Before he gained fame as brooding vampire Edward Cullen in the “Twilight” film series, Robert Pattinson was involved in a slightly seedier endeavor — porn piracy.
Pattinson appeared on Howard Stern’s radio show Tuesday and discussed an array of topics, including his past as a purveyor of pilfered pornography.
“I’ve never actually said this before,” Pattinson told Stern. “I was, like, stealing porno magazines and selling them at school.”
Pattinson’s sticky-fingered entrepreneurship earned him a pretty, if tainted, penny, the actor said, noting we would sell the magazines for “like 20 pounds … like 30 bucks.”
Alas, as with many porn careers, the cockiness that sparked Pattinson’s enterprise also proved to be his downfall, as the heartthrob-to-be graduated from swiping a magazine or two at a time to a more wholesale pilfering.
“I got so cocky that I would take the entire rack,” Pattinson told Stern, recalling how a store employee caught him with a porn-stuffed backpack and gave him two choices — calling the cops or calling his parents.
Pattinson opted for the latter, but the employee also informed the future star’s school, leading to his expulsion.
Listen to Pattinson describe a dark chapter of his past below.