Unexpected Blowback Twilight Topless Scenes Had on Taylor Lautner
If you thought it was easy for the Twilight star to appear in a massively popular movie franchise as "the guy with the perfect body," think again.
Taylor Lautner, who portrayed werewolf Jacob Black in the Twilight film saga, has opened up about the body image issues the massively popular movies have caused him.
Speaking on his new podcast, The Squeeze, which he co-hosts with his wife, Taylor Dome Lautner, the 30-year-old actor revealed that until recently he was unaware of the impact playing the shredded werewolf heartthrob had on him.
"In the first movie, I was 140 lbs., and in New Moon I was 175. So yeah, that wasn't my natural body. I had to work very hard for it and very, very hard to maintain it," the actor admitted.
According to Lautner, after being forced to go to the gym several times a day just to keep the "werewolf" body as it was, he immediately "rebelled" against the gym after the Twilight franchise ended. And he was perfectly fine portraying characters with less impressive physiques until he started seeing pictures online that compared his less shredded characters to Jacob Black — not in a flattering way.
"But then seeing it online where they put the side-by-sides of me shirtless in the ocean in a scene from that movie compared to me in Eclipse or whatever and being like, 'Wow, he's let it all go.' I was like, 'Oh, man. Did I really let it all go?' I didn't think I looked that bad," the actor said.
The criticism of his altered body image caused Lautner's mental health issues, but now that he has learned not to tie the so-called "perfect body" to happiness, he urges his podcast listeners to try to do the same.
"Your body can look unbelievable, you can be ripped, shredded, whatever you can lose weight, you can put on muscle, and if you're not healthy mentally, then that's all for nothing because that can work against you," he said.
The role of Jacob Black took a toll on Lautner, who had to quickly transform from an awkward teenager to a ripped werewolf who would rather go topless than wear a shirt. He got there by spending up to five days a week at the gym and eating 3,200 calories a day.