Robert Pattinson On Life After 'Twilight': 'If you have one big-budget failure you're done'

There are just under two weeks before the fourth of the Twilight Saga's films, Breaking Dawn - Part 1 opens, and judging by the past movies' box-office success, this latest installment is sure to be a commercial success. 

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So, one would think that the series' star, Robert Pattinson, would be flying high, free of worry. 

Instead, when giving interviews during the press junket for the film, the actor revealed that the closer he gets to the end of Twilight, the more "crippling" his fear of the future becomes. 

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"In career terms Twilight was like a security blanket," British-born Pattinson tells Uk's The Observer, before correcting the statement. "Not a blanket – a safety net. I had a three- or four-month window between each one during which I could do another job. But whatever I did I knew that I'd have another Twilight movie on the way, which is theoretically guaranteed to make a lot of money. So I could always afford to fail."

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But, now, the actor, who has appeared in successful non-vampire fare, like this summer's Water for Elephants with Reese Witherspoon, says he feels like he's got a short  time period during which he can make a lasting mark. 

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"After the last one comes out, you can kind of have two failures – and they'd better be low-budget failures. Because if you have one big-budget failure you're pretty much done in this environment."

He goes on, "I'm now this 'thing' that's supposed to be something. And if you then don't fulfil that expectation, what the fuck are you?"

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Not exactly the words of a secure Hollywood A-lister. But, luckily for Pattinson, he's got a few projects lined up that will hopefully prove he's got post-teen-sensation chops. He stars in Bel Ami, the story of a womanizer, opposite Christina Ricci, Uma Thurman and Kristen Scott Thomas, in theaters Feb. 2012, and then he will appear alongside Paul Giamatti and Juliette Binoche in David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis, out next year as well.