Rise to Fame
Casting directors for Twilight found him by searching Harry Potter cast photos. He ended up being the last of roughly 3,000 actors auditioned for Edward Cullen, which is less an underdog story and more a reminder that Hollywood often picks faces before talent. Goblet of Fire (2005) gave him a 'next Jude Law' label in The Times. The Twilight saga gave him $3.3 billion in worldwide box office and a fandom that drew Beatlemania comparisons. He spent the next decade trying to outrun it.
In the Spotlight
He reached out to the Safdie Brothers himself after seeing a still from their earlier work, which is how Good Time (2017) happened. That film earned him a six-minute standing ovation at Cannes and shifted how the industry saw him. The Batman (2022) closed the deal: $772 million at the box office, 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, and critics calling it the best live-action Batman since Michael Keaton. Bong Joon-ho's Mickey 17 followed in 2025. He now works both lanes, artistically credible enough for A24 auteurs and commercially viable enough for superhero franchises, which is harder to hold than it sounds.
Side Notes
He was expelled from Tower House school at 12 for shoplifting pornographic magazines. That tells you more about his personality than a decade of press junkets. He wrote two songs on the Twilight soundtrack ('Never Think' and 'Let Me Sign'), has been playing classical guitar since he was 5, and once described music as his backup plan if acting fails. His older sister Lizzy reached the top six on the UK X Factor in 2014. At one point he survived two weeks eating mostly potatoes and Himalayan pink salt, which he mentioned in an interview without apparent distress.