BoxOffice Interview With Taylor Lautner
In this new interview with Box Office, Taylor Lautner discusses Team Jacob and all the action in New Moon!
Seventeen-year-old Taylor Lautner is the youngest star in Twilight’s fantastical love triangle, but he’s an old pro at discipline. At 11, he was the top ranked global champion in four styles of karate; at 12, he won the Junior World Championship. The next year, Robert Rodriguez [Spy Kids, Sin City] cast him as the kiddie action hero in The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3D, followed up right after with playing one of the brood in Steve Martin’s Cheaper by the Dozen 2. As Twilight’s Jacob—the Quileute Indian high-schooler who learns how to transform into a werewolf just as his classmates learn to shave—Lautner was launched into international stardom, and the most surprising thing about it is the young athlete was first considered too scrawny to make the transition to the brawnier, more action-packed sequel, New Moon. One year and thirty pounds of muscle later (every ounce of which was breathlessly detailed on fansites), Lautner’s on the cover of magazines, he’s featured prominently on New Moon’s poster and, true to form, the young actor is already hard at work on the third installment in the series, 2010’s Eclipse. Though he’s hardly had a break since he first entered the dojo as a first-grader, Lautner’s in high spirits, laughing his way through an interview where he tells BOXOFFICE about his secret love for romantic comedies and whether he’d ever date a fan.
If the last two books in the series hadn’t already been written, what do you think Jacob should do to win over Bella?I don’t think he would have changed anything, and I don’t think he should change anything. Jacob and Edward are extremely different guys and it’s just whether you want one guy or another. Jacob is himself, and he has a relationship with Bella that Edward doesn’t. And Edward has a relationship with Bella that Jacob doesn’t. So I wouldn’t change a thing.
As an actor, how do you make the audience root for Jacob and get invested in his feelings when the outcome of the love triangle is already known?
Well, you try and take things one step at a time. When I’m filming New Moon, I’m not thinking about Eclipse. When I’m filming Eclipse, I’m not thinking about Breaking Dawn. We just have to focus on the movie that we’re doing.
What is it like for your family and friends to see people scream at pictures of you topless?
[Laughs] It’s weird. It’s embarrassing for me, and I’m sure it’s awkward for all of them.
Have you gotten teased about it at family dinners?
Not yet, and I’m hoping that doesn’t happen because I’ll start blushing.
You came into acting from karate. Do they overlap—they seem to share the need for focus and concentration.
It’s a lot of hard work. That’s probably the most I got out of karate: it was a lot of work. A lot of training. And you need that for everything in life.
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