British schoolboy Robert Pattinson became Hollywood's hot new star alongside Kristen Stewart in Twilight

Dec 31 2008

really got my head around it. I've been to so many cities now where everybody screams," he says.

"It's strange. I've even had people wanting to pay for autographs, which is crazy. You keep thinking you should do a little dance for them as well or something."

Although he now lives in LA, Robert remains down to earth, saying matter-of-factly: "I just decided that I should try to act. So I auditioned for Guys and Dolls and got a little tiny part as some Cuban dancer and then I got the lead part, and then I got my agent. I owe everything to the Barnes Theatre Club."

Not that it's all been plain sailing. His scenes in 2004 movie Vanity Fair were deleted and, in 2005, he was fired from a West End play just before opening night.

But the lantern-jawed Londoner isn't letting the adulation go to his head. He doesn't even have a car.

"I can't see any advantage to fame," he says. "I'm happy with the life I have now. I've got the same two friends I've had since I was 12, and I can't see that changing.

"I haven't even seen the movie yet. If I watch my own stuff I want to be sick, every single time."

He admits: "Up until I was 12 my sisters used to dress me up as a