Actor Robert Pattinson has spoken about what he was thinking when he lied in response to a question on TV a few years back.

The Brit, who rose to stardom with roles in Harry Potter and then Twilight, is known for his smart answers to questions from the press and fans, but one moment in 2011 stands heads and shoulders above the rest.

Pattinson, 38, has previously spoken about a range of weird and out-of-the-ordinary topics, from the truth behind sex scenes in his films to events that affected him in his childhood.

But now, the actor behind Edward Cullen has spoken about a particularly memorable interview that he gave 13 years ago.

While promoting his latest film which is set to be released in 2025, titled Mickey 17, the Batman actor has admitted that a famous story he told in the past was a plain lie.

Speaking to The New York Times, he recalled that he told the story when doing some press for the film Water for Elephants, a title set in a circus.

Don’t worry, it all makes sense in the end – TODAY host Matt Lauer asked the actor on an interview if he ever considered running away as a child to join the circus, but Pattinson had an answer that caught everyone off guard.

He said: “No, the first time I went to the circus, somebody died. One of the clowns died,” Pattinson claimed, laughing before adding: “His little car exploded, the joke car exploded on him.”

Lauer wanted to clarify the legitimacy of the story, to which the actor responded: “Seriously. Yeah. My parents had to – everybody ran out. It was terrifying. It was the only time I’ve ever been to the circus.”

But in 2024, he has reflected on the comments, saying: “There was absolutely no hesitation at all (in his voice), I’m like, ‘What on earth? Are you possessed?'”

Giving some explanation behind his thinking, he said: “The only thing people would ever ask me about was being famous. You go into, like, a fugue state.”

Pattinson suggested that these fake, crazy stories were made up to deal with the questions about his fame, and used them to deflect things away from his personal life.

The actor’s tendency to lie about his past has calmed down in recent years (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

He simply said that the clown story was because he had ‘nothing interesting to say’ about his association with circuses.

Now, many of his past claims have come back up in interviews, leading to co-stars like Zoë Kravitz questioning him on camera, as he joked: “I couldn’t tell fact from fiction.”

But that’s just part of the charm of Rob isn’t it – having the ability to catch interviewers off-guard and give them an outlandish answer to a simple question.