The Twilight heartthrob stars in David Cronenberg's Cannes Film Festival entry as sleek, self-centred moneyman Eric Packer, who sees his fortune and sense of self evaporate during an eventful day in his stretch limo.

Pattinson's famously handsome face is on-screen in every scene, but Twilight's young fans may be surprised and confused by a film that explores Cronenberg's fascination with physical, social and psychic violence.

The 26-year-old actor is not worried.

"If some 12-year-olds went to go and see that, or got the video for their birthday — sitting down and watching that, it's incredible," the actor said. "I would love that to happen if I was a kid."

Pattinson gets plenty of scope to stretch himself in Cosmopolis, playing a hollow-eyed Master of the Universe forced to confront his mortality.

Packer is not, to put it mildly, a likable character. Some have seen him as an avatar of Wall Street excess, but Pattinson says he watched interviews with serial killers Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy, rather than real-life financiers, to help him create the character's voice.

"He's like an alien," Pattinson said of the character.

"He's not part of his body. Everything is an abstraction. The world's an abstraction. Everything is."

Dystopian

The film has been widely described as a dystopian reflection of the present crisis of capitalism — but Pattinson sees it in a more cheerful light, as Packer learns to face his humanity.

"I always thought it's kind of a happy story, up until the right at the very end," he said.

Pattinson's Twilight fame has trailed with him around Cannes, but Cronenberg said it had no bearing on his decision to cast the actor.

"You must ignore the baggage," the director said.

"It is very easy to say that this character, Eric Packer, is vampire or a werewolf of Wall Street, But really that's rather superficial. He's a real character and a real person in the movie.

"This is a real person, with a history and a past. And the history and the past is not Twilight. It's Cosmopolis."

Pattinson came to Cannes with girlfriend Kristen Stewart, who appears in the Jack Kerouac adaptation On the Road.

"She found out a lot earlier than I did that it [On the Road] was in competition," Pattinson said.

He's happy now, though, and still can't believe the reaction to the strange and unsettling Cosmopolis.

"When there's people screaming outside, I'm like, This is incredible," he said. "That people are screaming for this, the most bizarre movie — it's amazing.

"I wasn't expecting anyone to get it. Even last night [at the premiere], I was expecting everyone to walk out."