Robert Pattinson Said 'Harry Potter' Inspired Him To Keep Acting & I'm Emotional

It's been 14 years since a then 18-year-old Robert Pattinson first became a household name playing dashing Quidditch captain Cedric Diggory in The Goblet of Fire. The actor's time in the wizarding world was short-live, and he's since gone on to score roles in Twilight, The Lighthouse, and the upcoming Batman. However, judging by Robert Pattinson’s quote about Harry Potter, he still has a sweet spot for the fourth installment of the series for a few reasons.

In a recent interview with HFPA, the actor reflected about his time in the 2005 film, saying it opened his eyes to the possibilities of being in the industry and inspired him to pursue his acting career.

"I remember going to Tokyo for the first time and sitting in my room, looking out over the city and being like ‘How has this happened?'" he told the publication about the film's global press tour. "It was really special and I really like that movie … I wouldn’t be acting if it wasn’t for that."

He also revealed that the filmmakers behind the film were uniquely protective of the film's stars, many of whom were aged 11 at the time.

"It was a really nice environment on Harry Potter. Even compared to movies I’ve done since, it was very protected, the way the kids were treated," he continued. "I’ve watched movies where you see a kid who’s got their tutor and it doesn’t exactly seem like they’re really going to school. I mean, it’s just kind of [like] they are fulfilling a legal requirement. But in Harry Potter, it was like they were at school and they were kind of doing work at the same time."

While he didn't end up keeping in touch with his Goblet of Fire co-stars, Pattinson has said it was a different story when it came to his second breakout role as Twilight's undead leading man Edward Cullen.

Back in April, the actor told USA Today that he'd recently re-watched New Moon and had different, more positive, feelings about the franchise now that some time had passed.

"I completely forgot, but the soundtracks were quite ahead of their time," he told the publication about the film, which he previously said he would "mindlessly hate" if he'd been a viewer watching it for the first time.

"It seems like with younger people in their late teens, early 20s, it's sort of become quite a hip thing to like," Pattinson said about the film's resurgence in popularity following its tenth anniversary. "It's a fascinating second wave of people appreciating it, which is kind of cool. I think when anything becomes a massive phenomenon, there's always people who get annoyed because it's just everywhere. But now it seems like a retro thing: the soundtrack, the fashion. It's like, 'Oh, that's so late 2000s.'"

While both him and co-star Kristen Stewart have been open about the anxiety they experienced at the height of the franchise's popularity, he added, "It’s lovely now that the mania is not so intense. People come up [to me] and just have very fond memories of it. It’s a really sweet thing. I think the only scary part was right in the thick of it all when it was very, very intense."

From the sound of things, the actor's come a long way since his Harry Potter days with upcoming roles in Christopher Nolan's Tenet and the 2021 Batman, but he hasn't forgotten where he came from and what inspired him to become an actor in the first place.