Taylor Lautner Found His Frequent Shirtless Scenes 'Embarrassing' and 'Awkward'

Celebrity / Movies

Taylor Lautner reveals how he really felt about being shirtless in the Twilight movies. But would the actor do it again for a future project?

Published on October 9, 2020

Taylor Lautner may have trained extensively to get the physique required to portray Jacob Black in the Twilight movies, but that doesn’t mean he was comfortable being shirtless all the time. Though it was clear to the actor why his character needed to appear in limited clothing, being the only one in a scene who was half-naked made him a bit wary on occasion. But why did Lautner spend so much time shirtless in the Twilight movies, and how did he cope with such a limited wardrobe?

While fans of the Twilight movies may love the scenes where Lautner is showing off his muscles, the actor was a bit bashful about them. In an interview with Collider, the Abduction star called out the scene where Jacob strips out of his shirt and offers it to Bella for her bleeding head wound as particularly cringey for him to watch. “I start laughing so hard every time I see that scene,” Lautner revealed. “‘Oh, you’re bleeding? OK, let me fix it.’ It’s so embarrassing.”

Taylor Lautner says filming his scenes shirtless in the ‘Twilight’ movies was awkward

But that wasn’t the only shirtless scene that Lautner found it embarrassing to shoot. In a separate interview with Collider, the Twilight star recalled the scene where Edward drops Bella off with a shirtless Jacob and he’s posing by a car. Annoyed, Edward says “Doesn’t he own a shirt?” to Bella.

“It was quite obvious, when they pull up in the middle of the street, even with the position I’m in,” Lautner shared referencing the infamous scene in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. “I’m leaning back up against the car, with my hands behind me. It looks like I’m flexing, waiting for her to come up. Those are the awkward scenes. When everybody is fully clothed, it’s raining and I’m just the only person there, posing for them.”

Lautner says being shirtless was what his role called for

But, even though the shirtless scenes often made Lautner uncomfortable, he understood that they were important to his character. Since the Twilight movies try to stay as true to the books as possible, it made sense for Jacob to constantly be shirtless after he transforms into a werewolf because of the way the author, Stephenie Meyer, described werewolves in the books.

“Yeah, I mean, here’s the thing,” Lautner began, explaining why he was constantly shirtless in the Twilight films. “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 so he’s not naked, it’s just a ripped pair of jean shorts. And he’s also hot, he’s one hundred eight degrees. So that’s another reason. And 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.”

Would Lautner ever take another role that required him to be shirtless?

Lautner continued on to say that if a future role that he loved required him to gain or lose weight or walk around shirtless again, he’d be up for doing that as well. Clearly, Lautner was committed to his role in the Twilight franchise. And while he many not have appreciated being shirtless all the time, we’re sure his fans did.

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