Warning: This story contains discussion of sexual acts.
Hollywood heartthrob Robert Pattinson has made an embarrassing apology after alleging the directors of an indie film he's starring in asked him to perform a sex act on a dog.
Speaking about his experience on the set of upcoming crime drama Good Time, Pattinson told Jimmy Kimmel Live! his character, Constantine, had an affinity with canines - and claimed in one scene, he was caught getting intimate with one.
"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!'" he told host Jimmy Kimmel.
"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."
As the anecdote went on, the live studio audience could be heard going increasingly quiet and Pattinson seemed to sense it, finishing his story up sharply.
But the thoughtless tale left question marks over Ben and Josh Safdie, the directors behind the recently released film, and whether they had actually encouraged real-life bestiality on-set.
The sibling duo took to Twitter to defend themselves after the allegations came to light, saying they did not want Pattinson to perform the sex act, as reports had suggested.
And now Pattinson himself has come to their defence, claiming he made the entire thing up in an effort to make the talk show host laugh - only for it to backfire.
"The story I told on Jimmy Kimmel last night seems to have spiralled out of control. 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 said in a statement to E! News.
"We are all huge animal lovers and would obviously never do anything to harm an animal. Everyone involved in Good Time are amazing professionals and have come together to make a movie that I'm extremely proud of.
"I feel embarrassed that in the moment, I was trying to make Jimmy laugh, only to create confusion and a false impression."
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