Robert Pattinson sure has a weird sense of humor.
The “Twilight” star who made headlines for claiming to have refused to masturbate a dog while filming his new movie “Good Time” during an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Thursday, has now clarified that he was only kidding.
In a statement provided to TheWrap, the British actor said, “The story I told on Jimmy Kimmel last night seems to have spiraled out of control … What didn’t come across is that this was supposed to be a joke. No one at all expected or assumed that anything like that would happen on the ‘Good Time’ set.”
He added, “We are all huge animal lovers and would obviously never do anything to harm an animal.”
During his “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” appearance, Pattinson said, “There’s a big dog. There was actually, sadly, another dog which was cast, who is this big dog’s son, but it died just before. Mufasa, who is the father and this huge, huge dog, was initially in this scene,” he explained.
“My character, Connie, has this affinity with dogs. He thinks he is a dog in a previous life and he thinks he has control over animals. There’s this one scene we shot — there’s a drug dealer who busts into the room, and I was sleeping with the dog and basically giving the dog a hand job,” Pattinson continued.
When the audience (and Kimmel) erupted in laughter, the actor added, “I asked the trainer [about it] because the director was like, ‘Just do it for real, man! Don’t be a p–!’ And the dog’s owner was like, ‘Well, he’s a breeder. I mean, you can. You just gotta massage the inside of his thighs.’ I was like, ‘Just massage the inside of his thighs?’ I didn’t agree to do the real one, so we made a fake red rocket.”
Though, as it turns out, the tale was told in jest, it did earn Pattinson kudos from animal-rights group PETA. In a statement provided to TheWrap on Friday, PETA senior vice president Lisa Lange likened masturbating a dog to “child molestation,” and said that Pattinson’s disclosure comes in handy for spreading the word on animal abuse.
“PETA depends on actors and crew members to come forward when they see mistreatment, whether it involves a dog who is being forced into churning water on the set of ‘A Dog’s Purpose’ or an A-list actor who is being asked to molest his canine co-star. Robert Pattinson is our kind of guy (and everyone’s who has a heart) for refusing to masturbate a dog — which is like child molestation — and for talking about it so that the public can see that once again animal trainers’ top priority is money and animals’ interests and well-being are often ignored. PETA is currently investigating whether the law was broken in this instance,” Lange said.
Read Pattinson’s full statement below.
“The story I told on Jimmy Kimmel last night seems to have spiraled out of control. What didn’t come across is that this was supposed to be a joke. No one at all expected or assumed that anything like that would happen on the ‘Good Time’ set. We are all huge animal lovers and would obviously never do anything to harm an animal. Everyone involved in ‘Good Time’ are amazing professionals and have come together to make a movie that I’m extremely proud of. I feel embarrassed that in the moment, I was trying to make Jimmy laugh, only to create confusion and a false impression.”