Robert Pattinson Really Hated His “Disgusting” ‘Lost City of Z’ Beard

Robert Pattinson hit The Lost City of Z world premiere with freshly trimmed facial hair — a look that’s much leaner than the thick beard he grew for the James Gray film.

“Oh god, it took forever to grow. I was so happy to get rid of it. It was disgusting, the whole thing was disgusting,” he told The Hollywood Reporter on Saturday night. “And I had lost so much weight by the end of the shoot — nearly 35 pounds, we weren’t eating the entire time — that when I shaved it off, it was like I had no bottom half of my face. I was like a small, strange squirrel.”

Set in 1925 and based on David Grann’s best-selling book of the same name, the true-life drama stars Charlie Hunnam as British explorer Col. Percival Fawcett, who disappeared while searching for a mysterious city in the Amazon.

The long-gestating adaptation was originally set to star Plan B producer Brad Pitt, and then Benedict Cumberbatch. “But then his wife got pregnant right before we were gonna [start shooting] — I wasn’t gonna make him go to the jungle while his kid was being born. That would make me the worst person ever,” writer-director Gray laughed. Of casting Hunnam as the lead, he said, “He’s so dedicated. He lost 45 pounds in eight weeks for the movie. I love him and I have mad respect for what he went through for this movie.”

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'The Lost City of Z': NYFF Review

Sienna Miller, Tom Holland and cinematographer Darius Khondji were also on hand to introduce the 35mm print of the New York Film Festival closing-night gala title, which was prefaced with atmospheric jungle sounds playing in Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall.

“The book was great so I’m sure I’ll hear a lot of, ‘Yeah the movie was good but the book was a lot better.’ So just don’t read the book, OK?” Gray joked to attendees. Hunnam sent a comical video message explaining why he couldn’t leave a film shoot in Montenegro for the premiere: “It would’ve cost one million dollars for me to be there, and although I would’ve paid for it, actually when it came down to it, I wouldn’t.”

Amazon Studios and Bleecker Street will release The Lost City of Z in limited theaters on April 21, 2017.

here’s why Charlie Hunnam isn’t at the #LostCityOfZ premiere. #NYFF pic.twitter.com/5glZmYDcg5

— Ashley Lee (@cashleelee) October 16, 2016