Robert Pattinson ate live maggots for Lost City deleted scene

15 March 2017

Robert Pattinson ate live maggots for his role in 'The Lost City of Z' - but his stomach-churning feat was all for nothing as the scene was cut.

Robert Pattinson

The 30-year-old British actor plays Corporal Henry Costin in the real-life biographical film about British adventure Colonel Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) who travelled deep into the unexplored Amazon at the dawn of the 20th century and discovers a new ancient civilisation.

As well as growing a beard for his role, Pattinson was prepared to do anything required of him by director James Gray to make his performance as believable as possible including munching on the fly larvae, only to discover his bravery for the cameras ended up on the cutting room floor.

In an interview with Metro newspaper, he said: "It was so gross - I was eating them and stuff. I think they had to cut the scene to get the rating down."

Speaking about the facial fuzz he had to grow for the role, Pattinson added: "The real Henry Costin had a very dramatic Victorian moustache. I thought with my face that I might look too Noel Coward, so I had to do a full-on beard for eight months. It was pretty awful - I ended up getting these disgusting ingrown hairs all over my face. Gah! I shouldn't get into that!"

Pattinson - who is best known for playing vampire Edward Cullen in the 'Twilight Saga' - and his castmates, including Sienna Miller, had to brave a host of deadly animals when shooting on location in Colombia and although he was fine with the wildlife the bugs that invaded his hotel room freaked him out.

He shared: "There were caimans in the river and me and Charlie were swimming around them. One of the crew got bitten in the face by an arbor viper. The props master went straight in, sucked the venom and spat it out - he had no idea what he was doing, he'd just finished on 'EastEnders', but the guy was fine. There were so many dangerous creatures everywhere in the jungle, you don't worry. But when I'd come back to my hotel, I'd see one ant in my room and freak out."

Pattinson enjoyed playing the wingman to Hunnam's Fawcett as he believes the supporting role gave him more opportunities to "experiment" on screen.

He said: "You can plays things more eccentrically if you are on the sideline. You don't have the responsibility to drive the central story forward, so you can do more flourishes and experiment."