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Twilight Breaking Dawn: Taylor Lautner Interview

Niña — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 06:40:23 +0000

MoviesOnline sat down with actor Taylor Lautner at a press conference this weekend to speak about how his character has developed over the previous four movies. He speak about what it was like working with director Bill Condon, explained the challenges he faced shooting the series where he goes alpha and imprints on Renesmee, and explained why he was bummed that Edward got the hot vampire and all he got was the baby. He also talked about how Jacob will stay with him long after playing the character, why it was emotional shooting the last scene in between Jacob and Bella, and what inspired his forthcoming project with director Gus Van Sant.

MoviesOnline: Taylor, the music is so important to these films. I want to know what’s on your iPod? Are there any particular tracks on your playlist right now?

Taylor Lautner: This question is so difficult for me. This one actually stresses me out because I am so all over the place with my music taste. It’s ridiculous. It is. I find myself listening to weird things like hard core techno music and then I’ll be listening to mainstream hip hop. But it’s like I am so crazy with my music taste and I’m so …. I mean, I’ll listen to a song. I’ll become obsessed with it and then I’m on to the next one. It’s just very inconsistent.

MoviesOnline: You’re considerably more focused and carry a lot more emotional weight in this film than previously. What was your approach to being Jacob this time around?

Taylor Lautner: I was really excited about this one because Jacob becomes a man in this one and he has to make a lot of decisions. He’s being torn between his two families so it was really tough. It was by far the most challenging one for me. But I didn’t know what to think going into it. As soon as the three of us sat down with Bill (Condon), we just dove right into it. We talked about the characters. I really can say that I couldn’t have done it without Bill’s help. He was absolutely amazing and talking to us all the time. I trusted him completely. It was really special though. I’ve now seen the movie and I’m really happy. Jacob starts here and he ends here. It’s just very exciting to see him in a completely different light than ever before.

MoviesOnline: What about the imprint scene?

Taylor Lautner: Oooh, you had to go there. That was tough because what is imprinting? What do you look like when you imprint? Those were all the questions going through my head. Luckily we had Stephenie (Meyers) on set the entire time, and trust me, I asked her a million times “Okay, explain me one more time what imprinting is on something. And, did you ever envision what Jacob looked like? What is he doing when he’s imprinting?” It was very, very confusing. There was a lot of conversation about that and then it didn’t help that when we actually filmed it, they put an X on a wall and said “This is Renesmee. You’re going to walk in the room. You’re going to look at the X and you’re going to imprint.” And I’m like “Are you kidding me?” It was tough. It really was. But now, after seeing the final version, I’m really happy with it. It’s emotional. They did a really good job with bringing back cool flashbacks and tying in a voiceover. It really is a very special moment, but on the day it was a leap of faith.

MoviesOnline: Were you bummed that after going after Bella all this time, Edward gets a hot vampire bride and you get the baby?

Taylor Lautner: I get the baby? Yeah. I’ve gotten over that by now but originally I remember the first time reading the fourth book. The fourth book came out and I’m like alright, what’s gonna happen? What’s gonna happen? Is Edward going to end up with Bella? Is Jacob going to end up with Bella? I was so confused. It was like wait, he’s trying to get Bella the whole time and he strikes out, so he goes with her child. It really took a second. You have to tread lightly because it’s a very special thing and it’s not romantic at all. We definitely had to film it in a certain way and I think that Bill did an incredible job with that.

MoviesOnline: With all the great things that Twilight has brought you, what’s the thing that you are ready to put behind you and not have to experience anymore?

Taylor Lautner: Not wearing clothes and maybe the climate of where we filmed, and those two together don’t go very well. I love Vancouver but we always have to film when it’s cold and rainy and gross, and when the sun comes out, we’ve got to stop filming. Honestly, I can’t even think of complaints or anything that I wouldn’t want to do because of everything it’s given me. It’s just absolutely unreal and I didn’t see it coming at all. None of us did. My mind doesn’t even go there. I’m just crazy thankful for what this has given us and all the opportunities it’s given us as actors.

MoviesOnline: You guys have become practically a family of your own at this point. Who’s the most unlikely person that you’ve become really close with as a result of Twilight?

Taylor Lautner: That’s a good question. I can definitely say that we all are very, very close. One person that I’m really close with and I’m happy and it could be unexpected because he’s not even in the franchise anymore because I killed him was Edi Gathegi who plays Laurent. He’s an incredible guy. We’re very close. Maybe that’s unexpected because I haven’t filmed a movie with him in a few years and the last time I did I took him out of the franchise and I bit his head off so I apologized to him for that. He’s a great guy but at the same time we have all grown so close. It’s really unbelievable how much we’ve gotten along. I can’t imagine filming this franchise if we didn’t. It would be a complete nightmare.

MoviesOnline: What’s been your craziest fan encounter?

Taylor Lautner: Craziest fan encounter? That is so tough to choose one. I don’t like using the word crazy. I like using the word “passionate.” Kristen and I had a very interesting Brazil experience that I’ve talked about numerous times that just was out of control, but amazing, and there was a lot of passion there. I’ve had a few girls that tattoo a picture of you or your signature to their arm. That blows my mind. Something new happens every single day. It continues to blow my mind. You’d think we’d all get used to it and expect it, but every time something happens, we’re like “Are you kidding me?” We wouldn’t be here today promoting a fourth movie if it wasn’t for that amount of passion. That’s absolutely unreal to me.

MoviesOnline: Can you tell us what you’ve got coming up next?

Next? I don’t know. To be honest, I’ve been promoting two back to back movies and now I’ll have a little break which I’m excited for. It will give me time to catch up on sleep a little bit and also start to think about what will be next.

MoviesOnline: What about Gus Van Sant?

Taylor Lautner: What about him?

MoviesOnline: Wasn’t it announced just this week that you’re going to do a movie with him?

Taylor Lautner: He’s a very, very talented director who I’ve always looked up to and I’ve always wanted to work with. It’s very premature so I really don’t have much to say now other than the fact that I really respect him and would love the opportunity to work with him.

MoviesOnline: Is it true it’s based on a New Yorker article?

Taylor Lautner: There is a project like that floating around somewhere on this planet.

MoviesOnline: Now that you’ve finished playing Jacob, is this the kind of character that will stick with you?

Taylor Lautner: Yeah, absolutely. After playing the same character for five movies, and for years we’ve grown so close to him, you start putting yourself into Jacob and then you start putting Jacob into you. I love Jacob. There are many things that I look up to Jacob for. Jacob’s one of the most loyal people, one of the most persistent people. He has amazing qualities to him that I hope I can learn from him and input into my own life which is kind of cool.

MoviesOnline: How important is it to you, now that you’re so identified with a hugely successful franchise, to find something different? Or, is it just a matter of finding something that keeps your face out there?

Taylor Lautner: No, it’s definitely not a matter of just finding something that keeps your face out there. I want everything to feel special to me and I’m very specific about that. In a way, and we’ve all said this to each other because we all deal with it, it would almost be a compliment to be typecast. That’s our jobs. Our jobs are to make the fans believe that we are these characters. So, in the one sense, we’re trying to do that to ourselves because that’s the goal with these fans. But, at the same time, of course, as actors we want to be able to go off and do different things and challenge ourselves to many different roles. It is very exciting in one sense that it’s coming to an end and we get to go off as actors and experience different things and continue to challenge ourselves and grow. But, at the same time, it’s a bummer because it’s been such a huge part of our lives.

MoviesOnline: One of your most pivotal scenes is when you fight back as a wolf and go alpha and it plays out in the heads of the wolves. Did that frustrate you that you couldn’t put your own physicality to that and how did you rehearse that?

Taylor Lautner: It was weird and awkward because we were standing in an empty room. They actually filmed us. We did a version of that scene and they filmed us just because we said all of the lines. That was the voice that’s used in the movie. At the same time, when we’re filming that scene, if my face does something, they would implement that into the wolves. It’s very, very cool the amount of detail that they pay attention to. So, in a way, I’m bummed because the wolves got a very cool scene that we didn’t, but I’m kind of used to that by now. In a sense, we were able to do the scene. They were able to use specific things that we did with our bodies, with our faces, with our voice, with everything and just implemented them into the wolf.

MoviesOnline: Are you comfortable enough this late in the franchise to say “No, no, Jacob wouldn’t do that” or “He wouldn’t have done it this way”? Did you get into any situations like that where you were arguing for your take on it?

Taylor Lautner: Thankfully no. We are so open with each other that I’m sure any of us would have spoken up and said that, but with Bill, he just made us feel so comfortable to begin with, because again it could’ve been a challenge playing the same character for five movies. We have a different director each time, and then when the new director comes on board, sometimes it can take a second to adjust and get on the same page with them. But Bill was so amazing. He really just made us feel comfortable and open, and yeah, a version of those did happen where it wasn’t an argument, but we would say “I think he would do this” or “I think he would say this” or “I don’t think he would do that.” Bill was very open about everything and then Bill would say the same stuff to us. I’ve respected Bill for a very long time even before I’ve had the opportunity to work with him or found out I was going to be able to work with him so I was able to completely trust him. All of us were, which was very important as well.

MoviesOnline: Do you understand why Jacob would not let go of Bella? Also, can you talk about your very last scene you filmed with Kristen?

Taylor Lautner: I go back and forth with Jacob’s persistence. Most of the time, I can understand it because there’s been things in my life that I have wanted so much, and when you’re told no, you gotta keep going. You gotta go for it. If you’re told no and you just say “Oh, okay” and give up, I wouldn’t be sitting here today. It requires a lot of hard work and a lot of persistence. If you believe in something, if you love something, you gotta go for it no matter what. Most of the time I could relate, but there are moments where I’m just like “Dude, you’ve got to get over it. She’s married now. This is her honeymoon. It’s about time to move on.” So yeah, there are a few of those moments. And then, our last scene was tough, because I knew filming the last scene was going to be tough but it was more emotional for all of us than we expected. And it didn’t help that my very last scene was with Kristen. It was with Rob as well, but he comes in at the end and breaks it up. It’s really the last dance between Bella and Jacob towards the end of the wedding. It’s really Jacob saying goodbye to Bella. She’s off to her honeymoon and he’s realizing that it’s over. Everything I’ve been working for is over and it’s really time for him to move on and realize that. It’s an emotional scene. We’re saying goodbye to each other pretty much and that was the very last scene we filmed together so it didn’t help the situation. I remember when we finished, Kristen and I looked at each other and I don’t think we really had anything to say because the emotion from the scene was overwhelming us and then the emotion of the situation on top of that. It was tough but it was a very special moment, and now when I watch that scene, I have a lot of great memories.

Watch out for the big screen opening of “Breaking Dawn – Part I” this November 18th.

Twilight Quiz

Snow — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:43:26 +0000

Find out what Twilight Guy is right for you at the Facebook Quiz. The options seem to be Edward, Jacob, Dr. Cullen, Jasper, Mike, Chief Swan, and more.

The Medicine Man’s Forked Dream

Snow — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 21:36:59 +0000

The old Shenkar hung the dried roots up, wondering if they were still as potent as he needed. He paddled back to close the flap of the tent. Only the shroud of the ceremony, the smoke of the tobacco leaves, the effect of the herbal paste in his teeth could eradicate the anxiety that filled his mind.

It had been two days since his old friend Marcus has come through the region, bearing dark tales out of the North. And Maas-Naar needed to feel the trembling of the wind as he chewed. He did not trust the hard walls of a house, such as his younger brothers used.

Naar-Al-Maas, Seeker of the Underworld, Knower of secret lights, Devolver of swirling waters, Dark Mage of the Apocalypse, was troubled. In his dreams he saw many stars falling over a point in the Northern sky that had seen its share of troubled cosmic disturbance. His days and years as a Medicine man had prepared him for something like this.

But for it to come unbidden to him, this kaleidoscope of vibrative metaphysical event, in his days of fading, was a surprise.
Of course, Marcus has another name. Many other names. So did Maas-Naar. Now, they used the names that came most readily to the tongue in these abbreviated times.

The ceremonial names could take twenty minutes to recite. And Marcus was a swift sort of thinker. But his way of always putting his head right to the heart of a problem had been of great usefulness many times to the old Shenkar. And now, even Marcus was plagued by doubt. Naar-Al-Maas had rarely, if ever, seen him this troubled and unsure.

“You’re sure?, “ he had said. “Certain that the three dragons crested right above the forked river town?” They had pored over the map for hours in the dim torch light. Marcus has come from the Americas and seen some stark sights. Even in the heat of chewing the root leaves Maas-Naar could hardly believe the most fantastic things Marcus had spoken of. And Marcus was not one to exaggerate.

As the smoke sifted through the hole in the top of the roof, Shenkar relaxed. He saw again the visions from his dream, the sharp-fanged animals and the clawing humans, who fought with one another. Yet they seem in curious accord. Maar-Naas always thought such creatures were rudimentary beings, not possessed of sophisticated thought. But the words of Marcus showed fresh sorrows on the horizon for all of them.

As the shadows danced on the wall, Maas-Naar drew idly with his pencil upon the lightly finished hide. The she-wolf prowled over her lair, followed closely by the fanged prince whose dark lady stood afar in the tower, calling to him. The old, rheumy wolf watched now over the tower, seeing that the fanged prince approached. Shenkar was amazed, these beings never wanted to be both places at once. The fanged prince had many companions who hovered in the background near him. Maas-Naar thought he dreamed a fantasy; in all his lore he never know of a story or tale where these beings hunted side by side, they never hunted or abided together.
But Shenkar saw what the wolf pack and the fanged one did not. A mist swirled around the mountain where the pine trees grew besides many-pronged rivers of slender width. In the mist, both the wolf pack leaders and the fanged one and his brethren were trained on the lady’s tower. The red-haired she-cat crept up to it, but could not approach her prey. A storm of rain fell, trapping the fanged ones and the wolf pack in the tower’s dominion. The she-cat stood alone on the wet mountain, harried and hungry. Angrily she yowled, racing away in frustration. Shenkar focused. Confusingly she was parched, yet raced under thunder storm near a sea of flowing rivers and water.
Shenkar realized even in his premonition that the she-cat with the red crest was the mortal enemy of the lady in the tower. The she-cat with the red crest prowled the wolf lair when the pack’s back was turned, devouring the precious young. The wolf mother lay broken and torn on the floor, the corpses of the wolf young strewn about. Then the she-cat licked her lips, and she grew fangs. Suddenly Shenkar was afraid. For the first time in his waking magic dreamhood, he wanted the revelations to stop.
But the pattern continued to unfold. The wolf pack returned to its lair triumphant, only to be sucked into a screaming panic at the massacre. Maas-Naar ground his teeth together to stop himself from chewing, but the trance was strong and he was held within it. The leader wolf, his brown black eyes snapping, traveled with the corpse of one infant in its mouth and laid it at the tower door. The sky overhead thundered and lightning struck. The lady and the fanged prince had been cooing like doves, but now she screamed and he had a face like stone.
Shenkar could feel the waves of misery and fright from his dream. The intensity could not be mistaken. This was no projection. This was real. He dreaded what came next, and would have screwed his eyes shut if that would have stopped the unknowable tragedy that came after. The lady in the tower turned a face of accusation to the fanged prince, whose brothers came running to protect him from the wolves’ fury. Maas-Naar saw and felt the speed at which these things had happened (or were happening?).
The wolves turned their anger unleashed on the fanged brethren, and many were rended with tooth and claw. The fanged prince fought bravely, but the sight of the dead wolf young stabbed at his eyes. The lady of the tower threw herself on the lead wolf, speaking words Shenkar could not see. The wolf tensed, then cried a shrill, unknowable ultrasonic whine and all the wolves froze. The fanged prince turned green and started throwing himself at the dark lady, who turned her back on him and went up into the tower. A shrill bell kept clanging throughout.
Shenkar had a suspicion what the lady intended. What shocked him was the obedience of the wolves to her will. They were rumored to be vicious beasts. In his vision, the fanged prince stood immobile, watching it all. His trembling black fury was evident, but he didn’t move a muscle. Maas-Naar felt the trance weaken, and he slumped in relief. He wondered what details he might tell Marcus.
The fire died and the wind blew, but Maas-Naar did not feel it. His mind was trained on the forked river country, his unseeing eyes tracing many pathways. How mother Earth wound the threads, he mused. How the spirits danced their dance anew. His conscious thoughts could not reject the clarity of dream, could not contest the reason of his revelation.
Maas-Naar could now understand the swirling waters, the roiling heavens. The events here went against Nature. Shenkar’s mind even now evaluated the impressions he had received anew. What shadow hung over these spirits? Why did the dark lady wield such power? A human seemingly directed both destinies, of claw and fang? Shenkar resolved to write her chart and analyze the elements therein.
No wonder Marcus had been sweating. The world of claw and fang was kept well hidden. The intensities were simply not of this world. The mission of ones like Marcus was to make sure innocents were not harmed. But how could that be avoided now? This would be difficult to counteract. Shenkar hunkered by the fire, drawing his stick back and forth, testing his plans. He detected a dark shadow minutes before the voice spoke, but did not move.
It was Fate.

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Twilight Breaking Dawn: Taylor Lautner Interview

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