Robert Pattinson , Im sorry.

Outside the Bowery Hotel in downtown Manhattan, where I interviewed Pattinson on Thursday morning, a cabal of paparazzi clutched their cameras in anticipation. For this I felt persuaded to apologize by way of introduction. It must feel suffocating to sit on the other side of such vultures.

Pattinson pled ignorance. I just came in and they werent there, he said, playfully defiant. Im almost certain its not about me, though.

Who else would they be looking for?

I go in and out, and Im like, Theyre not following! Its clearly someone else, he said, almost proud at the realization that maybe theres somebody more sought-after in the building. Doubtful. If anything, his comment proved that hes all too familiar with the dance that occurs between shutterbug and famous subject. After all, this is the man who, according to a GQ profile published last week, rode around in the trunks of cars and parked rental vehicles throughout Los Angeles in case he needed to make a quick getaway. Hes depressingly well-trained in the art of paparazzi circumvention.

It made sense that Pattinson was semi-incognito when I met him in a discreet corner of the hotels bar. Dressed in a chunky gray sweatshirt, jeans and a ratty black baseball cap that covered his forehead and concealed his signature mane, Pattinson was calm about the pap situation but exhausted from the many interviews hes given in recent weeks to promote Good Time , his new movie. Im terrible right now, he said, laughing.

Good Time is a film that begs discussion, because of its contents and because it confirms that post-Twilight Pattinson will not be pigeonholed into any sort of Hollywood box. By nature, it feels weird to declare ones love for Good Time, a grubby indie drama in which Pattinson plays Connie, a mostly irredeemable goon flitting through Queens, trying to evade the police after robbing a bank with his deaf, mentally challenged younger brother, Nick (Benny Safdie, who co-directed the movie with his brother, Joshua). Connie calls the shots, but Nick is the one who lands in jail, sending Connie on a goose chase to secure $10,000 to bail him out.