Interview: "Antiviral" Director Brandon Cronenberg Talks the Horror of Celebrity Obsession
- Matt Barone [Complex]: Last year, your sister Caitlyn was rumored to be dating Robert Pattinson—reports came out saying they were spotted together at a party for Pattinson's film directed by your dad, Cosmopolis. That must have brought a lot of Antiviral's themes especially close to home for you.
- Brandon Cronenberg: [Laughs.] That was totally strange. And then reading how she was going to his apartment at these late hours of the night, and how she was doing all of this crazy stuff with him and breaking Kristen [Stewart]'s heart…it was bizarre to witness that happening and then also witnessing it not happening while being around my sister. There were photoshopped magazine covers of them together even though the pictures were taken years apart from each other. [Laughs.] There were people who thought it was true, and they were harassing my sister about it. I was just thinking, "Why?"
- Matt Barone [Complex]: For people who love a guy like Robert Pattinson, they don't want to hear anything that could ruin whatever image they have of him, and how he lives in some larger-than-their-life way. If they find out that he's just sitting at home and watching TV right now, and not doing something glamorous, it'd crush them.
- Brandon Cronenberg: Yeah, but in that case they didn't want it to be true because they have this idea of an amazing romance between him and Kristen Stewart. They want it to mirror their fictional romance, and the fact that my sister was causing problems and playing with his dog really outraged them. [Laughs.] And it was based on nothing.
- Matt Barone [Complex]: And then when Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart broke up for real, the comments sections of so many Tumblr pages were filled with truly disturbing messages about how devastated these fans were about it, as if their parents just got divorced. It got really intense.
- Brandon Cronenberg: It's crazy. That's the thing: It's actually insanity at some point. If you respect someone on a really high level and they happen to be famous, but your respect comes from appreciating their work, that's totally fine. There's a certain point where I think it's a legitimate form of insanity, and it's that point where you think you have a relationship with this person who's never met you. That's delusional, and it was interesting to explore that idea in how the fans in Antiviral will go so far as being injected with their favorite celebrity's diseases in order to be closer to them in some way.
Anonymous Confession #709: “I’m afraid the crazies from the Twi fandom are going to jump to other fandoms and ruin those as well.”
Anonymous Confession #691: “I confess that I find it ridiculous that some fans of Robert are old enough to be his mother but they act like 10 year old girls.”
“On Sunday 10 March come on down to HMV Westfield to experience Twiline - the helpline for those Twilight fans who can’t believe that this is the end.”
This is not normal, this is not cool. If you find yourself having these kinds of thoughts, please check yourself & go get some psychiatric help. You should not be threatening people or wishing death on people over anything, let alone some celebrities you don’t even know.
Funniest thing about it is the picture she used is a manip.
Now all the Robsten fangirls are gonna ask their boyfriends to lick their armpits.
- Robsten fan: "OMG, you guys! Leave Rob & Kristen alone! Respect their privacy!"
- Robsten fan: *tracks their every movement via Twitter, Facebook, Google Earth, GPS, etc*
- Robsten fan: "Fucking paparazzi! Scum! Leave Robsten alone!"
- Robsten fan: *posts and reblogs paparazzi pics*
Anonymous Datalounger on Robsten shippers
Because it’s not HIM this deranged bunch “loves”. They love the impossible (and unhealthy) Bella and Edward pairing of the awful Meyer novels, the perfect guy who lives solely for this one average girl.
In the books, Edward is, what, 100 years old, beyond beautiful, brilliant, filthy rich, the list goes on. But yet, he’s never ONCE loved…or even been attracted to…or even had any sexual contact with…ANYONE but this plain, rather dull and insipid girl, Bella.
Playing amateur psychologist, I can only surmise that the really ardent Robsten defenders have transferred whatever spoke to them about the Edward/Bella romance (the ideal of an immortal Adonis being endlessly faithful to someone nondescript, and thereby relatable?) to the imaginary Pattinson/Stewart romance.
They don’t care about Pattinson as a person, nor do they care about Stewart as a person, though they’ll defend her to the death and turn on him because they see themselves as her. They want the unhealthy Mormon fairytale to continue in real life and they will rip apart anyone—even one of the alleged participants—who threatens to take their illusion away from them.
I’d feel sorry for these women (and the worst of them really are adult women, some who have actually married and procreated, sad to say) if they weren’t so frighteningly unstable. I worry for Pattinson and Stewart if and when the Robsten myth falls to pieces. These people are so out of touch with reality, I think they’ll take it as a personal betrayal by “Edward and Bella.” (x)
What do you see? I see a weird cult engaging in magical thinking.
Magical thinking is a type of causal reasoning or causal fallacy that looks for meaningful relationships of grouped phenomena between acts and events. In religion, folk religion, and superstition, the correlation posited is between religious ritual, such as prayer, sacrifice, or the observance of a taboo, and an expected benefit or recompense.
