A film featuring Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson ensconced in a gay love affair is set to add some extra bite to the Out Takes festival. Pattinson, who is best known from his role as the pasty vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight series, plays artist Salvador Dali in Little Ashes. In the film Dali is a young man in love with Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca (played by Javier Beltran) when both were students in 1920s Madrid. The film is based on admissions Dali made in later life about the romance the pair shared in their youth. It includes a kiss between Pattinson and Lorca, as well as "a brief nude scene". However Pattinson's response to role may be a little disappointing to some gay fans, with the straight actor telling the Sunday Times he found the gay sex scenes "strange". "I played Salvador Dali. We were both straight, but he was Spanish, so much more confident about being naked and stuff, although when it comes down to it, it's just as awkward with a girl, especially if you are straight and with a girl you don't like. Anyway, Javier was really cool. After we had been pretending to have sex on this balcony in Barcelona, he was like, 'We have such a strange job.'" Out Takes has also announced its documentary pick of the festival, Training Rules, which looks into how a wealthy athletic department allowed talented athletes, thought to be gay, to be dismissed from their college team. The Out Takes Reel Queer Film Festival is in Auckland from May 27-June 2 and Wellington from June 3-9. GayNZ.com Daily News staff - 6th April 2010
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 6th April 2010 - 8:30pm