Age: 40
male
Robert Douglas Thomas Pattinson (born May 13, 1986) is an English actor. Noted for his versatile roles in both big-budget and independent films, Pattinson has been ranked among the world's highest-paid actors. After starting to act in a London theatre club at age 15, Pattinson began his film career by playing Cedric Diggory in the fantasy film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). He gained worldwide recognition for portraying Edward Cullen in The Twilight Saga film series (2008–2012), which grossed over $3.3 billion worldwide. After starring in the romantic dramas Remember Me (2010) and Water for Elephants (2011), Pattinson received critical acclaim for his performances in independent films from auteur directors. He starred in David Cronenberg's thriller Cosmopolis (2012), David Michôd's dystopian western The Rover (2014), James Gray's adventure drama The Lost City of Z (2016), the Safdie Brothers' crime drama Good Time (2017), Claire Denis' science-fiction drama High Life (2018), and Robert Eggers' psychological horror film The Lighthouse (2019). He returned to mainstream films with a leading role in Christopher Nolan's spy film Tenet (2020), and starred as the DC Comics superhero Batman in Matt Reeves' film The Batman (2022).
The world is a simulation. To a young person living in the shadow of the Great Recession, that kind of horror resonates. Of course, some things would have to be be changed. After all, what was relevant in 1999 isn't necessarily salient in 2012! The Wachowskis, with all due respect to their fantastic Matrix films, one through four, were Generation X to the core, and with a new millennial vision, the series would be more relevant to a social media-adept youth. For one, in high contrast to the hollow optimism promised under 1990s capitalism, the early 2010s saw despair in the wake of America's once-thought-to-be secure financial institutions collapse, leaving a broken youth in its aftermath. Instead, the focus is completely shifted; for one, it's a romance now. Absurd, I know, but consider this: Neo, a lost-and-confused young college graduate, meets Trinity, who seems to know all about the wild dangerous truth of reality and accepts that things WON'T get better. Still, Neo's youthful desire to change things for the better attracts and impresses her, in this epic of two young lovers trying to liberate humanity from the Matrix.
