Robert Pattinson says he was nearly fired from 'Twilight'

May 30 (UPI) -- Robert Pattinson says he was nearly fired while filming the first Twilight movie.

The 31-year-old British actor confessed in an interview with the New York Times that his agents had to fly in after he was almost dismissed from the 2008 film's set.

"I didn't have to kiss anybody's [butt] the entire time," he recalled. "I don't think I did, anyway."

Pattinson, who played the vampire Edward Cullen in Twilight and its four sequels, said he came to see the franchise as "an amazing luxury."

"[It] was amazing luck, as well, to just have fallen into it with the group of people I worked with on it," he added.

Pattinson previously discussed his problems on the Twilight set in an interview with Yahoo! Movies in 2012. He said he used method acting while filming the movie because he took the project so seriously.

"I was fighting with everybody in control all the time," the star said. "I was determined to make it so serious."

Pattinson has since starred in Cosmopolis, Map to the Stars and the crime drama Good Times, which competed this month at the 2017 Cannes International Film Festival. He told the NYT he still takes his work extremely seriously, to the point where he thinks he's terrible in every take.

"I can't say that about anyone I work with," the actor said. "I've never seen anyone give themselves such a hard time. I'm beating myself up afterward. And I think there's some weird perverted energy that comes out of when people criticize previous work or think you represent this certain thing."