ORLANDO, Fla. — If you’ve ever been to an opening
night showing of a “Twilight” movie, you’ve heard the shrieks, the
shouts. It’s “ED-ward!” on one side and “JA-cob” on the other, a little
taste of fan bedlam.
And Taylor Lautner, the
19-year-old who plays the werewolf (Jacob) who adores Bella (Kristen
Stewart) and resents the vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson), has sampled
that crazy scene himself. In disguise.
“I showed
up at a theater, not really knowing what to expect,” he says. “I
thought, ‘It’ll be FINE. Maybe a few people will show up. Maybe one or
two people will recognize me.’ It was, oh, let’s say INTERESTING. And
that was just for the first film, where I was just in a couple of
scenes.”
Lautner has spent the past four years as
Jacob in the “Twilight Saga,” enjoying and enduring the adulations of
millions thanks to these high-school vampire blockbusters. But with the
series winding down — they have finished filming “Breaking Dawn,” parts
one and two of the last book, with the first of those hitting theaters
in November — Lautner was ready to take his first starring role “outside
of the franchise.”
The film he chose was an action picture, “Abduction,” which opens Friday.
“As
an actor, my dream is to be able to challenge myself in many different
genres,” he says. “What I liked about this project was that it has
action, but it wasn’t all about the action. I see it as an action-drama,
thriller-romance. I knew that it would stretch me.”
In
the film, Lautner plays Nathan, a high-school student and wrestler who
learns that his parents have a secret life when their home is attacked
and he has to flee for his life. The cute, aloof neighbor (Lily Collins)
comes along on his quest to find out who he is and who might be trying
to kill him.
“I’ve never been able to use what
martial arts I know in a movie role,” he says. He studied karate and
competed, earning his black belt when he was 8. “It was good to be able
to kick off some rust, get back into training again, using it in big
fight scenes. I had new martial arts to pick up. Boxing, for instance.
And wrestling.”
Back in 2008, when “Twilight” was
about to debut, Lautner came off as a shy kid not quite sure what was
about to happen to him. Now, he seems comfortable in the career and the
fame it has brought.
Lautner has kept his family
close to him, using their advice in his choice of film roles. His father
even has a producing credit on “Abduction,” because, as Taylor puts it,
“you should always be able to trust that your family wants what’s best
for you.”
He can joke about “not being able to
pull off a convincing disguise any more” when he wants to go out in
public, and laughs at the idea that things “might get touchy” if he and
his lone competition in the “most shirtless scenes” sweepstakes, Matthew
McConaughey, ever met.
Lautner is frank enough to
admit that yes, Nathan and Jacob are similar enough to fall within his
comfort zone as he explores roles beyond “Twilight.”
“They’re
both outsiders, both guys who don’t feel they quite belong. And another
thing I picked up on is that they both have this goal and they are
incredibly persistent as they pursue that goal. They don’t let anything
stand in their way.
“Nathan just wants to know the
truth and he’ll stay on the run until he gets it. Anything and
everything he can do, he will. Same with Jacob. He just wants that girl,
to be loved. He will risk it all for that. I kind of respect that about
both these characters.”
And yes, they both take
their shirts off. As Mickey Rapkin once noted in GQ magazine, since his
first “cut” and “ripped” shirtless moments in “The Twilight Saga: New
Moon,” Lautner’s physique has become “his calling card.”
That
gets a laugh out of Lautner, as does the suggestion that now that he’s
done filming “Twilight,” he might let himself go. He already has, he
jokes.
“I remember my last shirtless scene, when
we were filming ‘Breaking Dawn.’ When we wrapped the scenes with my body
in them, that was such a night! I went out and I had desert for the
first time in like a year. I took a few days off from the gym, another
HUGE deal.
“I’m definitely back into working out
again. But it’s very different, working out to be active and healthy.
It’s less about bulking up and more about just staying healthy.”
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©2011 The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Fla.)
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