What Happened With Taylor Lautner's Acting Career?
Once upon a time, Taylor Lautner was the highest-paid teenage actor of his time. The former teen idol's rise to acting respect took a different turn after he excessively transformed his physique to portray Jacob Black in The Twilight Saga franchise back in the 2010s, making him a sex symbol of our generation. Even so, he joined the likes of Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder and ranked second on Glamour Magazine's "The 50 Sexiest Men of 2010" list.
With that being said, however, the Twilight days are a thing of the past now. Most of its cast members have moved on from the project, like Robert Pattinson who recently co-headlined the new Matt Reeves' Batman movie, and Kristen Stewart who gained an Oscar nomination for playing the late Princess Diana in Spencer. Taylor, however, has somewhat fallen into obscurity, making all of us wonder what has gone wrong in his career?
6 Taylor Lautner Was Recognized Among The 'Sex Symbols' During His 'Twilight' Days
Taylor Lautner was only a teenage actor with voice credits in Scooby-Doo and Danny Phantom animated series before landing the role of Jacob back in 2008. The first Twilight film brought a massive success, drawing a whopping $407.1 million in the box office, but the directors wanted to recast the role due to the much more highly demanding physique. Instead of recasting, however, Taylor put out extra work by extensively gaining over 30 pounds of bulging muscles, making him a new sex symbol in Hollywood.
The problem was, however, the fact that the actor himself was only a minor at the time. His sexualized image was a big problem in Hollywood because, not only did he not reach the legal age, but the press kept on pressuring him to reveal his private love life with singer Taylor Swift.
5 That Success Led Taylor Lautner To Being 'Typecast'
For Taylor, this fantastic imagery seemed to be a daunting problem. Sure, a pretty face, bulging physique, and fat Hollywood checks can be a romantic magnet, but at one point in his career, he was rather known for his physique than his acting techniques. Back in 2010, for example, Taylor had small parts in Garry Marshall's rom-com Valentine's Day where he had to push back a scene in which he's supposed to show his abs off.
"Originally I was supposed to take off my shirt," he told GQ, "I said, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa. Time out. He's gonna take off his shirt in the middle of school? No, no, no. The reason I took off my shirt for New Moon is because it's written in the book that way. And there's reasons behind it."
4 Taylor Lautner's Post-'Twilight' Films Mainly Flopped
Eyes were set on Taylor's career shortly after Twilight. At just 17, people expected him to become the next big thing in Hollywood, having amassed hundreds of millions throughout the course of the three movies. He's reportedly signed a deal worth up to $7.5 million for an action movie called Northern Lights albeit he dropped out of the project later, and another role in Paramount's Max Steel. Whatever happened to all those deals?
During the same period, he linked up with the late producer John Singleton for critically-panned action thriller Abduction, grossing "only" $82 million against its $35 million budget. One producer said, as noted by The Hollywood Reporter, "His first movie just wasn’t very good, and it didn’t justify what he was asking for at the time."
3 Can Taylor Lautner Make A Comeback?
Taylor Lautner did, however, enjoy several smaller roles and a bit of TV resurgence from 2014 to 2018. Starring on BBC's Cuckoo as the long-lost love son the titular character, the actor replaced the original actor Andy Samberg who'd left the project due to scheduling conflicts. Cuckoo was a hit in the UK, Best New Comedy Programme & Best TV Comedy Actor for Taylor's co-star Greg Davies at the British Comedy Awards. He also secured the leading role on FOX's black comedy Scream Queens.
"In my head it kind of made no sense and that’s why it made perfect sense," said the actor during an interview on Good Morning America, "Well it took me a second to get used to their sort of humor. It's a little more sarcastic, a little more dry."
2 Taylor Lautner's Struggle To Escape The 'Twilight' Shadow
The problem with Taylor Lautner's career was, he didn't get to expand his acting credits while he could, making him unable to escape the big, immersive shadow of the Twilight series. His Twilight co-stars, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, quickly tried their hands at starring in completely different roles to avoid being typecast.
Fast forward to today, Kristen is now impatiently waiting to get her first Oscar win for Best Actress for Spencer while Robert is enjoying his moment as The Batman broke theatre's records.
1 What's Next For Taylor Lautner?
So, what's next for the former highest-paid teenage actor? It's still unfair to say that the 30-year-old's career is already over, because after all, he's still young and has a lot of room to grow. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Taylor's net worth now clocks at least $40 million, and he's still far from done. His latest sports comedy film, Home Team, was just released this year, making it his first leading role venture since 2016. Could this be a comeback of Taylor Lautner?
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