Starring in one of the most hyped movies of the year, Taylor Lautner is scrutinised as much for his body as he is for his acting. Below, he talks about the pressures on working out daily for is role in Twilight - New Moon.
Q: Did it ever feel like you were really in danger of not getting the role in this movie?
TAYLOR LAUTNER: "No, I knew where my character went in New Moon and that's all I tried to stay focused on. I couldn't control things outside. I couldn't control the media. But I could control what I was doing to portray Jacob Black correctly. So that's what I stayed focused on the whole entire time."
Q: Did that start with going to the gym and gaining 30lbs?
TL: "Absolutely. Jacob transforms a lot in New Moon, not only physically but mentally and emotionally as well. So it was a matter of getting to the gym and eating the right food and a lot of it. Also reading and studying the book and the character over and over and over again so I could have his character down as well because he changes in many, many different ways."
Q: Can you talk about those changes?
TL: "When he transforms, basically my job was to continue what I started in Twilight, which was this extremely happy, friendly, outgoing guy, best friends with Bella. I had to continue that for the first half of the film, but as soon as I transform, I snap and I become a completely different person. I'm dealing with my issues and it's really hard for me."
Q: You have a lot of opportunities in the film to show off your new physique. Were you comfortable acting topless?
TL: It's so embarrassing. Yeah. I mean, here's the thing: there's a reason that he's not wearing clothes all the time. One, when he transforms, all his clothes get shredded. He can't help it. And when he goes into the woods to get something to put on so he's not naked, it's just a
ripped pair of jean shorts. He's also hot. He's 108 degrees. So that's another reason. The thing is, I love this character, I love this story, and putting on the weight and not wearing much clothing was required by the role. A year from now, if I love a story and I love a character that requires me to lose 40 lbs, I'm ready to do it."
Q: What did you eat, how did you exercise? Can you give a little more of a rundown on how you bulked up?
TL: "Oh boy. You're putting the pressure on me now. I was in the gym about five days a week, because it's important to get your recovery time and not overworking yourself.
I was trying to put on weight and if I was in the gym too much I'd be burning the calories I'm trying to take in. The most important thing was the eating side. Everybody thinks it was the actual getting in the gym. That was easy-I was motivated. So getting in the gym was easy for me. But the eating was pretty hard. It was just eating a lot. I found out that I had to consume at least 3,200 calories a day just to maintain it. So I had to eat more and put something in my mouth every two hours. And I'm busy. I'm downtown LA, I'm from meeting to meeting. There's not time for me to be eating. So I literally would have to carry a little bag of beef patties, raw almonds, sweet potatoes. So it's not like every two hours I'm eating ice cream. It was difficult."
Q: Can you talk about the stunt and wire work, how difficult was that to get used to?
TL: "Yeah. The physical side was really fun. Some of it was challenging. I'd never ridden a dirt bike before. I rode the dirt bike for a total of about five seconds in the film but for those five seconds I had to look as cool as possible. So it did require a lot of practice just, for safety-wise, so they'd let me do it. And the wire work, like when I run up the side of her house, that whole thing, the wires were there so if I slipped and fell. It was definitely challenging. That stunt was really complicated. You need to be on. I'm using a little plug in the side of the wall to take off from and jump so it's really complicated and it required a lot of practice. Every single weekend I would practice that stunt for three hours a day. It was the last thing we filmed."
Q: What is the strangest thing that has ever been written about you?
TL: "Honestly I try to stay away from what has been written about me. If you let that stuff get to you and it's not true, it can drive you crazy. One thing that I have heard recently, which is not true, I definitely didn't say it, I was quoted as saying I will never take my shirt off for a movie again. I didn't say that. If I have to, if the character requires it, I will. Who knows, in ten years, I might do that. Like I said earlier, if a character requires me to lose 40lbs, I'll do it. It's just what the character requires. So that was interesting to see."
Q: This movie is going to make you a bigger star. You've already got a lot of teen girls who idolize you. Going into this movie with a bigger role, how did you think about that and how did you prepare yourself for that?
TL: "I don't think there's any way to prepare yourself for this phenomenon, just because none of us expected it. When we were filming Twilight, we didn't expect anything. We were just filming a movie that we wanted the fans to enjoy, and then it kinda just blew into this whole other world. So I don't think that there's a way to prepare for that. You could definitely say I felt a little bit of pressure trying to bring Jacob's character and Jake and Bella's relationship alive for the fans. This movie definitely develops their relationship and sets up the love triangle. So it's a very important story."
Q: Was getting rid of the wig in this movie freeing? Can you talk about that experience?
TL: "It was very freeing. It not only was uncomfortable. I'd look at myself in the mirror and I wouldn't even be able to recognize myself. It was so weird just to see that hair on me. It was also very itchy, hot, whatever, annoying. Also it slowed down the filming process. Whenever it got caught in my eye or whatever, we'd have to cut and start over. It got caught in my mouth and I'm spitting hair out in the middle of the scene. I'm coming this close to kissing Bella and, 'Sorry, I've got to spit my hair out'. It was annoying. My last day of filming with the wig, we ripped it off, held it up in the air, like 'That's a picture wrap on Taylor's wig.' The whole crew gave it a standing ovation. It was amazing. It was great to chop that thing off."
Q: So, In a fight, who wins, you or Robert Pattinson?
TL: "Oh man. I don't know between me and Rob. He actually does a lot of boxing in his time off. It might be a good match-up. We were actually discussing this on set. It's funny, like who would win in a fight between Jacob and Edward? Because there's a scene outside Bella's house where Edward grabs my shoulder and he's mad at me and Jacob doesn't take that, so he takes his arm and rips it off and that moment Jacob would transform into a wolf. And we're having this discussion, it got really deep. We were like, 'If I were to poof into a wolf right now, what would happen? Who would win?' That discussion is still up in the air."
Also check out more of our Twilight content.
Watch our video interview with Robert Pattinson
Watch our video interview with Kirtsten Stewart
Interview with Taylor Lautner
Interview with Sam Uley/Chaske Spencer
Watch our video interview with Peter Facinelli (Dr Carlisle Cullen)
TWILILGHT NEW MOON is out now on DVD. Stay tuned to Movies.ie for more Twilight news and interviews.