Taylor Lautner Takes Paparazzi In Stride After “Twilight” Success


Published: June 30, 2010 by Nathan Poppe Comment on this article Leave a comment

In this film publicity image released by Summit Entertainment, Taylor Lautner, left, and Kristen Stewart are shown in a scene from, "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse." (AP Photo/Summit Entertainment, Kimberley French)  ORG XMIT: NYET339
In this film publicity image released by Summit Entertainment, Taylor Lautner, left, and Kristen Stewart are shown in a scene from, "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse." (AP Photo/Summit Entertainment, Kimberley French) ORG XMIT: NYET339

When director David Slade accentuated the action factor in “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” one of the film’s most prominent stars, Taylor Lautner, got left out of the excitement. Sure, Lautner’s character, Jacob Black, goes to battle against the “newborn” vampires in “Eclipse,” but because Lautner walks upright on two feet, he saw none of it.

“For me, specifically, I am a wolf when there is any action going on,” Lautner said during a press day for “Eclipse” at Los Angeles’ Four Seasons Hotel. “So, I was bummed that I wasn’t involved in it too much. I got to kiss Bella for the first time. Yeah, so that was probably the biggest thing. That was probably the most exciting new thing.”

Right now, Hollywood casting directors see Lautner as “the most exciting new thing,” a result of lightning striking at just the right time and place for the 18-year-old Michigan native. But while 2008’s “Twilight” and last year’s “New Moon” vaulted Lautner into the public consciousness, he spent most of his adolescence in odd roles that, added together, did not seem like a formula for worldwide stardom. Along the way, he was all-ears as a Mouseketeer on the misbegotten “Nick and Jessica Variety Hour,” suited up as Sharkboy in “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D,” and played a marble-headed antagonist in the last produced Peanuts special, “He’s a Bully, Charlie Brown.” Lautner worked solidly, but he needed that one role that would break him beyond voice work, kid’s shows and goofy, one-off Jessica Simpson specials.

Read the rest of George Lang’s story at Planet 46.

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