Pierre Suu/Getty ImagesRobert Pattinson never meant any harm.
The actor sparked concern over an anecdote shared during a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where he claimed the director of Good Time urged Pattinson to perform a sex act on a dog while filming. He refused, and a prosthetic penis was created for the scene.
Robert has since clarified his intention in sharing the story, which he says was meant to be comedic. "The story I told on Jimmy Kimmel last night seems to have spiraled out of control," he tells E! News in a statement. "What didn't come across is that this was supposed to be a joke. No one at all expected or assumed that anything like that would happen on the Good Time set."
He continued, "We are all huge animal lovers and would obviously never do anything to harm an animal."
The English-born celeb went on to defend the cast and crew of the upcoming crime drama. "Everyone involved in Good Time are amazing professionals and have come together to make a movie that I'm extremely proud of," Pattinson concluded. "I feel embarrassed that in the moment, I was trying to make Jimmy laugh, only to create confusion and a false impression."
Animal rights organization PETA offered its support to Pattinson and said they were launching an investigation to verify the incident's legality.
"PETA depends on actors and crew members to come forward when they see mistreatment, whether it involves a dog who is being forced into churning water on the set of A Dog's Purposeor an A-list actor who is being asked to molest his canine co-star," Vice President Lisa Lange said in a statement to E! News. "Robert Pattinson is our kind of guy (and everyone's who has a heart) for refusing to masturbate a dog—which is like child molestation—and for talking about it so that the public can see that once again animal trainers' top priority is money and animals' interests and well-being are often ignored."
In the initial interview, Pattinson described a scene in which his character is "sleeping with the dog and basically giving the dog a hand job."
To host Jimmy Kimmel and viewers' surprise, he continued, "It was a character thing. I asked the trainer [about it] because the director was like, 'Just do it for real, man! Don't be a pussy!' And the dog's owner was like, 'Well, he's a breeder. I mean, you can. You just gotta massage the inside of his thighs.' I was like, 'Just massage the inside of his thighs?!' I didn't agree to do the real one, so we made a fake red rocket."
Good Time is in theaters Aug. 11.