15 March 2010 (Movie Interview)

Taylor Lautner, one of the stars of the hugely successful Twilight series, speaks about the upcoming DVD release of The Twilight Saga: New Moon as well as the forthcoming release of the next film in the franchise and his career up to this point.

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So Taylor, there’s more excitement about you this time. It’s building up…
A little bit! Yeah, I guess so, a little bit more.

Are you getting nervous about doing publicity around the time when the film’s about to come out? Do you think the screaming girls are going to go absolutely crazy?
I mean, I got to see a lot of it with the whole “Twilight” experience, so I don’t think I will be shocked and surprised too much, but who knows?

Is there anything different about filming New Moon than shooting Twilight? You’re here in Vancouver rather than Portland…
The weather is pretty similar, it’s crappy! It’s really, really beautiful here, but it was in Portland too. They’re really similar. But we’ve had some horrendous weather here, it’s just starting to get really nice out. That’s good.

We hear you did lots of wirework. How was that?
You would have seen me attached to wires on that huge crane, and I run, take about fifteen steps, take a big jump, then I go ten feet up in the air, and then they stop me. It’s a big jolt. What they do then is take my body’s formation and convert that into a wolf’s with CGI.

So it will be an immediate transition then?
Yes. Jacob is the only wolf that can actually transform mid-air. So he kinda just runs and, in mid-air, snaps, and all of his clothes fly off, and transforms right then and there.

So it seems like you are doing quite a few of your own stunts then?
Right yeah. I have done all of my own stunts so far. That’s one of my favourite parts of doing this movie.

What kind of preparation did you have to do? Did they have special stunt trainers working with you to get you conditioned for this?
Well, let’s see. I had to film some dirt bike riding, so I did some dirt bike practice with some of the stunt guys. For the wirework, they kinda just threw me on there, gave me some directions, and then just went right into it. I have some experience with wires in my background – I’ve done some films with wirework before. So, it’s not that hard.

How high are you dangling?
Ten feet in the air.

You put on a lot of pounds of muscle and you got really ripped to play Jacob.
I did! I knew when I was filming “Twilight” that my character was going to change a lot in the next movie so literally the day after finishing filming “Twilight” I got down to the gym and starting putting on 30lbs.

What was going through your mind when there was all the speculation in the press over whether you would come back and take the role of Jacob again for this second movie?
You know, I can only control what I can control, so I just tried to block everything out as much as possible and just make sure I was ready to go when they called me.

Well it definitely worked. You got the part! So who called you to say, “Hey, you’re coming back”?
It was actually Chris Weitz [director].

That must give you confidence because in New Moon Edward leaves Bella and you’re kind of taking over the male lead role in this one. So is there any pressure on you?
I guess you could say that, yeah. Because I definitely want to bring Jacob Black alive for all the fans, and I want to do it right, I want to do it to the best of my abilities. But for the most part, I am just really excited to be up here, filming with the team, and just doing everything.

How do you feel about the whole Team Jacob – Team Edward thing?
It’s fun. It’s a cool part of the whole saga, the whole vampire versus werewolf thing. The fact that Bella falls in love with a vampire then becomes confused by her relationship with a werewolf adds a lot more to the storyline than just your average romance and it makes the Twilight saga a movie and books for everyone. But I’m a werewolf fan!

OK but which guy do you think should win the girl?
Well, Jacob and Edward are completely opposite guys. Jacob is the really friendly guy who starts out just friends with the girl, and Edward is love at first sight. So they are totally different scenarios.

Can I ask you about the actual Quileute tribe that Jacob is supposed to be a part of? What exposure have you had to them? Are there people that you have sat down with? Because there is a lot of mythology in the books from their culture.
Yeah, this was actually during the first film, “Twilight”, right when I got up to Portland I had the opportunity to meet and have dinner with ten Quileute members. They drove down from Forks and came to Portland, and I had dinner with them. I was expecting something totally different. I was like, “Wow, I am going to have to learn a lot about their culture” and all this stuff, so I brought my notepad, I was taking notes. I was talking to the teenage boys, asking, “So, what do you do in your free time? What do you like to do?” and was expecting something really weird. And they were like, “I like to play basketball, I like to go to the beach and check out girls.” And I was like “Oh.” They showed up in Nikes, basketball shorts, tank tops… there really wasn’t much to learn. The only thing was, I went to the parents for a lot of their legends and stuff, because the kids really didn’t have much of a clue what I was talking about. I was like, “So, tell me about the legend of the Thunderbird” and they were like, “Mom…?” So then they had to tell me about all the cool legends and stuff, so I could be filled in. It was really cool to be able to sit down like that.

Did they take you on any rituals? Did you experience anything?
Not first hand. Just being able to talk and learn from them.

So what is your background? Where were you born?
Well, I am Dutch, French and German. I was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

What is your German connection?
I don’t know. I’m a fourth German. It’s on one of my grandparent’s sides, on my mum’s side.

So how was growing up in Grand Rapids? And how did you become an actor?
Well when I was 8 I tried to get started as an actor, and got an agent. I’d been doing martial arts since I was 6 years old, and my trainer thought I should get into the business and become an actor. At first my parents were like, “Nooo, that’s not really for us, we want to stay focused on martial arts right now.” But I tried acting out, went on some auditions and I really liked it. So we lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan, until I was about ten or 11, and then my whole family decided to make the big move to LA, just for my acting career, so it was a really big risk.

It was, but it certainly worked out! So if you’ve been an actor from a very young age, what did you do about going to high school?
I tested out of High School. I took the California High School Proficiency exam, which allows me to be done with high school, and now I am taking college courses. It’s great because I don’t have to worry about it on set. I can work as an adult.

So what was your first break in LA? What made you think, “This was a good move, it was worth my family moving out here”?
I’d say that was probably “Sharkboy and Lavagirl” with Robert Rodriguez. I did a few things, I did a few guest spots on TV, a few commercials before that, but the first big thing was “Sharkboy”.

What was that like working with director Robert Rodriguez?
Amazing. His was probably one of the most fun sets you could ever be on. We were behind the cameras playing X-Box, playing “Halo”; he took us out on his boat, we went to an island, he’s just such a cool guy to be able to do a film with.

And now you have Chris Weitz directing New Moon. What is he like?
Really, really great. I think we are all so pleased with Chris’ work, so far. He keeps the set so calm, and it’s like, “How are you so talented in doing what you are actually doing right now, with this very calm but exciting set?” So he’s a really great director to be working with. I’ve had the opportunity to work with a lot of great directors and I’m really lucky.

In the last Twilight book things take a slightly strange twist for your character. Without giving anything away have you given any thought to that, or are you just taking one movie at a time?
I think that’s what all of us are trying to do, is focus on one movie at a time… it’s good to know where your character goes, but for the most part, I just want to focus on “New Moon”. For “Twilight”, what I did was I only read “Twilight”, because I heard secrets about where my character was going to be going, and I was like, “Oh, that’s a lot different from him in “Twilight”, I don’t want to get confused”, so I blocked that all out when I was doing “Twilight”. As soon as I had finished, then I read New Moon. And that’s kind of what I am doing now.

Have you had any chance to talk to Stephenie Meyer, since she obviously gave such special attention to your character, I thought she may have had some input on what’s going through Jacob’s mind in this movie or something?
A little bit. It’s really cool, what she actually does is she picks her favourite scenes in the book, or in the script, that she wants to come and visit for, so she’s actually on set quite a bit. She was actually here yesterday for the movie theatre scene. It’s always really good to see her, and if you are ever in doubt, you’ve got the number one person to go to right there.

The whole crew and cast go to Italy for the ending scenes of the movie except for you, it seems. You don’t get to shoot in Italy?
No, I don’t. I told Stephenie that she should write an epilogue quick, where Jacob goes to Italy just so I could go, but no, I don’t.

Was there a scene that you particularly looked forward to shooting?
I am not going to tell you what it is, but I’ve got a really cool sequence that’s going to be a lot of fun. But you’ll have to wait for the movie to see it!

 

The Twilight Saga: New Moon DVD will be on sale in Ireland from 19th March

 

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