Robert Pattinson had trouble seeing on set of The Lighthouse

Robert Pattinson had trouble seeing on the set of black-and-white movie The Lighthouse because the lights had to be so bright.

In the drama, Pattinson and Willem Dafoe play two lighthouse keepers on a remote and mysterious New England island who slowly start to succumb to isolation, booze, and hallucinations. The film was shot on black-and-white film, meaning every scene had to be lit more than usual, and the British actor struggled with his vision.

“We realised, because of the combination of shooting on black-and-white negative and the 1920s lenses, you need so much light just to get anything,” Pattinson told Variety magazine. “We were doing one scene which was talking to each other over a table. The light is so bright, you couldn’t see the other actor.”

The Twilight star is known for reaching out to filmmakers he wants to work with and that was no different with The Lighthouse. He got in touch with director Robert Eggers after seeing his film The Witch to suggest a collaboration and he presented him with the film’s script.

The 33-year-old threw himself into preparation for the role by reading stories and historical books about lighthouse keepers and moved to the island of Cape Forchu, Nova Scotia, where the shoot was to take place, three months early so he could acclimatise to the location.

Dafoe also spoke with the magazine to heap praise on his “wildly self-effacing” co-star.

“If you ever talk to him about performing, he acts like he doesn’t know what he’s doing. That’s a little bit of a device to allow him more freedom,” he commented. “And I might add that Rob really wants to jump into things, sometimes with his eyes closed.”

The Lighthouse is doing the film festival rounds and is set for cinema release in October.