattinson, this approach helped immerse him in the environment and story and added an authenticity to the experience that helped his performance.

“It definitely helps and also Chris allowed us to do many of our own stunts. There are scenes where I’m driving with things blowing up and buildings falling down and helicopters everywhere and it felt totally real. I don’t know how many times I’ll ever be able to experience that in a movie. There’s nothing quite like it.”

Of course, Pattinson is aware of the challenges facing the film, as well as people’s very understandable, justifiable fears around heading to the cinema. But he still firmly believes that Tenet should be experienced on the big screen and believes that the film is worthy of being people’s first foray back to movie theatres.

“It’s incredibly ambitious, and incredibly complex,” he enthuses. “I mean no one makes movies like Chris in the first place, and this is kind of Chris Nolan on steroids with all of the new technology within the IMAX cameras, which were designed especially for this movie. I can’t really imagine not seeing it in a theatre. And now with people who haven’t had the ability to go to the cinema for months and months, having this to look forward to will be a really great thing. It really shows what is possible in cinema. Chris really, really wants to push the limits of what you can do on film with almost zero visual effects. It’s a very immersive experience and nothing really captures that more than seeing it on the biggest possible screen.”

• Tenet is in Irish cinemas out now. Read our review here.