Robert Pattinson Really Got Into His 'Ferocious Masturbation Scene' In 'The Lighthouse'

Robert Pattinson filmed the climax first in “The Lighthouse.”

In an interview with The New York Times posted Thursday, an innocuous question about Pattinson’s first day of shooting the new movie led to a surprising answer.

“Well, my first shot was this ferocious masturbation scene,” he said. “It’s always nice to do something massive for your opening shot, and I went really massive on the first take.”

He wasn’t done.

“It was a 180 from everything we’d done in rehearsal, and I could see Robert [Eggers, the director] a little in shock afterward,” he said. “But I was like, O.K., cool, I didn’t get told to stop, so I’ll keep going in that direction. As soon as I’d done that, it was like the road started getting paved.”

For the record, Eggers approved of the scene. “Rob really, really went for it,” the director told The Daily Beast . “And you know, it was inspiring.”

E! noted that the actor, recently cast as the superhero lead in the upcoming “The Batman,” has portrayed other characters who pleasured themselves onscreen.

“I keep masturbating,” Pattinson told Variety recently . “In the last three or four movies, I’ve got a masturbation scene. I did it in ‘High Life.’ I did it in ‘Damsel.’ And ‘The Devil All the Time.’ I only realized when I did it the fourth time.”

In “The Lighthouse,” Pattinson and Willem Dafoe play men whose isolation at a lighthouse drives them to madness.

The movie has been a favorite on the festival circuit , winning a critics’ award at Cannes .